David's God

Take your Bibles if you would. If you're not already there and turn to Psalm 139. As we dig a little bit deeper this morning, what is God like? He is an eternal God, almighty God, and a changing God. He's a righteous God we looked at last week.

He is David's God that he wrote about here in Psalm one thirty nine, The all knowing God, all powerful God, the everywhere present God. That we read about just a moment ago. Before we continue, let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Dear heavenly father, thank you for this time that we have together this morning to look into your word. We pray for other ministries and churches this morning as they do the same that you would be magnified.

Souls would be saved, lives would be changed. Pray for the Gibbons. You would bless them as they look to begin a new ministry there in the outskirts of London and that things would go well for them today and they might be able to get busy your service there. We pray for the Spites as they are home and their children are in need of help. We pray that they would get that help.

And Lord that they might be able to get back to the field soon. And continue their wonderful ministry there in Brazil. Pray, Lord, that you'd bless our service here today that you might be magnified among us, that as the word goes forth, the Holy Spirit might take the sword of the spirit and wield it in our lives to challenge us in your service to draw us closer and to convict us of sin. In Jesus precious name, we do pray. Amen.

Amen. As brother David was reading from Psalm one thirty nine, I was thinking about David was writing. Psalm one thirty nine, David relates this to us. There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, never alone. Isn't it grand?

Well, that all depends, doesn't it? That all depends. David begins the Psalm verse one, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. A simple statement of fact, which David delves deeper and deeper into as he writes down through the Psalm. A simple statement of fact provoking peace and comfort or dread, depending on one's perspective.

We will discover how David feels as we continue this morning and near the end of this psalm. But he begins with a simple statement of truth, a statement of truth that sadly many in this world fail to see today, but an important one. The Lord knows you. The Lord knows me. Whether we want him to or not, he does.

Whether we acknowledge it or not, he does. You may have seen a bumper sticker I saw years ago. It says, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. Actually, the middle part of that bumper sticker could be left out. God said it.

That settles it whether I believe it or not. But how you respond to that is going to have a profound effect on your life here today and on your eternity. So it is our joy to proclaim and declare that God has searched us and known us. And now it is our turn to respond in faith and in love and in service to him as David does declare here. He begins with, delving more into what he means by the statement, Lord, thou hast searched me and known me.

He begins with God's knowledge of me, his omniscience. God is an all knowing, omniscient God, and that David declares here beginning in verse two, thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising. Thou understandeth my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue but low, oh Lord, thou knowest it altogether.

Thou hast beset me behind and before and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. Boy, that that is really hard to understand how how incredible that is.

But yet it is what? It is true. It is true is what David is saying here. God knows everything. In Proverbs fifteen:three, it says, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

There isn't any place His eyes do not see. When I was little, I would be in the living room, and my mom can attest to this. And I would be doing something, something maybe I wasn't supposed to be doing. And my mom from a room or two rooms over would say, what are you doing? Like, she knew I was doing something wrong.

And I wondered how in the world does she have can she see through walls? How does she know I'm doing something wrong? My answer would usually be nothing, nothing. But she knew there was something, sometimes enough that she would have to come in the room and see for herself. But she had ears.

I didn't realize that as a kid. There's a lot your ears can pick up on that your eyes cannot see. And when you become a parent, you begin to realize this. And moms particularly seem very acute to this. But you know something?

God can see through walls. God can see right through your roof. God can see in your car. God knows and He sees. And that is ever comforting thought or at times maybe a little bit scary, But it's a good thing.

It's a good thing. Because God just doesn't see for the sake of judgment, but he has interest in us and he cares for us. He sees my movements throughout the day. He knows when I sit down, when I stand up. He knows when I go to bed and when I rise up.

He knows my sleeping habits, my eating habits, my rising habits, my work habits, my worship habits, and other habits. God sees them. Maybe not everybody else does, but who does? God does. And and who matters most?

God does. Sometimes we trick ourselves into thinking that, well, as long as nobody else knows what I'm doing, then it's okay. But there is somebody who does know and there is somebody who does see. And that somebody is an all powerful, almighty creator, a righteous and holy God and he will act accordingly to chasten his children, to punish his enemies, to reward the righteous, to lift up the humble, but God cares and God sees. He knows my thoughts.

He knows my thoughts are far off, David says. In first Samuel sixteen seven, it says this, as the Lord speaks to Samuel, concerning the anointing, the choosing of David to be the next king of Israel. God says to Samuel, look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature because I refused him. That would be David's brother. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart.

God knows your heart. He knows your thoughts. He has already evaluated that, and he did in regards to David's brother and eventually to David whom he called the man after God's own heart. And so God chose David and not his brother. Sometimes our judgment is skewed.

Sometimes we judge the book by the what? By the cover. And sometimes the cover can be a bit misleading. But God sees the heart and his judgment is righteous and pure and right. He knows your heart and your even your thoughts.

So be careful of those thoughts even because God hears them when nobody else does. He hears my words. Matthew twelve thirty six, but I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. Sad to say, there's not too many people in this world too concerned about what they say these days. But as a child of God, that should be different for us because we recognize that not only does my neighbor hear my words or my brother or sister hear my words, but who hears my words?

God hears my I don't know how many times as a pastor people have apologized to me for the language that they've used around me. Sometimes before they know I'm a pastor. So bad language, you're oh, sorry. I you know. You know, God hears that whether I'm standing here or not.

It's not offending me that you need to be concerned about because I ain't gonna do anything to you. But you should be concerned about who? About God. And as a child of God, God hears our words. He hears when we use our words for good.

We use them to witness. We use the word to encourage and to challenge others, but he also hears our thoughts and our words when we use them to hurt others or to dishonor his name. So we know we should be a little more careful sometimes at the words that come out of our mouth. David indicates that God has beset me behind him before. In other words, God has me surrounded.

He knows all I did yesterday and he knows what I will do tomorrow. You might have others fooled but not God. God knows he sees everything, even the what? Even the future. Hence, all the prophecy throughout the Old Testament in the Gospels and in Revelation.

A lot of people in this world today find prophecy hard to swallow. They get to the book of Daniel we've been looking at on Sunday nights and they go, well, that's not possible. There's no way Daniel foretold all of that that was gonna happen in the Persian Empire, the Greek Empire, the Roman Empire, and on into the future. There's no way Daniel could have known all that. So he must have written it after it happened and not before as it is contrary to clearly what was written.

It was before. Why do they have such a hard time believing that? Why is that such a hurdle for them? Because they don't believe in a God that knows the past and the what? And the future.

And if God knows the future, then is is it difficult to believe in prophecy? Not at all. If God knows the future, then why do you find it strange that He might indicate some of that? And it would come true. God's essentially already there.

He not only knows what's going to happen, he's intricately involved. So prophecy isn't hard for me to stomach at all. God knows what is going to happen in your life. He knows what's going to happen in this world. God shows us some of those things more like a slideshow than he does a film.

It's like, okay, here's the next slide. This is what I want you to do next, and then I'll show you the what? I'll show you the next one. Just what? Trust me.

Why? Because he's stingy? No. Because he knows it's better for us to get it one slide at a time than to see the whole feature film because it might scare us a bit. He knows what he's doing, and he knows your future.

He knows the thoughts of the wicked just as the thoughts of the righteous. He knows and remembers everything that has ever happened. He is omniscient. Why does this matter? Because he who knows it all has made certain promises based on that knowledge, and we can trust him.

We can trust him. He's not gonna lead us astray. He knows what's around the bend. Trust him. He knows.

Based on such knowledge, he chose David to be king of Israel. He chose Abraham to be the father of many nations. He chose Moses and Joshua, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, Esther, and Ruth, and Mary, and Peter, and Paul. He knows. He knows you.

He knows what you will become. He sent his son to die on the cross and to rise again from the dead as he so declared six thousand plus years before to Adam and Eve in the garden when he said he would send the seed of the woman to bruise the head of the serpent, Satan. But David is not just in awe at the omniscience of God, but his care for those whom he watches over his children. Despite his knowledge of me, he still loves me and he cares for me. If the person behind or before you knew everything about you, we might treat others a little differently than we do.

We might not be so forgiving or so caring. There's a reason you don't know everything about everybody around you and they don't know everything about you. But despite God knowing everything about me, all of my failures, all of my regrets, all of my challenges, all of my sins. He loves me, and he loves you. Psalm eight three and four, David writes, when I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon, and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful him and the son of man that thou visitest him?

David is in awe. When you as we begin as we're just still beginning to learn about this universe and how vast it is. And we these little specks on this little round ball that if you looked at the universe from a distance, you wouldn't be able to even see this little ball. God cares about you. He actually wants to know you.

That's how much you mean to him. Isn't that incredible? Verse seven, David continues. Whether shall I free go from thy spirit or whether shall I flee from thy presence? These are rhetorical questions.

The answer is nowhere. If I sin up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the other parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me.

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. God is not only omniscient, but God is omnipresent, which means God is everywhere. No place in this world can take me or hide me from the presence of my God. No place, nowhere.

As Adam discovered in the garden. So he hid behind a bush because he was ashamed, because he had sinned, and God knew right where he was. God didn't ask Adam, where are you? Because he didn't know. He asked Adam where he was so Adam would have to confess where he was and what he had done.

God knew. God knows because God is already there. Even before I get there, God is there. Heaven, either the furthest reaches of space or the place of God's throne. Either way, God is what?

God is there. Hell, either the grave or the furthest reaches of the earth beneath or death itself. He's there. No place. You can't escape him.

Can't escape his eyes. Can't escape his presence. He's there. The other side of the sea. Who tried that and failed?

Jonah. Yeah, I'll get on a ship and sail across the world the other direction. Did that work? No, didn't work. Why?

Because God was already there. There's no place you can go that God's not already there. And David says in verse 10, in thanksgiving and peace, even there shall thy right hand lead me and thy thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. Even though I be, estranged from those I love in a place where I don't know anybody or in a situation where it's fearful and and I feel alone, you're not alone. God is there.

He is there with you. It should not be something to dread. It should be something that brings comfort and peace. If it's something you dread, then there's something you have to have a conversation with your God about because it shouldn't be something you dread. He goes on to say to talk about the darkness, the darkness is all the same to God.

Though men prefer it because their deeds are what? Evil. They only deceive themselves. The light and the darkness are just alike to God. He can see you as well in the dark as he can, and the light doesn't make any difference.

So maybe something we should remember. When somehow we think in the darkness we're getting away with something or the thief is getting away with something, God sees, God knows. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the saith the Lord. Luke twelve two, for there's nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid, that shall not be known. Well, I'm not gonna be embarrassed by this because nobody knows.

I did it in secret and dark. I wouldn't wouldn't count on that. Wouldn't count on that. I'm afraid we count on that far too much. And someday, we will be embarrassed here at the judgment seat of Christ.

Praise the Lord. He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He's not only there that he, as a child of God, he is on my side. Even when I fail, he's still there for me, A forgiving God, a patient God. He is a God of judgment, yes, but he is a God of what?

He is a God of love. Love that drove his son to die on the cross for your sins and mine. You need not fear. You can be thankful. But that thanksgiving appreciation should lead us not to run from him, but to run what?

To him. And then verse 13, we seem the omnipotence of God. Maybe not what you might think the omnipotence of God, some, you know, God spread out the universe and made the planets and the stars. You think maybe that's what David would choose to to draw out when he speaks of the omnipotence of God, but no. Verse 13, for thou hast possessed my reins, thus covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right. Well, David thanks God for making him him. And that God knows what he is doing. Despite the ravages of sin, the image of God still shines through and the power of God in making David to be David and Rick to be Rick and you to be you.

You are a unique masterpiece of almighty God. Scientists can make robots and they can make all kinds of things. They cannot make a human being. They cannot even make a life of any kind because all life comes from who? It comes from God.

And he is the master painter. He is the master worker, the master builder who David is in awe of. He goes on to say, my substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Not actually talking about the earth, but in a secret place, it's a euphemism, for his mother's womb. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect.

And in thy book, all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them. When you were just an embryo, when you were just a small clump of cells, those clump of cells contained a DNA code written by who? Written by God. God saw you. God knew you.

David said over and again, he talks about himself as a person when he was nothing but a what? Clump of cells. Oh, that scientists and so many in our society today would humble themselves before God and admit that that little clump of cells is a person, not just a living being, but an actual person in the eyes of God, our creator who matters. Abortion is not a form of birth control, It's a form of murder. It is taking the life of a person regardless of where they are.

God knows them. God made them. God designed them. They are a person. But Satan would rob us through education and scientists and these different things.

No. They're not all bad, but they are bad when they contradict who? The maker and creator. When they tell us that a person is not a person because of where they are located or their form of development. When they tell us that we weren't meticulously created by an omnipotent designer and a loving God who formed us, but as a result of some random chance and things just happen to get together and poof, there you are without purpose and without meaning.

Why does the suicide rate go up? Year after year after year in The United States, it goes up because people believe they're nothing but an accident with no purpose. But you aren't. David thanked God that that wasn't him. That's not you.

David said God possessed his reins, his seed of emotions, his personality. God covered and fashioned him, interwove him in his mother's womb. God saw his substance when hid from the view of others and took that formless mass of cells and made a beautiful person fulfill God's plan and purpose. Isaiah 60 four:eight, but now, O Lord, Thou art our Father, we are the clay, Thou art our potter, and we are the work of Thy hands. If God made me, if God fashioned me, then God has a purpose for me.

If you make something, if you make a chair, what's it for? To sit in. God made you for a purpose. Find that out. It begins with glorifying him, trusting him, receiving him as your savior, and then day by day following him wherever he may lead.

Jeremiah says, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. That's what God has to say about Jeremiah as he confessed. God, the omnipotent creator formed us, made us special, unique by his power. God, the omnipotent and ever faithful, is also the judge of those who reject him. You look in verse 19.

Surely, thou wilt slay the wicked, oh God. Depart from me therefore, you bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, oh Lord, that hate thee? Am I not grieve with those that rise up against thee?

I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them as mine enemies. The omnipotent God is seen not only in his creation and formation of man, but also in his just wrath upon the wicked, upon those who rebel against him, who say, I don't like the way you made me, God. I won't have you to rule over me, God. I'm gonna do it my way.

Do we not see that a lot in our world today? To the extreme, God who is the omnipotent creator is also the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent judge. Therefore, David counts himself as their enemy as well. He refuses their ways. He refuses their company, choosing rather to follow who?

To follow the Lord who made him. The Lord who knows him. The Lord who leads him, the Lord whose hands carry his eternal soul. He writes in Psalm one, blesses the man that walketh not in the council of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in what? The law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. His leaf shall bring forth his leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall what? Shall prosper. David said, I choose to follow you. I choose not to follow them.

That's what he means here, by hatred. I choose to love you. I choose to reject their way. Knowing that God sees and God knows and God made us, He has a will and a plan for us. We need to accept his way and we need to do what?

Reject their way. That doesn't mean we don't tell them about the Lord. No. Part of God's way is doing that very thing, but we must choose. And then David finishes last two verses.

Search me, o God. Know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and then lead me in the way everlasting. What is that?

That is an invitation. David starts with a simple declaration of fact. God has searched me and known me and God David ends with, Lord, I invite you. I invite you to search me and know me. I invite you to guide me.

I invite you to open my eyes and show me where I have failed. Why? That I might repent, that I might be freed from that and might see the way of blessing and everlasting joy. If you're here today, God loves you, God made you, God wants to show you the path of everlasting life and joy. But you must come to him in faith.

You must invite him what? You must invite him into your life as he has invited you into his. But you must receive it. You must humble yourself and admit that there is problems that need his touch, his forgiveness, and his healing. You must accept him as the savior, your savior from sin.

And as a Christian, we need to invite him to search us every day. Let God continue the work that he has begun to mold us into the image of his son, Jesus Christ. Don't push him away. He he's going to know anyway, okay? Don't push him away.

Invite him in so he can what? So he can help you. That may be a bit scary at times, but you know, how many times have you done something scary and you're so glad you did? Inviting God into your life, into your heart, inviting him to help you each day, that's making yourself vulnerable. But you can do that with God.

Why? Because he isn't gonna let you down. Why? Because he loves you, and he won't fail you. The Lord has spoke to your heart today.

Don't push him away. The Lord is drawing to yourself to receive him today. Don't walk out those doors before you make that decision. Because he will embrace you. And he will help you.

He will give you everlasting life. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for your word today. Thank you that you are the omniscient God, the omnipresent God, the all powerful God. Thank you that you love and you care for us and boy, that puts a whole different perspective on all of those things.

I pray if there'd be one here that yet to receive Christ as savior, they would come this morning. Might show them from God's word how they might be saved and I pray Lord if you're working in our heart today that there's something that we're keeping from you. There's something we're hiding from you. Lord, we're just keeping you at arm's length. Lord, you already know.

We know that but Lord, that we might confess our sin. That you might cleanse us. Make us more like you. Lord, I pray that we would swallow our pride. I pray that we would step forward in faith through that wall of fear because you won't let us down.

We thank you for that. Lord, may we be honest with you today as we sing this hymn of invitation. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen.