Take your Bibles, turn to Psalm 139. Always there. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, never alone, isn't it great? That depends. Let's read about it.

Psalm 39 one thirty nine from David's perspective this evening. We're gonna read through the entire psalm and then we'll come back and we'll take it piece by piece. O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought afar off.

Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. Though there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, o 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.

Whether shall I go from thy spirit or whether shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend 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 uttermost 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. For thou hast possessed me possessed my reins, Thou hast 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.

My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes hid my hit 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. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, o God. How great is the sum of them.

If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. Surely, thou wilt slay the wicked, o God. Depart from me therefore, o ye bloody men, for they speak against thee wickedly and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, o Lord, that hate thee?

And am not I grieve with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Search me, o God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

Again, as I said this morning, this is one of my favorite psalms. I memorized it sometime long ago. I don't know if I could quote it word for word this evening, so I'm glad I have the Bible sitting here in front of me. But it it just beautifully tells of this personal intimate God who is my friend, my Lord, my father, but he is also omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and he is on my side, and he is with me and he knows me. So much, we'll try to dig through it here quickly this evening.

We start in verse one with David's introduction, very similar to his conclusion. O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. A simple statement of fact which David delves deeper and deeper into as he writes this psalm, provoking peace and comfort or dread depending on one's perspective. We will discover how David feels about it as we near the end of the psalm. Whether we like it or not, God knows us.

He knows us better than we know ourselves. Now, you've probably heard people say that. Well, they know so and so better than they and that's just a saying. It doesn't mean anything. But when it comes to God, it really means something.

God really does know us better than we know ourselves. He knows our our deepest secrets. He knows our deepest hurts. He knows our deepest needs. He really, really knows us.

He has searched us. There is nothing we can hide from him. And then David goes deeper into it and he starts with God's knowledge of me, his omniscience. He is omniscient God. What does that mean?

It means he knows what? He knows everything. There isn't anything that God does not know, he is omniscient. Now, that could be applied to many things about this world that he made. But here, the point is he is omniscient about who?

About me and about about you, about our everyday activities. And not just that he knows, but he cares. It it matters to him. David says in verse two, thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising, and thou understandest my thought afar off. David tells us God knows our movements, my movements throughout the day.

When I sit down, God knows it. When I stand up, God knows it. He even knows what's going through my what? What's going through my mind. He sends Samuel to anoint a king for Israel, the second king after Saul.

After pride got in the way of Saul, in the first one of Jesse's sons Samuel came to, he said, surely this must be the guy and God says no. And then he came to second son and again God said what? No. And he came to the third son and God said no. And Samuel started thinking, okay, what's going on here?

God said, no, you're looking at the what? You're looking at the outside. For man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the what? He looks on the heart. He knows who you are.

He hears your very thoughts. Now isn't it a wonderful thing that everybody else can't hear? Our very thoughts all the time? But he can and he does. He knows our thoughts.

He knows when we sit down, when we stand up. He knows our our down scene or uprising. He knows when we go to bed at night. He knows when we get up. He even knows the words that come from our mouth be words that are come from our mouth before they ever do come out of our mouth.

There's not a word in my tongue, but Lord, oh Lord, thou knowest it altogether. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. How can that be? Because God God doesn't have a finite hard drive. He remembers what?

He he can remember everything. He knows my words. He he is behind and before me, he said. In verse five, he surrounds me for he knows all I did yesterday, and he knows all I will do what? Tomorrow.

Yeah. Before I even do it, he knows what I'm gonna do. And furthermore, he chooses to involve himself, particularly in the lives of his children, his sheep. David is not just in awe at the omniscience of God but his care for those whom he watches over. Such knowledge, he says, is too wonderful for me.

It is high. I cannot attain unto it. In Psalm eight, he he defines it this way. He said, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that they are mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him. You know, many scientists and others think that that, David and people who lived back in his day just thought that the stars were points of light painted on a black dome.

I don't think that's what David's saying here. Where did he get his information from? I wonder. I think he knew more than they thought he knew. But that's not the point.

The point is with God having created all that incredible stuff that's out there, vast as it may be. And and the the further we can look out into space, the more vast it becomes. We are so small. And yet out of all the planets and all the stars and all the solar systems and all the galaxies, his eye is upon who? His eye is upon you.

You matter to him. Thus, David responds with such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. I just can't I I believe it, but I just can't believe.

It is just incredible that the God who made all of that cares for me, sent his son for me, and knows all about me. And yet and yet he does. Not only is he an omniscient God, but he is omnipresent God. Not only does he know everything about you, no matter where you go, he is what? He's with you.

He's there. Look in verse seven. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend 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 uttermost part of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. From David's perspective, the uttermost part of the sea is where? Well, here. We're on the other side of the sea.

And guess what? Is God here? Yeah, he is. No place in this world can take me no place in this world can take me or hide me from the presence of my God. As Adam and Eve discovered in the garden, God knows.

God knows what we do and God knows where we are. When God walked in the garden and said, Adam, where are you? Was it because God didn't know? No. God knew.

God just needed Adam to to respond, to repent, to confess what he had done. He knew, and he's there. If he's sent up into heaven, the furthest reaches of space or even the place of God's throne, he's there. If I go to the grave, the furthest reaches of the earth beneath or death itself, guess what? He's there.

The other side of the sea, he's there. Guess who found that out? Not Columbus, but who in the Bible. Who tried to run to the other side of the sea to escape from God? Jonah.

Yeah. Did it work? Nah. Didn't work. God was already there.

He already had a fish ready to take care of Jonah and to bring him back. Can't can't run from God. Doesn't work. It's a good thing. Sometimes we might try, but it's better for us that we fail.

Even there, God's hand leads us in the way of righteousness, and even there, God's right hand of strength protects us. Even there, the uttermost part of the sea or wherever it may be, God will guide us wherever we are, and God is there to protect us wherever we are. There's nowhere that we're out of his presence or out of his care. Our heavenly father watches over me. He goes on to say in verse 11, 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. The darkness and darkness is not a place, it's a condition in darkness. But darkness, though it may hide from the eyes of men, does not hide from the eyes or the presence of almighty God. Darkness is not darkness at all to God.

And though men may prefer it because their deeds are evil, they only deceive themselves because God still sees. God still knows. And if God chooses to intervene, God's still there and can do so. The light of God shines into every dark place revealing the activities of all who seek refuge from him there. The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good.

Whether it be light or dark. In, Luke chapter 12, it says, for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be made, that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever you have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light and that which you have spoken in the light in the ear and closet shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. So lest we think that what we do in the darkness and what we do hidden from the eyes of men will never be exposed and never be seen, God says, stop and think for a minute. I don't exactly know what the beam of seat of Christ, what the judgment seat of Christ will be like for the Christian, but I do fear lest some things that I did in secret might be revealed.

And maybe you the same should make us think twice about what we think we do hidden from the eyes of men because God is there and he knows. At the great white throne judgment for those who have rejected Christ, everything is written in a book and will be revealed to their shame until their eternal guilt and judgment. Praise the Lord for the child of God. It's under the blood of who? It's under the blood of Jesus Christ, and we won't be at that judgment.

Praise the Lord. And yet the darkness, the flip side of the darkness, and yet the darkness which causes us to fear need not. For God knows what is there and he already has a plan to handle it though we may not see it. When you're a little kid, you're afraid of the darkness. When you come become adults, you're not afraid of the darkness anymore.

Really? Are we still maybe just a little bit afraid of the darkness? Why? Because we can't see what's there. Some of you like to sleep in a room that is pitch dark.

Some of us like just a little bit of light. I can't sleep in a pitch dark room. I grew up in a house, had a window in my bedroom behind my head, and that window faced our backyard. And in our backyard, in front of our shed, and our shed was like a big barn, was a streetlight, a big pole down there and a big light. The our neighbors got robbed several times.

They never robbed us for one of two reasons. A, that big light exposed them and there was no hiding if you were down by our shed. There was no darkness to hide you. Or two, because they looked at our shed and thought there's certainly nothing in there worth stealing. I'm not sure which it was, but they never robbed our shed.

But as I as I lay in my bed at night, that streetlight, shone through my window, and there was an outline of the window on the far wall as I went to sleep every night. So I had a nightlight. It was a huge, very bright light, but it wasn't so bright inside my room. But but that was my nightlight. And, yes, sometimes the darkness still can be a little bit scary when something goes bump in the night.

But we need not fear the darkness for God knows what is there already. He has a plan to handle it and though we may not see it, he does. The same as tomorrow. I cannot see tomorrow, but who can? God can, and he's there.

And I'm gonna be alright. One way or another, he's got me, and he's got you. We do not need to fear what we cannot see. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, and he will give you peace that passes on understanding. Fear not.

So God is omniscient and God is omnipresent, and God is also omnipotent. He says in verse 13, for thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast 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. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes had seen my substance yet being imperfect, and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, even as yet there was none of them.

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, o God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. We serve an omnipotent God who not only knows us, not only is there, but he is all powerful, and he is on the side of his children.

To illustrate this, David goes to the womb, to his creation. He says, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. And though David didn't understand the intricacies of the human body to the extent that we do today, it only serves to make that statement tenfold greater. Fearfully and one how fearfully and wonderfully are we made. We are this incredible creation, this incredible machine that has the ability to heal and correct itself because there is a designer and healer, an almighty God who made us unlike anything else he made in the very image of who?

In the very image of God. In our life, he molds and and makes. Even when others have not yet seen us, He values us. He is creating us. We are of great value to him.

I can imagine, contrary to scripture, people saying that babies, unborn babies, are not alive, were not human hundreds of years ago. But God tells us differently right here. He was a living human being whom God was forming and continued to form even after he was born. It's not pre life, it's part of life. In Jeremiah Jeremiah one five, Jeremiah writes this, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.

Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, nor I ordained thee a prophet under the nations. In, the New Testament, it tells us that John the Baptist, before he was known as John the Baptist, in his mother's womb, moved under the influence of the Holy Spirit in the presence of Mary. Because who was in Mary's womb? Jesus. Yeah.

Now that's not just a piece of human tissue. That is a human being prepared, ordained, and being fashioned by the hand of almighty God and just as great a value. And today, based even on man's flawed science, we now can see into the mother's womb and see that at just a few weeks, the heart begins to beat, brain waves begin. And that is not just a piece of human tissue. That is a living, unique, with its own DNA, human being fashioned and ordained by the hand of God.

To take it is nothing short of murder. David is not speaking specifically here on abortion. What he is writing about is how he is in such awe at what God does beyond what the human mind and senses can perceive and how he does it. And even though we can look into a mother's womb today, even though to some very small degree we can intervene, it is still an incredible wonder what God does as it was to David. This omnipotent God that made you and made me.

And then, not only is David thankful for his omnipotent and wise creator, but of his ever faithful judge and protector. He says in verse 19, surely thou wilt slay the wicked, o God. Depart from me, ye therefore, ye bloody men, for they speak against thee wickedly, against God, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, o Lord, that hate thee, and am not I grieve with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred.

I count them mine enemies. God's omnipotence is seen not only in his creation and formation of man, but also in his wrath upon the wicked, the enemies of the righteous. While we are told to pray for those who despitefully use us well, we are told to turn the other cheek. While we are told to pray for all men that they might come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, There are those and always have been those who are actively in opposition to the God we serve. In serving God's enemy, they seek to undermine the people of God.

They seek to undermine the message of God. They seek to undermine the gospel. And while we can pray for their salvation, we can also be thankful that God will one day bring justice to this world. He is not weak. He will take care of those who reject and oppose him and oppose those who serve him.

Vengeance is mine. I will what? I will repay, saith the Lord. It is not our prerogative to seek our own vengeance upon them, But we can leave that justice to who? To almighty God.

During the tribulation in the book of Revelation, we see in one of John's visions those who have been martyred during the tribulation that cry unto God, when will you bring vengeance upon those who slay your people? And God assures them he's got it and he will take care of it. And we can trust we can trust in him as David could also. And then he closes with this. Verse 23, search me, o God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. I could preach a whole sermon just from that verse, but let's just look at it once more quickly. Search me, o God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. What is David saying here?

In the first verse, David simply declares a fact. O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. At the conclusion of the psalm, David what? He invites God. He invites God to search him and know him.

There's a difference in saying, well, God knows me and God is with me and God can see me and God is all there's one thing to state it as a fact, it's another thing to in to what? To invite his gaze. But that's what a true child of God does. Not only should we acknowledge what he sees and knows, but we can trust him with it. We can trust him with it.

He is a merciful God. He is a gracious God. He is a loving God. He is a just God. And we can trust him to search the innermost part of our heart and mind.

We can and should be willing to allow him because not only do we trust him, but because we know that we need his help and sometimes we need somebody to to correct us and to help us. There is one who can do that if you'll let him. And he'll never lead you never lead you astray. You see, we we don't tell everybody else everything that's on our mind and our heart. We don't invite everybody to invade our mind and then to evade our every word and action because, well, we can't maybe trust them to the extent that we can trust who?

Trust God. And they didn't die for me on the cross. Who did? He did. And he is God and he deserves it and not much may be them.

But we should be inviting God into our life and into our heart to know us, to try us, and then to what? To guide us and lead us in the way everlasting that brings glory to him. Thus, into the hands of such a gracious, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient I think I said omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent God, doth David willingly invite scrutiny and direction. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, that you had your hand in my formation, and, Lord, that you've had your hand in my life ever since.

Lord, I thank you that you know my thoughts, my words, in every aspect of my life that you're there whenever I need you, whether I recognize it or not. I thank you, Lord, that there's nowhere I can hide from you when I try. And, Lord, I thank you that no matter where I go, that you're already there to lead me and to protect me. Lord, I pray this evening that we truly, as David, can say, search me, o God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

In Jesus' name, do pray. Amen.