Today we're talking about the "Summer" season of life. A time of creation. A time for things that are new. A season that many of us, myself included look forward to all year. Things like going to the beach, going on vacation somewhere, spending time outside in nature, trips to see family (or if you’ve moved from Lubbock in west Texas like me where dust-bowl level dust storms just means it’s Tuesday) family coming to visit you. But all around, a season of life that we look forward to. Where things are better.
This is the challenging thing for many of us – the thing that can be so extremely easy to often overlook. I’d be curious to know many Christians look to God and abide in God in the good times. It’s can often be obvious in the winter seasons of life, in the trials, that we need God, that we need His love, His help, His guidance.
A preacher I heard once said,
“I’m convinced the most prayers in our country are said by lazy college students, who forgot to study, and are on their way to finals.”
When we start to come out of the winters, into the spring, we have this feeling of relief, we thank God for bringing us out of the trials, for His help and His love and care for us.
So today let’s talk about rejoicing, finding, abiding in God in the good times. In the summers of our life.
There’s a story that I’d like to share to start out with. It’s a story about a man who lived out in the country many years back, named John. One day he was on his way to church, one of those small, white churches with the steeple. Many in the small town he lived in would walk to church each Sunday, and on this day where our story takes place, he comes across a man in the town – this man was new to the area (had just moved in) and he was very sophisticated. More so than most of the people that lived there. But beyond that, he was also this free-thinking kind of man who happened to be agnostic.
This sophisticated man asked him, “Where are all of you going?”
John said to him, “Well, we’re going to church, to worship God. It’s Sunday.”
The agnostic said back to him, “Oh, I see. Is the God you’re all going to worship a great God? Or is He a little God?”
Just exemplary of the kind of attitude that results in meaningful relationships. Not, it was really just a derogatory, mocking kind of remark.
Well, John said, quite humbly, back to him, “He’s both.”
“Both?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let me get this straight, both great and little?”
“Yes. He’s so great that the heavens of heaven cannot contain Him. And He’s so little, that He can dwell within my heart.”
I read that story when preparing for this morning, and I just love it.
I love it because really it’s a wonderful summary of our text this morning, Psalm 139.
“He’s so great that the heavens of heaven cannot contain Him. And He’s so personal, so intimately personal with me that He can dwell in my heart. I can have a relationship with our great God.”
If you brought your Bibles this morning, let’s take a look at Psalm 139, which is also referred to as the “Crown of the Psalms.”
"O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.[b]
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.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts![c]
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting![d]"
-Psalm 139:1-24 (ESV)
I love this chapter in Psalms, because really we are just painted this beautiful picture of God and His attributes. If we’re going to stay mindful of and recognize God during the good times, during the summers of our life, then starting with His attributes is one of the best things we can do.
In relation to this, and in an urging for appreciating God and all of His attributes, A. W. Tozer in his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, says this:
What we think about God, is the most important part of us.
A. W. Tozer
I think this is amazing. See, it’s what we think about God that determines our foundation for life, and belief, and behavior.
It’s important as Christians, that we have a right view of God. It’s important that the lens through which we develop a Christian worldview isn’t tinted, and that foundation is Psalm 139, the foundation of that right view of God. The right view of the greatness of God. The right view of God, who loves us, cares for us, and knows us. So again, in this Psalm we have this magnificent appreciation of God and who He is from the psalmist. Not an exhaustive (or total) list by any means, but a truly wonderful depiction nonetheless.
So if you’re taking notes this morning, we’re going to look at a few of these attributes that are outlined in this Psalm.
3 Assurances
1. God Knows Me Intimately
The first is this, “God Knows Me Intimately.”
This is verses 1-6 of the Psalm:
"O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it."
Psalm 139:1-6 (ESV)
Again – “God knows you intimately.”
I don’t want us to take this for granted, which I think again, we can often do (myself included). So just for a second let’s zoom out – our great, magnificent, omniscient, God knows you – by name. Knows my name. He knows your nature, He knows your needs.
You know in Luke 12:7 we even see that God knows the very number of the hairs on our head.
"Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows." Luke 12:7 (ESV)
Which for me, His job is getting easier as my hairline is more and more starting look like a beach with the tide going out, but, that’s not the point.
I’m just saying, I used to have waves. Now it’s becoming a beach.
I’m not bitter.
“Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.”
Because He loves you. Because He knows you.
Jesus said in Matthew 10:29 that a sparrow doesn’t fall to the ground without “your Father” knowing it.
He’s attentive to detail. And how comforting is that. I heard a preacher say, “God takes time out to attend the sparrow’s funeral. How much more valuable are you?” His attention is to detail.
In fact – I’ll throw another word at you to describe God: omniscient. From the latin omni-meaning all, and scientia – meaning knowledge. All knowing.
Now that seems like it’s kind of a given, right?
But have you thought of this? He’s never surprised. We don’t make a choice that makes God go, “huh. Didn’t see that coming…” He wasn’t walking through the Garden of Eden after the fall calling out “Adam, where are you?” and thinking to Himself, “Why did I have to put so many bushes in here?”
No instead what we see in these verses are five things that God knows about us.
1. God Knows What I Do
We see in verse 2, “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.”
I heard a story about a Catholic school, they were having a picnic. On one table there was a bowl of apples, and a nun, named Mother Superior noticed that some of the students were taking several apples at a time. So she put up a sign saying, “Take only one apple please, God is watching.” Well, on another table, there was a pile of cookies, on which a second grade student had placed a sign saying, “Take all the cookies you want.. God is watching the apples.”
But jokes aside, God knows when we sit down (or commonly translated also to “You know when I lie down, and when I rise up.” He knows when we end our day and when it begins and everything in between.
2. God Knows What I Think
Think about that. It can be scary to think about. Still in verse 2, “You discern my thoughts from afar.” The original Hebrew of this verse reads like this, “You know my thoughts in their origin.” Now I don’t know why I think what I think when I think it. Do you ever have a thought pop into your head and you think, “where did that come from?” God knows. And that’s amazing. He knows our thoughts before we think it. That’s amazing.
But there’s a much deeper concept behind this. God’s just as concerned about your thoughts, motives, and attitude as much as your actions. There are sins of the flesh, and sins of the spirit. Infidelity (flesh)/Lust (spirit), Murder (flesh)/Anger (spirit).
So God knows what I do, God knows what I think.
3. God Knows Where I Go
Verse 3 – “You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.”
There’s an old Hymn that I love that says,
“Oh, be careful, little feet, where you go.
There’s a Father up above looking down in tender love,
Oh, be careful, little feet, where you go.”
God knows everywhere you went this week. He knows everywhere you’ll go for lunch, where you’ll go this evening, and so forth.
So God bless you. That's it. Hope have a great day.
No, instead here’s a different perspective – this isn’t to scare you. In fact, it can delight you or maybe it can distress you. “I didn’t think anyone knew where I went last week.”
4. God Knows What I Say
Verse 4 – “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.” That argument that you had in the car on the way to church this morning, before walking in and being like, “Hi! Great to see you this morning!” Maybe that word you said under your breath when that person from another state cut you off on the highway. That sinful word, that unedifying word or words. God knows.
Again, even deeper – God knows the words of your heart. That’s why the Psalmist in Psalm 19:14 said, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.”
Okay, time to check in – are you feeling great about yourself yet? Or are you sitting there thinking, “Oh no. I’m so busted. God knows where I go, God knows what I think, God knows what I say.” Well here’s the comfort:
5. God Knows What I Need
Verse 5 – “You hem me in, behind (He knows our past) and before (He knows our future), and lay your hand upon me (our present).”
Your past. Your present. Your future. One verse. That’s amazing, isn’t it?
Here’s an incredible exercise – look back on your life. Truly look back on your life and look for the moments where God’s hand was on your life. How God spared you, how God protected you, how God watched over you.
Back when I was living in Lubbock, before marrying Cassy, I was driving the hour-and-a-half trip back to Amarillo to visit Cassy and family for the weekend. It had been raining way earlier in the day, but West Texas can get crazy hot in the summer. So I’m heading down the highway at about 70-75 miles an hour about when I hit a puddle of water.
My car instantly goes sideways, and spins around a couple of times. I leave the highway to the right, across the embankment missing one of those big state street signs by 2 or 3 feet, and across the access road (where there were cars driving, by the way). I hit a curb at about 60-65 miles an hour (I’m not positive of the speed but it was fast enough to break a chunk of metal out my aluminum wheel) on the other side of the access road and end up on some farmland. My dog is in her crate to the right of me, her eyes super wide and tail was just flying. She loved it, which made one of us. But as I was looking at her, I noticed that about 6 inches from the window was a tractor with blades raised up.
Had my car rolled at any point it could have been a different story. Had my car hit that street sign and it come crashing down through the glass roof on my car, it could have been a different story. Had my car hit a car on that access road, it could have been a very different story. Had my car hit that curb and flipped or even rolled onto its side with it’s glass roof, hitting those blades on that tractor, it could have been a different story.
Even though my car was messed up, I drove it the rest of the way home. And thank God for that. No injuries to me. No injuries to my dog. Just injuries to a replaceable car.
Maybe for you it’s not a protection from physical harm, but instead a healing. Maybe it’s a guiding through trials, through winters. Nevertheless, looking back with gratitude during the summers of our lives in humility is so worthwhile. So important to do. Again, those moments to look back where God’s hand was on your life. How He spared you, protected you, or watched over you. And that’s not to say that’s how things end up every single time in life, but it helps to form a perspective of realizing that God, who brought you through those trials and hard times in life, will, in the future take you all the way home.
Your past. Your present. Your future. God knows you.
Here’s the point of all of this.
God knows us intimately: what we do, our thoughts, where we go, what we say – to the point that we cannot deceive Him. And still He knows what we need, and will not forsake us as believers. How amazing.
He knows us so well to the point that we cannot deceive God. If I were to find myself thinking that I could fool God, that would be foolish. I would be being fooled to think that.
And this is where we get this verse of praise in verse 6: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”
So again, our first point for you notetakers – God knows me intimately.
2. God is With Me Constantly
The second truth we learn about God, the second attribute we learn, again for you notetakers is this: God Is With Me Constantly.
Verses 7-12.
God is omni-present. We had in point 1 that God is omniscient, now we have that God is omnipresent – God is all-present, present everywhere.
Let’s look at this text again:
"Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you."
Psalm 139:7-12 (ESV)
So we see here at the beginning of this section two rhetorical questions being asked in this Hebrew poetry.
Where shall I go from your Spirit? It can’t be done.
Where shall I flee from Your presence? It can’t be done.
Some people in the Bible come to mind.
Jonah: What’s the lesson? You cannot run from God.
Moses: Heading out into the Midian desert after committing murder. “Whew! I think I got away.” Boom – bush on fire. (Massive summary, but you get the point).Or maybe you’re here this morning and you’ve tried running from God.
Theologian, John R. W. Stott says this about running from God in this verse, and I love this:
“This question raises not the desire to escape, but the joyful astonishment that escape is impossible. God’s hand is everywhere to guide and to hold him.”
John R. W. Stott
Let your minds stretch for a little bit – there is nowhere that you could ever possible go that God in His entire fulness, that His presence is not.
Two young boys that had terrorized their neighborhood with their pranks and the like. Real Dennis-the-Menace kind of kids. Well, eventually it go to the point that their parents didn’t know what to do, and finally with the assistance of some of their neighbors, it was decided that they would take the boys to the local church, hopefully the would be able to intervene and attempt to straighten out the boys. So the mother called the church and the old pastor there said to bring them in, that he would meet with them. So, the mother brought her boys up to the church that afternoon.
The younger boy ushered into the pastor’s office first, where he was offered a very large chair in front of the desk. The pastor then sat down opposite from him. He folded his hands in front of him and stared at the boy a few seconds then said, “Where is God?”
Billy, the younger brother, wasn’t sure what the question meant, so he just sat there quietly.
The pastor, asked him again, “Where…is…God?”
Billy started to squirm. He had no idea why he was here and this pastor kept asking him the same question over and over.
The pastor, again, starts to ask as he leans over the desk, locking eyes with Billy, “Where is God?”
Well by this point, Billy is terrified.
“WHERE…IS…GOD?”
Poor Billy lost it. Here was this pastor asking questions he didn’t understand and he was scared. So he jumped up out of the chair, ran from the office, into the lobby where is mother and older brother are waiting for him.
“What’s wrong with you?” his older brother asked.
“Oh man!” he said. “We’re in BIG trouble. God’s missing and they think we took Him.”
Where is God?
It’s a good question, although the pastors approach in the story may have been a little harsh. But he was trying to convey the message of “God sees you. God is with you. God knows you.”
Now as we continue – we have three areas in which we cannot escape from God.
1. Space
Verse 8 – “If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!”
Psalm 19:1 – Even the heavens declare the glory of God. There is nowhere that you could ever possible go that God in His entire fulness, that His presence is not. The deepest depths of the ocean to the farthest galaxy imaginable. God is there and all of it, all of creation, declares His glory.
2. Speed
Verses 9 & 10 – “If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.”
So I can go as fast as I want. Again, I mentioned a couple of minutes ago that the Psalms are Hebrew poetry, and this phrase is a Hebrew figure of speech meaning to travel as fast as possible. For us we could think of it as traveling at the speed of light. The sun come up and you see those first light rays come up over the sky. Just imagine the speed of that light, 186,000 miles per second. “If I can travel at the speed of light and take the ‘wings of the morning’ to the other end of the earth. Boom. God’s there. ‘Hi!’” Turn around, speed of light, other direction. Boom. ‘Hi!’
3. You Can’t Flee In the Darkness
Verses 11 & 12: “If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
Again, I want to stress that this is a comfort for believers. This Psalm is one that either distresses people or delights them. To know that God is with me when I’m facing the darkness.
When I’m facing temptations. I love this verse:
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." 1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)
You can’t escape from God, but you can escape with God.
God will provide the way out, because God is with you.
Maybe you’re in a point of temptation right now. Tempted to steal. Lie. Enter into an affair. God is with you and will give you the strength to resist that temptation.
And He’s with us far beyond just dealing with temptations. He’s with us during times of fear. Maybe you’re afraid of what the uncertainty of the future holds. Maybe you’re afraid of your past, “What if someone finds out what I did.”
He’s with us during times of loneliness. We all have those times, times of feeling isolated, “No one cares about me. No one knows what I’m going through. Does anyone love me? Do I even matter? If I disappeared would it be a big deal?” God cares about you. God is with you.
He’s with us in times of bereavement. All you have to do is live long enough and someone you love will pass away. I’ve had grandparents pass away. People I knew from school. None of those deaths are things I wanted to happen. Life often doesn’t go the way we want it to go, but God is with us. So in times of loss or bereavement, He is with us.
In the Hymn, “In Whom We Have Boldness” says it like this:
In the pang that rends the heart,
The Man of Sorrows had a part,
He sympathizes in our grief,
And to the sufferer sends relief.
In John 11:33-35, we see Jesus at the grave of Lazarus:
"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved[a] in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept."
John 11:33-35 (ESV)
Jon Bloom, in his book, Why Jesus Wept, talks about this verse with some incredible insight:
"Jesus’s tears give us a glimbse of how the Father feels over the grief of his children."
Jon Bloom, Why Jesus Wept
So when you lose a loved one, when your heart is broken from the loss of someone close to you, and you feel isolated, or alone. You feel grief. Maybe you ask yourself, “does Jesus even care?”
Yes. And it’s not just my words. Biblically, yes.
And he cares in times of sickness.
You know, I’ve passed the dreaded quarter-life crisis that no-one is ever talking about. And man, I just have to say, already, you old people have a lot of courage. I played in a rock-band in high-school. In a basement. Half stack guitar amp turned all the way up. Ask Cassy how many times I say “what” to her in a day. Ask Sutton, who is easily one of the most patient people I’ve ever met, how many times I say “what” to him during a work day.
But even as I’ve seen relatives battle sickness, grandparents battle sickness, and two eventually pass away – one of which whom my mother told me that some of her last words on this earth were, “Lord use me to be a witness,” I’m here to say that He’s with us in our weakness. And there’s comfort knowing that it’s in that weakness, if we walk with the Lord, we can know that every day we’re closer to being face to face with Christ.
And at her funeral, as I’m sitting in the pew with my cousins, all of us with grief, I saw her friends walking by the casket all saying their goodbye’s, but one of her friends doesn’t. Instead, she looks up, and says, “Thank you Lord!” And it was amazing, because in her weakness, we saw that God was with her. And in our grief, the perspective that her friend showed, that thankfulness to God in celebration of her life provided me comfort immediately in that moment. Shifted my whole perspective.
God is with us, constantly.
3. God Made Me Wonderfully
Let’s move on. So far we have the following truths:
1. God Knows Me Intimately
2. God Is With Me Constantly
and now our last point today, is this:
3. God Made Me Wonderfully
Look at verses 13-18 of Psalm 139 with me:
"For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you."
Psalm 139:13-18 (ESV)
Life is sacred. We see this clearly in verses 13 and 14. We’re created in His image and likeness – unlike all the rest of God’s creation.
We see specifically in verse 13, the child created in the womb is created in the image and likeness of God. God’s hand is involved in every phase.
I love the phrase we see in verse 15, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.” “Intricately woven.”
Then we arrive at verse 16. “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” This wonderful affirmation that God knows everything about our lives, in advance, with His perfect omniscience. None of us can predict accurately how long we will live. So, how should we deal with the reality that we do not know how many days we will live? I love what James says in James 4:15, and I’m paraphrasing here: “We should live each day doing the Lord’s will and trusting that the results are ultimately up to Him (James 4:15).” And may we pray that God gives us the wisdom to do so.
It’s at verse 17 that I stop in awe. “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.” The number of the grains of sand representing God’s thoughts about you.
Derek Kidner puts it like this in his commentary:
"Even [just] in [our] own [bodies] there is an unimaginable wealth of detail, every point of it from the mind of God."
Derek Kidner
And beyond that – how wonderful and incredible to realize that God’s thoughts about us number more than the grains of sand on the earth. Go to the beach and pick up a handful of sand, let the grains fall between your fingers and see just how many their are. Each one representing a thought about you. Look up and down the beach. You know at sea level, given that there’s no obstacle in the way you can see about 2.9 miles before the curvature of the earth prevents you from seeing beyond that?
Again, if you’re to look up and down the beach of sand you could see about 6 miles total looking left to right. All that sand that you could see in about 6 miles. NASA estimates that there’s about 372,000 miles of coastline on earth. That’s a lot of thoughts. And the psalmist doesn’t stop there: saying, “If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”
All of the grains of sand on the seashore and the represent God’s thoughts about you. God thinks about you when you go to bed, God thinks about you when you’re asleep, God thinks about you constantly. How marvelous and glorious. What an incredible comfort to carry us through the winters, through the trials of life, through the springs, the renewals, and something that I pray we can all hold on to and remain thankful for during the summers when things are good.
At the beginning of this article, I cited a quote from A. W. Tozer.
"What we think about God is the most important thing about us."
A. W. Tozer
Well, I want to add on to that now as we wrap up, with a quote now from C.S. Lewis:
"How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important."
C. S. Lewis
So let me ask you this: how does God think of you? That’s for you to answer right where you’re sitting. You might be asking, “how do I know?”
I’ll help you out, and ask this question then that will help answer it, have you dedicated your life to God?
God Knows You Intimately – You can’t deceive God
God Is With You Constantly – You can’t run from God
God Made You Wonderfully – You can’t ignore God, or be ignored by God.
Jesus said this, “If you seek to find your life you’ll lose it. But if you lose your life for my sake and the gospel, you will find it.”
This Psalm ends in a wonderful and incredible response to the verses preceding it.
"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!"
Psalm 139:23-24 (ESV)
In light of the fact that God knows me, God’s with me, God made me, we say, “God search me. Dig deep into me. Know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. Understand what’s going on.”
And the prayer is that God will lead us, guide us, in the way of everlasting.
You can’t outrun His love.
