You First

Sometimes kids argue about who gets to go first. If it is time to open presents at Christmas and parents want everyone to take turns one at a time, all the kids want to be first. It’s fun for young kids to be line leader at school because they get to go first. When fresh baked cookies came out of the oven, I wanted to be first to taste one. There are also times when being first means being the best. Last year in the church gold league my team came in first—which I assure you had much more to do with my team partner than it did with me—but still, it was first. Some school sports teams are still playing here into June because they want to keep winning in order to be first.

Then perhaps there are other times when you want someone else to be first. Once when I was younger and hiking through the woods with my friends we came to a place where a fallen tree was the only way to get over a creek. The tree did not look all that sturdy. I said to my friend, “you first.” Or maybe there was that time around Halloween when I went with some friends to one of those haunted houses filled with things meant to scare you; and I said, “you go first.” There were times when my kids would be arguing and I would come in and ask what’s going on and they would point fingers and say, “she started it;” “no he started it.” “I wasn’t the first one, you were!”

Psalm 139 is written by David. Yes, the same David who defeated the giant Goliath and became king over all of Israel. If anyone in Israel has the right to claim being first, it would be David. But in this Psalm David does some soul-searching about whom it really is that goes first. In fact, I think this entire poem written by David is his way of saying to God, “you first.” See if you can pick that up in these words.

Psalm 139:1–24 (NIV)

Psalm 139:1–24 NIV

1 You have searched me, Lord, 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, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay 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. 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. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, 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, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, 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.

vs 1-6 — the God who is all-knowing

All throughout this Psalm David is declaring, “God, you first.” God has always been the first one to move and act in every conceivable situation David can imagine. It breaks into categories which we can see with the paragraph sections in the chapter. There are four sections, each containing six verses. We see in the first stanza of verses 1-6 that David appeals to God’s all-knowing nature. God knows David even better than David knows himself. Do you know what it is like to have such a good friend or a spouse who you have known for so long that they can finish your sentences for you? Or maybe you know them well enough that you can finish their sentences for them? That takes a close, intimate knowledge of another person to know somebody else that well. God’s knowledge of you goes deep enough that he knows the thoughts in your head before you do.

to be loved by God means being known and accepted by God

This is not trivial knowledge; it is more than just facts about things. This is personal knowledge; it is about understanding who you are. One of the most basic of all human desires is the desire to be loved. And the most basic of all requirements in order to be loved is to be known—I mean really known, as in, to be understood. The past few years there has been a mainstream media campaign seeking to communicate the way that Jesus loves people by appealing to the way Jesus knows us and understands us. Maybe you’ve seen these commercials on television. It summarizes this message about Jesus with the tagline: he gets us. To be loved is to be known in a way that is understood. David is saying that God has known and loved him like that before David himself was ever able to know or love God.

vs 7-12 — the God who is everywhere-present

The second stanza of verses 7-12 speak about the way in which God is present everywhere all at once. There is no place David can ever go to escape the attentive presence of God with him. Kids like to play hide & seek. That’s a game you can never win against God. There is no place you can hide away from God. Just ask Jonah; he tried. In the Old Testament story of Jonah, the prophet Jonah tries to get away from God by running away to the farthest end of the earth that was known at that time. Not only was God fully aware of where Jonah was at and where Jonah was going, God was also right there present with Jonah even to the very depths of the sea.

God’s continual presence means God can be trusted

When my kids were first learning how to swim, I would stand in the pool, and they would jump in and have me catch them. There was a reason that they could trust me to catch them; they knew I was right there. David points to the everywhere present God like that. It is God’s ever-present hand upon David which enables David to trust in God.

vs 13-18 — the God who is eternally-everlasting

The third stanza of verses 13-18 speak about the way in which God is eternal. God has always existed throughout all time and always will exist into all time. It would be more precise to say that God exists outside of time—beyond time. The way in which God holds both the past and the future in his hand is because God is above time itself. I know that kind of bends our brains in a direction we cannot comprehend or understand. But it does give some understanding to the ways in which David describes God’s eternity.

God holds the past and the future in full awareness

David points to his own past to a time even before David was born, back before his body was even formed in his mother’s womb. Yet, it is not as though God must somehow dig through memory into a distant past and try to recall all this intimate detail from a time gone by. God’s eternity is held in such a way that even a distant long-forgotten past memory for us is held as a moment which is still right there in front of God’s full and complete awareness. And the unknown days of a future yet to come are held in God’s eternity in such a way that God is already there. Not only God does know what your future holds in days yet to come, God is already there.

vs 19-24 — the God who is dependably-faithful

The fourth stanza of verses 19-24 is a bit puzzling. Many biblical commentators note the way in which Psalm 139 seems to take a pretty dark turn at verse 19 as though David—for whatever reason—seems like he maybe just needs to vent some bitterness or frustration. It seems odd to go from verses that speak about a God whose love is trustworthy and intimate straight into “and I hate the people who hate you.” It doesn’t make much sense. But I think there is a way to understand this in the wider context of the entire poem.

God remains faithful even in times of distress or trouble

This is more likely David’s way of pointing towards an assurance that this God who is all-knowing, everywhere-present, and eternally-everlasting continues and remains as such even in times of distress or trouble. The times in life, people in life, or situations in life that cause David some stress or anxiety do not negate or cancel out all of the above statements in this psalm about God’s amazing love and presence in David’s life.

God is always the one who moves first, acts first, loves first, promises first

It is worth noting in this psalm all the ways in which God is first. David says God knew him before he ever knew God. God was present with David before David was ever aware of it. God has always been and always will be in David’s life in ways that go back further than David himself, and stretch forward into the future beyond David himself. In every situation David is declaring, “God, you first.” God is always the one who moves first, acts first, loves first, promises first. God is first.

baptism is about God’s promises to us

That brings us to this day when we place some water upon a small baby in this tradition that we call baptism. Emery has no idea at this moment who God is. Emery has not yet made any decisions of faith. But here’s the thing, Emery’s baptism is not really centered on her. It’s not about the parents either. Even though it is the parents who stand here and make the promises to dedicate themselves to raising this child in the most faithful manner that they can, baptism is not about their promises. All of that would fail to acknowledge what David is telling us in Psalm 139.

Jesus gave himself on the cross to wash away the guilt of our sin before any of us were even aware that we were sinners in need of a savior

God goes first. Baptism is about the promise that God makes to us even before we even know or understand who God is. Baptism is the reminder that Jesus gave himself on the cross to wash away the guilt of our sin before any of us were even aware that we were sinners in need of a savior. When we come into church on a day like this and baptize an infant child, we are declaring along with David in Psalm 139, “God, you first.” God, you go first; God, you act first; God you love first; God you promise first. Baptism reminds us that God always goes first. And that’s a good thing. In fact, it is the best thing.