Assurance in the Dark
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
Transition: Any small thoughts that we may have of God are magnificently transcended by this psalm; yet for all its height and depth it remains intensely personal from first to last.
God sees it all Vs. 1-6
God sees it all Vs. 1-6
He see it all. He see all of you. Like a giant search light, nothing has escaped his eyes. This is all about the omniscience of our God.
Vs. 1 King David, who wrote this psalm, praising God be proclaiming an attribute of who he is. Our God is all-knowing.
If we are going to praise our God properly, we need to draw our worship from Him. That’s what David does. As he reflects on who he is, he praising God for who he is.
This is more than just talking about a teaching, but it’s adore this amazing character of God. Think about this: his all seeing is more than just not missing nothing and capture everything. It’s personal and active.
Did you see the end. David does say, “O God, you know all things.” David says, “You know ME!”
Like think about this. God. Creator. All Knowing. All Seeing. and poor you. How can we not sit in wonder of what our God has done for us.
Vs. 2 You discern my thoughts from afar God is watching you from the quiet times and when you are your most active. The most meaningless acts to the most important. He is watching.
Vs. 3 You search out [Lit. WINNOWING] my paths…You
...acquainted with all my ways
God knows your daily movements
Vs. 4 you know it [my thoughts] altogether. His knowledge of you is so perfect that he knows even the thoughts you are going to think. Not just the ones that already came, but already came.
God knows our thoughts before we think them our words before we speak them
He knows us totally.
Vs. 5 You hem me in
Our God is intimately acquainted with who we are. Our Nature. Our Character.
How good is it for us to know the God who knows us!
He knows us as if he had examined every part of us with a magnifying glass.
He is surrounding you. God has set us where we are and placed us where we should be. So either there is a God who is recording our sins, or in grace, blotting out the memory. In front of us there is a God who knows all of our actions and providing for all our needs. We can’t run from him. He is Behind and in front. He has hemmed us in like an army encircling a city.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
He surrounds us and touches us with love, as a parent touches a beloved son or daughter. He has a personal and active knowledge of his people. And that knowledge should overwhelm his people with wonder.
Which leads him to this statement in verse 6:
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Too wonderful for me: Can I even comprehend the power, wisdom, and holiness of God?
David’s worship of God is not based on how he feels, but is grounded in the very attributes of God. It flows out of his reflection of who he is. We worship in Spirit and Truth. Both our Minds and our hearts. If you want to deepen your awe of him, become more aware of him. Grow in the grace and knowledge of who he is, how he has specifically revealed himself in his word.
For God’s people, we welcome this scrutiny and should be eager to confess our sins, knowing that he loves us. It’s this that we just stand amazed.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
Application: If God is all knowing, there is nothing too hard for him, and it’s because of the faith we have in such a God that we can rest secure in Him, knowing that He promises never to fail us as long as we continue in Him. He has known us from eternity, even before creation. God knew you and me, where we would appear in the course of time, and whom we would interact with. He even foresaw our sin in all its ugliness and depravity, yet, in love, He set his seal upon us and drew us to that love in Jesus Christ
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
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.
Here’s the thing: There’s an amazing truth here, that God knows his people intimately. He is present and active. You aren’t a number, but a person that he created. Yet the flip side, is that he “knows” you. Every thing. There is nothing that is outside of his all-seeing eyes. That sin you think is so deep that you even forget about it or try to: he knows. He knows and sees and saw it before you even did or thought it.
YET,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
I am completely amazed by the overwhelming, never-ending, sovereign love of God. Who God’s sovereign love chases me down, how he knows exactly who I am. I couldn’t earn his love, he knows all the dirt of my life. I don’t deserve his love, yet in Christ, he loves me. Yet Christ still came and ransomed me. He has been so good to his people.
For those who repent and believe the gospel, that Christ has died for your sins and rose again, can know the sovereign love of God who knows you.
If you are in Christ, you will see Him face to face, but our knowledge of Him will never be complete. Our wonder, love and praise of Him shall go on for all millennia as we bask in the rays of His heavenly love, learning and appreciating more and more of our omniscient, all-knowing, God.
As unworthy as I am, the worthy one died for me. Be amazed by God’s sovereign love for the reckless ones. It’s because God perfectly sees all of you that he can perfectly save you.
Transition: God knows everything and is everywhere, which fortifies believers. Although he knows all about us, he loves us in Christ and will not condemn us (Rom. 8:1). No place we go will take us away from our Lord, Redeemer, and Friend. In our worst problems he is there with us, his right hand holding us in a loving embrace. He sees everything which means he has to be everywhere and because he is everywhere he will hold you fast.
God is all-present Vs. 7-12
God is all-present Vs. 7-12
It is because God is everywhere that he sees everything. David is full of wonder of God’s omnipresence.
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!
Vs. 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? David moves to answer that very question. Where can I run from the all-seeing God. Simply, the answer is no where.
VS. 8-9 Two polar opposities and everything in the middle.
Application: There is no way for anyone to escape the view of God. There’s this truth about God’s omnipresence: There is no-where in the universe that God will not be present to lead and hold the person who is in Christ. There is nowhere too dark for God to see those who are his. God will lead his people and hold them. There is no place where you are beyond God’s care.
Transition: God is everywhere and this is why he see all thinkings in all places. We can’t hide from the all-seeing eye of the Lord. God’s authority goes from the heavens…the
God is all-creative Vs. 13-18
God is all-creative Vs. 13-18
Even in the darkness of his mothers womb, God was caring for David. God was active as the unformed substance grew and developed; not only that, it was God who formed my inward parts and knitted me together. God saw him, and even had written in his book, everyone of…the days that were formed for me.
vs. 13. you formed my inward parts. God’s knowledge of David goes back to before his birth, to his conception,
Vs. 14. he praises to God come out of his reflection on how God has created him.
Vs. 17-18 The right response to the vast extent of God’s thoughts. How hopeless is it to try and count the number of God’s thoughts. Yet look at verse 18, even so, God will not abandon his faithful.
God is holy Vs. 19-24
God is holy Vs. 19-24
How could such a great and glorious God care so deeply, so intimately, for little creatures such as we are? This is exactly what astonishes David. God is so great, and yet he shows extraordinary care for his own. The greatness of God, then, is the backdrop for understanding verses 19–22. Given how glorious God is, and how good he is to his undeserving children, who have been adopted as his own through the work of Christ, how deeply wrong it is for others to mock and belittle them.
Gospel Move: Just like in verse 1, God knows you perfectly. If God did not know you perfectly, how could he have prepared a perfect salvation for you? Through Jesus Christ, who paid the price for you sins, who died for your sins and rose again, he has perfectly saved all those who are in him. For any who have repented of their sin and believe in the gospel, are perfectly saved. He has saved you knowing the darkest corners of your life, he has perfectly and completely saved you. How else can you be in the presence of an all seeing, all present, all creative holy God if he did not perfectly save you?
As David thinks and dwells on who God is, he rightly longs for God’s name to be exalted. Thats why David says that those who mock God’s name will themselves be put to shame. There’s another side to this longing too: Those who love God and his glory will actually hate all that stands against God and his ways (vv. 21–22). To love God and to hate evil are two sides of the same coin. David knows this, and prays in the end for God to search his heart—to see if both his “love” and his “hatred” is as it ought to be. Only then can he have assurance that he is walking in the way everlasting—a principle that also applies to us and calls upon us to test our hearts, to see whether their loves and hates reflect Christ in us.
As you bask in the wonder of who God is, what is your response to those who mock him?
So What
So What
BI: We praise God who perfectly knowing you is able to perfectly save you.
God knows everything and is everywhere, which fortifies believers. Although he knows all about us, he loves us in Christ and will not condemn us.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
No place we go will take us away from our Lord, Redeemer, and Friend. In our worst problems he is there with us, his right hand holding us in a loving embrace. Because God perfectly knows you, he can perfectly save you. Will you run to the God who stepped down from his thrown, was born of the virgin. Who grew up. Who died a horrific death on the cross paying the price for our sin that we couldn’t pay, who was buried, and three days later rose from the dead.
In Christ, the all knowing, all present, all creative, God says there is no condemnation. Even that dark sin that you don’t think anyone knows about. The greatest of doubts. He knows. And says to you, In Christ, there is know condemnation.
Let us continue worship our awesome God this morning.
BI: We praise God who perfectly knowing you is able to perfectly save you.