Season of Creation 3
Psalm 139 is a great Psalm, penned by David as he had this revelation of the greatness
of God the vastness of God’s abilities and the thoughts of God. King David produced
this amazing piece of prose.
His is a very personal prayer to the creator of the universe, “O Lord, you have searched
me and you know me “, “Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O
Lord”, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” This is a
passage where the writer makes it all about themselves and God, and all about God
and themself. Me, I and my, are used over and over as David the King speaks out his
understanding of his place before the King of Kings. In this passage we in a position too
understand David’s relationship with God…that even the King of the United Kingdom of
Israel desired to understand his creator and wondered at the mind of God.
Again, we read that David understood that, if he believed that in darkness he could hide,
even in that place he was not hidden from God, none of us is. He follows this by
explaining that it was God who created him; knit him together in his mother’s womb.
That he praises God because he is wonderfully complex, that God’s workmanship is
marvelous. I want to point out here that you are all fearfully and wonderfully made. That
each of you is an awesome creation. I will get back to that soon.
This Psalm is noted among theologians as being the crown of Psalms, and one of the
best loved of all the Psalms and I could go as far as to say parts of scripture. It points us
to our place before God our creator, it tells us of how we stand before Him, that we are
fearfully and wonderfully made. That even in this fallen world; God still made us, still
recognises our worth as being immense, all his works are wonderful. None of us are
random events. We may have come from families that are dysfunctional. Some may
have had a start we would rather forget, insecurities that dig us in the ribs, disabilities
that impede, but we are all fearfully and wonderfully made. Unique and here for a
purpose, for such a time as this!
As a species our uniqueness in things such as speech, upright statue, our ability to
move our thumbs across our hands and small and ring fingers to our thumbs give us a
remarkably strong grip (interestingly many primates have opposable thumbs but unlike
them we do not have opposable big toes). We don’t have the largest brains relative to
body size — many birds have brains that make up more than 8 percent of their body
weight, compared to only 2.5 percent for humans (http://www.livescience.com/15689-
evolution-human-special-species.html) (So I guess when someone gets called a bird
brain it’s a compliment) and some species of ants 14-15% (Source: Brain–body mass
ratio - Wikipedia). But we are able to think and reason beyond the rest of the animal
kingdom. On God’s good earth we are the only creature that wears clothing, unless we
have made it for them, I have a sister-in-law who makes jackets for dogs. We have the
ability to control fire, yip, cooked food, we are the only species that blushes, we have
very long childhoods, most animals don’t live long after reproducing but we do.
God has plans for us! David knew this. God wants to see us all fulfil our purpose. Your
role in his kingdom is unique and required.
Where I want to take this passage is to look closely at verse 17. “How precious are your
thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them.” For in verse 17 we get this
understanding of the value of Gods thoughts to King David. While I am looking at this, I
want to point out that King David had an awesome understanding of God’s thoughts,
something well worth considering. We have an advantage in our place in history
however, as we know more about history, the development of time since King David
that he did not have to understand God’s thoughts also. We have a privileged position
of historical retrospective understanding, we have the Old and New Testaments
meaning we can look back on all that has gone before, also numerous books, research
and the internet and Dear Old Uncle Google to help us. But if you are doing research on
a topic, consider everything carefully, be sure that the reported facts are the facts.
Compared to our minds, the mind of God must be an amazing thing, in verse seventeen
King David says: “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum
of them were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I am
awake, I am still with you.”
Proverb 16:9 tells us.
“The mind of man plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.”
The thoughts of God are so vast, when we think that all of our thoughts are known to
God, all eight point one billion-ish of us, what we will say is known to God, every
sparrow that falls is known to God, how a Jelly fish operates is known to God, all the
days of Methuselah, a bristle cone pine, perhaps the oldest known individual living tree
at 4855 years old are known to God, he knows the furthest reaches of the universe.
God with all this going on, still [God] has plans for each, fearfully and wonderfully made
one of us.
So what? Well, the prophet Jeremiah tells us this from God “For I know the plans I have
for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give
you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) So while the world advances against you,
while darkness may want to overcome you, hold onto that promise God has plans for
you! Positive life granting, life fulfilling plans.
John the Baptist said this about Jesus, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his
wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:11b12) Jesus has made it possible for each one of us to engage with the Spirit of God
himself, he will shake us free from the chaff of life.
So, looking at this season of creation passage Psalm 139, and our place in creation as
fearfully and wonderfully made beings, human beings, we come to an understanding
that ‘God’s thoughts are beyond our understanding and that God wants good for all he
has created.’ (SBI). Just as he has plans for each of us.
A few things about yourself that you may not know. However, you may know.
Your eardrum moves very little for your hearing to operate, the quietest sound you can
hear if you have excellent hearing moves your eardrum about the diameter of an atom,
a 94dB sound wave gives your ear drum about 0.1 micron displacement and a 100dB,
0.2 microns. One micron is a 0.001 of a millimetre or a millionth of a metre. Incidentally
you should be wearing grade 3 earmuffs at 85 dBA. (Sourced from: hearing - How far
does eardrum move? - Biology Stack Exchange)
Your hearing is very finely tuned.
The heart beats because of a small electrical current generated by the the cardiac
conduction system. The cardiac conduction system is a group of muscle cells in the
walls of the heart. It's comprised of five major components:
• The sinoatrial node (SA node): Known as the heart's "pacemaker", this node
fires at regular intervals, causing the heart to beat.
• The atrioventricular node (AV node): the electrical "relay station" between the
upper and lower heart chambers.
• The bundle of His (also known as the atrioventricular bundle): muscle fibers
that conduct the electrical impulses that regulate heartbeat.
• Bundle branches: Connected to the bundle of His, these lead to the lower
ventricles.
• Purkinje fibers: Embedded in the subendothelial tissue, these fibers conduct
impulses through the heart. (Sourced from: What makes your heart beat? |
HowStuffWorks)
Your mind is an amazing thing, some facts about your brain;
It takes only 2% dehydration to affect your attention, memory, and other cognitive skills.
Twenty-five percent of the body’s cholesterol resides within the brain.
Cholesterol is an integral part of every brain cell.
Without adequate cholesterol, brain cells die. No one knows for sure, but the latest
estimate is that the brain contains roughly 86 billion brain cells.
Each neuron can transmit 1,000 nerve impulses per second and make as many as tens
of thousands of synaptic contacts with other neurons.
A piece of brain tissue the size of a grain of sand contains 100,000 neurons and 1 billion
synapses, all communicating with each other.
Brain information travels up to 268 miles per hour. This is faster than Formula 1 race
cars which top out at 240 mph.
According to the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at the University of Southern California,
the average brain generates 48.6 thoughts per minute.
There are about 400 miles of blood vessels in the average brain.
It has recently been discovered that our brains have the capacity to change throughout
our lifetimes due to a property known as brain plasticity. The brain can continue to
form new brain cells via a process known as neurogenesis.
As long as the first and last letters are in the right spot, your brain can rearrange the
letters to form words as fast as you can read.
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the
ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit
pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is
bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Your brain’s storage capacity is considered virtually unlimited. It doesn’t get “used up”
like RAM in your computer. The latest research shows that the brain’s memory capacity
is in the petabyte range. A petabyte is a quadrillion, or 1015, bytes.
Astoundingly, this is about the same amount needed to store the entire internet!
(Sourced from: 72 Amazing Human Brain Facts (Based on the Latest Science) | Be
Brain Fit)
So there's a few facts about us human beings, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.
I find the last five verses of David’s psalm here extra interesting. Especially in light of
Jesus teaching. Also, with the knowledge that ‘God’s thoughts are beyond our
understanding and that God wants good for all he has created. The context of the
Psalm is during a time of persecution for David, evil men were out to get him. His words
“if only you would destroy the wicked!” and the other verses that point to God’s enemies
being David’s enemies. God could have destroyed them, of course he could. This was a
very personal prayer. David’s suffering was very real as is our own at times. Do we want
it to stop, of course we do, as does each individual who suffers. Jesus told us ‘But I tell
you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children
of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends
rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:44-45). Why I ask? The answer is
because they also are fearfully and wonderfully made. Once again, God’s thoughts are
beyond ours and he wants good for all he created.
We have a role to play in that, having ourselves been saved by grace through faith in
Christ, true peace and justice can only be done as we share the Good News of Jesus.
This is not done through condemnation, but through contact and communication as we
come along side people who are not yet in a two-way relationship with Jesus.
A person often struggles to understand that their feet are falling on the wrong path until
they are directed to correct one and they stumble less or stop stumbling. If they choose
to walk a path to danger after the safe path has been pointed out to them, then at least
known to them.
Where we see need for a life to be saved it is our place to present the saving grace of
God.
You may wish to respond to the God who created you today, if so there is a place here
where you can come and pray about anything. God wants a deep relationship with you.
And while God’s thoughts are beyond our understanding God wants good for all he has
created and that includes for you as an individual
