Prayer Meeting Feb 22

All Seeing

Psalm 139:1–6 (NIV)

You have searched me, Lord,

and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

you, Lord, know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

I wonder if you’ve ever said to someone - ‘you know me better than I know myself!

It’s certainly true of God!

It is a little like the glint you see in a child's eye that they are up to no good,

you can perceive before they act - and be sat waiting when they secretly raid the biscuit tin.

But here -God knows before we know.

He’s thought before we thought, let alone acted.

v6 is very apt,

Psalm 139:6 NIV

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

but as Adam and Eve, Jonah, and Judas and so many others in the bible - when we realise God sees us for all that we are - we desire to hide..

All-present

Psalm 139:7–12 NIV

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

Gloriously, and terrifyingly - there is no hiding place from God.

Adam and Eve hid in the garden - but God was there,

Jonah hid on a boat - but God was there.

Judas hid in his death - But God was there.

I suspect we have our own hiding places from God,

We stop praying, or reading the bible - but God is there.

Even in the dark - God is present as if in the day -

oh how we desire a saviour who will turn our hiding and darkness into light.

Who will restore us to how we were made to be..

Psalm 139:13–18 NIV

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 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. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.

God not only sees us fully,

and knows us fully wherever we are,

he is involved fully.

Every breath and thought and action of life,

integrated into the sovereignty and creativity of God.

We don’t exist to hide, or be hidden - God created us.

And as v18 points us towards even in life after death - God is with us..

‘when i awake, i am still with you’

Psalm 139:19–24 NIV

If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

David faced political and military enemies of God’s chosen King and his people,

In the NT we now face spiritual ones.

our own sin and that of others who deny the Lord Jesus.

How we wish God would slay the sin in us and around us!

And so our only hope is if God cleanses us by His spirit through Jesus.

After searching and knowing us as we acknowledge in v1 and then request again in the final line -

David’s prayer - as is ours- is that through Jesus,

he will lead us in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23–24 NIV

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Pray