Overwhelming
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Have you ever been overwhelmed?
I’m not talking about being out numbered, I’m talking about being face to face with something that takes your breath away, that leaves you without words, that for even a moment causes you to stop in your tracks as you do your best to try to comprehend what it is.
It could be anything from a stunning vista with a view so magnificent that to try and describe it with words would somehow taint it’s splendor. Or, it could be something as gut wrenching as the news of the death of a family member. It can leave you as elated as the birth of your child or as crushed as the most abysmal of failures.
Psalm 139 for me is that kind of a text. It is overwhelming, when I consider the depth of the author’s intimacy with God.
Intimacy with God is something for which we were designed and for which, at our core, we still crave.
Mission Woods Church is a growing place… so our motto goes.
Mission Woods Church
~ A Growing Place ~
growing closer to God
to one another
and to our community.
This morning, I want to focus on the idea of growing closer to God. We’re going to be reading through Psalm 139, let’s read… no, this is a Psalm, let’s pray it together first. Please join me in this prayer:
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
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 complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
Amen!
In the time we have here this morning I want to break this Psalm into sections and we’ll study it together.
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
We gain a tremendous amount of wisdom from simply paying attention to things like simple grammar.
Let’s look at words, “searched, known” what tense are these in?
PAST tense - this is referring to the past.
Look at vs. 2, “Know, sit, rise,” - what tense are these in?
PRESENT tense - so we have God in the past, and the present.
vs. 4 - Even before a word is on my tongue - What time period is this looking at?
FUTURE - God knows our future, even before a word is on our lips, God knows it altogether. For some of us that is a very comforting thought, and for some of us when we consider our language that may not be quite as comforting.
Let’s look at the next couple of verses:
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
“You hem me in, behind and before” - my past and my future
You lay your hand upon me - present
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me! It is high; I cannot attain it! - It’s overwhelming! God your presence is here.
Why? I’m not worthy?
Where? I go to some pretty dark places in my life - are you really there too?
Let’s keep reading.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
There is no place, no place that we can go where God is not. You can’t hide. And this is so key - those things that you don’t let anyone know about - those accomplishments or failures that you don’t want anyone to know about - those sins that you’re not sharing with anyone else because they’d be far too embarrassing - it’s all known by God. And where is God? Right there.
God literally knows you from the inside out:
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
I’ve always had a fascination with the health sciences. Think about this, the largest cell in the human body, and the smallest cell in the human body come together to form another human body. That’s the overwhelming miracle of childbirth.
Every day of our life was written in the book of life even before we were here.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
In these verses the psalmist is declaring how beautiful God’s thoughts are, as the author discovers more and more of who God is it is overwhelming!
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
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 complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Solomon wrote to his son in Proverbs, “When you walk with the wise you will become wise.” (Proverbs 13:20) The company we keep definitely impacts the type of relationships we have not only with our fellow sojourners in this world, but with our God. The Psalmist here is uniting with God in the direction of God.
Finally in closing the psalmist writes:
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
Hear the echo of the opening verse:
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
Past tense.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
Future tense
Behind and before and present
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
Present Tense.
You want to be growing in your walk with God, you’ve got to be spending time with the Lord. Recognizing that God is with you wherever you are. Recognize God’s blessings past, and present, and trust God for the future.
This is the God we worship, this is the God with whom we have communion. This is the God that loved us so much that he sent his only son to save us. Thanks be to God!