1. Psalm 139:1-3 (NKJV)
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
3 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
2. We want to love and be loved, to be known and remembered.
In 1926, 11-year-old Johnny Sylvester had been kicked in the head by a horse, and doctors feared it might be fatal. Johnny told his father, "I wish I could see Babe Ruth wallop a homer before I die."
Mr. Sylvester sent a telegram to the New York Yankees while they were in St. Louis for the 1926 World Series against the Cardinals. In response, he received autographed baseballs from both teams, including one from Babe Ruth, which was inscribed with, "I’ll hit a home run for you in Wednesday’s game." Remarkably, he hit three home runs!
The doctors called the effect on the boy’s condition a miracle. Some months later, during Spring training, Johnny’s uncle approached Ruth and thanked him profusely for his kindness. Ruth politely asked, "How is Johnny?" The uncle said Johnny was doing fine, then he left.
Ruth asked the reporters, "Who the [blankety-blank] is Johnny Sylvester?"
God knows us and will never forget who we are!
3. Psalm 139 – Casual reading: Omniscience//Omnipresence//Omnipotent (our creation)
4. David knew God with a similar heart – Acts 13:22 (ESV), And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, ‘I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’
5. Psalm 139 Describes:
I. God’s Continual Knowledge of Us. He doesn’t forget us.
A. God Has Searched and Known Me (139:1-2)
1. God is doing what He commands parents – Deuteronomy 6:7 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
2. My daughter spends most of the day with her boys and knows them
B. God Has Searched Our Paths/Lives (139:3)
1. Predators and Pitfalls – (v. 5)
2. Green Pastures (Psalm 23; Mark 6:39, 5K in green grass)
C. God Has Searched Our Hearts (v. 4)
1. The source of our thoughts [everywhere David can go or imagine going, God is there (Psalm 139:7-12)
2. The source of our words
II. A Way of Faith. It is a Matter of Trust (139:5-6)
A. Evidence of the Unseen – Hebrews 11:1, 6
B. Seen in Abraham – Genesis 15:6 (Before the Law of Moses/NT)
C. Seen in the Israelites – Habakkuk 2:4
D. Seen in Paul and Christians – Romans 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
III. Our Level of Loyalty. It is a Matter of Sincerity. (139:19-22)
A. Thinking Like God Thinks – Right and wrong
B. Opposing Whom God Opposes – The Bloodthirsty
1. God’s and David’s enemies – Conquer a nation by killing its king (Satan and Jesus)
2. Bloody Animal Sacrifices to “continue in sin” (and profit the priests) – Hebrews 9:22 And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission [forgiveness].
3. Christ’s Conspirators
a. Selfish concerns to continue sinful actions – John 11:47-48 47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. 48 If we let Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and nation.”
b. Insincere demands – Matthew 27:24-25 24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.”
25 And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.”
c. At the Cross – Psalm 22:16 For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet;
1) Today’s “bloodthirsty” enemies: – Abortionists; Adrenochrome; Uni-party Warmongers in Congress (D and R = a means to division)
2) “Christian” Conspirators who want the blood of Christ as a sin license to spread perversion, immorality, and idolatry, expecting God’s approval (Romans 6:1-2; Matthew 7:21-22)
• 18th-century Americans wouldn’t say “Homosexual” or use a pithy euphemism “Gay” – today, preachers defend it.
• Theft through taxation and unlimited submission to tyrants
3) Warning: Hebrews 10:26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
4) Our actions reveal our faith/trust
1. Audits/Examinations
a. IRS/Dr. Exams/School Exams/DOGE///Something to Hide /Fearful of finding us out
b. What if we are confident in our situation like David?
c. What if we want to improve with pure motives and humility?
A college logic professor, notorious for his challenging exams, announced that students could bring any information they could fit onto a single sheet of notebook paper. While most students filled their 8.5 x 11-inch sheets with as many facts as possible, one clever student approached the situation differently. He placed a sheet on the floor and had an advanced logic student stand on it. The advanced student then shared all the crucial information he needed. As a result, this student was the only one to earn an “A.” (Jesus has the answers).
2. David’s Challenge (Psalm 139:23-24) – Context: see if I am in your will and show me if I am not.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
3. The Everlasting Way Precedes and Supersedes the Law of Moses – “Olam” – Jeremiah 6:16
Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
a. Laws of Nature and Nature’s God – eternal principles
b. Noahide Laws; Ten Commandments and Torah; Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.)
c. John 14:6; Matthew 7:13-14 13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
