HE KNOWS ME

HE KNOWS ME Psalm 139-:1-12 August 22, 2010 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction Psalm 139 is perhaps one of the loftiest, most majestic pieces of literature in all the world, and is, as commentator Derek Kidner puts it, “the summit of Old Testament poetry.” As I have studied it in recent weeks and especially these past few days I have been captivated by it. It tells me in four balanced, poetic segments, how God knows me, how He surrounds me, how He made me and how He tests me. There are two things I could never do: 1) take on this whole psalm in a single message and do it justice, so I’m stopping at verse 12; and 2) ever hope to adequately handle its depth of meaning. This morning I will be satisfied to at least not get in the way of Psalm 139’s beautiful and powerful message. Let’s read verse 1-12 together. O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. 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 know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 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 the depths, 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 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. Would you pray right now, deep in your own heart and mind that God will reveal Himself more fully than He ever has through this Word? In an age where relational intimacy has fallen on hard times and loving things and using people has replaced loving people and using things, God is making it clear to His readers through the pen of David, how desperately He longs to be close to us—beyond worship and sacrifice. He declares He will not be satisfied with being the King Who is praised and the Creator Who is thanked; He desires our love. If you think that all God cares about in your life is getting you to finally straighten up and obey Him, David wants you to know you’re wrong. You missed something about God that is really big. Psalm 139 celebrates this unfathomable reality: that, though we have disobeyed and defied Him, rebelled and run away from Him, the God of the universe wants a personal relationship with us. He loves you and longs for you to return that love to Him. Omniscience and Omnipresence Made Personal There are two awesome concepts dealt with in this Psalm that have been stuffed into two theological terms. And they don’t fit very well. The concepts are much too large and wonderful to be contained by the words, even such concise and precise words as these. The words are omniscience (which means God knows everything) and omnipresence (God is always everywhere). David makes these dry, sterile concepts personal—first for himself in his own personal worship, and also for us. He shows us it isn’t just about God being really smart and really fast, intelligent and ubiquitous. It is this: He knows me, and He surrounds me. And this is where omniscience and omnipresence become real, up close and personal. Dr. Condolezza Rice: American slaves used to sing, "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen—Glory, Hallelujah!" I often wondered at the seeming contradiction contained in this line. But as I grew older, I came to learn that there is no contradiction at all. God knows and He is there. Omniscience: God Knows Me Personally, Fully I had a medical appointment this past Thursday. They called it a regular check up—meaning semi-annual—but there was nothing “regular” about it. I was thoroughly examined. For just a moment I thought maybe I had been apprehended by an alien ship and I was being probed for earthling data. By the time I left, I had the distinct impression that nurse practitioner knew the physical me, better than my wife or I either one did. I could have honestly recited verse one as I walked out of the clinic: You have searched me and you know me. But David says God knows not only his physical self—of course He does: later on in verses 14 and 15, he explains that God personally supervised his embryonic making and fetal development while he was in his mother’s womb! God sure did know him physically! But David says He also knows everything else about him. And David is amazed, dumbfounded and moved to worship at this revelation God gave him. The psalm pictures God so interested in us that He studies us, pursues us, in order to know us so well that He even predicts our very words before we speak them. You probably know someone like this, don’t you? Someone you are so familiar with as friend or lover that you know what they’re going to say before they say it? This isn’t just a commentary on God’s infinite knowledge. It is a delightful statement about God’s relationship with David. Unbelievable, he’s saying, the God of all glory is this interested in me! Please know this truth for yourself. He is not only Lord and Master over you, He is your Shepherd, your fawning caretaker, One who takes delight in you and is determined to know everything about you. Only He’s not investigating you, testing you or giving you a critique.   He’s not pictured here as looking for a reason to judge or punish you—NO! He’s drawing near like a loving parent who truly cares for you and wants nothing but your best. I watched them from the opposite corner of the ICU waiting room: a four or five year old boy and his mother. He was very tired and, given the circumstances, probably worried. He was crabby, even sassy, and just as his fussiness was ready to turn into a nasty fit, she took him by the hand and pulled him to her. It was time for some momma-love. One minute sooner and it wouldn’t have worked—he would have fought and freed himself. But the time was right and his loving mother seized the moment. She hugged him close, gently squeezing all the anxiety from his little soul. She began to sing to him—it was obviously an extemporaneous song written in that moment in her heart just for him. He melted into her. She sang to him in spite of her own worry for whoever was down the hall strapped to a gurney, punctured with needles and wires. All the pain and stress soon drained from her son she rocked him into a much-needed sleep. It was clear: she knew that boy thoroughly. Zephaniah 3:17 captures the idea: He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.   This Psalm celebrates the glorious truth that God Who created us also cherishes us; the God Who sees us seeks us; He Who died for us dotes over us; the One Who knows us loves us. That brings a whole new dimension to God’s omniscience, doesn’t it? The awesome ability of God to know all things is spent on us, His fussy, petulant children. His deepest desire is to care for us, draw us near and protect us. David can hardly believe it. We can hardly believe it. Verse 5: You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. So it is, the love and understanding God has for us is staggering. We are left with the words of Psalm 8 – Who am I that You are mindful of me?! The ineffable, almighty, holy and exalted deity bends low to serve us. It seems to me that the omniscience of God affects us in three progressive stages. When we first come to appreciate that God knows us so well, we get embarrassed. It’s not comfortable being naked before anyone, even if it is the God who made me! You’ve had dreams, haven’t you, where you are with other people, then suddenly notice you have no clothes on? Eeww! That’s how it hits us, this revelation that God is intimately familiar with us, including all we think and do.   At first it’s embarrassing. Then, as we call to mind that this is not just anyone who is reading our mail—this is the God over all, the judge of the earth, the sole occupant of heaven’s throne! And He’s seeing every thing about me?! That is a scary prospect. Phase two is frightening. The words of Isaiah are fitting: Woe is me! I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips—I am a sinner among sinners. And God is staring at me, face to face! I’m toast! Phase 2 is a very understandable frightening feeling when we understand God’s knowing us. But it is during phase 2 when we learn that the judge of all has made special provision for us to be forgiven of our damning sin. He Himself has paid our penalty for us. In humble admission of our need and in newfound faith, we surrender our naked, sinful lives to Him for redemption, and He saves us in His mercy & grace. It takes awhile usually, but we come to trust that He really does love and forgive us on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice, and we come to phase three, where we are actually comforted by the fact that He knows everything. We are thus continually reminded that hiding our failures is useless and repentance brings forgiveness, because His grace never runs out. When I was a very young boy I got into some trouble. The police were involved and for some time after that every time I saw a badge or a police car I felt shame. I was still not a perfect kid, and so my embarrassment and shame turned to fear. I hated even seeing a police officer and got the willies around them. As I matured I came to realize that authorities like police were actually serving me with protection. Law and order started looking really good to me. Today, I am no longer afraid of police officers or their cars. In fact, I rather like them being around. I am comforted by them. Let the omniscience of God comfort you. Grow past embarrassment by humbling yourself before Him; let Christ save you and deliver you from the threat of judgment; draw near to Him and learn to love the fact that He knows you inside and out. Praise the God who knows you. In 1997, a fast and hot fire destroyed the Philadelphia home of Luz Cuevas. It was concluded that, tragically, the fire had killed and completely consumed her 10-day old infant daughter, Delimar. Amid the charred rubble of the family home, the small body was never found. The family grieved and slowly moved on with life. Six years later, Luz Cuevas was invited to a child's birthday party. There, a small dimple on the face of a six-year-old girl triggered an overwhelming instinct in Luz. She quietly told her sister, "Look. She's my daughter." The sister thought Luz was losing her mind, but the mother could not be convinced she was mistaken. Telling the little girl she had gum in her hair, Luz managed to take a few strands of hair from the child in hopes a DNA test would prove her instincts right. The Philadelphia police confirmed that the child was Delimar, Luz's lost daughter. Delimar had been kidnapped and raised by Carolyn Correa, who started the fire to cover the crime. After six years of "death," she returned home to be with her real family, very much alive. Just as this mother knows her daughter, so God knows us to an infinite degree. He knows your every pain, need, and sin. And He is poised to respond with love and forgiveness, salvation and wholeness. Omnipresence: God Surrounds Me Personally, Completely The other thing David understands in this passage is God’s omni-presence. This God-is-everywhere-always idea is difficult to understand. In fact, if you don’t already believe God, it’s impossible to accept. We think we understand time and space and ubiquity doesn’t work! Even as believers we Christians have to admit the whole notion is pretty mysterious to us. We want so much to understand everything about God, but that isn’t going to happen. We can know what He reveals about Himself to us (namely, that He IS omnipresent—we pick that truth up in the Word of God), but to insist that we understand omnipresence before we believe Him, or demand that He let us in on it? That’s pure arrogance. Some things remain a mystery. That is part and parcel of biblical faith. Albert Einstein once said, The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. Without mystery, he insisted, one can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. If we lose mystery, we lose wonder; and, wonder-less, we will no longer worship. An atheist teacher wrote on the chalkboard, “GOD IS NOWHERE.” During a break in class, a Christian student picked up the eraser and chalk and rewrote those letters to say ‘GOD IS NOW HERE.” Being hemmed in by God did not make David feel trapped like a prisoner. Rather it made him feel free, secure, able to serve God in confidence. Another mystery is how God can be sovereign and yet allow sinful man free will. Don’t know, and it doesn’t matter that we don’t know. What we do know is that the two concepts co-exist, and God works it out. And that’s okay. It is actually reassuring to serve a God who knows a little more than we know! In reality He knows infinitely more than we know, and that glorious fact does not inhibit our worship of Him—it enhances it. So David declares, Such knowledge is wonderful to me! It’s almost comedic how David rehearses the hiding places of his world as if he were looking for places where he could get away from God. He asks, Can I get away from God by going to heaven? How about under the earth in a grave? Maybe I could get up a little earlier, before God? Or, I could travel to another continent west of the great sea! I know, I’ll wait until night and turn off all the lights and hide in a closet and then God won’t be able to find me. Oh, yeah, that’s right. He sees even in darkness! He concludes what God has taught him to conclude: that God is everywhere, always, and you can’t get away from Him. Adam and Eve tried it after they had sinned, but God found them. Conclusion 120 years ago, an English writer who was a mentor to J.R. Tolkein, named Francis Thompson wrote a 182-line poem entitled The Hound of Heaven that compared God’s loving pursuit of the poet to a bloodhound chasing a rabbit. In fear, Thompson wrote that he ran as fast and far as he could to get away from an ominous darkness that was chasing him. Finally he reached the end of land at the water’s edge of a bay. He turned in fear and gloom to see that the dark cloud was only the shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly. David is not really trying to get away from God. He’s not apprehensive; he is appreciative of God’s omnipresence. The point is that God is ubiquitously present, and that is to the faithful, an outrageous blessing. Because He is ubiquitous, God is big enough to rule His universe, but also small enough to live in your heart. The beauty of the message David received and forwarded to us today is this: God knows you – He has you thoroughly surrounded, hemmed in behind and before with his love, poised to hold you increasingly closer. God is not your enemy—voraciously getting the goods on you so He can prosecute you as soon as possible. He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. He wants you to understand that His knowledge of you is not to disquiet you, but to comfort you. He loves you. He wants you to understand that His desire is to extend the territory of His omnipresence all the way to your heart. If you will open your heart to Him He will come in, bringing forgiveness, love and hope. That is where He has drawn the line on His omnipotence: He will never force His way into your heart. You must open the door, as in the illustration in Revelation 3:20 – Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.     Back to Top]