The Psalms in a Season of Doubt
The Psalms for Every Season of Life • Sermon • Submitted
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Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 O Lord, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord.
5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Introduction
Introduction
Our lives are filled with doubts.
We doubt things about ourselves.
We doubt things happening in our lives.
We so often live with doubts about all manner of things.
Particularly, we doubt our place in the world, our purpose in the world…
When we come to this Psalm, we can be greatly encouraged...
We find some glorious truth in this Psalm concerning the extensive knowledge that God has of each and every one of us. God knows you intimately, better than anyone, better than you know yourself.
God is acquainted with every facet of your being.
Because this is true, you may have hope and great peace knowing that all that God has created you for in terms of glorious purposes in this world - ultimately for bringing glory and honour to Him, will be brought to pass.
So let me ask you...
How often do you feel lonely, worthless, incompetent, unworthy of love, see yourself as a failure, think you’ll never achieve anything in life…
How often do you think… I don’t know what my place is in this world… why I’m even here.
Psalm 139 is a true encouragement for us in such a time...
While some may never struggle with such thoughts and ideas (be glad if you don’t) there are many who do, whether that be for a season of life, or for most of life…
Here is a Psalm that brings great perspective on our lives.
We often read the Psalms and see how they refer to the community of Israel. They are often directed towards corporate praise and thanks to God, or crying out to God, but in a corporate fashion. As such, we often don’t see the Psalms as being very personal.
The same cannot be said for this Psalm. It is intensely personal in terms of how it refers to the relationship between God and the Psalmist.
And precisely the same truths that the Psalmist conveys concerning himself, are true of each of us.
The First truth that we see through these verses is...
1. God Knows You (vv.1-6)
1. God Knows You (vv.1-6)
The manner in which the Psalmist speaks here demonstrates that God does not have a superficial knowledge of each and every one of us.
Rather, God has a deep knowledge and understanding of each one of us.
God knows you perfectly and in a manner that would perhaps even shock you.
In verse 1, the Psalmist says that God has searched him…
The Name of God - Jahweh is used!!
God searches out the hearts of man. He knows every detail of your life.
The Psalmist is saying that God has “examined him”.
Far from the idea that God is some distant being, paying little attention to people.... the reality is that God is examining… paying careful attention.
Rather, he knows personally what you are doing from moment to moment in each day. He is watching.
The Psalmist will go on to explain the extents of this knowledge…
He will use a literary device called a merism in order to convey the fullness of the knowledge of God concerning him…
Psalm 139:2-4
God knows our movements in their entirety…
He knows us both in our inaction, as well as our action...
(sit / rise //// going out // lying down)
Every moment, both of activity and inactivity, God knows full well.
Notice the verbs that the Psalmist uses to describe God’s attention to us…
You know… You perceive… You discern… you are familiar with…
Psalms, Volume 2 God’s Examination of the Psalmist (139:1–6)
None of the terms imply a critical, hostile, or even scrutinizing attitude toward the psalmist; instead, they reveal the depth of Yahweh’s knowledge.
The Psalmist also speaks about God knowing our thoughts… and the words that we will speak… but have not yet spoken.
Have you considered the implications of this?
The hypocrite will present themselves one way to the world around them. They make themself look good.
We cannot hide the real us… we cannot even hide our deepest thoughts from God.
He knows us.
Even before we speak… he knows the words that we are going to say.
What a glorious truth this is…
Psalm 139:5
The Psalmist speaks of God as protector
hem in… behind and before - God surrounds him…
Meaning??
Could be - God surrounds him and thus protects him.
Could also be… God surrounds as in laying siege.. The same word is used when one army besieged a city with a view to destroy it…
I would suggest to you that although the Psalmist certainly has a positive view… one must not take away the possible negative…
For the one that is far from God, walking in paths of sinfulness… this is frightening.
A.W. Tozer writes...
Psalms, Volume 3: (Psalms 107–150): An Expositional Commentary The Threat of Omniscience
“In the divine omniscience we see set forth against each other the terror and fascination of the Godhead. That God knows each person through and through can be a cause of shaking fear to the man that has something to hide—some unforsaken sin, some secret crime committed against man or God.”
And yet for the person saved by grace through faith in Christ, this thought is not something that brings fear. Rather, it is something that can even comfort us.
"Nobody can produce new evidence of your depravity that will make God change his mind. God justified you with his eyes open." (J.I. Packer)
When the Psalmist speaks of this knowledge, he is not trembling with fear, but rather was marveling at it!
Now, David was not a perfect man, but he walked with the Lord, and extensively did that which was pleasing in the sight of God.
The reliaty is, the knowledge that God has over David’s life is far beyond and above what he can fathom.
The second truth that we see through this verse is that…
2. God Is Near to You (vv.7-12)
2. God Is Near to You (vv.7-12)
In these verses, Psalmist asks a series of questions…
Essentially, he asks the questions in order to convey the truth of the omnipresence of God. God is everywhere, and there is nowhere that you can go to flee from his watchful gaze.
The Psalmist speaks in verse 7 about fleeing from God… where can I go to flee from your spirit.
Again, the idea behind the word is a sense of fleeing from a potential threat.
The Psalmist once again uses these Merisms to convey the extent of the presence of God. They are not necessarily literal places, but they convey the full extent of the presence of God.
Psalm 139:8 - up to the heavens // bed in the depths…
Psalm 139:9 - Rise on the wings of the dawn // far side of the sea… Refers to East and West...
But notice verse 10… even there your hand will guide me… your right hand will hold me fast…
The fact is that the Psalmist was speaking about these things with a deep sense of the knowledge of the gracious presence of God.
The word “hold me fast” can again mean either to hold in a trap… or to hold onto in order to protect…
But ultimately, it is apparent that the Psalmists perspective is not one of fear, but one of deep trust in God.
Psalm 139:11-12...
David ends this section by bringing in the picture of deepest blackness.
Even if he were to be hidden entirely in the deepest of darkness, he would not be hidden from God.
The darkness is not dark to God… it’s as light!!!
This leads us to third truth...
3. God Has Made You (vv.13-18)
3. God Has Made You (vv.13-18)
David now turns his attention to how God is the one that has formed him…
In other words, God’s presence didn’t start at a moment in time.
God has always been present with David, and he confesses this in his Song.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Beautiful picture of God’s hand involved in the creation of the Psalmist…
Speaks of knitting together… intricately involved in the process.
Do you realise that God has careful, definitively, purposefully created you in every way. In the way that you have been shaped and formed.
Even the blind man, blind from birth… God knit him together…
Our world says and dictates that those children who have malformations should be aborted…
Utterly contrary to the way of God…
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
Beautiful description of the creation of man… The Psalmist applies to himself.. but not with any sense of him being wonderful..
Rather… it’s about God’s glorious wisdom in designing and creating in such a fashion that it’s almost incomprehensible…
Psalms, Volume 2 God’s Presence from the Beginning of Life (139:13–18)
The Hebrew simply reads, “for I am fearfully wonderful.” The emphasis in Psalm 139 is not simply on the quality of the workmanship (“fearfully and wonderfully made”), but instead on the mystery of human creation itself. The psalmist acknowledges that human creation, from its beginning, is a mystery and a wonder known only to God.
The picture of the beautiful weaving together of David is continued in verses 15-16...
In fact, these verses intensify the claims of the previous verses...
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
v.15 - woven together. Speaks of an intricate intertwining of strands of threads.
A similar picture is in the making of the curtains for the tabernacle…
36 “For the entrance to the tent make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen—the work of an embroiderer.
In speaking of the skills given by God for the one chosen to do such work in the tabernacle, we read...
35 He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as craftsmen, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them master craftsmen and designers.
And David says here that God is in essence the master craftsman and designer, who himself intricately wove together every fibre of his very being…
Woven....depths of the earth… Meaning??
21 He said,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked I shall return there.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Psalms, Volume 2 God’s Presence from the Beginning of Life (139:13–18)
In Job’s confession, the womb and the earth are treated as though they are identical, yet when people die they do not return literally to their mother’s womb. The presumed association likely stems from Genesis 2:7. There the narrator explains that humans were formed from the “dust of the ground,” thus implying that, at some primeval level, all humans have their origin of life in the “depths of the earth.” The question for the psalmist, however, does not concern the location of the origins of life as much as it does whether God was present even there. He concludes in the affirmative.
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
v.16 - unformed body… Hebrew word speaks here of something that was formless… in all likelihood - embryo…
God saw him… before any shape or form came to be… God’s eyes were upon him.
v.16…all the days ordained for me....
Profound!!! - elaborate...
5 Man’s days are determined;
you have decreed the number of his months
and have set limits he cannot exceed.
These thoughts lead David to proclaim his awe of God’s greatness...
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
We cannot understand the extent of the thoughts of God.
5 Many, O Lord my God,
are the wonders you have done.
The things you planned for us
no one can recount to you;
were I to speak and tell of them,
they would be too many to declare.
5 How great are your works, O Lord,
how profound your thoughts!
Can barely comprehend the vastness of the thoughts of God.
His wisdom is beyond searching out.
We cannot begin to understand the mind of God - it is too vast for us to comprehend!!!
When I awake, I am still with you.... (meaning?)
One sense - God gives life… sustains life…
5 I lie down and sleep;
I wake again, because the Lord sustains me.
Another sense… nothing can separate the believer from the love of God…
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Fourth truth that we see...
4. God Keeps and Directs You (vv.19-24)
4. God Keeps and Directs You (vv.19-24)
David suddenly turns his attention to the wicked.
What is the purpose / reason?
One commentator writes...
Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary The All-Holy (139:19–24)
The very clarity of the vision makes the anomaly of evil, boasting in full view of God, intolerable; so David’s re-entry to the atmosphere of earth creates, as we might say, a sudden incandescence.
David is confronted with the utter sinfulness of sin.
He is confronted and repulsed by the thought of evil men in light of the beauties and majesty of God.
And he calls in a sense for God’s justice to prevail.
This is not so much a call out of hatred for the sinful people, but rather a call out of a deep zeal for the worthy God!!!
What relationship is there between light and darkness , between good and evil? What fellowship can there be? There can be none!!!
Notice the strong words in vv.21-22… What does David mean…?
Boice...
Psalms, Volume 3: (Psalms 107–150): An Expositional Commentary Reflections on All the Above
what David is actually saying is that he wants no part of the evil that evil men devise. We say, “Hate the sin, but love the sinner!” It is nice advice, but it is also hard to do since love of the sinner, if we are not extremely careful, leads first to a love of the sinner’s sinful ways and then to a participation in them. David was not at all sure that he could successfully love one and hate the other. So his decision was to separate from evil persons entirely. This separation does not mean that David never had anything to do with sinful people; he himself was one. It only means that he did not want to be with those who were openly marked by evil or were hatching evil actions. So taken was he with the greatness of God that he wanted nothing to endanger his relationship to God.
But notice beyond, the desire of David is to walk in righteousness!!!
He ends with a cry to God… He wants evil out of his life.
As much as he says he hates those who are sinners, he yet recognises his own propensity to sin… And so he cries out
Four things he asks for...
For God to search his heart and reveal / expose his heart...
For God to test him, or to perfect his thoughts.
For God to purge away any offensive / evil way in him…
For God to lead him in the ways everlasting…
Conclusion
Conclusion
Does not God know you.
Think about the extent of the knowledge of God for you…
Perfect!!!
Why do we hide from him?
Why do we pretend before him / lie to him?
He knows us.
Intricately made...
Made for his glory and purposes.
Therefore… shun evil… cast away doubts from your life in terms of what God intends…
Let there be no doubt that God has formed you for his glory and purposes.
But respond rightly!!!
Call on God to help you hate your sin, and love God, and to walk in holiness before Him.
REMEMBER!!!! Christ is perfect!!!!! He is redeemer!!!
BUT… continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
And know that God is sovereign in all his ways!!