“Aware, Available, Able”
Psalm 139
Introduction
Music plays an important role in most everyone’s life. Music not only expresses our innermost soul but is able to move it as well. Most movies would have little impact without the music. Music expresses the depths of agony to the heights of ecstasy and everything in between. Such is true of the Psalms. King David was a passionate man.
His passion permeates his music. David’s music expresses the passion of his darkest days to his most delightful dreams.
This song of David anchors our soul to some solid truths about God in the midst of personal darkness. David wrestled with his relationship with God, as do we at times.
Is God a personal God or some far off distant Deity uninvolved in the details of His creation? Does God even know what I feel? Is God aware of my struggle?
Is God even there since I don’t feel Him or see Him? If He is there can he do anything about the evil in the world and in me?
In the midst of personal struggle with the circumstances of life, David stops to meditate on the personal nature of God. David contemplates and affirms some powerful truths about God and their personal application to himself. David responds to those truths throughout the Psalm.
David’s personal and open conversation with God in Psalm 139 demonstrates his understanding and his passion to follow Him even through the hard times.
This stunning song speaks to a number of human struggles and feelings.
Obscure, misunderstood, unknown
Alone, darkness, without direction, lost, afraid
Without purpose, low sense of worth or value
Struggle with evil in our world and in our own life
Some songs are horizontal – directed to one another. Some songs are vertical – directed to God. This Psalm is purely vertical as David expresses God’s own attributes back to Him.
David affirms three basic truths about God their personal application to him.
David responds to those truths.
David finishes with three appeals to God
I. David affirmed three basic truths about God
A. God is AWARE of every aspect of my life – God is Omniscient
1. Affirmation
David addressed God with His name of eternity – the Great I AM. David clearly understood the omniscience of God. David ventured far deeper than a general understanding that God knows everything about everything at all times for all time both things actual and things possible. David contemplated the significance of God’s omniscience to his own life. It is one thing to acknowledge the fact that God knows everything. It is another thing to realize that God knows everything about ME!
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
“searched” indicates a through examination leaving no stone unturned. It was a term used to describe someone diligently mining for gold and precious stones. God has made the effort to really know me.
“known” expresses the result of the searching. It is a general term with broad applications related to a discernment or awareness of something or someone from a casual acquaintance to the “knowing” of sexual intimacy.
We do not serve an impersonal God who wound up the universe and let it fly. We are not obscure, misunderstood, unknown. God is fully aware of every aspect of our life. Nothing escapes His notice. The following three verses expand on the scope of God’s awareness of every aspect of our life.
a) Physical activity
“You know when I sit down and when I rise up”
He knows when I am active and when I am inactive from the time I get up to the time I sit down.
b) Mental Activity
“You understand my thought from afar”
God not only knows my physical activity but the reasoning process that regulates my sitting and rising. God discerns, or perceives my every thought process.
“From afar” may have reference to either time (future) or space or both. Our mind is like a beehive to other people. They can see what goes in and what comes out but not what goes on inside. God understands our thinking. He is aware of my reasoning process.
He never misinterprets our motives. He never fails to know what we really think or why we do what we do. He understands our deepest longings. He is aware of our struggles at every level. He also knows and understands the agony of our hurtful memories. We can’t fool him. We can’t hide our true intentions from Him. Even though our thought life seems hidden from others, God knows the truth about us.
c) Life journey
“You scrutinize my path and my lying down”
“scrutinize” or “encompass” means to surround in battle or have spies in every corner.
“Path” has to do with my journey or path. God is intimately aware of both my public life and my home life “Lying down”.
Basically he knows everything about my departure and arrival each day; both my running and my resting.
d) Habits of life
“and You are intimately acquainted with all my ways”
God maintains useful knowledge of my every habit of life. He knows every quirk, every habit, every, custom, every little move I make and why I make it.
“God knows what rule we walk by, what end we walk toward, what company we walk with.”
e) Conversations
“Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O LORD, You know it all. “
God knows about what we are going to say even before we say it. Not only does God know my thoughts, He knows them before we do and they express themselves in words.
2. Personal Application and Implication
The Psalmist applies this understanding to every intimate detail of his personal life.
There is no need to try to hide from God as Adam did. No point in covering motives.
No point in masking your feelings. No advantage to denying your true thoughts. God fully comprehends every aspect of our life.
This could be a frightening, threatening thing, but David found security in this truth. He considered God’s intimate searching knowledge to be reassuring.
“You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.”
David considered God’s absolute knowledge of every aspect of his life to be like an impenetrable fortress of protection. David acknowledged that this intimate knowledge was not restrictive or frightening but protective. God’s involvement has been in the past (behind) and will continue into the future (before). God’s intimate awareness surrounds every aspect of my life. Not only is God aware but He is intimately involved in our life.
We are intimately known and deeply loved. Often we feel that if someone really knew us they would reject us. Well God is fully aware of every aspect of our life and loves us anyway. The realization of God’s personal involvement in his life inspired an exclamation of wonder and amazement as it should us.
3. Response
“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it”. vs 6
Wonderful, incomprehensible, wondrous! Such a lofty concept feels unattainable.
I am not sure just what impressed him the most. That he served a God whose presence surrounded Him or that a God who knows everything about everything and whose presence was all around him would sustain a personal caring relationship with him. We sometimes think that if people really knew what we were like they would reject us.
God knows the good, bad and the ugly and continues to surround us with his love and continues to pursue relationship.
In verse 5 David shifts his thinking from Omniscience to omnipresence. God is aware of every aspect of my life but He is also…
B.God is AVAILABLE everywhere and always – God is omnipresent
1. Affirmation
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there; `behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn (clouds or sunbeams), if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,"
Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You. 7-12
I can’t get away from you if I tried!
God is not limited by the spirit world.
He is not limited by geography.
He is not even limited by circumstances (darkness)
He is not just present but dynamically engaged all the time. His guiding, loving hand continually touches my life. Even when all I see is darkness, God is there in all His glory and brightness. Darkness does not and cannot deter or distract Him.
2. Personal Application
God is not only aware of everything we face and fear, but God is also available to guide us through life’s maze of maladies. God is there to hold us.
When my heart was embittered and I was pierced within, then I was senseless and ignorant; I was like a beast before You. Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works. Psalm 73:21-28
Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU," so that we confidently say, "THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT WILL MAN DO TO ME?" Hebrews 13:5-6
He sits beside you this morning. His hand rests on you even now. You are not alone, in the dark, without direction. There is no need to be afraid for “Thou art with me!”
C.God is ABLE to bring something out of nothing – God is Omnipotent
1. Affirmation
David sings about yet one more aspect of God’s character. It is one thing to be aware.
It is another to be available. We must also consider whether this aware and available God is able to do anything about what he sees. David contemplates the omnipotence of the God who created heaven and earth and him. As previously, David transports the truth of omnipotence down to the personal level. He contemplates God’s personal involvement in his own existence. Here, God is not just the God responsible for the creation of the vast universe but responsible for the details of MY very existence.
“For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb”. vs13
The Word translated “formed” can mean to possess, purchase or in several places to create.
David acknowledged that it was God who created his “kidneys” referring to the inner soul, his innermost self, his emotional capacity. God dictated coding that map out the growth and development of the body in the womb was God’s design. David continued his meditation on the wonder of God’s involvement in his own birth.
My frame was not hidden from You,
when I was made in secret, skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them. vs15-16
David acknowledges God’s painstaking involvement in every aspect of His life down to the determination of which genes would link up at conception. This is not just cradle to grave involvement this is womb to eternity involvement. If God took that much care in the womb don’t you think He still cares about what happens in the world? The human being is a most blatant example of genius and ability. There is nothing like it. There is much we don’t understand in this regard. Physically and mentally challenged babies. Devastating birth defects and deformities.
The Scripture clearly indicates a high degree of divine involvement that should not be ignored.
2. Response
David responded to the truth of God’s
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
The very soul that God created is attuned to the wonder of the works of the Creator. The same God who flung the immeasurable universe with all its innumerable stars, galaxies, and quasars…The same God who dictated the vast variety of animals from monstrous whales to miniscule worms…The same God who engineered the world’s ecosystem with its immense array of plants…made ME! He was personally involved in my birth. Such reflection demands response.
Thanksgiving for God’s marvelous creation.
Adoration for God’s wonderful works.
Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. vs14
David was moved by God’s thoughts of Him and felt drawn to express to God how much he valued the fact the God would even think of Him.
“How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!” vs 17
“How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You”. vs 18
I am enthralled by the wonder and magnitude of Your thoughts concerning me. I value the fact that You think of me. David told the Lord although he realized that God already knew his thoughts before he said them, the truth concerning His consideration of him moved him. The idea that God knew all about him was precious, prized, esteemed, valuable, costly, honored. God knows everything from beginning to end. He knows every little detail and minutiae. Nothing can change God’s care. Even when I’m asleep, God is still with me and I am with God. God still contemplates and knows all there is to know about ME!
II. David made three appeals to God
David’s contemplation of such an intimate relationship with the all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful God of the universe caused him to appeal to God for three things. His consideration of the God who was aware of every aspect of his life and protected him…
His meditation on the God who was continually available no matter what and offers continual guidance and comfort…
His affirmation of the God who powerfully brought him into existence…caused David to consider the evil around him and in him.
A. Remove the wicked around me
O that You would slay the wicked, O God; depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed.
For they speak against You wickedly, and Your enemies take Your name in vain.
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 the utmost hatred; they have become my enemies. vs19-22
B. Expose wickedness in me
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
David asked God to continue His intimate involvement. He was willing for God to uncover and reveal to him anything that might stand in the way or hinder their relationship.
David used the same word he used at the beginning. Basically he invites God to keep it up.
Check out the emotions of my heart.
Check out my anxious thinking
Check out my life for hurtful, sorrowful, laborious, painful habits
C. Lead me in your way
And lead me in the everlasting way. vs 23-24
Lead me in the everlasting way or the ancient way. This is a shepherding term meaning to “tenderly herd” to a predetermined destination.
Christ be beside me, Christ be before me, Christ be behind me, King of my heart.
Christ be within me, Christ be below me, Christ be above me, never to part.
Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand, Christ all around me, shield in the strife.
Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising, light of my heart.
Christ be in all hearts thinking about me, Christ be on all tongues telling of me.
Christ be the vision in eyes that see me, In ears that hear me Christ ever be.
Having contemplated God’s loving involvement are you will to invite deeper exposure of your soul? Only as we realize His tender love can we risk deeper exposure of the inner soul. Are you willing to deal with hurtful emotions?
Feelings toward others?
Feelings toward yourself?
Feelings toward God?
Are you willing to deal with damaging thoughts?
Unbelieving and anxious thoughts?
Lies of the enemy about life?
We serve a great God.
An all-knowing God who is aware of everything about us.
An all-present God who is everywhere and always abailable.
An all-powerful God who is able to bring about His purposes in my life.
Lord, remove the evil around me
Lord, cleanse the evil in me.
Lord, lead me in Your paths of righteousness for your name sake.
