Search Me -- Psalm 139 Part Three

Sermon part three

September 7, 2025

Search Me

 

https://inhimonly.blogspot.com/2025/09/search-me-psalm-139-part-three.html

 

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it. 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. For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And 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.

Which brings us now to today’s text. David has just exalted God for His loving omniscience and omnipresence. He knows God knows his thoughts, his words – even before he thinks them or speaks them. David knows his loving Father knows where he lives and walks and sleeps and sits at every moment of every hour of every day. Indeed, David understands – long before anyone would understand about fetal development – David knew that it was his tender, loving Father-God Himself who formed him in his mother’s womb – bone to bone, flesh to flesh, blood vessel to blood vessel.

 

Is it any wonder David then continued: “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.”

 

Certainly, this is hyperbole, but hyperbole to make a point – a point which ought to make every Christian ponder more often than most of us do. As James tells us: “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” (James 1:17)

 

What kind of thoughts did he have that were more in number than the sands of the seas? Well, while we cannot know for certain, we can speculate. We can speculate because who God was to David, God is to us.

 

How often in my 52 years of walking with the Savior have I thanked Him, as David must have thanked Him, for His moment-by-moment protection and presence? How often? Not as often as I should have. And how often have YOU thanked Him? If you’re like me, not as often as you should have. Why? Because it’s human nature to take things for granted – until we lose them.

 

What things? Gifts from God of safety, health, food, clothing, family . . . and it should not surprise us if his list extended beyond those general categories to specifics, such as being able to see, to hear, to walk, to speak, to even get out of bed in the morning. And of food – we shouldn’t be surprised if he thanked God specifically for things like cheese and bread and milk and so forth.

 

When was the last time we thanked God for hot and cold running water? Think for a moment how many hundreds of millions – maybe billions – of people on this planet do not have that luxury. And what about air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter? What about indoor toilets? And electricity to run our refrigerators and lights? Why do so many of us wait until we lose those comforts because of a storm or flood – why do so many of us wait until we LOSE things before we realize we should have been thanking Him all along?

 

And may God help us to NEVER overlook or take for granted our salvation. How often do we thank Him for Jesus, for opening our eyes and our hearts to his call? Remember, Jesus said to His disciples: “For the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes . . . . But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” (Matthew 13:15-17)

Are you DAILY thankful to God that He opened your eyes, that He opened your ears and your heart to Him? How many people do you know – even here at Ashwood – who want nothing to do with Jesus? It astonishes me that they have one foot in the proverbial grave and the other on the banana peel – and yet they are so nonchalant about their impending eternal destiny.

Have you ever asked the Lord, “Why me? What have I ever done to deserve even one of the blessings that I’ve known?”

We could thank God every day all day that he saved us. Every time we listen to the news or watch it on television – when we see the evil, the destruction, the sadness, the grief – O, how we should thank God every time we see it because He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son, and whom we have redemption the forgiveness of our sins. (See Colossians 1:13-14)

Every good thing we have – everything is a GIFT from our merciful and compassionate God and Father. No wonder Paul wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica: (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) “Rejoice always; Pray without ceasing; In everything give thanks; For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

 

There surely was good reason the song writer wrote: “Count your blessing, name them one by one; Count your blessings, see what God has done.”

 

Now, back to the psalm. After reveling in God’s profound love for him, David makes what seems to be a startling turn: “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.

 

But really, it is not a turn. These words follow quite logically the theme of the entire psalm.

 

David loved God, He loved Him – as some people today say to one another – David loved Him ‘to the moon and back.’  No wonder he took great offense when wickedness pranced about unhindered, corrupting and destroying the good that God had done and was doing.

 

But think for a moment: Doesn’t it ANGER you when you hear of children – CHILDREN – being trafficked into sexual slavery? Doesn’t it make your blood boil when murderers and rapists do what they do – even repeatedly – and the justice system turns a blind eye and sends them back into their neighborhoods? Doesn’t it grieve you to know some 2,000 babies are slaughtered each day in American abortion clinics? Two thousand each day.

 

David knew of such wickedness. The nations surrounding Israel practiced hideous sins of child sacrifice, sexual immorality and perversion, murder, rape – just as is practiced today. A cursory reading of the books of Judges and Kings will demonstrate that truth.

 

And so, of course, such evil incensed him. Just as it ought also to incense the Christian – you and me. Listen to the Scriptures: (Psalm 97:10a) “Hate evil, you who love the Lord.” (Romans 12:9b) “Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Psalm 119:158) “I behold the treacherous and loathe them, because they do not keep Your word. (Ephesians 5:11) “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them.”

 

Abhorring evil, hating evil, exposing evil also includes what we do in the ballot box at every election. Be wise in how you vote, and remember: (Psalm 111:10) “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A good understanding have all those who keep His commandments.”

 

Let’s now move to the final verses of this psalm, and I want to draw attention to something I’d never noticed until I was preparing this message.

David turns from his imprecation, from his condemnation of the godless wicked, and says this of himself: 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 and lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139:17-24)

 

We don’t know if David wrote this psalm before or after the Bathsheba and Uriah debacle, but I think his appeal to God in these last verses indicate that David knew all too well his own sin nature, his susceptibility to

temptation and sin. I also think David knew that ‘but for the grace of God,’ he could become like those whom he cursed.

And don’t think for a moment that there’s not a potential Judas in all of us. We can curse the darkness all day – but we should each fear, lest we become the darkness we curse. As Scripture warns, (1 Corinthians 10:12) “Let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”

That’s why the wise man and woman humbly approaches God and asks “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, and lead me in the everlasting way.”

Why did David ask the Lord to search him? I can’t be dogmatic about the reason, but I will tell you what I strongly suspect. It was because he trusted God to be merciful to the penitent sinner. He trusted God to forgive the penitent sinner. David knew God is compassionate and abounding in love for the penitent sinner.

 

David concludes his psalm with an appeal to God to search Him, to examine him, to PROBE him. And THAT, my brothers and sisters is integrity at work. David wanted to know the truth about himself. He wanted to know God’s view of His heart. It seems David knew something about himself that the prophet Jeremiah would express several hundred years later:

 

“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it? “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds.” Jeremiah 17:9-10) And every honest Christian knows all too well how easily we can hide from ourselves the depths and the length and the breadth and height of our sins.

 

Do you want God to search your heart and reveal to you your sins? One of the surest ways God speaks to us about our hearts is through His word. Here is what the writer to the Hebrew says: “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart. And no creature is hidden from God, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.   (Hebrews 4:12, NET)

 

But – and this is important – God not only KNOWS the depths of our sins, but He LOVES us despite those sins. And He really, really does want to cleanse every one of those sins, cleanse them under the blood of His Son, Jesus – whose sacrificial death alone wipes from the book of our lives every stain of every sin of every penitent sinner who comes to Christ for cleansing and forgiveness.

 

Do you know God in that way? Merciful? Compassionate? Loving? Oh, I so much hope you do, because if you do you will not shrink from asking the Lord, “Show me my worst, Lord. Show me my worst that I may repent and receive your incomprehensible forgiveness.”

 

I can't tell you how many Christians I have spoken with who carry a heavy and unnecessary burden on their shoulders, thinking God would never really forgive them of their sins without first getting from them His pound of flesh either in this life or in some fictitious place called Purgatory – a place invented by people who clearly did not believe or trust the fullness, the richness of God’s immeasurable mercy.

 

Why the bloody death of His Son does not convince them of the Father’s willingness to completely erase their sins – I do not understand. I am reminded of what CS Lewis said to this issue of God’s forgiveness: “If God forgives us, we must forgive ourselves. Otherwise, it is almost like setting up ourselves as a higher tribunal than Him.”

 

And so, we truly ought to feel comfortable to pray with the psalmist: “Search me, O God.” David then concludes his prayer this way: “See if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.” (verse 24)

 

Many people, even Christians, don’t realize, we hurt God’s feelings when we sin. And yes, God – who created us in His image – God has emotions.

Listen to what He says to His beloved nation Israel through the prophet Ezekiel, “Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols.” (Ezekiel 6:9a)

 

Listen now to Paul’s words to the Christians at Ephesus: “Do not grieve (Greek – sadden, make sorrowful) the Holy Spirit of God. (Ephesians 4:30a) 

 

And can you not sense the pathos in the Lord’s voice when He says of His beloved people, (Deuteronomy 5:29)  “Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me and keep all My commandments always . . .”

Or in Psalm 81:13 “Oh that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!”

 

And so we should not be surprised that the Father weeps – that He weeps, as Jesus wept over Jerusalem – the Father weeps over our sins, our destructive and our self-destructive acts and attitudes. He weeps when we hurt others. He weeps when we walk away from Him, when we ignore Him.

 

The true Christian wants to avoid hurting God’s feelings just as much as David wanted to avoid it. We don’t want to grieve the Holy Spirit any more than St. Paul wanted to grieve Him. That is why this simple prayer of David can bring us so much spiritual healing: Lord, see if there be any hurtful way in me. And lead me in the everlasting way.

 

Listen! I will risk being redundant, but it is so important that I be so: God loves you. Deeply, intimately, passionately. He wants to forgive you, and hold you close to Himself. He only waits for you to come to Him in humility.

 

Will you come to Him? Will you come often?

 

Let us pray: Search us, O God. Reveal to us our sins, our waywardness, how we offend you, how often we hurt your feelings by our unrepentant acts, words and thoughts. And, for Jesus’ sake, for His honor an His glory – lead us in the everlasting way. Amen.

Where Can I Go? - Psalm 139 Part 2

 

As we continue this series from the 139^th Psalm, please follow along in your Bibles as I read the entire psalm for context: (Psalm 139) “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

 

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.

 

For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and 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, as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they when would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.

 

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. 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, and lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139:1-24)

 

Last week, we saw that God not only searches and probes us, but that He also searches FOR us. So, while some ask themselves, “Who am I?” and, “Do I matter?” the Christian – the one who seeks Christ in ongoing confession and repentance – the Christian is confident that he or she is beloved by God, and that he or she MATTERS to God.

 

Although we also looked at these verses last time: “[Lord]You have enclosed me behind and before and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it” I want to take a few minutes to revisit them because of their significance.

 

It is the Almighty God who encloses us. He encircles us. He presses Himself around us on every side. Listen to His promise to you and to me as He spoke through Isaiah (Isaiah 54:17) “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; And every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.”

 

No wonder David couldn’t fathom the ever-present PRESENCE of the Lord. Who is able to fathom it? To comprehend it? And when we take the time to HUMBLY consider that this Almighty God who – by merely speaking it – brought the universe into existence from nothing, when we consider this ineffable Being, His passion and compassion and mercy and grace toward you and me, we who deserve nothing else but His wrath – who can understand a God like that?

 

Let me repeat that for emphasis: When we ponder the inexpressible wonder of this ineffable Being, His passion, compassion, mercy, patience and grace toward you and me – we who deserve nothing else but His wrath – who can understand a God like that?

 

One of Job’s so-called ‘friends’ got it right when he said: (Job 11:7-9) “Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.”

 

Listen now to His words through Isaiah: (Isaiah 55:8-9) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

 

In the 5^th century, St Patrick wrote a poem that captures the essence of this text in Psalm 139. Part of the poem reads this way: Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise.”

 

As the psalmist tells us: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them (Psalm 34:7).

 

It isn’t possible to overemphasize this point about our God, whom Christians – and only Christians – have the right to call God our beloved Father (see John 1:11-13); It isn’t possible to overstate the point.

 

You might remember the story of Elisha and his servant when they were in Dothan. The Syrian king was at war with Israel, and Elisha – the disciple of Elijah – was at the top of his list of enemies. When the king learned Elisha was staying in Dothan, he sent his army to surround the city. We pick up the story in 2 Kings 6:15 --

 

“Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

 

God’s mighty and holy angels surround you and me. Right now, as you sit in your pews. They surround you as you walk through your day. As you sleep through the night. God’s supernatural angels never leave your side, their swords unsheathed, their eyes watchful, their ears attentive, each sent by our Father and Creator of all things visible and invisible, sent to protect us.

 

Now, let’s return to our psalm as David continues: 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)

 

David asked a rhetorical question: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?” In other words, where can anyone hide from – or flee from – God’s presence?

 

David knew the answer even as he asked the question. There is no place on earth, under the earth, or, for that matter, anywhere in the universe where we can hide from or flee from God. He is omnipresent, meaning He is everywhere at the same time.

 

But though he knew the answer to the question he’d just asked, there have always been, and will continue to be, many who try to hide from or run from God. I know people like that. And you probably do too. But why would anyone try to hide from, or run, from God?

 

I can think of at least two reasons. First: Many people think God is 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’s not so far-fetched as some might think. I’ve hears many people joke about Baptist guilt, or Jewish guilt, or Catholic guilt – or whatever is your preferred label. But joking aside, as fourteenth century poet and writer, Gregory Chaucer noted: “Many a truth is said in jest.”

 

And while it is true that in most God-honoring, Bible-believing churches today, God is correctly described for us as a loving, merciful, patient, and compassionate God and Father. But such preaching has not always been the case. In earlier centuries, God was viewed as an unmerciful, angry, and wrathful Being. Ignored were the multiple assurances throughout Scripture of the Father’s love; John 3:16 comes immediately to mind. And what more evidence of God’s love, mercy, and grace can there be beyond Calavry’s cross?

 

So, certainly one reason some people try to hide from God is because they incorrectly 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 try to hide from or flee from God, and that has to do with their own sin. They think if they can hide from God they won’t have to adjust their lifestyles. So they hide behind such things as ‘intellectualism’ trying to ‘reason’ themselves into agnosticism, or atheism. And they flock to provably false ideas of evolution, or new-age psychological babble. Some even behind religious rituals, thinking if they cover themselves with such things then they won’t have to live according to God’s commandments.  

Let me make this clear before I move to the next point in my message – God is love. He is merciful. He is a compassionate Father. He gave His Son to bear the full weight of His wrath against OUR sins.

 

But make no mistake. God commands us to be clothed by faith in the righteousness of Jesus Christ and to live holy lives. And we should all pay heed to what St Paul wrote to those in Rome: (Romans 2:4) “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?”

 

Now, look with me again to what the psalmist wrote: “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.”

 

Let me pause a moment and talk about darkness – not a literal darkness as when the sun goes down, but an emotional darkness, when life has taken a tragic turn and we feel as if we should clothe ourselves in sackcloth and sit on a pile of ashes.

 

But Jesus gave us an immutable promise to never leave us. Indeed, Scripture tells us He embraces us in our darkness. He hugs us close to His chest – so to speak – even when the overwhelming darkness in our soul makes us insensitive to His touch and we’re too tired to even think about God’s matchless love for us.

 

Yes, such knowledge might be too high for our finite minds to comprehend such love – but we ought not walk by sight or by feelings. We ought to walk by faith.

 

Well, let’s continue with this psalm at 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 lesson in embryology that illustrates my point about God’s intimate love and the SPECIFIC attention He gives to 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 each one of the countless biological processes in our bodies that were determined – at conception – what will be our gender, our general physical characteristics, our natural intelligence and talents, our health, our abilities and 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. God’s hand was purposely and deliberately at work in your creation and formation in your mother’s womb. Does that truth help us understand what a grievous affront it is to our Creator when we willfully destroy that life through elective abortion?

 

Oh, God help us. God forgive us. God change us.

 

Our God surrounds us, encompasses us, holds us to Himself. There is no place on earth, under the earth, or in the universe itself where anyone can hide from Him or run from Him. And it is THIS omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent eternal Being who loves you . . . loves you like the Rock of Ages. He loves you so much – even though we cannot ever hope to fathom His love – He loves you so much that He gave His only Son to be your sacrificial atonement to wash away completely even the shadowing stains of your sins and mine.

 

I’ll then leave us all with this question which we must answer: How then ought we to live, knowing even as much as we know about such love?

 

Next week we’ll move further into this precious Psalm.

 

 

Search and Rescue - Psalm 139, Part One

Search and Rescue

 

My message today, and for the next few weeks, revolves around the 139^th Psalm. We now read the portion specific for to today’s message:

 

(Psalm 139) “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.” (Psalm 139:1-6)

 

According to the latest United Nations estimates, there are some 8.2 BILLION people on planet earth. And while it’s difficult to wrap our minds around that number – 8.2 billion – if we think too long about it, we might ask ourselves two sobering questions. First, “Who am I among so many?” And second, “Do I matter among so many?”

 

And let me quickly say this: Without a good understanding of the Scriptures, without a correct understanding of God’s word, we can never truly know the definitive answer to those questions – “Who am I?” and “Do I matter?”

 

 “O Lord, You have searched me and known me . . . and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.” (verses 1-6)

 

So, you might ask, “Who are you?”  The answer is easy: WHOEVER you are, You are beloved by the One who spoke the entire universe into existence. You are beloved by the One who created and who personally and intimately knows each one of the 8.2 billion people on this planet. And yes, He knows YOU.

 

THAT’s why He searches you. He examines you. That’s why He is intimately acquainted with you. That’s why He surrounds you, encloses you in His arms. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or how often you’ve done it. He cares about YOU. He loves YOU.

 

The Holy Spirit tells us that in so many ways throughout the Scriptures. For example, here is Romans 5:8 “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

And to the second and very related question, “Do we matter?” Listen: If we did not matter to God, if we were not foremost in His heart, if He could have for even a moment held you and me at arm’s length – if we did not matter to God, then the brutalized and bloody sacrificial death of His Son on Calvary’s cross would never have occurred. It never would have occurred.

 

At the outset of this series on the 139^th psalm, I want to make this important point. If you take nothing else away from what I say over the next few weeks, I hope you will hear and receive this: You are not alone. Never alone. God is with you at this very moment, at every moment. Wherever you are – at home, or away from home. Sick in bed or up and around and healthy; When you struggle after losing someone you deeply loved or are comforted in their arms at night. He is with you.

 

I recognize that for some of us that phrase is so familiar, we’ve heard it so many times, it has for us become almost trite. Like a throw-away phrase people say when they don’t know what else to say.

 

But this is not a trite throw-away phrase. Almighty God Himself says it to you through His holy and inerrant and infallible Scriptures.

 

When the psalmist writes: O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up – he wrote it because the Holy Spirit moved him to make that promise to you and to me. He promised to make it to the one in the mirror -- YOUR mirror. Not only does he have a precise, moment by moment count of the hairs on our head, but He knows everything we think, everything we do, and every motive behind it all. If He did not, if He were not infallibly omniscient, then He would not be God.

 

So, you must not doubt this. He is here with you. At this moment. Embracing you. Even if you cannot see Him, feel Him, touch Him. Remember, we walk by faith and not by sight – or by feeling.

 

“Lord, You have searched me and known me.”

 

Think for a moment how absolutely naked your soul is as it always stands before your Creator. And then think further of this incredible truth: Despite who you are in the depths of your heart, despite what you have done and continue to do, and despite what you haven’t done – God LOVES you. You must believe that if you can ever hope to know the peace of God in your life.

 

As I quoted a few minutes ago from Romans 5: “God demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

And as I also said as I began this message, if God didn’t love you, He wouldn’t have sent His beloved Son to die in your stead, to take the punishment your sins and my sins so justly deserve from a Holy, Holy God.

 

God gave Jesus up to the Cross to be our substitutionary sacrifice. Why? So that you and I – and everyone else who wants His forgiveness – so we can have eternal communion with Almighty God. Think of it! Sinners such as you and I can live in eternal communion with our Holy God. That’s why, in a sense, Jesus still hangs on that cross – affectionately gazing at us, waiting for us to repent of our sins and fall in obedience at His feet.

 

When David realized the Lord knew him inside and out, even to the sickness of his soul, it is no wonder he wrote: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.”  After all, how can the finite hope to grasp the infinite? Could an amoeba fathom the mind of Albert Einstein? And so, because of the utter impossibility for us to understand God and His love, His mercy, grace, judgment, and His justice, we’re faced with only two real choices:

 

We can either accept without reservation as entirely true what He says about Himself and about us; Or we can bring God down to our level and recreate Him in our own concept of what we want God to be like. That, of course, would be an eternally deadly decision.

 

You are beloved by the Almighty God. And among the 8 billion souls on planet earth, do you matter? Yes, you DO matter to Him. But there is more.

Although the psalmist doesn’t say it here specifically, we know from the length and breadth of the entire Bible taken in context, God not only searches us, but He also actively searches FOR us.  

 

Listen so verse six of the 23^rd Psalm: “Surel goodness and merc shall follow me all the days of my life . . . .”  The Hebrew word David used here mores lightyears more that simple follow me. It means God’s goodness and mercy will ardently PURDUE you all the days of your life.

 

Ardently pursue.

 

Why? At the risk of being redundant to a fault, Because we matter to Him. He searches for us because He knows we’re lost – lost in our sins. And because sin is so much a part of the warp and woof of our nature, most of us don’t even know we’re lost. That’s why He searches for us – to rescue us from ourselves and, ultimately, from eternally palpable darkness which is the destiny of all who fail ask Christ for forgiveness and eternal life.

 

Listen to God say it through the apostle Paul: (Colossians 1:13-14) “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

 

And in this text in Galatians 1:4-5 “[Jesus] gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.”

 

I remember years ago when I took our daughter shopping at the supermarket. She couldn’t have been more than three or four at the time. I told her not to wander off, but as most children often do, she wandered when my attention was momentarily diverted. I watched her as she ambled down the aisle and turned the corner into the next one – oblivious that I wasn’t with her.

 

I put the bread back on the shelf and followed several yards behind. It didn’t take more than another minute before she stopped in the middle of the food aisle, looked around for me, suddenly realized she was lost – and screamed, “Daddy!” “Daddy!”

 

There is hardly a parent who doesn’t have a similar story to tell about his or her young child. And those real-life experiences make Scripture’s point about our drifting from God – and for some – suddenly realizing they’re lost and very far from their heavenly Father.

 

You may remember the parables in Luke 15 of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. One sheep out of his flock of one hundred sheep wandered from the fold. It was lost. Probably frightened and confused. If you know the story, you know what happened. The shepherd left the 99 in the corral and went in search of the one lost lamb.

 

Of the lost coin, of course, the coin didn’t know it was lost, but the woman who lost it was frantic to find it. She turned her house upside down and swept it from front to back until she recovered it. And the application of that parable is, I hope, clear: Even for those who don’t know they’re lost, God searches for them. He is today, now, still searching for your children, for your grandchildren, for your siblings, for all you know and for those you love.

 

Finally, the Great Shepherd told the story of a young man who got tired of living down on the farm. I imagine he was frustrated with his father’s seemingly endless rules and chores. I imagine he was angry that he was unable to come and go as he pleased. So, at the end of his patience, he asked his father for his share of his inheritance and took off on his own. The lure of city lights, and the proverbial wine, women, and song enticed him. And for a time, he drifted from one wave of excitement to another.

 

Then disaster struck. A famine. Economic collapse. With his money gone, he was suddenly homeless and hungry. That might be like the story some of you can tell of yourselves. But the story of the lost son continues: “When the young man came to his senses” he decided to return to his father.

 

What was the father doing at the time? Here is how the Lord tells it in verses 20-24 of Luke 15: “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.”

Let me say it again for emphasis: Not only does God search us, but God also searches for us. And it is the Great Shepherd’s JOY to search for and to find His lost sheep. And as the Lord ever wants to remind us: “The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

Some people – I suspect MANY people – might be tempted to think the Good Shepherd is no longer interested in searching for them. They might think their sins are so grievous and they have lived so long in their sin that He has given them up for lost.

 

But that would be demonstrably untrue. Please, we should not believe everything we think! Instead, we ought to simply choose to believe what GOD says about us – that He loves us so much, and that we matter to Him so much, that He left the 99 who were already in His fold to search for the one and carry it on His shoulders safely back home.

 

Hear it again: God so loved YOU that He gave His only begotten Son – so that whoever believes in Him —in Jesus – will not perish but have everlasting life. (See John 3:16)

Whoever you are, whatever you’ve done, and no matter how often you’ve done it – the Good Shepherd is STILL searching for you. And if you’ve been paying attention this far, it’s because something inside of you is stirring you to believe that. The stirring you feel is the Holy Spirit’s gentle voice. And you can believe Him when He says to you: “I’ve found you. Let’s go home.”

Who am I? Who are you?  We are God’s beloved. And yes, we DO matter to Him very, very much.

 

“O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.”

 

We’ll continue this series next week.