Gods Thoughts About Me
Psalms 139
QUIZ – Meant to be really difficult – might take you all of a second to answer these… (answer them silently)
Which country makes Panama hats? Ecuador
In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution? November. The Russian calendar used to be 13 days behind ours.
How long did the Hundred Years War last? 116 years, from 1337 to 1453.
From which animal do we get catgut? From sheep and horses
What is a camel’s-hair brush made of? Squirrel fur
The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal? The Latin name was Insularia Canaria—Island of the Dogs.
What was King George VI’s first name? Albert. When he came to the throne, in 1936 he respected the wish of Queen Victoria that no future king should ever be called Albert.
What color is a purple finch? Red.
Where are Chinese gooseberries from? New Zealand
How long did the Thirty Years War last? Thirty years, of course. From 1618 to 1648.
Anybody get them all right?
Anybody get more than one right?
Our knowledge is very limited isn’t it?
Even when we think we know something
we’re often wrong.
Fortunately, that’s not true of God.
God knows everything,
and he is never wrong.
We’re continuing in our series on the greatest Psalms,
and today we’re looking at Psalm 139.
Turn there in your Bible.
Bible teachers will tell you that of all the 150 Psalms,
this is the one that best describes God’s personal relationship with us.
the idea that God is not far off,
but is near to each of us.
The first thing we learn from Psalm 139,
is that
1. GOD SEES EVERYTHING ABOUT ME.
Lets start by reading verses 1-4
LORD, you have searched me 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 know it completely, O LORD.
This section is describing an attribute of God,
that theologians call his Omniscience.
If you split that into 2 words,
Omni means all.
Science is the study of knowing about the universe.
Omniscience simply means all knowing.
God knows everything.
Hebrews 4:13 "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare to Him to whom we must give account."
There is no question God cannot answer, no problem that confuses Him. He’s never surprised. He’s never shocked. He never says, "Oh, really?"
These verses list three specific areas,
that concern you and me.
First it says,
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
In other words, God knows everything you do,
He knows when I plop into the lazy boy and when I get up to get some more nachos and cheese.
Those two opposites of sitting and rising represent all of our actions throughout the day.
He knows all your habits,
your good habits and the bad ones.
The weak areas and the strong ones,
he sees them all,
he knows them better than you do.
God also knows every word I say.
Verse 4
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
He doesn’t just know it after I say it,
he knows it before I say it.
Now if you’re like me,
this can make you really frustrated,
if you think about it.
Because I’ve said a lot of things I really regretted later.
And then I think,
God, You already knew I was going to say that,
and you knew I was going to regret it,
couldn’t you have just, like
warned me in advance,
so that I could just keep my mouth shut?
Maybe if he just sent me an email once in a while, that said,
Ken, Friday at 2:38 pm,
do not say anything.
keep your mouth shut,
Use duct tape if necessary,
Signed, God.
But I haven’t gotten one of those emails yet.
(now I know that Pastor Chris is going to send me an email, and sign it, God,
and say, Ken, at 10:30 on Sunday morning…
The third thing God knows,
Verse 2 says,
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You know, doctors can do some amazing things with the technology that’s available today.
They can take a tube and stick it down your throat
and look at your insides,
and take pictures.
That’s amazing.
But magnify that a billion times. You’ve got God seeing everything inside, not just my physical body but even my thoughts.
God knows everything you’ve ever thought about. Think about that for a moment.
God knows that you just thought about that.
Verse 6, loosely translated, says, "That blows me away!"
David says,
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Me too.
How can you grasp a God,
who knows every thought that you’ve ever had,
plus those of all the billions of other people out there.
Its hard to take in.
Now if God sees and knows everything I do, say, or even think,
then what does that mean to me?
That means he has enormous power
to encourage me in what’s right,
and also to help me in temptation.
2 Cor. 10:13 "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."
That is an encouraging verse!
Because God knows in advance what you’re going to face,
and He promises to provide
a way out of the temptation.
He knows exactly the struggle going on in my mind. He sees it coming before I see it coming. and He’s already preparing an escape route so I can get away from the temptation.
Also, because God sees me
when I’m being tempted. that’s a motivation for me not to give in.
I don’t want to sin when he’s watching me.
That’s human nature.
If you know the cop is sitting there with his radar on,
you don’t speed.
If you know your boss is watching,
you don’t play solitaire on the computer at work.
So when I’m tempted God wants to help me out.
This coming week,
you’re going to face some temptation.
I don’t know when it’ll come, or what it’ll be,
but God does.
God already knows about it,
and He’s already prepared an escape route,
a way out of the temptation.
Lets go on to the next section of Psalm 139,
and the focus shifts a little bit.
The 2nd thing we learn from this Psalm is that
2. GOD IS CONTINUALLY WITH ME.
Verse 5
5 You hem me in — behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
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.
In this section David starts talking about what theologians call God’s omnipresence.
Again, omni means all,
so this just means all present.
It means, God is present everywhere in the universe at the same time.
And its not like he’s really stretched thin,
so there’s only a little bit of him here and there.
No, he’s fully present at every place, all the time.
I know you can’t understand that,
neither can I,
but then again, we’re not God.
And just think about this:
The nearest star is 4.5 light years from the earth. To reach it by jet plane would take you
a mere fifty-three billion years!
Its pretty far away.
But the Hubble Space Telescope has sent back pictures of galaxies that are 2,000 times that far away!
The light from those galaxies left there
7,000 years ago,
and is only now reaching this part of the universe.
But God is fully there, in that farthest galaxy,
just like he is here in this room.
Col 1:16-17 NIV
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible … and in him all things hold together.
If God went on vacation for even a minute,
this universe would fall apart.
Now we don’t have to worry about Him going on vacation,
because there’s nowhere He could go,
because he’s already there.
Its like me saying,
I think I want to go on vacation to Hawaii,
and then I realize,
oops, I’m already there.
Wouldn’t be much of a vacation
if I’m already there,
and always have been.
But because God is a Spirit. He can be everywhere at once
Now, that does not mean that God is everything. That’s an error people have fallen into many times,
called pantheism.
They believe that all of creation is a part of God,
we are all a little part of God,
and if you add us together with all the plants,
and rocks and whales, and the moon and stars, we all together make up the sum total of God.
No, the bible clearly teaches that is not true.
God is the creator of all that you see,
But don’t confuse the Creator with His creation. He’s not everything but He is everywhere.
Most of you have heard Bette Midlers song called
"From a Distance".
It’s a beautiful song.
Unfortunately its basic assumption is goofed up.
She sings,
God is watching us from a distance."
And it certainly is true that God is watching us,
but not from a distance,
because he’s right here.
He couldn’t possibly get any closer to you,
because he’s everywhere.
People throughout history have been asking the question, Where is God?
is a very important question.
Seekers wants to know the answer,
because they want to find God,
as if he’s the one who’s lost.
A person who’s carrying around a lot of guilt wants to know where God is,
so he can run the other way.
The hurting person wants to know,
because she feels abandoned by God “Where is God when I need Him?”
The lonely person wants to know,
where is God,
and why do I feel so alone?
Some of you have heard me tell the story,
of how when I was 18 years old, after my first year at the Naval Academy I decided to catch a free military flight and go see Europe.
So I hitchhiked up to Maguire AFB in NJ, got a flight.
Spent two weeks in Europe.
and it was exciting, but it was a pretty lonely feeling too. I didn’t know anyone within 2,000 miles, I didn’t speak the same language as anybody else.
One of the places I went to is Venice, in Northern Italy stayed there a day,
and then then got on a bus across northern Italy. and that’s when the whole country of Italy decided to start a bus strike.
So my bus pulled into a little town called Pordenone,
and stopped.
And the driver parked the bus,
and everyone else disappeared,
and I’m left wondering,
ok what do I do now?
There was only one hotel there, but it didn’t matter because I didn’t have enough money to stay in hotels anyway. I’d been sleeping on trains or in youth hostels
Nobody in the town spoke English.
There was only one restaurant in town,
so I went there and ordered a coke,
and sat there till midnight when it closed,
then I went over to the bus station parking lot and snuck onto one of the buses and slept on a bus seat.
Then the next day I went out on the main highway,
managed to hitchhike to a major town where I could get a train to France.
But I’m telling you, lying there on a bus seat,
trying to get to sleep,
in a strange country,
that was a pretty lonely feeling.
But you know what?
I knew that God was there on that bus with me,
I was a Christian, I had a pretty close relationship with God,
So I knew that I wasn’t really alone,
and let me tell you,
that made a lot of difference, just knowing God was there.
You see,
If I know that God is always with me,
then I can depend on him no matter what I face.
No matter what trouble I’m facing,
No matter how bad things look,
I know he’s right here with me.
Psalm 34:18
"The Lord is near to those who are discouraged. He saves those who have lost all hope."
If you’re discouraged this morning, there’s one thing I can say with complete confidence: God is with you.
Is your heart breaking this morning? The Lord is near you.
Are you lonely?
You’re not alone.
God is with you.
Do you feel like you don’t know which way to go?
God’s with you.
In verse 10 he says, your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If you realize that God is with you,
then you realize that you have nothing to worry about.
He will guide you,
and hold you fast.
You can trust Him no matter what comes along.
The next section of Psalm 139
is one of the best known parts of the bible.
It’s one reason so many people love this Psalm.
In this section we see that
3. GOD PLANNED OUT EVERYTHING ABOUT ME.
Verses13-18
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.
In our society, we put an incredible amount of importance
on how we look.
there’s a myth that goes, If I look good then I must be good.
Wrong.
It’s amazing what we do to make ourselves look good.
Liposuction. Implants. Facial scrubs. Facelifts,
nose jobs,
tanning beds,
body piercing.
On a PBS Television Special,
Harold Kushner said "Tomorrow morning, if every woman in America woke up feeling good about her appearance, the American economy would collapse. "Whole industries are built on the notion that women are afraid they will not be lovable unless they measure up to some standard of perfection."
Proverbs 31:30 "Charm can be deceptive and beauty doesn’t last."
No matter how hard you work at it,
beauty doesn’t last.
Like the two old men at a rest home, They’re out walking, An elderly woman streaked by with nothing on. The first guy said, "Did you see what that girl was wearing?" The second guy said, "No. But whatever it was needed ironing!"
1 Samuel 17:7 "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
We place big emphasis on how we look. God places no emphasis on how we look.
He says it doesn’t matter because you can’t judge a person by his appearance.
Like the little scrawny guy came in and applied to be a lumberjack. They said, "You can’t be a lumberjack. You’re too small, too weak." He said, "Give me an ax." In 30 seconds he chopped down this huge tree. They said, "Where did you learn to chop like that?" The guy said, "The Sahara forest." They said, "Don’t you mean the Sahara desert?" He said, "Well, that’s what they call it now."
Here’s the point.
God created you exactly the way you are.
It was part of his perfect plan for you.
He wanted you to look just like you look,
He wanted you to have exactly the skills and abilities and talents you have.
That was his perfect design for you.
Verse 13, David says,
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful.
Would you say the same thing David did?
Do you look at the way you’re made,
and say,
wow, God, you did a great job on me,
I am wonderfully made.
Way to go, God.
Not many of us are really that excited about the way God made us.
Many of us are more like Job.
In Job 9:20 he says,
"Everything I say seems to condemn me.”
Many of us are very self-critical,
always putting ourselves down.
Maybe you don’t say it out loud.
Maybe you walk in here smiling,
but inside you’re saying,
"I’m fat.
I’m dumb.
I’m ugly.
I’m slow.
I’m a bad person.
I’m a terrible Christian.
I’m always late.
I’m so uncoordinated,
I just hope I don’t spill coffee on someone.
God wants you to stop putting yourself down.
When you put yourself down,
who are you really putting down?
When you say,
"I’m fat.
I’m dumb.
I’m ugly.
I’m no good.
I have no talent.”
You’re really pointing to the creator who made you.
When you say,
"God, I’m worthless.
I’m no good.
I can’t do anything”
you’re really saying,
"God, You blew it when you made me.”
God says, no I didn’t.
God says,
I created you just the way I wanted you,
but you just haven’t figured out yet
how much I love you,
and what my purpose for you is.
When you understand those things,
you won’t put yourself down.
God doesn’t care about your outward appearance,
He could care less if you look like Brad Pitt or Julia Roberts.
the Lord looks at the heart."
We should praise God for his wonderful creation of you.
You are a marvelous creation,
and you are designed exactly the way He wanted you.
Not only did God make you a wonderful creation,
But God has a plan for your life.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
During the Great Depression Ireland had a work program to give people jobs.
They were put to work by the government in building roads. For a time the men worked well, they sang their Irish songs, they worked hard,
they were glad to be back at work again.
But after a while, the word got out
that the roads they were building didn’t lead anywhere,
The government just wanted to create work,
and so these roads just ran out into swampland and stopped.
And as the truth gradually dawned on them that they’d been put to work solely to provide them employment and as an excuse for feeding them, the men grew discouraged and unmotivated, they stopped singing.
One of them said, "Roads to nowhere are difficult to build."
That’s true.
If you can’t see a lasting purpose in what you’re doing,
then why do it?
Why waste your time?
Ephesians 2:10 "We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do."
God did advance planning on your life.
The verse we read earlier said that "Even in my mother’s womb, You were preparing me."
you knit me together in my mother’s womb. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
That’s one of the reasons why abortion’s wrong. God has numbered the days of every child, and even before that child is born. He has a purpose for that person. He planned them out in advance.
There’s a Christian Project called the Psalm 139 project,
that’s trying to put an ultrasound machine
in every Pregnancy Care Center,
because they believe if a woman can see how her baby is knit together in the womb,
she will definitely want to carry it to full term.
God has a purpose for every person,
And because God has a purpose for you, that means you are on special assignment from God.
God’s got some work in this world,
that can only be done by you.
When you understand that, it makes all the difference,
Lets go to the last section of this Psalm.
In the last section we see that
4. GOD IS CONTINUALLY LEADING ME.
Verses 17-24
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O 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.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O 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. NIV
Its says that God’s thoughts about you
outnumber the grains of sand.
What that means is,
God is thinking about you all the time.
What is he thinking?
One of the things he’s thinking about
is in verse 23.
Its says he’s searching your heart,
searching your motives,
and your anxious thoughts, or worries,
and leading you in the right direction.
He’s constantly thinking about me,
so that he can constantly lead me,
so I can follow him and be blessed.
You see,
Every time I do the right thing, God is watching.
Every time, instead of sinning, I choose not to sin,
every time I resist a temptation, every time I stand up for the right thing no matter how small or insignificant,
God knows it, and sees my faithfulness to Him.
Matthew 6: Jesus says, "Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Fact: Every good deed will be rewarded.
Every good deed will be rewarded no matter how insignificant, regardless of whether anybody else on earth saw it or not.
Every encouragement you give to other people,
every kind word or compliment you give to your children, every time you do a thoughtful act for your husband,
every time you help in the church nursery or stuff bulletins, or encourage somebody at a small group,
every time you had the opportunity to gossip and you didn’t, every time you had the opportunity to be critical and you weren’t, God sees it all!
Imagine yourself on a giant stage and you’re the only person on that stage. You’re acting out your life.
In the audience there is only one person and it’s God.
He’s out there clapping and saying "I see that good thing you just did. Keep on going! Nobody else saw it, but I did. I know that thought you just had and I know it was a positive good thought. I saw it."
More and more in my life, I’m trying to live out my life for an audience of one. God.
In fact, I have that statement taped to the top of my computer screen,
so I can see it every day.
Live your life for an audience of ONE.
It ultimately doesn’t matter how I appear to any of you,
or what anyone else thinks about me.
What matters is what God thinks of me.
He knows what I’m really like,
and what I really think,
and what my motives really are.
What matters is the integrity in your life when nobody is looking.
Because there is someone looking. God.
He’s saying, "I saw that act! I saw that kind thought! I saw that patience you had with your children! Good job! I’m watching!"
That is a tremendous motivator for me to live a godly life. when I realize that nothing in my life is in secret.
God sees it all.
You may fool some people some of the time
or all the people all the time but there is one person you are not fooling and that is God.
It’s His opinion that’s going to count in eternity. God says, "I know all your faithfulness. I saw what you did."
So what should be my response? If God sees all the good things that I do and He’s out there cheering me on and I’m going to get credit for them all then my response should be Don’t Be Discouraged!
Some of you are saying, "I’ve been trying to do the right thing in my marriage. I don’t see any results.
I’ve been trying to be the right kind of person and respond correctly with my kids, to my parents, to my husband/wife.
I’ve been trying to be a good Christian at work. I’ve been trying to have a good testimony at school.
I don’t know if it’s paying off. I don’t see it making an impact in anybody’s life."
God says, "I see it! and it doesn’t matter who else does. No good thing ever goes unrewarded!"
Galatians 6:9 "We should not grow weary in doing good because we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Stand for Prayer:
God’s presence is here with us this morning whether you’re aware of it or not. He wants you to know Him. He wants you to feel His love. If you’re not sure you know him this morning, why don’t you just say in your heart, "God, I’d like to know Your presence in my life." Jesus said in Revelation 3:20 "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Jesus says, I’m knocking at the door of your life. If you’ll open it up I will come into your life and live with you and you with me. So just say, "Jesus Christ, come into my life right now."
Heavenly Father, I thank You that You are always with us, and that you know us better then we know ourselves. Thank you that you are constantly thinking about each of us, and looking for ways to help and guide us. Thank You for the confidence and the comfort that comes from your presence with us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
