One in 100,000,000 (Psalm 139 Part Two)

 I pre-recorded this message for Sunday, May 3. I thought it a good idea to post it a little early. You can find the video at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX6RSVxDg-A

Psalm 139 part two - YouTube Where can we flee from God? WHY would we flee from God? You are one out of 100 million possibilities, and God selected YOU to be you. www.youtube.com

   or you can read the edited message below. Feel free to share it with others if you wish:

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Psalm 139, part two of three

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, 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. (Psalm 139:7-12)

At verse seven in the 139th psalm, David asked a rhetorical question: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?”

David, of course, already knew the answer. There is no place on earth, under the earth, or anywhere in the universe where we can flee from God.

But though he knows the answer to what he just asked, it does raise a question we can ask of ourselves, because many of us know people who seem to be trying to flee from God’s presence.  But, why would anyone do that? Why would anyone run from God?

I can think of two reasons. First: People are afraid of God because they think of Him as a cruel taskmaster, always standing at the edge of His throne just waiting for us to mess up so He can throw down a lightning bolt and teach us a lesson. That is not so far-fetched a reason as some might think. Many people joke about Baptist guilt, or Jewish guilt, or Catholic guilt – or whatever is your preferred label. I am told it was Geoffrey Chaucer in the late 14th century who wisely observed: Many a truth is said in jest.”

In most churches today – most, but certainly not all – God is pictured for us as a loving, merciful, and compassionate God and Father. But that has not always been true. In earlier centuries, the Father – as well as the Lord Jesus – were viewed through the lens of terrible – I would call is demonic--driven – theology. Ignored were the many, many assurances of the Father’s love – John 3:16 comes immediately to mind. And what more evidence of God’s love – and Christ’s love for us – than Calvary’s cross?

So, certainly one reason some people flee from God is because they believe Him to be arrogantly cruel and uncaring – not too unlike some of the mythological gods of the Amorites, the Canaanites, or the Greek and Roman gods.

But there is another reason some people flee from God. And that has to do with their own sin. I’ve told many of you the story of my own confrontation with God’s voice when I was 18 or 19 years old. Pardon my redundancy in retelling it, but some of you have not heard my story and my story makes my point about why many people try to flee from God.

While stopped at a traffic light the thought suddenly dropped into my mind: What is there is a God?  To that point I’d been a proud agnostic. But the question suddenly intrigued me, so I followed it to its logical conclusion – that being, if God existed, I needed to stop living my life my way, doing drugs, and living a debauched lifestyle. If God existed, I was in trouble.  But I LIKED living my lifestyle. And so, as the light turned green, I cast the thought out of my head and decided God does not exist.

There is not a person listening to me who doesn’t understand the bent we all have to do things ‘My Way.”  That’s one reason, I am sure, Frank Sinatra’s signature song was and remains so popular. But listen to the lyrics:

“And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain. My friend, I'll say it clear, I'll state my case, of which I'm certain. I've lived a life that's full. I traveled each and every highway. And more, much more than this, I did it my way.

“Regrets, I've had a few, but then again, too few to mention. I did what I had to do, and saw it through without exception. I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway, and more, much more than this:
I did it my way

“Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew, when I bit off more than I could chew, but through it all, when there was doubt, I ate it up and spit it out. I faced it all and I stood tall and did it my way.

“I've loved, I've laughed and cried, I've had my fill, my share of losing. and now, as tears subside, I find it all so amusing to think I did all that, and may I say, not in a shy way, oh, no, oh, no, not me. I did it my way

“For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has not. To say the things he truly feels, and not the words of one who kneels. The record shows I took the blows and did it my way.

If you have been paying attention to our culture for the last 50 years – you know the sentiment of that song is become the signature song of our culture in 2020.

At the memorial service for Sen. John McCain in August of 2018, Sinatra's "My Way" played as the casket was carried out of North Phoenix Baptist Church. 

And according to a report in the online publication, Daily Mail, Frank Sinatra’s song is now among the favored songs played at funerals. Did you get that? The favored song at funerals is not a Christian hymn that speaks of the love and mercy and the promises of God for eternal life. No, instead it’s the spit-in-God’s face song that has its roots in the fall of humanity in the Garden of Eden.

And we wonder why so many people try to flee from God? Either they think He is chasing them with a whip, or they think Him so insignificant that they can live life “their way” without worry of judgment.

Let me make this clear before I move to the next point in my message – God is love. God is merciful. God is a compassionate Father.  But make no mistake. As St Paul wrote to those in Rome: (2:4) “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

Next, David writes: “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.

I addressed this text a few days ago in my YouTube message to nurses and healthcare workers, especially those at risk for suicide because of the stress they are under while working on the frontlines of this COVID crisis. So, I will not repeat myself in this message, except to say this about emotional and spiritual darkness.

Jesus promised to never leave you. It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not. His promise remains true. Think of it this way: If Jesus does turn His back on any of those who seek Him, then He way lying when He said He’d never leave us.

He is most clear about this. He embraces us in our darkness. He hugs us close to His chest in our darkness – ESPECIALLY so when the overwhelming darkness of our soul makes us insensitive to His touch and we are too tired to even think about God’s matchless love toward us.

So, let’s continue with this psalm, beginning now with verse 13. I like the way the New Living Translation renders the text:

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.” (verses 13-16)

Oh, I hope you heard that with your heart as well as with your ears. Our loving God knit us together in our mother’s womb. And God knew every moment of our life even before we were conceived.

Speaking of conceived, let me give you a quick embryology lesson that illustrates my point about God’s intimate love and care and concern for each of us.

Depending on the research article you read, did you know that when your father had intercourse with your mother, he ejaculated between 100 million and 500 million sperm? But for the sake of easy numbers, let’s go with the lower amount – 100 million sperm in each ejaculate. And each one has its own unique DNA structure. Your mother, on the other hand, ovulated each month usually only one ova. Each ova had its own unique DNA structure.

DNA is responsible for every one of the countless biological processes in our bodies that determine – at conception – what will be our general physical characteristics, our natural intelligence and talents, our health, our abilities and our disabilities. All of it was determined at our conception.

We also know from the science of embryology, all 100 million of your father’s sperm were trying to fertilize your mother’s ova, but only ONE of them was successful. Let me repeat that: Only one sperm – with its individualized and unique DNA structure, different from every other one of the 100 million sperm – only one got there – the one sperm, joined to your mother’s unique ova – they together became YOU.

Have you heard the expression, “You’re one in a million”? Well, let me tell you what the science says: You are really one in one hundred million – that is, you are one in a hundred million possibilities. 

And God was not only there when it all happened, the psalmist – who knew even less than nothing about the science of embryology – the psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit tells us God DIRECTED it all as it happened. God chose the one sperm and the one ova to join together to become YOU.

And remember: God never makes mistakes. And God never makes junk. That means YOU are not a mistake. You are not junk.

Next week we will conclude our examination of this wonderful psalm. But for now, to recap: There is no place we can run or hide from God’s presence, but we know why some people run from Him, nonetheless. We also know God is with us, even in our dark, mournful and despondent places. He has never left us, and He WILL NEVER leave us. And when He formed you in your mother’s womb, He created you special. You are one in one hundred million possibilities of what you could have been.