For Sermon Central researchers: I have posted a series of 15 sermons on the Psalms. In recent personal studies I have found the psalms to be richer and more thought-provoking than I had fully appreciated. I had too often swept swiftly through psalms without slowing down to inquire as thoroughly as I might have into the depths of meaning and feeling that are expressed by the psalmists. Upon deeper examination and reflection, I find the psalms to be highly relevant to Christians in every age. My most recent foray into the psalms led me to present a series of studies of selected psalms in a class environment.
In my classes I did not examine every psalm, or every verse of the ones I did. Rather, I presented selected psalms that I believe to be representative of the collection in the book of Psalms. The studies were held in a class environment suitable for pauses for questions and discussion, and to pose “thought questions” where the meanings are not readily apparent, as is often the case in poetry. My notes include suggested points for such pauses, and I have not removed them in Sermon Central posts.
I developed the material with the view in mind that the series may be well used as sermons. There is an introductory sermon that describes what psalms are (whether they are in the 150-chapter book or elsewhere) and explains my approach to the series. The psalms I selected were presented in no particular order in the classes; however, I suggest that anyone using this material as a series begin with the introductory sermon and follow it with Psalms 1 and 2 in that order, as the first two psalms function as a pair. Beyond that, the selected psalms may be presented in any order.
To get as much enjoyment as we could from our study, I did some of the reading from the KJV, which I believe is the most beautiful of the English bible translations. For clarity we also used other versions, mainly ESV, which I have used for several years and the one I have come to prefer.
PSALM 139
Read Psalm 139
I. The Consciousness of God (vs 1-6)
How can God pay attention to every thing you do and even what you think? Isn’t he busy running the universe, seeing after one thing and another.)
God knows absolutely everything about everything.
Hebrews 4:13 …no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
V6 God’s omniscience is too much for our minds to grasp. We can hardly imagine God knowing utterly everything – hearing and answering all the prayers being raised throughout the world, many of them unwise, conflicting with other people’s prayers, many from good and honest but misguided hearts but over which higher wisdom must prevail.
a. There’s no way to get away from it (vs 7-12)
There’s no hiding from God. He knows everything and is everywhere.
God not only knows everything that now is – he has always known everything that ever was, or will be.
b. God knew all this before and while we were being formed (vs 13-16)
There are two ways of looking at this:
(1) That God scrutinizing us every moment is invasive, unwelcome, intrusive, and suffocating…
It feels like God is snooping.
We have no privacy, which we feel entitled to.
When I was a child, we used to sing a song at church titled, “Watching You.”
My childhood visualization of that song was a gigantic eye in the sky – as big as a battleship – watching me every minute of the day, even when I was not outdoors. My 7-year-old conscience was laden with many sins – most of them stemming from my chief amusement as a little boy - tormenting my older sister.
OR on the other hand…
(2) That God’s absolute knowledge of us is comforting, reassuring, welcome, precious, desirable, and sustaining.
Remember: We are not our own. We are his.
Outside of his purpose in creating us, we have no reason to exist.
As David says in v17-18, God’s thoughts were, and are, precious.
So – like David – let us not think of it as God “watching” you to catch you in a slip-up in some moment of weakness. Think of it as a caring and protective “watching over” or companionable watching.
Two of the psalms (8 and 144) ask: “What is man, that you are mindful of him?”
Read Psalm 144:3-8
God’s watchfulness is not that of a cruel and malevolent tyrant, but a loving, benevolent and saving God.
Last part of v18 says:
“I awake, and I am still with you.”
May have been the inspiration for Harriett Stowe’s poem, “Still, Still With Thee”
Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh,
When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee;
Fairer than morning, lovelier than daylight,
Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee.
Alone with Thee, amid the mystic shadows,
The solemn hush of nature newly born;
Alone with Thee in breathless adoration,
In the calm dew and freshness of the morn.
As in the dawning o’er the waveless ocean
The image of the morning star doth rest,
So in the stillness Thou beholdest only
Thine image in the waters of my breast.
Still, still with Thee, as to each newborn morning,
A fresh and solemn splendor still is given,
So does this blessèd consciousness, awaking,
Breathe each day nearness unto Thee and Heaven.
When sinks the soul, subdued by toil, to slumber,
Its closing eye looks up to Thee in prayer;
Sweet the repose beneath the wings o’ershading,
But sweeter still to wake and find Thee there.
So shall it be at last, in that bright morning,
When the soul waketh and life’s shadows flee;
O in that hour, fairer than daylight dawning,
Shall rise the glorious thought, I am with Thee.
– Harriett Stowe
III. God’s enemies are my enemies (vs21-22)
That’s a good place to be, but…
are verses 21 and 22 appropriate as an attitude for us?
Psalms 139:21-22 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.
This appears to me as something we should approach with a lot of discernment and restraint. We might feel justified in hating people because of some abrasive or offensive aspect of their behavior simply by thinking that same behavior makes them God’s enemies.
Discuss
IV. Invitation for God to “search my heart” and “lead me in the way everlasting”
What kind of person invites the kind of inspection David describes in vs23-24?
Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
(NASB – “hurtful way”; KJV – “wicked way)
If we’re honest, wouldn’t we rather God would look for “grievous ways” in others, not ourselves?
“Nothing to see here, Lord…I’m fine, and you have better things to do than waste your time on me. In fact, I could give you some suggestions of some grievous ways I have observed in others that you might want to look into.”
“The Way Everlasting”
What does it mean?
Toward the end of the sermon on the mount, Jesus told his followers to enter by the narrow gate that leads to life, for…
“the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.”
His meaning is plain and sufficient, needing no explanation.
“The way that leads to life is found by few,”
We all know what narrow and wide mean, and we have a good idea what is meant by few and many. Nothing I might say would enlarge your understanding.
But Jesus’ point is not to define the words he uses, but to show that “the way everlasting” is the more difficult way to follow. So one must be led to find it and follow the way that leads to life.
We are on a journey, for this life is not permanent. We all learned that as children. To proceed on this journey, we must have a way, and indeed we will have a way. For we will be in one of two ways.
We can’t stay here. We’re going somewhere.
It is of the highest importance, then, that our way should be a right one.
It is important, because the right way leads to that blessed end that has no end - the joy of the blessed at God’s right hand - where the Lamb is – where there is no
• sadness,
• sickness,
• sorrow,
• or death;
and sin cannot enter.
There we will be pleased to remain forever!
There is a way to reach that end.
It is "the way everlasting."
An old family friend and my teacher in my youth - Herbert Gipson - gave the eulogy at my Mother, Willie McCormick’s funeral in 1968. Among the things he said in his eulogy, these are some of his words:
“Let us praise our God for the means of deliverance from this mortality, and the means of transporting us to immortality by the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the opportunity we as individuals have of finding the way home. I tell you earnestly that Sister Willie found the way home to God early, and she walked in that way uprightly and righteously, and behaved herself as a Christian sister and mother and wife.”
So spoke my friend and teacher, Herbert Gipson.
There appear to be many ways that lead to destruction, there is really one way – the way that does not lead to life.
It almost goes without saying, but it’s worth repeating:
Unbelievers are not on the way everlasting.
Those who do not believe in Jesus are not led by him. To suggest otherwise is absurd.
Our Lord's teaching leaves us no room to hope for the salvation of unbelievers.
"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved."
Most often we emphasize that the proposition that he who believes but refuses baptism cannot be saved. Clearly, that is true and leaves no room to be disputed. But does Jesus not equally show that both responses to Jesus are necessary?
The conjunction is “and.” What may be said of one may also be said of the other.
Why would one be baptized who does not believe? I cannot account for every reason a doubter might submit to baptism, but certainly there are some.
• Group acceptance
• Get some Christian family member off my back
• Be baptized “just in case there’s something to all this hocus pocus called the bible and Christianity.
Similarly, the way of the agnostic is not the way everlasting.
The agnostic does not know if there is a God, or if there is, does not believe anything can be known about God
So an agnostic is merely one kind of unbeliever.
The agnostic’s prayer:
God – if there is a God – have mercy on my soul, if I have a soul.”
“Pascal's wager” is an argument in philosophy presented by the seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician and physicist, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). It posits that humans bet with their lives that God either exists or does not. Pascal argues that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God.
Might those who subscribe to this belief be very good people, and be saved in their own way? Our Lord's reply is sharp, clear and decisive,
"He that believes not shall be damned."
He has nothing else for them but that! You must believe the Truth of God and have faith in the power of the Truth, for a lie will not regenerate you! A lie will not fit you to see the face of God. A lie will not conduct you to heaven, for a lie is not the way everlasting.
The way of the unrepentant sinner is not the way everlasting, nor should it be, for remorse, contrition, and repentance are signposts at the starting point of the way everlasting.
A person may believe, and yet not repent.
But one may not even set foot on the way everlasting without repenting of sin.
Jesus himself said twice in Luke 13:3 and 5:
…unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Jesus’ warning is plain – “Repent or die.”
The way of the merely moral is not a way everlasting.
There are many who are fine friends and neighbors, who live by the rules of fairness. They would never cheat you, betray a confidence, lie to you, or harm you in any way – in fact, they would act to prevent harm from coming to you. But they do not accept that the best among us morally need a Savior, or that Christ alone is the way to everlasting life. So while they practice much of what Jesus taught, they do not submit to him as their Savior and the Lord of their lives.
They are not in possession of any kind or degree of goodness that is sufficient to secure salvation apart from the purchase transaction accomplished by Jesus.
The way of the purposeless and irresolute is not everlasting.
How many a person's life reminds you of a cul-de-sac, or a blind alley, down which you may go but only to come back again! Or like a carousel in which you come back to the same place again and you are no more forward. Or the steps of the oxen going around the mill. Such is the way of many, from day to day and year to year they are like pendulums swinging to and fro. They live and they die and that is all that you can say of their time on earth. For them life seems to have no set course or direction - no deliberately sought destination - and therefore no meaning.
Preparations for the life beyond are made here – in this life – by cultivating the capacity for the meaning that resides in everlasting life.
Even the way of some religious people is not the way everlasting. I mean the path of those who are hypocritical, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. They may put on a mask and look spiritual or even holy outwardly but one day death will rip off the mask. Like whitewashed tombs, their decomposed and putrid contents will be laid bare.
God called out those of Isaiah’s lifetime for practicing the forms of their religion while disregarding their meaning:
Isaiah 1:12-17 “When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.
Note that the last sentence is the weight of Isaiah’s prophecy. The things he lists there are signposts on the way everlasting.
The way of the sincerely wrong in the essentials of the Christian faith is not the way to life.
I’m not talking about a truth-seeker who – even after diligent study – differs from established, traditional points of belief that are widely held in our “brotherhood,” for such differences of opinion those have persisted since – and even during – the apostles’ time. They always will.
The New Testament writings recognize this and give us direction. The direction is not that we argue our case so forcefully and persuasively that others are forced to come over to our way of thinking. Paul’s letters to the churches in Corinth and Rome direct that we make room for those of other honest opinion on things that don’t matter. Eating meat sacrificed to idols is not wrong. But some believe that it is.
The Christian’s duty was not to mock the ignorance of those who couldn’t conscientiously eat the meat, and labor to persuade them.
The Christian way – which is the way everlasting, is to avoid “eating the meat,” or whatever else the meat might represent as an example, when it would give offense to other Christians.
People of differing opinions on non-essential point may both be in the way everlasting. But the true Christian foregoes liberties he knows he has for the sake of others who do not understand that he has that liberty.
We have seen that there are many ways which are not everlasting, although they all converge into one way – the way that leads to destruction.
The right way - the way of a life that flows out of faith - it is the way Jesus walked, the same as ours when we follow in his footsteps. The same way is the way everlasting. Jesus himself walked in that way.
No matter how good we are – how smart, diligent in service, or how loving – we must be led.
Until we die.
There is no “I’ve got it made.”
David says,
"Lead me in the way everlasting."
David was a good man, an eminently spiritual man and yet he required to be led in the way-"Lead me in the way everlasting."
David, and other psalm-writers, seem to have been a cross-section of all people. You never had a trouble but what you could find something to suit you under it in the Psalms. And you never had a joy but what you discovered a verse that would help your soul to sing your joy. David seems to have known all the ups and downs, all the hills and all the valleys of Christian irrepressible love of God. And David says, "Lead me."
David was a man after God’s heart because of his deep sincerity, his child-likeness and his warmth of soul. And yet he says, "Lead me."
When my children were small and we were in a crowded place or the way ahead was difficult, my small children would grasp one finger with their little hands.
That connection made the difference between being lost in a crowd, or falling by the way.
They needed to be led by one who knew the way.
The most mature Christian, if he thinks rightly, feels the need to be led in the right way. Jesus spoke of those who were willfully blind, and those who – being blind – sought to lead others. But Jesus stated – as part of his mission – restoring sight to the blind (Luke 4:18).
Being led by Jesus, we are like a blind man putting out his hands. He cannot see, he cannot find his way and he seeks to be led.
Two and a half weeks ago Robin and I visited a congregation another city where we had business. After several songs, a blind gentleman holding a white cane was led to the front of the auditorium and up about 3 steps up to the pulpit where he led the prayer. The gentlemen who had led him to the front and assisted him up the steps reversed the process as the blind man returned to his seat after leading the prayer. He might have had a microphone brought to him and led the prayer from floor level, but instead he navigated – with assistance – the treacherous trip up the stairs and the more treacherous descent. Without leading, he might have made it, but with leading it was an entirely different – less frightening – proposition, both for the blind man and we who anxiously watched.
When we say, "Lead me," it is like a blind person, who cannot see the way and therefore he needs to be led, although he may be strong enough to walk if he only could see the way. Such blind ones we are, apart from the guiding hand of God!
In vs 23-24 – David shows a close correlation between submitting to be led, and calling upon God to inspect us.
Are we willing to make such a request?
Do we really want to be examined?
If we do, no sooner do we call upon God to “see if there be any wicked way in me” than any lurking wicked way springs into our minds.
