Untitled Sermon

The Omniscience of God

V. 2a—You know when I sit and when I rise

V. 2b—Perceiv[ing] of thoughts from afar

V. 3a—Discern[ing] one’s going out (to work) and lying down (to rest)

V. 3b—Familiar with all one’s ways (habits of life)

V. 4—God is able to read the thoughts of an individual before those thoughts can be expressed by the individual

V. 5a—One cannot escape the omniscience of God

V. 5b—For the psalmist, God is not an enemy

V. 6—One is completely overwhelmed by the omniscience of God and the limits of one’s own understanding

The Presence of God

The highest place to flee is the heavens; the lowest place, the depths (Sheol--”wasteland, void, underworld, place of the dead”)

The most easterly place to flee is the dawn; the most westerly place, the far side of the sea

There is no place, either vertically or horizontally, the psalmist may flee to escape the presence of God

Neither is it possible to “hide” from the sight of God

To God, the darkness is not dark; the night is as day

The Omnipotence of God and Me

V. 13—God’s power is presented in terms of his creative ability

The creation of a human being is one of the most amazing divine acts in the universe

In the dark place of a mother’s womb, God “knits” a person (every facet: physical, spiritual, emotional, mental, social, etc.) together

V. 14—God’s works are declared “fearful” and “wonderful” for his amazing power

Poor translation

There is no Hebrew word for “made” in the text

LXX—“I will acknowledge you because I am amazed [by your] awesomeness”

Better translation—“I praise you because [you, i.e., God] are awesome and wonderful [or you are awesomely wonderful].”

The psalmist knows fully the awesomely wonderful works of God

V. 15—Refers to the formation of the embryo in the womb

The mystery of man’s being

The Truth of the Psalmist’s Assertion

“I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

True regarding the body

Our physical, material, bodily structure is wonderful as a whole or as separate parts

Humans are the only beings which cannot breath and swallow simultaneously

Humans are the only beings which produce emotional tears

The human body gives off enough heat in a half hour to boil a half gallon of water

The human body produces enough electricity while awake to light a lightbulb

Human bone is about five times stronger than concrete

The brain has enough knowledge capacity to store the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica five times

A person’s feet can produce as much as a pint of sweat each day

In camera terms, the human eye has a resolution of about 576MP, 11.5x better than the highest resolution cameras, 50MP

There is also a fearfulness to our bodies as well

There is a mystery about it

The human body is subject to pain and disease

From the moment of birth, the human body hastens deathward

The human body is more often a stumbling block and a hindrance for righteousness

True regarding the spirit

Our spirit is wonderful as a whole or as separate parts

How wonderful is our intellect, imagination, affections, judgment, conscience, or will

Our spirit if fearful too

We have a tendency towards evil

We are often in continual danger from sin

We are often enslaved by sin

The Spirit In Which We Are to Regard This Truth

“I praise you”

Many wonder how he or anyone could possibly do this

The ground of the psalmist’s praise

We come to know the fearfulness of the body and the spirit so that we may come to know evil and hate it

We come to know evil and hate it so that we may come to know God in Christ, and to love him as we never else should have loved him

The angels in heaven have only not fallen

We, who are knitted together in our mother’s womb by a fearful and wonderful creator, have:

Being created innocent, fallen to guilt

Having come to know the ultimate good, we returned to a seat of innocence in Christ

Now we hunger for and rejoice in holiness, purity, and truth as else we could not have done

We have been redeemed

The Lesson of the Truth

God turns the greatest ills into good

—And we know that for those who love God all thing work together for goo, for those who are called according to his purpose.

God turns the lesser ills into good

It is only by the knowledge of God evils are transformed