Sermon for December 29, 2024
It is the last Sunday of 2024. We are at the dusk of this year and nearly at the dawn of 2025.
Let me ask you… How has 2024 been for you? What’s one word that you might use to describe how you are doing and where you are at the end of 2024.
In a moment we are going to dive into the Scripture passage that ________ read, but I thought I would start with a little bit of personal testimony about some recent events.
If I had to find one word to describe how I’m doing at the end of 2024, I would probably use the word invigorated.
That’s because, at one point back in 2023, I had been thinking about wrapping things up at the Mission.
Not retiring from ministry per se, but after many years here (I started here in 1985), perhaps it was time for me to move on.
And so that was at the very least in the back of my mind when my wife and I decided to move to Frankford, which is about two hours east of Toronto, just north of Trenton Ontario.
I had vaguely been thinking of the fall of 2025 as the time that I might bring my time here to an end.
But then, God spoke. Do you have many of those experiences? You’re working on a plan, you’re thinking about your future, you’re doing your level best to make good plans for the future, and then God speaks. And he stops you in your tracks.
Well, as I mentioned to a few of you, that is what has happened to me.
When I came to the mission in 1985, it was to have some experience in Mission life for a few months, on my way to serve as a missionary in Africa, namely in Liberia and the Ivory Coast.
That was my plan, but then God spoke. He spoke through people, he spoke through the people that I never imagined he would speak through, and he said “stay“.
“This is where you are to serve Me. This community is My community, and you are to love and serve My community”.
I didn’t really like that at the time. Sometimes when God speaks, it is not what you want to hear.
But over the summer of 1985 and then the fall of that same year, I came to accept that this was my new thing…
To serve in Toronto, still as a missionary in some capacity, but to serve here, in the city that I grew up in.
So it was not my call to come to the Mission. I had other plans, but God had his plans and purposes for my life.
Skipping an awful lot of details, including the fact that I met the woman who would become my wife, Barbara, in 1986 while serving on the summer team in our Evergreen location,
for many years, decades actually, when I have had opportunity or invitations to serve elsewhere, and when that had some definite appeal to it, it never took more than 90 seconds of prayer to have a clear sense that I was to say no to those opportunities.
The thought in my head was: “why would God be calling me to go to some other place in Ontario or in Canada to love and serve some other group of people, when he has brought me to this place to love and serve people?“
The only reason might be better pay or more future opportunities. And so the impractical way that my brain works, that never struck me as having any merit.
So although I might have been tempted, my clear sense when given those opportunities was that God was still calling me to be here at the Mission.
Then more recently after thinking for some time that I might be, as I said, wrapping up at the end of 2025, I received, through numerous sources…
That is always how God speaks…Through a multiplicity of voices and influences…
What I received was this simple idea: it’s not my call. It’s not up to me. It’s up to God.
I shared this with my wife, and although she like me had been open to the idea of me leaving at the end of 2025,
she then fully supported my decision to stay, to let it be “not my call“, but rather God’s call and timing whenever it may be that I would finish up here.
So, for better for worse, I plan to be around until God makes it clear that he wants me to serve elsewhere in some capacity. In my mind that could be many years.
I have no idea. That’s a little bit of my recent testimony. So in short, I’m not going anywhere.
As we look more closely at this chapter, we’ll see that the 24 verses of Psalm 139 divide neatly into 4 sections of 6 verses each.
David speaks in the first person, about himself, but we would do well to seek to understand as David does. The sections are:
You know me (vv. 1–6)
You are with me (vv. 7–12)
You created me (vv. 13–18)
Your cause is my cause (vv. 19–24).
Now, let’s look at the first few verses from psalm 139:
1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.
I find Psalm 139 to be fascinating and gripping. It was written by King David and you could say that its overall focus, its theme is a very strong “Yes!“ to God’s presence.
And here David is stating a fact, Something that he knows and it sounds like he has been aware of for some time. God has investigated, looked into, made a diligent study of, and searched David.
Not searched for David. But rather searched David, on the inside, and so as a result, God knows David.
There isn't anything about David - or you and me - that God does not know.
From the mundane actions of life, sitting down and getting up, going out and lying down, to all of our innermost thoughts.
David, and we, have been ‘searched’ by God and so we are known by God.
How does that make you feel...that God knows everything there is to know about you, that God knows you better than you know yourself?
That your thoughts, even your thoughts as they are forming, are known by God?
There is a direct line between our thoughts and our actions, between what we think and what we do.
So although we are sometimes surprised by ourselves, surprised by what we do, or when we think back, we are a little bit in disbelief as to what we have done, God knows it all.
God knows all of the details both of what we have done, AND all the thinking that went into doing what we have done. And of course “before a word is on my tongue, Lord, you know it completely”.
Click on each highlighted reference to show underline on PPT of Scripture.
The NIV Study Bible Notes commentary says that God knows David perfectly—far beyond David’s knowledge of himself: his every action (v. 2a),
his every undertaking (v. 3a) and the manner in which he pursues it (v. 3b), even his thoughts before they are fully crystallized (v. 2b) and his words before they are uttered (v. 4).
His knowledge is unlimited. I'm not quite sure how anyone could be comfortable with that idea.
It could be quite terrifying, unless we realize that this God who knows us so well and so intimately, also loves us far more than we can imagine, far more than our brains and hearts have capacity to understand.
And we’re just starting. What’s next:
5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
“You hem me in”. Do you know what the hem of a garment is? It’s the finished edge at the bottom of a piece of clothing.
David sees the Lord’s knowledge of him as a blanket of security: it surrounds and guards him.
It keeps him in the right place, where he belongs. God’s intimately understanding of him keeps him from going astray and getting frayed, coming apart.
And David says that God lays His hand upon Him. In the Bible the laying on of hands is always a sign of blessing.
Last Sunday we laid hands on Pastor Jonathan, asking God’s rich blessing on the next chapter of his life.
God lays His hand on David. And all of what he has just said in the previous 5 verses comes to overwhelm David. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain”.
God’s deep knowledge is beyond human ability, beyond our capacity to grasp, to take in.
The Hebrew word that means “too wonderful for me” applies to God’s wondrous acts including His miracles.
So in verses 1 to 6, David is saying to God: You know me. For the next 6 verses David adds to “You know me”, something critically important: “You are with me”
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
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.
God reveals to David that there is no place that God is absent from his life. Do you ever feel like God has left you on your own?
Have you ever felt that God has abandoned you? I know that many people struggle with this, at least sometimes.
I’ve heard folks say that God is aloof...that God seems uncaring, that God seems to be far, far away.
I don’t know of any Christian who has not at some point thought this or felt this.
And yet we’re challenged with this set of verses that says that the truth is the opposite. That’s a tension we can feel deeply at times.
Why might we sometimes feel a million miles away from God? [Suffering; neglecting our relationship with God; sin)
Here’s the pill that’s really hard to swallow. The feeling of God’s absence is never in reality God’s absence.
The feeling that we are alone or bereft or abandoned is never based on reality.
The reality is that we can’t go anywhere where we can be distant from God’s presence, from the Holy Spirit’s immediately being with us.
For the follower of Jesus, though we do and will struggle with sin, and though we may wish to hide from God - that’s just not possible.
We might think, like David says - “Surely the darkness will hide me”, but 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
We actually cannot get away from God. Sometimes, if we accept this truth, it can mean to us that God is completely unavoidable - when in our disobedience, in our sin, we really wish we could avoid Him.
But David says in beautiful language that no matter where he goes, all the highs and great experiences in His life - God is intimately present.
And all of the deep lows, the worst experiences, the hardest moments, the dullest day and the deepest point of darkness or suffering, God is personally there by His Spirit - God is deeply involved in every moment and aspect of your life.
God weaves through every thread of your life, present in each joy, sorrow and breath you take.
So this is all part of being known by God. It is the preciousness and loveliness and joy of being known and accepted by God through the blood of Jesus, through the sacrifice of Jesus through which WE CAN DRAW NEAR TO GOD.
How do we do that? Do we expect to walk up to God, shake his hand and sit beside Him? No.
The Bible says we draw close to God through repentance and humility. “8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:8-10
God has good for you. Amazing plans that go way beyond your ability to imagine.
11 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. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. Jeremiah 29
So back to Psalm 139, David says in the first 6 verses: “God, you know me”. Then he says in the next 6 verses, not only do you know me, God, but You are with me.
Now David goes deeper into the wonder of this revelation he is receiving from God.
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.
David reflects on the mystery of his own creaturely-ness, his own createdness at the hands of the one who knows him and who is always, relentlessly, with him.
It seems like he’s explaining to himself how it is that God knows him so profoundly.
I’m going to put this in the 2nd person:
God created your inmost being (say names of people present). God knit you together (say names of people present) in your mother’s womb. You (names of people) are fearfully and wonderfully made. Your frame wasn’t hidden from God when you (people present) were made in the secret place,
when you (people present) were woven together in the “depths of the earth”.
God saw your unformed body (people present); all the days ordained for you (people present) were written in God’s book before one of them came to be. So perhaps like David, who is clearly taking all of this very, very personally, we might choose to also take this as personally.
And then we might say in worship, in prayer: “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God. How vast! Is the sum of them! They exceed the number of the grains of sand”.
The NIV Study Bible explains 2 possible meanings for the last words here “---when I awake, I am still with you”.
First, he may mean that the sleep of exhaustion overcomes every attempt to count God’s thoughts/works and waking only floods his soul once more with the sense of the presence of God.
Second, he may be referring to “awaking” from the sleep of death. If so, the psalmist extends the sphere of God’s presence to beyond death. All of life, up to and including our death - God is still with us.
So David has reflected on being known by God. He has with beautiful, poetic language sung about God being with him at every single moment, every high, every low.
He has marvelled at how God has created him and perhaps in his mind this is how if can be that God’s knowledge of him is so complete and absolute.
And then David takes a turn for 4 verses. This is not unusual for David if you are familiar with his other writings in the book of Psalms.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
It seems that one of the outcomes of David’s deep reflection on the nature of being known by God, being accompanied by Jesus, being one who God created - one of the outcomes is that David states that God’s cause is David’s cause.
David is passionate about God, and so it seems that his intense zeal for God, his deeply felt loyalty to God has set him against those who are God’s enemies. He asks for justice against those who do evil, those who are bloodthirsty - those who stir up dissension and division, who set people up in opposition to each other.
Those who misuse God’s name - that was a passion for Jesus as well. He had a lot to say against people who presented themselves as representatives of God, but who abused their positions for their own benefit.
In our own day and age, I grieve that this continues to happen. It breaks God’s heart.
David’s not a particularly chill fellow in general - and we see that here. “Do not I hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you”.
This might seem over the top to you as it does sometimes to me, but then I think of how David applies this same standard to himself. There were at least a couple of major moments in David’s life when he really blew it massively and likely without realizing it at the time, acted in rebellion against God.
After one of those times he cried out: 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
And now we come to the finale - the last 2 verses, where David brings it back from his and God’s enemies to himself.
It is a wonderful prayer that I have memorized recently. It is great to start the day with this, or to end the day with it. David, who has already talked about God’s deep knowledge of him, now wraps up this Psalm with a simple petition
23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Why does David invite God’s scrutiny here? “Search me, probe me, God”
Why does he invite divine examination? It’s not because he knows he’s sin-free, it’s not because he thinks nothing will be found by God.
He knows that whatever dark secrets might be exposed, whatever selfish motives will be brought to light, whatever blemishes and imperfections show up, God, who he knows is merciful and loving, can be trusted with this knowledge.
He knows that God will not use that knowledge against him, because he knows that God loves him.
God is for him. And we can know this at a very deep level as well.
The good news is that the God who knows you completely – knows the worst about you as well as the best – also knows the remedy for your soul.
The God who is with you, wherever you go, knows how to guide you into eternal life.
The God who made you – who fashioned you in your mother’s womb – has become flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ. Let’s pray.
