Ps.139 - 13sermon
We are going to pick up, this evening, where we left off in Psalm 139. We are going to study verses 13-16. You may recall that the general theme of Psalm 139 is that David is revealing to us a “God Most Intimate.” David takes up this grandest of themes and in essence asks the question, “What is God's character as revealed in his interaction with me as an individual?” David's answer is that we do not have a God of the Deists, who kind of sits back and lets things run along while he does other things. We do not have a God who is interested only in important events and people. We have a God who is God to us as individuals, a God Most Intimate.
In the first six verses he is revealed as the God who know us. He knows us from top to bottom, he knows our ways, he knows what we are going to say before we even say it. We saw that this knowledge hems us in, so that nothing gets to us without God's knowledge and without God allowing it.
Then, last time we addressed the truth revealed in verse 7-12, that God is present wherever we are. We cannot get away from his presence, even if we try, that wherever we are, and however far we may be from God, he is not far from us. We saw how precious that truth was in that our God does not give up on us. He does not, as it were, let us go, even when that is what we want to do, but that he is always there standing by with grace upon grace. Incredible. Inconceivable.
David goes from God's presence to his power and specifically to his creative power. The greatest of power is creative power because it takes nothing and makes something from it, and David investigates that truth and how it relates to you and me in these four verses. The truth that David comes up with in Ps 139.13-16 is this: God's power is demonstrated in the wonder of his works, specifically in the wonder that is me. Let me say that again: God's power is demonstrated in the wonder of his works, specifically in the wonder that is me.
Read Psalm 139.13-16. (maybe all the way from 1).
I think we can organize the passage in this way. First, we will see that God's power is demonstrated in the identity of our creator. Second, God's power is demonstrated in the way he creates us. Third, I want to draw some implications from this passage because it is so foundational to some of our beliefs.
I. God's Power Demonstrated in the Identity of the Creator
I want you to see, first of all, that God's power is demonstrated in the identity of the creator. You may be thinking, “But isn't that a self-evident point?” We were created by God. Aren't you preaching to the choir here. This is something we already know and acknowledge. I want to dwell on this point for a minute, first, because David does, but also because there are some stunning truths contained in that statement, that God is our creator, that we may miss if we don't slow down and think about it.
David emphasizes God as creator here. In verse 13, For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. The “you” is emphasized in the Hebrew, as if to say, “You and no one else.” David does not say, “You and evolution created me,” or “you and natural selection created me, “ or even, “you and me created me, as if it was a joint project. It is you, that is God and God alone created me. Six times in these four verses David uses the pronoun “you” or “your” so that we do not miss this point. We are created by God.
Now you might be saying, It is all well and good to speak of creation, but we understand basic biology much better than David did. He was relatively ignorant in this area, and we now understand that the process of a baby being born can all be explained biologically. Is this not just the laws of science running along, without any specific direction? Are we not just the product of our genetic code?
That is a good and fair question. If we were nothing but biology, then it might be a difficult question to handle, however, we are more than just a bunch of genetic material come to fruition. We have a spirit. How did that get there? Solomon when pondering this question shows profound depth of insight into the human condition. He says, “As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb* of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.” (Ecclesiastes 11.5 ESV). Where did our spirit come from?
It was not until my third child, Matthew, was born that this fact struck me. When Cherie had our first child, Badger, I was basically in that sort of stunned, deer in the headlights mode, like “Dude, how did that all happen?” I was not there when Ben was born, thanks to the U. S. Marines. When Matthew was born, I was standing there beside Cherie and out he comes and they put him in my arms, and all of the sudden, there was this moment of, “how can you go from nothing to something in 9 months, and when was Matthew's spirit created. How did that happen? How does biology explain that? Well the answer is of course, that biology denies that. I will side with David here. I am created, you are created by God and by God alone. It is all his work. The biological processes, the “laws of nature” where did they come from? Obviously, they are all God's.
Think about that for a moment, because it is of such profound and deep importance. You were created by God. We will go into the language in a moment, but David's tone throughout these verses is not that you were thrown together by God, like you might throw together a meal, but that he labored over you, to get you just so, just the way that he wanted to get you. An infinite being made you! That is stunning. If God made you, then what sort of value does he put on you? Infinite value.
When you create something, especially when you labor at it and put time and effort into it, you value it, and you want it to be valued by others. Chuck Deshler, one of our men who attend here, makes handmade recurve bows. Each bow that he makes takes hours and hours of labor because he wants them just right. You could imagine what he would do if I came to him and said, “Chuck, I want to buy one of your bows.” Chuck might say, “well, you do not even bow hunt, why do you want to buy one of my bows.” What do you think if I answered, “well, I need some good kindling for a fire, and I was thinking that your bow would be just perfect for that.” Do you think he is going to sell that bow to me. Not unless he is in dire financial straits. He values that bow and he wants it to be used for the purpose for which it was created, not wasted.
God created us. He values us. Remember what Christ said, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
(Matthew 6.26 ESV). Never sell yourself short because you are created by God. He loves you. He values you. He cherishes you. He wants you to serve the purpose for which you were created. He wants you to be a worshipping being, living to give God glory in all that you say and do.
If it is true that God created us, than that has certain implications for us. Certainly one that comes to mind is that there is no room for racism in Christianity. God created each one of us. He created each nationality, each tribe and tongue and nation. If he values us, then we ought to value what God has made. Isn't that self-evident.? We do not judge people by the color of their skin, or by their culture, or by their language. We value what God values. God created me. God created you. I am constrained to value you, even when you hate me, even when you are my enemy. I must value what God values. I am called to love what God loves.
II. God's Power Demonstrated in the Beauty of David's Language.
Even in the English translation this passage sings. It is a tribute to the devotion and work of the translators that they can do so. David strains, it seems to me, to the edge of the language envelope to communicate the splendor of the truth and sheer wonder of God's creation of us.
“For you formed my inward parts,” David writes, literally, “you formed my kidneys,” because the kidneys were considered to be the seat of one's moral character, or of the inner most being, much as we refer to the same heart in the same way. The word “formed” is quite interesting because it means literally “to posess,” or “to buy something.” It is only used a few times to imply what it does here and that is “to create” or “to form.” The implication is that God formed us and that we are possessed by him. Because he formed us, we are his, we are owned by him.
“You knitted me together in my mother's womb.” I love the way that the ESV translated this passage. The word “knitted” literally means to cover over, So a literal translation would be, Thou dost cover me in my mother's belly. The picture is of God covering, or protecting, or joining together while I am in my mother's womb, while I am growing there. This is a picture of an active creator, not a passive one. It is a beautiful picture.
The Hebrew in verse 14 is very difficult, and again the ESV translates it beautifully, I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.*Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. The word “wonderful” is used in the Hebrew scriptures mainly to refer to acts of God, either cosmic acts, or acts in history on behalf of his people. “Wonderful” is a word describing acts that are “beyond human capabilities” (TWOT). They are acts which only God can do. He can do “wonderful” things. We cannot. This is the implication of the Hebrew word there.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth. The word that David uses which is translated “intricately woven” is a fascinating word. I looked it up in a Hebrew lexicon and every one translated it as “variegated.” I didn't know what that English word meant so I had to proceed to Webster's dictionary! Variegated means “to mark with different colors, to dapple; to streak.” It is such a beautiful picture. God is, as you are in the womb, acting like an artist would, taking a bit of color and dabbing it just so, and taking another color and feathering it on, and then another and another. It is a picture of careful, painstaking labor which is unique. I want you to see that. God did not take a cookie cutter and say, “make me 1000 women and 1000 men.” We are all unique, all variegated uniquely.
Illustration?
It is in the language of David that we again see value. What kind of creator would be interested in creating each human being so uniquely. My suggestion is that it could only be an amazingly powerful God who loves with amazing love and who exults in doing things which stagger our imagination.
You are valuable. The proof of that is not only that God created you, but that he created you uniquely. He created you individually. This is why with God there are no yard sales. He doesn't put a 90% off price tag on you and set you out in the yard to get rid of you. Not with his unique creation. The price tag on you says, “Infinitely precious!” “Infinitely valuable!” Not for sale at any price.
Implications
Now let me draw some implications from the truths contained in this passage. This passage is foundational to much of our understanding of issues regarding the sanctity of life. I will not go into them too deeply, we did that in our Sunday night forums last fall, but I do want to highlight that it is just this passage from which our view of life is drawn.
Abortion. Ps 139.13-16 is probably the key passage in the Scriptures upon which our view of the immorality of abortion rests. If God is knitting us when we are in our mother's wombs, than who are we to say that God has erred. Who are we to say, “This is not very convenient, this life growing within me, so I will end it.” This is nothing but arrogance and our own attempt to be God in the place of the God. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ and you think that abortion is a moral thing to do, with the exception of when one must choose between the life of the mother and the life of the child, I dare say you are forced to ignore this passage. Where God knits, we must honor his work, not destroy it.
Mother Teresa: It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.
Beginning of Life. When does life begin? The Scriptures do not come out and say, “Life begins at conception.” We infer from this passage that if God is knitting, there must be life. This is why we say as believers that life begins at conception. We are not interested in fighting against the prevailing culture just because we love a good fight. We are interested in honoring God. We lay down everything, including our good standing in the culture at the feet of God and say, “we give all of this up because our passion, our desire, our aim, or goal, or belief, is that the highest thing we can do is to honor you as God. We believe that where you are knitting, where you are forming, where you are variegating, in that place is life, and we want to protect that life and honor it, for in so doing we honor you.
Euthanasia and End of Life Issues. It is this passage that lays the foundation of our understanding, not only of when life begins, but when and how it ends. If God created human life, then we believe that it is God who decides when a human life should end. David says, “They were all written in thy book, the days ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.” Is there place in Christianity for euthanasia? By no means. We do not believe in it because we believe that this is God's responsibility.
I realize that this is a very difficult thing. I know that some of you have watched loved ones waste away in pain and suffering and I know that the thought has crossed your mind, “wouldn't it just be easier to end their pain? To end their suffering?”
I was on a trip over the New Years and got to go to church with my brother in Kalamazoo. After the service I was chatting with the pastor, and somehow the subject of death came up, and the pastor said, “I visit people every week that are in great suffering and pain and you wonder why God does not call them home. You see how easy it would be to just say, “lets end their suffering.” But of course in these cases we put our hands to our mouths and stand in silence, for we do not understand the ways of God. However, what we do not do is step in and take the place of God. That is profoundly dishonoring to God, and our desire is to honor God as God.
Let me close by saying this. You are very valuable, uniquely valuable to God for he has created you, he has knitted you, and he has knitted you uniquely with all of your gifts and talents. This truth is the foundation for our interaction with other people. If it is true that I am valuable before God, than it is true that you are valuable before God, and just as valuable as me. Therefore, I am compelled to treat you, and to honor you as valuable, whoever you are, because God made you in his image. This is the foundation for our love of others. You are valuable. Unborn babies are valuable. The elderly on their death bed are valuable.
I can honestly think of no better example of living out this principle than Mother Teresa and the sisters of Mercy, founded in Calcutta, India. She realized that the dying poor were being neglected, were being cast out onto the streets to die, because they could no longer be helped. So Mother Teresa said, “these people are valuable,” and she began to minister to them. “Each one of them is Jesus in disguise,” she said, and this truth allowed her to serve in a place of death and misery, in a way which demonstrated the value of the poorest of the poor, of the sick, of the outcast, of the dying.
"I once picked up a woman from a garbage dump and she was burning with fever; she was in her last days and her only lament was: 'My son did this to me.' I begged her: You must forgive your son. In a moment of madness, when he was not himself, he did a thing he regrets. Be a mother to him, forgive him. It took me a long time to make her say: 'I forgive my son.' Just before she died in my arms, she was able to say that with a real forgiveness. She was not concerned that she was dying. The breaking of the heart was that her son did not want her. This is something you and I can understand."
Outline
I. Introduction and Review
A. God Most Intimate
B. vv. 1-6 - God knows us
C. vv. 7-12 - God is present with us
D. Tonight - vv. 13-16 - God's Power
Theme: God's power is demonstrated in the wonder of his works, specifically in the wonder that is me.
Read Ps. 139.13-16
E. God's power demonstrated in 1. Identity of Creator; 2. Way in which we are created; 3. Implications
II. Identity of the Creator
A. Preaching to the Choir?
B. “You” emphasized (vs. 13)
1. Not - You and evolution; You and natural selection; you and me
2. You repeated 6 times in 4 verses so we don't miss the point
Objection: We understand biology much better than David. Is this not a natural process?
1. We are more than just biology, more than just natural. Our spirit?
“As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb* of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.” (Ecclesiastes 11.5
Illus: Matthew being born. - I will side with David. It is all of God.
C. Application - Think about it
1. Infinite Creator/ Infinite Value
Illus: Chuck D and his bows
2. Do not sell yourself short - “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6.26 ESV)
3. No place for racism! I value what God values and God values you.
III. How you are created.
A. Even in English this passage sings! It is a picture of a master craftsman crafting masterfully.
B. For you formed my inward parts. “My kidneys” to us “my heart.” Formed - to possess or to buy. Implication - God formed us and we are his. The one who formed us, also owns us.
C. “You knitted me together in my mother's womb.” - Literal. You covered me. The picture is of an active creator! Not passive!! No place for deism here.
D. , I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.*Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. “Wonderful” - word describing acts of God in the cosmos or in creation. Acts beyond human capability. Acts which only God can do. He can act “wonderfully” we cannot.
E. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
1. “Intricately woven” - English - “variegated.” To weave in many colors or dapple or to streak with color.
2. God did not use a cookie cutter on us. We are all unique!
Illus: Gutenberg Bible - A story was told of a man who loved old books. He met an acquaintance who had just thrown away a Bible that had been stored in the attic of his ancestral home for generations. “I couldn't read it,” the friend explained. “Somebody named Guten-something had printed it.” “Not Gutenberg!” the book lover exclaimed in horror. “That Bible was one of the first books ever printed. Why, a copy just sold for over two million dollars!” His friend was unimpressed. “Mine wouldn't have brought a dollar. Some fellow named Martin Luther had scribbled all over it in German.” Ouch! Value because it was unique.
3. You have value. You are precious. No yard sales with God. No for sale at any price!
III. Implications
A. Abortion - No place in Christianity. Mother Teresa: It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.
B. When does life begin?
C. Euthanasia and End of Life.
D. You are Valuable - All others are valuable
1. Mother Teresa and sisters of Mercy - Each one of them is Jesus in disguise.
"I once picked up a woman from a garbage dump and she was burning with fever; she was in her last days and her only lament was: 'My son did this to me.' I begged her: You must forgive your son. In a moment of madness, when he was not himself, he did a thing he regrets. Be a mother to him, forgive him. It took me a long time to make her say: 'I forgive my son.' Just before she died in my arms, she was able to say that with a real forgiveness. She was not concerned that she was dying. The breaking of the heart was that her son did not want her. This is something you and I can understand."
*What we need most of all is to be valued. What we find here in this beautiful Psalm is that we are valued with infinite value!
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