Psalm 139
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Rev D. Graham Leitch
4 August 2002

If I was to pick a title for the theme of the sermon this morning it would be the oft-used phrase “God knows!!” because the subject of Psalm 139 is our “know-all” God!!

GOD KNOWS!
Of course, as it is commonly used - and, by the way, blasphemously used (As Christians I believe we should far more jealously guard the name of God and and vigorously protest against its misuse than we do) - as it’s commonly used “God knows” is used to mean “I’ve no idea!” or “Don’t ask me!”

The the misuse of the name of God and of Jesus Christ’s name (perhaps particularly on radio and TV programmes) seems to be regarded as either acceptable or inevitable by most folk. Perhaps it’s time this gratuitous used of blasphemous language was challenged more.

CHALLENGING BLASPHEMY
I know there are many causes for Christians to fight today and that while all Christians disapprove of the misuse of the name of God not all would put opposition to blasphemy at the top of their list. Yet the jealous protection of the name of God can be a powerful witness to the seriousness of our commitment and loyalty to Him.

The Jews took the commandment “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” so seriously that they refused even to write the letters of His name. - his name was too sacred, too holy, even to be seen!!

It’s a thought - do we too easily accept the inevitability of God’s name being misused? Ought Christians to be more outspoken in their opposition to the name of their God and Saviour being employed as oaths and swear-words?

Let me say again that the jealous protection of the name of God can be a powerful witness to the seriousness of our commitment and loyalty to Him.

As commonly used the phrase “God knows”means “I don’t know!” or “Don’t ask me!”

GOD IS ALL-KNOWING
But, set in its proper context - in a Christian context - it means just what it says - “God knows” - God is ALL-KNOWING. In the whole history of discovery in astronomy, biology, physics and chemistry no discovery has been made that has not been known from the beginning.

The Bible tells us that his knowledge has “no limit” - it is endless, unfathomed and unfathomable, complete. He needs no crib-sheet and need leave no unanswered question. God is untaught not because He in unteachable but because everything the greatest and most complex facts concerning life to its tiniest detail is eternally known to Him!!

But the focus of Psalm 139 is personal - its subject is not the omniscience of God (God’s all-knowingness) in general - but his knowledge of the individual:

“O Lord, you have searched me and you know me....” (139:1)

The focus of the writer is very plain. He considers God’s “all knowingness) as it relates to you, to me, to himself - to the INDIVIDUAL. This transforms the subject from one of merely theoretical interest to one of practical personal relevance... it to do with you and God; it’s to do with me and God - it’s to do with your life and my life, your circumstance and my circumstances and God!!

It’s to do with how God is not sitting in heaven in hopeless ignorance of our dilemmas, our cares, our desires, our needs, our hopes and fears.

In the Bible several different images are used to underline the completeness of God’s knowledge of us.
1. HIDE AND SEEK
There is the image of the game of hide and seek. This image isn’t original - it goes right back to the book of Genesis, to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden where, after disobeying God, in shame they seek shelter and try to hide:

“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD GOD as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the Garden.”

They tried to HIDE from the Creator, their Maker - once sin had entered into the equation guilt and shame prompted them to hide from God. But as C.S. Lewis points out in one of his books:

“Do not lets is deceive ourselves. No possible complexity which we can give to our picture of the universe can hide us from God. There is no copse, ho forest, no jungle thick enough to provide cover....”

To the question posed in v.8 “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” the answer is NOWHERE!

We can’t get away from God - He’s everywhere!! As the writer confesses:

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.

No ingenuity can find; no effort can build an effective hiding place from God! There is the image of hide and seek.

2. NAKEDNESS
There is the image of nakedness. Interestingly this image too, isn’t original to the book of Hebrews where it is found, but occurs first in the story of Adam and Eve, for when they had disobeyed God they sought to cover themselves:

Genesis 3:7 “The the eyes of both of them were opened and they realised that they were naked; so they sewed fig-leaves together and made coverings for themselves.:

“Everything” says the writer of Hebrews, “is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of (God)...”

In other words, we can wear our outward disguises, put on a show and sometimes succeed in fooling others, even folk who are close to us..... but we can never do that with God. As it’s been put - he not only sees us, he see through us!!

3 SEARCH AND FIND
And then a third image found in this Psalm - and it’s really hide and seek (the first image) seen from the Divine side - is “search and find.”

This image appears twice - in the form of a statement in v.1 - “O Lord you have searched me...” - and in the form of a prayer of invitation in v.23 - “search me O God and know my heart....”

The picture is of a search that leaves no stone unturned - the kind of search made by the woman who lost a coin from a cherished necklace in Luke 15 and turned the house upside down looking for it. Or the kind of search a police drugs team might make of premises they have reason to believe are being used by a drug-dealer.

Of course God has no need to search or discover because he already knows everything. But the image is there to help us to remember that God knows every nook and cranny of our lives as well as the one who has conducted the most careful and comprehensive search.

What are YOU hiding? Others may search and fail to find - but the eye of God is everywhere and neither the smallest goodness not the least evil will lie unnoticed or remain unfound by Him!!

GOD KNOWS!!

But one of the great legacies of this Psalm is its reminder that there is NO ASPECT OF LIFE which is beyond God’s understanding and care:

GOD KNOWS OUR ACTIONS
In v.2 “when I sit and when I rise” refers to our actions. Common and casual acts, planned and deliberate acts, our worst and our best acts - GOD KNOWS THEM ALL.

There was one particular class in the my secondary school in which, whenever the teachers back was turned someone would always get up to some mischief - making a rude noise, calling out, flicking a pellet, throwing a book or launching a paper aeroplane. I’m embarrassed to confess that it was RK - our weekly fix of religion..... it was the same every time the teacher turned to the blackboard...

But God’s back is NEVER turned!! He see everything we do. But, more, he know what’s behind them!!

GOD KNOWS OUR THOUGHTS
He sees beyond the act to the intention - “you perceive my thoughts...’ he knows WHY we behave the way we do. He reads our minds. And though others may, God NEVER misreads our motive!

God knows not just what we do but WHY we do it!

God knows that what’s easy for one person may be difficult or next to impossible for another. God know that it’s much easier for some to be good and do what’s right in almost any situation, than for others.

A temptation that’s eminently resistible to one may be all but irresistible to another. God knows the raw material we’re working with - if I start at +5 and you start a minus ten, you’re final score of -3 is much better than my final +6!!

What may seem a little achievement to the human eye is sometimes recognised as a great accomplishment by Him. But the reverse, of course, is also true!

“You know when I sit and when I rise” : God know our acts - the outside

“You perceive my thoughts from afar...” : God knows our thoughts - the inside!

GOD KNOWS US BY NIGHT AND BY DAY
Next, in v.3, we read, “you discern my going out and my lying down..” Going out and about’s what we do during the day; lying down’s what we do at night. Day and night God is with us beside us and watching over us (using the language of v.10 to “guide” and “to hold us fast.”

He is with us in our “going out” - in our business and travel hours - on the train and in the traffic queue; He is with us in our leisure hours - in public and private, alone and with friends; and He is with us in our “lying down” in our sleeping and our sleepless hours!!

He is a God, in other words, (and this is how 3c puts it) “familiar with all (our) ways.” I like to think especially that that included our eccentricities and idiosyncrasies and that because God can smile at them we can learn to smile at ourselves!!

Then comes verse 4: “before a word is on my tongue, you (God) know it completely..”

GOD KNOWS WHAT WE SAY AND WANT TO SAY!
This reminds us that God not only hears what we say - but knows what we say to ourselves and what we feel like saying!! If, under our breath we curse someone or call them a fool - they don't hear but God does!! To entertain deceit or to consider lying isn’t something we can do without GOD knowing!!

When we pray and ask God to “guard our lips” we can be confident that He is able as well as willing to do so because just as he knew us as we took form in our mothers womb, (the Psalm’s about that as well but there isn’t time to consider it today) - just as he knew us while we were being formed and long before we were born - so he knows what it;s in our minds to say long before we say it!!

A “KNOW-ALL” GOD!
God knows! Ours IS a “know-all” God - not in the sense of being proud, boastful or opinionated - what is what “know-all” usually means applied to another person - but in the sense of KNOWING EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT US!!

Better than anyone else knows us. And better than we know ourselves!! How should this knowledge of His perfect knowledge affect us?

Of course, you could simply say it’s so much stuff and nonsense - credulous make-believe - but you’d be wrong. A true apprehension of the “know-all” nature of God - his omniscience - ought to produce in us:

1. A SENSE OF AWE
First, a sense of AWE. The mystery of God’s perfect knowledge is the subject of vv.17-18 and I can picture David sitting on a sandy shore as he composed them:

“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them. Were I to count then they would outnumber the grains of sand.”

the entire contents of the Encyclopaedia Britannica as as but one letter to Him, the whole of life but an instant in time! He knew us before we were conceived! He knew us while the substance of our bodies was being formed - he knows everything there is to know about us! It’s amazing!!

2. A SPIRIT OF DELIGHT/GRATITUDE
Second a spirit of delight or gratitude! No kind thought or good action is hidden from him or will remain unrewarded by Him.

We may take others goodness and kindness for granted - but God doesn’t take our goodness fro granted. he sees it, he delights in it and he is pleased with it.......

Knowing that God knows, too, should bring us great comfort and encouragement when we are experiencing times and tests that we imagine no-one else can understand - because He does!! Not only does He understand, but He’s ready to listen intently to what he already know when we pour out our hearts to Him, because He loves us!!

3. A FEELING OF FEAR
Third, a feeling of FEAR, Not only the best in us but also the worst about us is known to Him. Knowing Him to be a holy God who hates sin, and a just God who punishes the evil-doer, we ought to feel ashamed and tremble... it was well said by the ancient Psalmist:

“If thou, O LORD, should’st mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?”(Psalm 130:3)

“If you kept a record of our sins no-one could last long...”

We may long to stand as saints before the Living God, but before we can do so we must kneel as sinners before Him.... we deserve his punishment. Our condemnation is just. We have broken his commandments, We have dishonoured his name. We have disregarded His voice. We have abused His kindness. We have turned our back on his ways. A FEELING OF FEAR

The Bible says “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

And finally - A HUMBLE SPIRIT OF REPENTANCE.

From Him to whom we owe our repentance we receive what He does not owe - HIS PARDON! As there is no sin too small to be overlooked, so there is no sin too great to be forgiven..

When we tell God about our sins it is not because He needs to know - confessing to God is not like to confessing to a parent , spouse or friend who is ignorant of what’ we’ve done wrong. HE knows already!! He doesn’t NEED us to tell him!!

When we tell god about our sins it is for our sake, not His - it is so that we may own them, confess and turn away from them and find, because of Jesus Christ, forgiveness.

To a humble spirit of repentance God offer immediate, free and complete pardon not merely to the best of us but to the worst of us.

As CH Spurgeon announced:

“You can have forgiven all your sin in half the tick of the clock and pass from death to life more swiftly than I can utter the words.”

Or, as a contemporary Christian communicator more succinctly averred:

“Our God had a big eraser!!”

AMEN

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