Unfiltered - Psalms 139

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I am going to start today by asking you a simple question, this is not one where you need to raise your hand, im all about crowd participation, but i'm not sure youd want to participate openly with this question.…Have you ever hidden information about yourself from others.” (Pause) Or maybe a different question I can ask is, What information about yourself are you currently hiding from others? We all have this in common, of course we have hidden or are hiding something from other people mostly due in part that we don’t know what someone else will do, say or think about you if the truth were to come out. The hookups in college, the drugs in high school, the cheating, lying, or under the table deals, the, alcohol, or porn problem or addiction. It's the secret late nights, or maybe its a first marriage you don’t talk about at all…a prodigal son or daughter, financial troubles,  I mean you know what it is, big and small. So instead of it coming to the light we try to keep it in the dark or at least hidden away for no one to see it. We may even pretend to ourselves like it doesn't exist. In short We keep our life filtered.

I know there are parts of me that I don't want everyone to know or see. Because I know the real me, you know the stage me, or the church me, I know the me, me and you know the you you, and me knowing the me me there are parts of me that I don't want you to know and there are parts of you that you don't want me to know…make sense? Alright well I wrote it down so you can understand it better…I know the me, me and you know the you you, and me knowing the me me there are parts of me that I don't want you to know and there are parts of you that you don't want me to know.  Thats true for all of us and we don't just do this with ourselves, and we don't just hide it from others but this type of thinking carries over to our relationship with God.

In the book of Psalms we see real and raw emotions from the authors, and we get a peak behind the curtain of their lives. And let me tell you they didn't hold anything back, their anger, their questions, their frustrations, their hurting, their praise, and their pain, all spilled out to God. Too often though for most of us when we have conversation through prayer with God we pray as if HR is reading our emails…”per my last prayer request…Should you need further clarification, please don’t hesitate to contact me….Not sure if you got my prayer as I haven’t heard back….Just following up on my prayer below. Let me know if I should be talking to someone else about this? Thanks!” So we don't actually pray honestly to God or even acknowledge that he is the all knowing, all present God of the universe. We try to hide ourselves, filter ourselves before God, i’m going to keep information from God because if he really knew me, and what i’ve done, what i’ve been around, what i’m currently doing he will be up in heaven saying, “OH MY SELF…I NEVER KNEW THAT ABOUT CAM.”

This is why I love Psalm 139. It throws away all these notions that God isn't aware of us, and it places the focus on the all present, all knowing, and all sovereign God who knows you personally and fully. Listen this is one of the main points I want you to walk away with, if you're a christian or not a christian yet this is true for every single person even if you don't believe it. “God doesn't just know about you, he knows everything about you.” God doesn't just know about you, he knows everything about you. He knows you as the unfiltered version of yourself. So over the next 20 minutes or so we are going to walk through this Psalm that King David wrote and see how it continually applies to you and to me and our current day and age.

Verse one David says this, “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.” During this time in history Israel was set apart from the rest of the world when it comes to the God in which they worshiped. There were other false gods the pagans worshiped and made human sacrifices to like Baal, Moleich, Murdock, El. There was a common belief that these Gods were hostile and indifferent toward its worshippers. But David says God of the Bible, Yahweh, isn't hostile, he isn't indifferent to anyone. That's a common view of God today that if God exists then he doesn’t care, he doesn’t intervene, he doesn’t know you. Yet David makes it very clear that God cares for you enough, he cares for me enough that has searched and he knows every single man, woman and child that has ever existed. God knows your inner heart, he knows your inner thoughts and he knows the inner you. The unfiltered you.

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely..It is not just that God is everywhere he is everywhere with you, it's not just God created everything he created you personally. Oftentimes in our relationship with God we try to leave him at the door to the experiences that we don’t want him to be a part of. We don’t think that God is with us in the moments of our sin, he is always present, he knows the worst thing you have ever done up to date and he knows the worst thing you will do in the future and everything else in between. We don’t think that God loves the unfiltered version of us, but even in that thought God is there. Friends, I don't want you to miss this. There isn't a single moment in your life that God isn't present, both good and bad, wise and unwise, proud and shameful. That should make us aware of this question, Where I go, God goes, so where should I go? GWhat I do God sees, so what should I do? Before I speak God knows what I should say or what I should hold back. The fact that God knows every move you make should affect what you do, the fact that God knows every word that should affect the way you speak.

There isn't a single place that you can hide from God, he is with you in the mundane, sitting at your cubicle at work, and on your travels during vacation. He is with you on your date nights, and your alone nights, there is not one single second God has missed, not a moment he misplaced you or couldn’t find you. There is no running from it, there is only embracing it and living in it. That time you used your words to burn down he knew what you'd say, and the times you used your words to declare your vows he was there also. He knows you personally and intimately for Jesus said he knows every single hair on your head.

He goes on, You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. There is a hedge of protection that david speaks about that puts into place the idea that nothing could come to you unless it first passed through God’s permission. Like Job as the enemy asked to hinder him, God allowed it to strengthen him and his faith. Romans 8 tells us that all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. We may ask why God do I have this cancer, why am i sick, why have I fallen on hard times, why are my kids prodigal, why, why, why. But listen friends nothing has slipped by him, and sometimes the only answer is to say exactly what David said, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. So I am going to let God control the events, I am going to control the reaction, I’m going to remain steadfast. I will be faithful in times of uncertainty, Why…because David says this,

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in hell, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light will become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. I’ve said it before and I will say it again, there is no where you can hide that God isn’t around. In heaven you get the full presence of the Living God, and if you make you bed in hell. Meaning in hell you’ll understand God’s Justice and Righteousness and never experience his love and forgiveness. The wings of the morning refers to the rise of the sun, meaning light does not shine where God does not place it. Every sunrise you've experienced in AZ, God created it. And even in times of darkness, hardships, fear, anxiety, embracing that God is always with you illuminates the darkness so much that it is like walking in the light. It gives imagery of when the Israelites were walking in the wilderness God led them with a pillar of smoke by day, and a pillar of fire by night. He leads in the light and leads out in the dark.

This next part is one that you may know, if you grew up in church, you have heard it over and over again. There are questions as to the validity and sanctity of life before you are born and yet God makes it clear in multiple places throughout the Bible but none so much here. Culture would like you to think a child in the womb is a clump of cells, these next verses would argue otherwise. Culture would tell you a fetus isn't deserving of life, God would say otherwise. If you’ve ever thought if you were a mistake let me tell you were not, if ever thought God didn't shape you, he did, if you ever think life only begins after birth I want to remind you of the words of God we see in these next few verses. The intimacy and love and care God had for you in the womb and before you traveled through the birth canal. It is as if you and I had a 1:1 with God as he knit us together. David says this,

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 I know that full well. 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. The moment of conception God formed your DNA which is in every cell of your body, 46 DNA molecules having to have 3 billion strands perfectly sequenced and connected together to make up what is called the nucleotides forming the hydrogen bonds which creates and catapultes your DNA. Then the process of cell multiplication and human formation follows. If that is confusing to you, go back and look at verse 6 again. God knew exactly what you would look like, act like, speak like, eye color, height all of it. He knew it in the hidden or secret place that is the womb. You might ask yourself how is that hidden? Well up until the late 1970’s it was not common practice for pregnancies to have ultrasounds. Which means some of you here in our church were never seen in the womb. Which means God sees life beginning at conception not first breath. If the scripture didn’t give you enough evidence this next part will.

Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Before you were born God ordained your days, before you were born God appointed your steps, before you were born the life you live is already written before you. Yesterday wasn’t a surprise to God, today isn't and tomorrow won't be. So how do we respond to this? Buy worshiping the sovereignty, holiness and awe-ness of God. See how david writes,

How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you. Knowing how much God cares for us, not just the filtered us, but the unfiltered, not just the good parts, but he wants to make you new, knowing that God sees all about us and everything we have done should bring us closer and more awestruck that God would be mindful of us. That God would be mindful of me, who am I that God thinks about me. That should bring you and me comfort that God is close and ever present.

Then David takes sharp left turn that seems to come out of nowhere. When he says, If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. David's adoration and praise for God quickly turns into zeal against those who are against God. I wish I had time to unpack all of this but this is one section that we will have to move quickly through. But in the Old Testament there was a fine line in the sand between God’s chosen Israelites and God’s enemies, everyone else. With the New Testament or new covenant we see no Jew or gentile for we are all one in Christ Jesus.To david his enemy was other people who opposed God and Israel, to us in the new covenant under Christ, our enemy is the devil and his demonic forces, our enemy isn’t people it is sin. So I would say we should hate sin with every fiber in our being because it drove Jesus to the cross, and love people with every fiber in our being because Jesus died for all people. Our love for God means we will have hatred towards an enemy that leads people to hell.

These days are evil, and people who God loves and formed do not love God nor his ways. And as Jesus followers we should not lay down our biblical values and morals and call it love or tolerance. We shouldn’t not go arm and arm with sin, or keep it as a pet either. Pastor Bob Russell says this,

It concerns me that some who claim to be Christians imagine themselves as being tolerant when they openly endorse false beliefs and evil behaviors. In a culture where flaunting sin is common and opposing sin is seen as hate, many believers yield to peer pressure and cheer depravity, call good what God calls evil, and undermine the Biblical plea for repentance. It is one thing to be kind and respectful. It is another thing to approve and enable.

We do not love God by embracing culture, we love God by loving Jesus and loving others the way Jesus would love them. That type of love will be seen as hate in may regards, but in 1 Corinthians it says, Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

So why do I bring this up as we close, why do I bring this up as we are talking about a Psalm that shows us that God is ever present, ever knowing, and all loving for you. He formed you, shaped you, knows where you will lay your head and when you go to work. The list goes on. I hope this point is clear. God knows you more than you know yourself. Which means this, you are not your own king, you are not your own queen, rather we submit to God and ask him exactly what David does as he ends this Psalm when he echos the first verse and he says,

Search me, God, and know my heart; Why would he ask God to search him if he already stated before that God has searched him. It is for David’s sake that he is asking God to search him, for David knows there are things in him that he isn't aware of that God can make clear. Actions to change, thoughts submit, to God what says, and what God knows about you.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Ask God in what ways am I anxious, in what ways, am I worried. God has already said that before you were born your days were written in the book, so why worry, why be anxious. Ask God to reveal what you are most anxious, you have to start release the anxiety and trusting in God and his plan for your life.

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. We do not ask what in me does culture find offensive, rather God, you know the real me, the unfiltered me. So what do you God find offensive in me. In what areas do I side with the enemy, in what areas do I side with culture, in what areas in my life go counter to the kingdom. And as God does all of this he will lead you in his way to everlasting.

It’s is time for you, me us, to be unfiltered before God. So here is my take away, pray this every day.

Search Me.

Test Me.

Lead me.