There is hardly a week that goes by, that I don’t in some way, shape, or form, remind those who are under my ministry, that the fundamental principle of Christianity is this:
Christianity is not a religion
Religion [Webster]- An organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods
Christianity is a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ!
Roy Delia- Christianity is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ! It is not rituals, ceremonies, and/or sacraments. It is a personal, spiritual, loving relationship with a real and living Saviour, Jesus Christ. In this, Christianity is unique. No one claims or can have a living personal relationship with Buddha; no one can have or claim a personal, living relationship with Mohammed.
Jesus himself said that this is the essence of what eternal life is!
John 17: 3 And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.-AMPC
And what is another reason that this is important?
John Calvin –“Without the knowledge of God, there is no knowledge of self.”
I believe that is why the Apostle Paul implies above all else, this should be the primary pursuit
Philippians 3: 8 Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One),
Reason?
Philippians 3:9a And that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, -AMPC
When I find him, I find myself! And that is why…
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.-NKJV
If that be the case then…
Philippians 3:10a [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquaqinted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], --AMPC
Having said all that – I want to bring to you a message from the 139th Psalm that I've entitled:
The Infinite, Intimate God of Psalm 139!
The goal of this message is to help you to get to know the God who knows you!
The word infinite means to be without limits. Finite means having limits.
And again the reason that this is important because as Tozer said…
AW Tozer - “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
And as John Piper says….
John Piper –“ We weren’t meant to be somebody–we were meant to know Somebody.”
So my proposition to you from this 139th Psalm is this:
Getting to know the God who knows you, the Infinite, Intimate God of Psalm 139, by that I mean becoming progressively more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly, will bring you into what the essence and experience of eternal life is all about, and will help to establish you to enjoy your temporal life on earth!
The Westminster Shorter Catechism- Q. 1. What is the chief end of man? A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
John Piper- “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”
Let’s begin by taking a look at the attributes of this Infinite, Intimate God, that we are to glorfy and enjoy.
The first attribute about this Infinite, Intimate God that David puts before us not in a historical, context, but rather in a personal context is this….
I. This Infinite, Intimate God, Perceives You!
A) Perceive - To know, to recognize, discern, or understand you!
Psalm 139:1a You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.
B) Point?
1. The God of Psalm 139 knows you!
C) Personality?
1. Omniscient!
a) Omniscience is defined as “the state of having total knowledge, the quality of knowing everything.
b) From Latin omni- (“all”), and scient from the Latin scientia (“knowledge”).
c) God has all knowledge!
d) He knows everything that there is to be known!
e) And to have a personal relationship you must:
D) Personalize it:
1. He knows everything that there is to be known about – YOU!
a) “Know” – implies he has an intimate personal knowledge of you!
Genesis 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. -KJV
Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."-NIV
John Gill- Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee,.... Not merely by his omniscience, so he knows all men before their conception and birth; but with such a knowledge as had special love and affection joined with it; in which sense the Lord knows them that are his, as he does not others, and predestinates them unto eternal life; and which is not only before their formation in the womb, but before the foundation of the world, even from all eternity
E) Personal is it?
Psalm 139:2a You know when I sit and when I rise;
1. He knows your – activity!
a) He knows your rising in the morning!
i. He In fact woke you up!
Isaiah 50:4b He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.-NIV
b) He knows your sitting, going, and lying down st night!
Psalm 139:3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways
3. He knows all your ways.
a) Ways.????????? (d?·ra·?ay)
i. Road, way, path, direction, manner, habit, your course of life, your moral character.
b) There isn’t a move you make that God doesn’t take notice of!
i.“God loves you so much, He can’t take His eyes off of you!”
4. He knows what is going on - inside of you!
Psalm 139:2b you perceive my thoughts from afar.
a) He knows your thoughts
i. Thoughts ????????? (l?·rê·‘î)
a. Purpose, aim, thought
Matthew 9: 2 Some men brought to him a paralyzed man, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!” 4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” 7 Then the man got up and went home.- NIV
Psalm 139:4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
b) He knows the words you’re going to utter!
F) Prayer
Matthew 6: 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.- NIV
G) Precaution
Matthew 12:36 "You can be sure that on the Judgment Day you will have to give account of every useless word you have ever spoken. – GNT
Adrian Rodgers – In an average day, we speak enough words to fill a book, in a lifetime a college library!
Adrian Rodgers – This may be a terrifying thought if your unsaved, but it is a comfort if you are saved!
Romans 10: 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. -ESV
John Calvin- God knows what we are about to say before the words are formed on our tongue; and though we speak not a word, and try by silence to conceal our secret intentions, we cannot elude his notice.
1. He knows the words we want to say!
James 3:6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.-NIV
James 3:8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.-NIV
II. This Infinite, Intimate God, Protects you!
Psalm 139:5a You hem me in….
A) Protect?
1. To hem me in ??????????? (?ar·ta·nî)
a) To bind, besiege, confine, cramp, secure, shut in, enclose, border.
Psalm 139:5b behind and before,
2. Behind ??????? (’a·?o·wr)
a) The back side, the rear
3. Before ???????? (wa·qe·?em)
a) Front side
b) From antiquity, that which is beforetime, aforetime, from of old, earliest time
B) Point?
1. God borders you to protect you!
a) Borders are about protection
b) Parameters are about protection, peace, and prosperity!
Psalm 147:14 He makes peace in your borders; He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat.-ESV
Psalm 16: 5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance -NIV
C) Perspective?
Proverbs 22:28 Do not move the ancient boundary . Which your fathers have set.-ESV
D) Path!
Psalm 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. - KJV
Psalm 119:128 and because I consider all your precepts right, I hate every wrong path. -NIV
E) Principle?
1. Wherever we may go, we know that He surrounds us with his care and protection.
Psalm 139:5 You have encircled me; You have placed Your hand on me.-CSB
F) Picture
Job 1:8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” 9 “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. – NIV
Job 1:10 You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! -NLT
Joseph Excell -" You hedged him around, protected him, made a sort of invisible fence about him, through which no evil could creep!"
G) Perception (Ours)?
Psalm 139:6a Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
1. Too wonderful (???????????) (p?·lî·’ah)
a) Incomprehensible, extraordinary for me,
b) It is such a knowledge that, I cannot comprehend, much less describe it!
Psalm 139:6b too lofty…
2. Too lofty ????????????? (nis·g?·?ah)
a) Too high, too inaccessibly high
Psalm 139:6c for me to attain…
3. For me to attain ???????? (’u·?al)
a) To prevail against, to overcome, endure, have power, to be able to gain or accomplish, be able to endure, to be able to reach
i. It is so exalted that I cannot grasp it
ii. It is so high, I can’t reach it!
Charles Spurgeon - Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. I cannot grasp it. I can hardly endure to think of it. The theme overwhelms me. I am amazed and astounded at it. Such knowledge not only surpasses my comprehension, but even my imagination.
Isaiah 50: 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts -NIV
1 Peter 1:5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation-NLT
Rick Warren- The word “protect” in 1 Peter 1:5 means garrison. It is a military term that refers to sending soldiers to a town in order to protect it. They garrison the town, staying there to guard it. In the same way, you are continuously guarded by God.
Rick Warren- God is watching over you every moment of the day, just like a bodyguard would. Everything in life is Father-filtered — even the hard things caused by your sin or others’ sin — God can still use for his good.
Rick Warren- When you find yourself in a situation where you feel hopeless, helpless, or powerless — that’s all a lie. You’re not hopeless, helpless, or powerless when you have God in your life.
Rick Warren- Have you ever seen signs in front a house that says, “Protected by a security system”? Maybe we need a little sign to remind us, “Protected by God.”
III. This Infinite, Intimate God is Present with you!
A) Present?
1. Omnipresent
a) The prefix omni- originates in Latin and means “all.” So, to say that God is omnipresent is to say that God is present everywhere.
B) Perspective?
1. His inescapability!
Psalm 139:7a Where can I go from your Spirit?
Genesis 1: 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.-NKJV
Psalm 139:7b Where can I flee from your presence?
2. Answer?
a) NO WHERE!!
Charles Spurgeon - This makes it a dreadful work to sin; for we offend the Almighty to his face, and commit acts of treason at the very foot of his throne. Go from him, or flee from him we cannot: neither by patient travel nor by hasty flight can we withdraw from the all surrounding Deity.
Psalm 139:8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
2. God is in the highest heaven
a) Third heaven
2 Corinthians 12:1 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.- NIV
2 Chronicles 6: 18 “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!-ESV
Psalm 139:8b if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
3. God is in the deepest sea!
a) Jonah discovered that!
Jonah 1:1 The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”3 But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord. -NIV
Jonah 1:4 Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. 5 All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god….NIV
Jonah 1:12 “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
Jonah 1:17 Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. -NIV
Psalm 139:8b If I go down to the grave, you are there.-NLT
Psalm 139:8b If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! – ESV
Job 2:1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly. 2 And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. -NKJV
4. Sheol ????????? (š?·’o·wl)
a) Underworld, grave, hell, pit, the OT designation for the abode of the dead, THE place of no return, without praise of God, where the wicked are sent for punishment, the place of exile.
Psalm 139:8b if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.-KJV
5. God in Sheol, the place without praise of God, the place of punishment – Hell?
a) I thought that hell consisted of:
2 Thessalonians 1:8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might - NIV
b) But then Revelation says:
Revelation 14: 9 Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.-NASB
i. In Revelation 14:10, "presence" is a literal translation of the Greek enopion, which means "in the presence of, before." This is a spatial word, suggesting proximity and literal, measurable distances.
ii. The word translated "presence" in 2 Thessalonians is prosopon, which most commonly refers to a person’s face or outward appearance.
C) Point?
Dr. Louis Berkhof - Paul is referring to "a total absence of the favor of God." Heaven provides blessing and wholeness not through being closer spatially to God, but by being in complete fellowship with Him. Hell is associated with a complete lack of blessing due to the severing of any fellowship with God.
Michael Horton - Hell Is Not Separation from God
This sounds strange to those of us familiar with the definition of hell as “separation from God,” and heaven as a place for those who have a “personal relationship with God.” But Scripture does not speak in these terms. Quite the contrary: If we read the Bible carefully, we conclude that everyone, as a creature made in God’s image, has a personal relationship with him. Therefore, God is, after the fall, either in the relationship of a judge or a father to his creatures. And God, who is present everywhere at all times, will be forever present in hell as the judge. Hell is not ultimately about fire, but about God.
1. Heaven is to be eternally present in His blessedness
2. Hell is to be eternally present in His hot anger and wrath!
Deuteronomy 32:22a For a fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol-ESV
Deuteronomy 32:22a For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell-KJV
Donald Stewart - In heaven He demonstrates His love toward His creation. Those in hell are indeed banished from God's presence although God is present in hell in the sense of His wrath.
Psalm 139:8b if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.-KJV
Charles Spurgeon - A "behold" is added to the second clause, since it seems more a wonder to meet with God in hell than in heaven, in Hades than in Paradise. Of course the presence of God produces very different effects in these places, but it is unquestionably in each; the bliss of one, the terror of the other.
Psalm 139:9a If I take the wings of the morning -KJV
John Gill – If I fly as swift as the morning light to the east, to the extremity of it,
6. If I were to travel at the speed of light
Psalm 139:9a If I rise on the wings of the dawn, -NIV
Psalm 139:9b if I settle on the far side of the sea, - NIV
7. If I were to settle in the uttermost parts of the sea; in the most distant isles of it, in the farthest parts of the world,
D) Produce?
Psalm 139:10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.-NIV
E) Picture?
1. SALVATION!!
Jonah 2:2“Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice
Jonah 2:7 “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.
Jonah 2:8b With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”
Jonah 2:10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.
John 10: 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one -ESV
John Gill- The Lord lays hold on his people, and apprehends them for himself, and claims his interest in them; he holds them in his ways, that they slip and fall not; he upholds them with the right hand of his righteousness, and they are safe; and he holds them from going into or on in wrong ways to their hurt.
Psalm 139:11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
John Gill – The darkness and the light are both alike to thee; as is the one, so is the other: the day gives him no more light than the night, and the night no more darkness than the day; he sees as well, as clearly and distinctly, in the one as in the other.
Charles Spurgeon – Men are still so foolish as to prefer night and darkness for their evil deeds; but so impossible is it for anything to be hidden from the Lord that they might just as well transgress in broad daylight.
IV. This Infinite, Intimate God, Produced You!
A) Produce?
1. To make or manufacture; to cause to exist!
B) Point to?
1. Omnipotence!
a) Omnipotent” derives from the Latin omnis meaning “all” and potens or “powerful.”
i. How powerful is He?
Psalm 139:13a For you created…
2. God is my Creator!
a) What did He create?
b) How did He create?
c) Like the 1st man?
Genesis 2:7 God formed Man out of dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive—a living soul! - The Message
C) Process?
D) Pregnancy!
Psalm 139:13a For you created my inmost being; - NIV
1. My inmost being; ?????????? (?il·yo·?ay)
a) Kidneys, my internal organs, - My inner material parts
b) My soul, the seat of my emotions and affections – My inner immaterial parts
2. Being. ????????? (l?·ne·p¯eš)
a) Soul, self, life, person, appetite, mind, desire, emotion, passion, intellect and a will
Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.- KJV
3. AN ETERNAL SOUL!
Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.-ESV
a) How did He create you?
Psalm 139:13b you knit me together in my mother’s womb.-NIV
4. You knit me together ????????????? (t?·suk·kê·nî)
a) To weave together
i. My arteries, veins, cardiovascular system, sinews, and tendons.
Psalm 139:15a My frame was not hidden from you
6. Frame - ???????? (‘a·??·mî)
a) Bones, skeletal structure
Psalm 139:15b when I was made in the secret place,
7. Secret place ????????? (?as·sê·?er)
a) Secrecy, covering, shelter and protection.
Psalm 139:15c when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
D) Picture of?
1. A Mother’s Womb!
Benson Commentary - This figurative allusion to the womb is intended no doubt to heighten the feeling of mystery attaching to birth
Psalm 139:16a Your eyes saw my unformed body;
Albert Barnes – Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect - This whole verse is very obscure, but the "idea" in this expression clearly is, "Before I had shape or form thou didst see what I was to be."
E) Point
1. A Mother’s Womb should be the SAFEST PLACE ON EARTH for a child!
2. The picture of pregnancy is God building a house for Him to ultimately live in!
a) Frame – skeletal structure
b) Weaving – cardiovascular and nervous system
1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? -ESV
Colossians 1:27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. =ESV
2 Timothy 1:14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you. -ESV
3. HOW A BELIEVER IN THE BIBLE CAN BE “PRO-CHOICE” IS BEYOND ME!!
Chip Ingram- There are two premises in Scripture that give us God's view of abortion:
1. All of life is sacred and human life is the most valuable and precious commodity in the world.
2. Scripture ascribes the same value of the pre-born child on all of human life. (Psalm 139:13-16).
Chip Ingram - In the passage, we can almost hear God saying, "I've been creating and designing not just full-fledged human beings, but human beings even before their conception."
Chip Ingram -That means long before our fingerprints were formed or even before we could suck our thumb in the womb, God was creating us. He had our lives already planned and knew us before we were even born!
F) Price?
2 Kings 17: 17a They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. -NIV
2 Kings 17: 18 So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence-NIV
1. 60.1 million abortions have been performed in the U.S. since 1973.
Proverbs 6:16 There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood -NIV
V. This Infinite, Intimate God is PRAISEWORTHY!
A) Personal!
Psalm 139:14a I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
1. Christian!
2. Creationist!!
B) Perception?
1. Fearfully?????????? (no·w·ra·’o·w?)
a) Reverently, awesomely, honorably, astonishingly
2. Wonderfully made???????????? (nip¯·lê·?î)
a) Distinctly, separately, uniquely, distinguishably made.
C) Perspective?
1. God doesn’t mass produce people, He awesomely, amazingly , incredibly, knits eqach one them together as a work of art.
Ephesians 2:10a For we are God's handiwork, -NIV
Ephesians 2:10a For we are his workmanship -KJV
Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. -NLT
Psalm 139:14b your works are wonderful,
2. Marvelous -??????????? (nip¯·la·’îm)
a) Marvelous, wonderful, beyond one’s power to reproduce, difficult to understand because they are so extraordinary
Psalm 139:14c I know that full well.
D) Politicians?
E) People?
1. Don’t!!!
F) Point?
1. This passage teaches us:
a) God is the Creator of every human life
b) We should therefore treat every human life with reverence and awe!
c) A mother’s womb is to be a place of protection and nurture
d) God has a plan for each child even before they are born!!
VI. This Infinite, Intimate God has a Plan for you!
Psalm 139:16b all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Albert Barnes - That is, When my substance - my form - was not yet developed, when yet an embryo, and when nothing could be determined from that by the eye of man as to what I was to be, all the future was known to God, and was written down - just what should be my form and vigor; how long I should live; what I should be; what would be the events of my life.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges – David is saying each day of his life with all its history was pre-determined by the Creator and recorded in His book, before one of them actually was in existence:—a clear expression of the truth that there is an ideal plan of life providentially marked out for every individual.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.-ESV
A) Point?
1. I’m living out a script written about me in heaven, before the world was formed!
Ephesians 1:4a For he chose us in him before the creation of the world– NIV
Charles Spurgeon - God's purposes concern our limbs and faculties. Their form, and shape, and everything about them were appointed of God long before they had any existence. God saw us when we could not be seen, and he wrote about us when there was nothing of us to write about. When as yet there were none of our members in existence, all those members were before the eye of God in the sketch book of his foreknowledge and predestination.
B) PROVOKE?
1. PRAISE!
2. PRAYERFUL CONTEMPLATION!
a) About the course, and direction of your life!
Psalm 139:17a How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
C) Precious ????????? (ya·q?·ru)
1. Prized, valuable, costly, to be esteemed
2. Thoughts ???????? (rê·‘e·?a)
a) Purposes and aim!
3. God’s thoughts are precious:
a) In quality!
Jeremiah 29: 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. -NKJV
G. F. Humphreys - "How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God;" costly, highly valuable. Who shall measure the value of God's thoughts to man? What currency could express their preciousness? For His thoughts are not vagrant like ours…
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges - The word rendered precious means rather incomprehensible, overwhelming!
b) In quantity!
Psalm 139:17b How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—
i. Outnumber all the grains of sands upon the earth!
Charles Spurgeon - This figure shows the thoughts of God to be altogether innumerable; for nothing can surpass in number the grains of sand which belt the main ocean and all the minor seas. The task of counting God's thoughts of love would be a never ending one. If we should attempt the reckoning we must necessarily fail, for the infinite falls not within the line of our feeble intellect.
G. F. Humphreys - The summary of them is beyond us. If we consider them in their generic outline they are great. We may fathom one little fact in God's world, a single thought, but how can the human mind take in the whole outline?
G. F. Humphreys - Who knows the mind of God? What can we do with our finite minds to compass divinity? How vain and weak is man face to face with the Author of all life. How humble and reverent it should make us when we consider the works of His hands and our own feeble undertakings.
Romans 11: 33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” -NIV
Psalm 139:17c when I awake, I am still with you.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges -His last thoughts as he falls asleep are of God; and when he awakes, he finds himself still in His Presence, still occupied in contemplating the mystery of His Being.
ii. But if I die before I wake…
The Targum - “I awake in the world to come, and I am still with Thee”; and “I shall awake, and I shall be for ever with Thee.”
VII. This Infinite, Intimate God seeks a Partnership with you!
A) Partnership?
1. These are the words of a man after God’s own heart
Acts 13:22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’- NIV
B) Perspective?
Psalm 139:19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
C) Purpose?
Psalm 139:20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.
Psalm 139:21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
Psalm 139:22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
D) Perplexed?
Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
1. Love yours, but not God’s enemies!
Chuck Swindoll- As David thought about God's intricate design of humanity in Psalm 139, and he pondered the Lord's loyal love for each individual He took such care to fashion and endow with purpose, the king grew angry at the enemies of God. How ungrateful. How disloyal! How outrageous that they should rebel!
Chuck Swindoll- He seethed with righteous anger against the ungodly. David wanted to imitate God. He longed to be a godly man—perhaps more than any other king in the history of Israel—which may explain why he was called "a man after God's own heart." The term "hate" denotes a decision to reject something in favor of something else. Unlike the English word, it does not wish harm or ill will upon another; the Hebrew concept of "hate" involves a turning away. To hate someone in the Old Testament is to turn your back upon them.
Psalm 139:22 I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.-ESV
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges-. The energy of the Psalmist’s indignation seems to many readers to be a jarring note: yet it is but the limited and imperfect form in which he expresses his intense hatred of evil. “The duty of keeping alive in the human heart the sense of burning indignation against moral evil—against selfishness, against injustice, against untruth, in ourselves as well as in others,—that is as much a part of the Christian as of the Jewish dispensation.”
Chuck Swindoll- David's love for God is so great, he can barely stomach the thought of those who hate God. And, because he is aligned with the Lord, God's enemies are necessarily his enemies. But rather than take matters into his own hands and destroy the enemies of God, he asks to be removed from them.
John Piper-Hatred may be moral repugnance, not personal vengeance. There is a kind of hate for the sinner (viewed as morally corrupt and hostile to God) that may coexist with pity and even a desire for their salvation.
John Piper- We will grant to the psalmist (usually David), who speaks, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, as the foreshadowed Messiah and Judge, the right to call down judgment on the enemies of God. This is not personal vindictiveness. It is a prophetic execution of what will happen at the last day when God casts all his enemies into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15).
E) Point?
1. A man after God’s own heart is someone who hates what God hates, and loves what God loves!
Chuck Swindoll-What does it mean to be a person after God’s own heart? It means your life is in harmony with the Lord. What is important to Him is important to you. What burdens Him burdens you.
Psalm 11:5 The LORD tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
VIII. This Infinite, Intimate God desires to Purify you!
A) Prayer of David?
Charles Spurgeon- David is no accomplice with traitors. He has disowned them in set form, and now he appeals to God that he does not harbor a trace of fellowship with them.
Psalm 139:23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
B) Purpose?
Charles John Ellicott- The Psalmist realized that he could not thoroughly search himself.
Jeremiah 17: 9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? 10 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.-NKJV
Charles John Ellicott-We have all of us tendencies and inclinations which we cannot gauge and do not know the force or the power of. We have depths and abysses in our natures which no human measuring line can fathom. Our souls are so disordered and disturbed by the crossing of many varied feelings, high and low, clashing and fretting against each other, good thoughts mingled with so much that is base, pure high feelings with so much that is low and degraded. We have in us sometimes perhaps more good than we realize, or more evil than we ever guessed. There is in us, not only our sinful acts, but also a deep spirit of wickedness, a mystery of evil, which no human power can comprehend.
Psalm 139:24a See if there is any offensive way in me,
Psalm 139:24b and lead me in the way everlasting.
Matthew Poole- The right and good way, which is lasting, and leads to everlasting life.
Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.-NKJV
John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.-NIV
Realized?
1. God knows you
2. God sees you
AND THAT THE ONE WHO KNOWS YOU THE BEST, LOVES YOU THE MOST?
3. He has preserved and protected you?
4. He is ever-present, always with you?
Right?
5. He has a right to you because He made you?
6. Planned a life for you?
7. Seeks a partnership with you?
Let’s pray…
