"He Knows You Better than your Think" - Psalm 139

“When We Invent, We Often Thinks as God Thinks”

300 Sermon Illustrations from Charles Spurgeon When We Invent, We Often Think as God Thinks (Psalm 139:17–18; Ecclesiastes 3:11)

To make a glass that should reflect without any color the object placed before it, was long the desire of those who made certain kinds of optical instruments. They worked a long time to no purpose. But, at last, someone discovered how to form an achromatic lens. Then, lo and behold, when this man had thought out his plan perfectly in all its details, he was able to make a glass that was exactly like the eye of an insect, which I have often seen. So, when the man thought in the right way, he thought just as God thought. And, after going a long way round about, when he did come to the right conclusion, he came just where God was.

And, in like manner, if you and I were to try to work out the problem of our lives—and if we were wise enough to discover the best way in which we could get to heaven—we would come exactly to the route that God has marked out for us, and we would do with ourselves precisely what God does with us. If we were always wise, we would never murmur. If we were to be endowed with infinite wisdom, we would rejoice in the very things that now distress us. And the clouds and darkness that we now seek to avoid, we would willingly pass through if we only saw, as God sees, the end as well as the beginning.

What is Lent?

Lent is a season of forty days before Easter when Christians fast, pray, and refocus their lives on God. The fasting and sacrifice of Lent is meant to reflect the forty days of Christ in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). During this time Christi was tempted by the devil to give in and give up. When Jesus was hungry, the devil challenged Jesus to use his power to feed himself. When he was physically weak, the devil challenged Jesus to use his power to feed himself. and save himself and save himself in his need. He promised Jesus the world is Christ would bow to him. Each time Jesus stayed faithful by relying on God’s Word. Satan’s aim was to entice Jesus to use powers rightly his but which he had voluntarily abandoned to carry out the Father’s mission. Reclaiming them for himself would deny the self-abasement implicit in his mission and in the Father’s will…Jesus denied himself bread, retained his righteousness, and lived by faithful submission to God’s Word. Lent is a season that involves lament, repentance and anticipation. Sarah Phillips writes, “Keep in mind the idea here is not to be overly scrupulous or to deceive yourself into thinking you can earn heaven through your own goodness. The goal is to honestly examine your life in light of God’s Word and to make a commitment to change in any areas you have not submitted to the Lord. During our journey of Lent, we will be tempted: tempted to life in our own strength, to forgo our fasting for moments of pleasure, to ignore our sin, and to become prideful when the Holy Spirit challenges us to repent and change. WE will be tempted on our journey to Easter. But Lent is about denying ourselves for God’s Will.

Psalm 139

Psalms III 101–150: Introduction, Translation, and Notes with an Appendix: The Grammar of the Psalter Notes

A psalm of innocence composed by a religious leader (cf. vs. 21) who was accused of idol worship. Creating an inclusion, the psalmist begins (vs. 1) and ends (vss. 23–24) the poem with an appeal to Yahweh to investigate personally, on the basis of his omniscience and universal presence, the charges of idolatry brought against him. Verses 2–6 contain a description of God’s knowledge as well as his foreknowledge; vs. 2, yādaʿtā, “You know,” and vs. 6, daʿat, “your knowledge,” and lāh, “it” (your knowledge) neatly indicate the limits of the stanza describing the divine omniscience. In the following stanza (vss. 7–12) the poet portrays the cosmic presence of Yahweh in heaven (vs. 8a), in the nether world (vss. 8b and 11–12), and upon the surface of the earth (vss. 9–10). In this description the poet skillfully appropriates two motifs: the tripartite division of the cosmos (first NOTES on Pss 61:3 and 77:19) and the four cardinal points (sixth NOTE on Ps 74:12 and third NOTE on Ps 75:7). When describing God as the Creator and Provider in the next stanza (vss. 13–16), the poet implicitly resumes the thought of vss. 2–6, since these divine attributes imply universal knowledge, especially since the creation of man took place in the nether world (vs. 15b–c). In the final stanza (vss. 17–22), which begins with welī, “But for me,” and ends with vs. 22, lī, “my,” the psalmist professes his faith in God’s omniscience (vss. 17–18a), then avows his innocence and repudiates idolaters and idol worship. Thus the psalm is a carefully structured unity whose parts are bound by numerous verbal and conceptual links pointed out in the following NOTES.

He Knows “Who” you are - Omniscience

The psalmist pleads his case by acknowledging that God knows who he is, and he pleads with God to examine him in light of the charge of forsaking God and worshiping idol gods. The word search in Hebrew means to try and find out information about an object or event. The word acquainted in Hebrew means have knowledge of an object which is relatively intimate, with a focus that this information includes customs and patterns of behavior of an object. God knows the “real” you while others know “you”. “People learn you through observation while God knows you from creation.”

James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

He Knows “Where” you are - Omnipresence

The psalmist the pleads his care by acknowledging that God is everywhere

He Knows “How” he made you - Creative Sovereignty

Lent creates moments for active “accountability” - Repentance

We want to open our lives to God’s work. In Psalm 139:23-24, the psalmist reflects the desire for relationship and for God to know him. He asks God to do two things: (1) search him, and (2) refine him from all impurity that his penetrating gaze discerns. The psalmist is aware of his anxious concerns, his fears crumbling under the pressure of his wicked enemies. He does not deny or hide from the Lord’s propensity to evil, realizing that he is always just one step away from falling into what is offensive…to the Lord. Therefore, he opens himself up to divine investigation of his heart and thoughts. We want to avoid things that reveal our weakness and make us uncomfortable. When confronted with our sin, we want to say, “That isn’t the person I am,” but often its exactly the person we are! Being confronted with our sin is a mercy, not a cause for defensiveness. It is God setting us free from what binds us. Sometimes he even uses unbelievers to make us aware of our sin. That isn’t persecution for our faith—it’s God calling attention to areas that need his purifying. We must allow our hearts to remain soft toward the conviction of sin, and then grieve that sin and cry out with our desperate need for God. Repentance is the beginning of change in our lives.