Sermon Tone Analysis

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.