PSALM 139 YOU HAVE SEARCHED ME O LORD2016 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Psalm 139 You Have Searched Me O Lord

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2016.

As we look at Psalm 139 this morning, we're looking at a Psalm of David. And so we're looking at this song that David wrote as he was contemplating and considering God's attention on him. And we can see that in verse 1 as he starts out by saying, "'O Lord, you have searched me and known me.'" And that gives me the title for the message this morning. The title of the message is, "'You have searched me, O Lord.'"

And we'll be considering this idea of God searching us this morning as David is contemplating these things here in this psalm. The word search here in verse 1 means to examine thoroughly. It

It's a complete and total examination of, well, David by God. And how complete, how thorough is this examination or investigation? Well, David will use some things in his life to illustrate and to demonstrate how thorough this examination is.

Perhaps you've gone through the airport recently and gone through security and had to do the new body scan. You have to hold up your hands and the whole thing runs around you. And many people will express they feel so naked in that. It's really a deep scan. It's really exposing things. Well, this kind of searching that the Lord does is that plus a whole bunch more to a whole nother level.

Everything that is seen about you, the Lord examines all the way down to your DNA, all the way down to your cells and the molecular structure. God is able to see those things and knows those things and has those things in his perspective. But then also there's the unseen elements to who you are. There is your soul, there is your mental capacities and those kinds of things as well. And those things are examined by the Lord thoroughly and

completely. And so we stand before God having been searched completely. I like what Warren Wiersbe has to say about this psalm. He says, I like that.

The way that we perceive, the way that we receive Psalm 139 really depends on the status of where we're at in our relationship with God. And if your desire is to be right with God, if your desire is to walk with God, as we talked about on Wednesday, if you're sold out for God and that's the passion of your life, this Psalm will be a great comfort to you. It will be a great encouragement to you.

But if you're trying to live on the edge, one foot in the Lord and one foot in the world, if you're trying to hide from God or run from God or not do what God wants you to do or keep on doing things that God doesn't want you to do, if you're trying to do anything but an all-out pursuit of God,

Well, hopefully this psalm will help you understand and realize that's not the position where you need to be. It's not a good position to be, and it's not something you can do. You cannot hide from God or fool God.

And so again, the title of the message is, You Have Searched Me, O Lord. And we'll look through four points as we look at this psalm to help us consider how God searches us. We begin in verses one through six. Point number one is, Lord, you know me thoroughly.

Again, this whole idea of God searching me. And the end result of that is a thorough knowledge of me. God knows me thoroughly. He says again in verse 1, That word search, to examine thoroughly, is used many times to describe displeasure.

digging for gold. In Job chapter 28 verses 1 through 3, Job uses this idea of searching to talk about mining for silver and gold. And so if you would think about that for a moment, you know, as you would dig in the ground, you're removing dirt, you're removing the things that block the view of the valuables there in the soil, and you're uncovering those things so that you can get to what's really going on down below.

And the soil that you pull out in order to get down to the depths there, that's sifted and sorted and checked out to see, was there anything valuable in there? It's a thorough searching of the soil when you're searching for gold. It's a digging. It's a penetrating. It's, you know, uncovering the things that are there.

This is the way that God searches us. All the dirt, all the things that, you know, there's a lot of things that you and I can do to hide things from one another. Even from our closest friends, even from our spouse, there's things that are covered, that are hidden,

And perhaps in a way that's, you know, intentional, that's, you know, well, I don't want people to know about this. But also, it doesn't have to be in a negative sense, but there's just a lot of complexity to who you are. There's a lot of complexity to what you are. And so there's a lot of things that are hidden, that are covered, that are not seen, that

But when it comes to the Lord, he searches us in such a way that everything that would cover is removed. Everything that would hide is taken away. And so we are there standing before God, known thoroughly. Everything is exposed. We're completely revealed before God. And so David says, the result of your searching, Lord, is you know me.

And that covers every aspect of his life. He'll look at a couple different avenues here. First, he talks about, you know, every action. Check out verse two. He says, you know, my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. What does God know? He says, Lord, you know, my sitting down and my rising up. Here, David uses simple things. The simple thing of sitting down.

As we began our time in the Word together, I asked you to stand, and we read through the passage, and then we greeted one another, and then you had a seat. The standing up and the sitting down, they're simple things. They're everyday things. They're things that we do continually, oftentimes without even thinking about it. Do you know how many times you stood up and sat down yesterday? You probably don't have that figure on the top of your mind, but you know God does.

And David uses this simple thing to emphasize the extent of God's knowledge, the detail of God's knowledge, the fact that every action that you take, God knows. He knows about the standing up and everything you do while you're standing up. And then he knows about the sitting down and everything you do while you're sitting down. He knows whether you're standing or sitting and

In each particular moment, for every moment, for every instant, always, he always knows what position you're in, where you're at, what's going on, what actions you're involved in. In verse three, he says, you comprehend my path and my lying down. So the ways that I'm going, the routes that I'm taking, as well as the time that I'm sleeping, my laying down, everything you know, you comprehend, you understand, you have a complete picture of it

He says, you are acquainted with all my ways. There's no action that you take. There's nothing that your body does that God does not know about. When you roll over in bed, God knows. When you get up, when you stand up, when you sit down, when you step, when you drive, whatever you're doing, every action, God has searched you, he's examined you, and he knows it completely and accurately.

Those are your actions. That's kind of the external stuff, but he also knows what's going on on the inside. He knows every thought as well as every action. Again, in verse 2, he says, you know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thoughts afar off. So not only does he know every action, not only does he uncover every movement, but he also understands every thought.

And you could think about that idea of a thought as an individual thought, some particular thing that you might be thinking. But thought can also be used to describe objectives, plans, goals, you know, what you're aiming towards, what you're working towards, what you have in mind as you do the actions that you do.

And God is understanding both. He understands every random thought. He knows about every thought that goes through your head and also the intentions and the objectives and the goals and the plans that you have. He says, you understand my thought afar off. Now, as he says this,

far off. Understand he's not talking about God being a great distance away, and yet even though he's so far away, he can still understand your thought. We'll see in just a few verses down below, David will talk about the presence of God and how he's always in the presence of God. God's always there with you. So it's not about being far away, but the idea here is from the very beginning of the thought, God knows it. You can't have the thought before God knows it.

God knows what you're thinking even before you know what you're thinking. I don't know if it's just me because I'm...

overly analytical. You know, it takes me a long time to think about and to know what I'm thinking because I'm thinking about what I'm thinking and then I think about what I'm thinking and then I'm trying to figure out what I think about that. And so there's all this, you know, and so sometimes it takes me a while and Kim will say, what do you think about that? I say, I have no idea. And so she'll have to kind of like interrogate me a little bit or interview me a little bit, ask me, oh, and so finally by the end, okay, now I understand what I think about that.

But God understands the thought before all that. He knows what's happening in the mind. He understands what's happening within our heads and within our hearts. He searched us. He searched me. He knows every action. He knows every thought. And not only that, he knows every word. Verse four, for there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. There has never been a word on your tongue that God did not know.

Every word that you speak, God knows it. He knows about it. He knows what you said. The implication here, now going back to the thoughts, it's pretty clear, right? God even knows the words that you didn't say, right?

There's a lot of times I'm pretty proud of myself for what I didn't say, right? You're like, well, you should just be grateful I didn't say what I wanted to say, right? But all those things that we're so proud of ourselves that we didn't say, hey, God knows those things. He sees those things. There's those words on our tongues when we bit our tongues and those words on our tongues when we just let it out. God knows every word, whether they're spoken or unspoken. He says in verse 5, you hedged me behind and before God.

Here is David is considering the knowledge of God, the searching of God. He goes into this understanding of protection. You've hedged me behind and before.

Everywhere I go, everywhere I am, you are. You surrounded me. You've got me covered on all sides. And so you know all of these details because you're before me and you're behind me and you've laid your hand upon me. Now, again, as we understand this psalm, part of the way that we understand it is determined by where we're at in our hearts and where we're at in our relationship with God. When it talks about God laying his hand upon me,

I could receive that as a great comfort that God's hand is on me. God's hand is on my life. Or I could receive it as God's hand is on me in the sense of correction and rebuke. And both are possible and both are things that God does because he is hedging us before and behind. Because he does know every action, every thought, and every word.

But regardless of whether you receive that as a good thing or maybe a not so good thing, the point is God is still with me. God is still with me even though he knows every action and every thought and every word. Now, I don't want to call anybody out or anything, but just think about in your own mind. Do you think the person sitting next to you would want to be sitting next to you if they knew everything about your actions, if they knew every thought, if they knew every word?

Do you think they'd want to spend eternity with you? Do you think they'd want to, you know, hang out with you and sit in the same room with you? I think we wouldn't want people to know every action, every thought, every word. People wouldn't hang around for very long. But here's the thing. God knows all those details. He's searched. He's uncovered. He's exposed. He knows everything about your actions, your thoughts, your words. And he still has hedged you before and behind. And he has his hand upon you. He still cares for you.

even though he knows everything about you. Every moment of every day, every action, every thought, every word, every motive, he knows. If that causes you to fear, well, again, it's based on where you're at in your relationship with God. But Jesus said God's knowledge should be a great comfort to you. This kind of knowledge, this kind of detail, the fact that God knows these things should be comforting to you, not painful.

causing you to fear. Consider what Jesus said in Luke chapter 12, verse 6 and 7. He said, Jesus talks about the sparrows and says, look, they're not real valuable. They're inexpensive. They're

You can buy five of them for just a couple copper coins. But not one of those sparrows is forgotten by God. Not one of those sparrows is lost as far as God is concerned. He knows about every transaction. But Jesus is making the point, you're much more valuable than many sparrows. And so if God has that level of detail and attention on sparrows that are less valuable, how much more will God have his attention and focus on you?

Well, so much so, Jesus says, that the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Now, that's more comforting to some than to others, perhaps. But the whole point is, he says, do not fear, therefore, because God knows every detail about you. He knows every detail about your life and your mind and your heart and your words and your actions. And that is occasion not for you to fear, but it's occasion for you to be encouraged and comforted because God values you so greatly and

that he investigates so thoroughly to know every detail about you. David goes on in verse 6 to say, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. As David thinks about how well God knows him, how thoroughly God has examined him, he says, I can't understand this kind of knowledge. This is really speaking about the omniscience of God, the fact that God knows everything about

And he's always known everything. And it's something that, well, our minds cannot comprehend fully. We can try to imagine, but we really don't know what it's like to know everything like God knows everything. But God does know everything. And so we'll come to the point like David where we say, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's the reality. It's the truth. Even though I can't understand it and I don't know exactly what that's like, I can't attain that kind of knowledge because

Lord, that's the kind of knowledge that you have of me. Lord, you know me thoroughly. Every action, every thought, and every word. If you are faithful, if you're seeking to walk with God, that's a comforting thought. Because God, knowing all those things, still wants to spend eternity with you. But if these things cause you a little bit of concern...

If these things cause you to fear, maybe cause your heart to pound a bit, cause you to get a little bit nervous and maybe even sweating a little bit in here this morning, you know, because it's uncomfortable for you. Listen, it's a word from the Lord for you that you need to come out of hiding, that God loves you so much. He's calling you out of hiding. You don't have to hide. You can't hide even if you try. But the attempt to hide is your refusal to draw near to God.

Your refusal to submit to God. Listen, Jesus Christ died upon the cross for our sin because he knows every detail about us. He's never shocked by what we do. There are times when we're shocked, right? We're like, I can't believe I did that. God never has that experience with you. He didn't, oh, I can't believe he did that. I can't believe she would do that. No, no, he knows. He already knew you were gonna, that's why he sent his son to die upon the cross for us.

And so it does no use for us to try to hide those things from God. Instead, what we need to do is acknowledge those things and receive the forgiveness for those things that God has provided through faith in Jesus Christ. And we need to turn from sin to follow the Lord. And so this morning, perhaps God is calling you out of hiding. Experience the grace and forgiveness of God by faith in Jesus Christ. It should be a cause for comfort, not for fear.

God knows you thoroughly. And if you're not comforted by that, start being comforted and seek to get right with Jesus Christ. Well, moving on to verses 7 through 12, here we have point number two, and that is, I cannot hide from your presence, Lord. As we think about God searching us thoroughly, searching us and examining us completely, David...

looks at his location, his geography, and wonders, well, is there a place where I can escape this analysis, this examining from the Lord? Verse 7 says, where can I go from your spirit, or where can I flee from your presence? Where can I go from your presence, God? Can I get out of the place where you can examine me this way? You know, is it only in this, you know, x-ray machine that you can see me like this?

Where can I go from your presence? Now, it was common in those days for people to believe that gods, lowercase gods, were localized. That there were gods that different people worshipped, but that they had power only in certain regions.

And so there were, you know, gods over this region, the gods of the hills and the gods of the valleys, you know, the gods of Egypt and so on and so forth. And so they believed many times that they were local, that they only had power in certain locations. You can see that demonstrated in the account of Jonah. You know, Jonah, the prophet of God, he hears from the Lord a message that

to go to Nineveh to bring forth, you know, God's opportunity of repentance to Nineveh as he brings the announcement of judgment. And Jonah says, I don't like that message. I don't want them to have the opportunity to repent. And so what does he do? He tries to run from God's presence. He goes the opposite direction. He goes and gets on a boat and heads across the Mediterranean to Tarshish.

Now, as he's making this journey, he tells the sailors what he's doing. He says, yeah, I'm running from God. I'm fleeing from the presence of God. And the way I see this play out in my head is he tells them, yeah, I'm running from God. I'm fleeing from God. And they say, okay, yeah, that makes sense. No problem. Yeah, we can get you on a boat. We can get you far away from your God and you'll be out of the presence of God. And that's no problem until they understand who Jonah's God is. In Jonah chapter one, verse 10,

It happens now. He's on the boat with them. They're on the Mediterranean. There's a terrible storm. They've done everything they can to survive. It's not letting up. They're still looking like they're going to die. And Jonah says, if you toss me overboard, then you'll survive. The storm will calm. And they're confused. Why would that be? Because I'm running from God. Well, who's your God? Oh, my God's the creator of the heavens and the earth. And in verse 10, it says, then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, why have you done this?

For the men knew that he'd fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them. Once they understood who Jonah's God was, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the God of Israel, oh, you're trying to run from that God? Are you stupid? You can't run from that God. He's here too. You can't escape him. They realized. Now, when he said, I'm running from God, they said, OK, yeah, no problem. Because he told them, right? But now they're exceedingly afraid as they recognize who his God is. You see, they had this understanding. It was localized.

until they realized who his God was. You're trying to flee from that God? You can't flee from that God. And that's what David is expressing here. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? He's asking a question, not expecting an answer because we know the answer, nowhere.

He'll go on to describe that a bit here in verse 8, 9, and 10. It says, if I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.

So David explores some options. Where can I go from the presence of God? Well, let's see. What if I go into heaven? If I ascend into heaven? Now, you could look at that into the heavens as in the stars, heading into space and going across the galaxy or across the universe. Or you could look at that as in the spiritual heaven, where God's throne is. And so, of course, God's going to be there in heaven.

If I go down into hell or make my bed in hell, the word there is Hades or Sheol. It's the Hebrew word for the grave. So in other words, if I, you know, experience the ultimate in life, heaven, or even experience great death, behold, you're there. In life or death, I'm still going to be in the presence of God. I'm not going to escape God.

He says in verse 9, if I take the wings of the morning, and I like that picture, the wings of the morning. The idea here is as the day's beginning to dawn, so the sun's coming up and the light is spreading across the land. That light, the speed that it spreads across the earth, that's the idea of the wings of the morning. So if you grab hold of one of those rays of light and just take it as it begins to expose and go farther and farther, and you take that to the uttermost parts of the sea, you take it to the very end, it will take you there.

David says, even there, I'll arrive on that ray of light, and there you're going to be leading me, and your right hand shall hold me. No matter where I go, no matter how far I run, no matter how high I climb, no matter how far down I dig, you're going to be there. Now, as we consider these things today, we could take it another step and think about, you know, there's several groups of people who are working to try to put man on Mars, and

There's actually a group that people can sign up for. They plan a one-way trip in 2025. Planning to get there, no plans to come back. So it's either, you know, you get there and you make it and you survive or you die trying. But to try to go and live on Mars. So if you want to sign up for that, you're welcome to do so.

But you know, if you sign up for that and it's successful, you get on the rocket, you spend the year traveling, you know, through space and you land on Mars and you set up your colony there or whatever, you're still going to be in the presence of God. You won't escape God's presence by landing on Mars. It won't work.

There's nowhere that you can go to get away from the presence of God. The Lord says it this way in Jeremiah 23, 24. Can anyone hide himself in secret places so I shall not see him, says the Lord? Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord? God says he fills heaven and earth. He is everywhere at the same time. So in the first point, we were talking about God's omniscience.

Here we're talking about God's omnipresence. He fills the heavens and the earth. He fills. He is everywhere. There is nowhere that you can go. Sometimes, kind of like the people in Jonah's day, we think of God localized. We come to church. We're in this building. We're in the presence of God. But you're just as much in the presence of God here as you were in the car on the way here.

Now, maybe you didn't behave in the car as if you were in the presence of God on the way here, but you were in the presence of God. We are not limited, or he is not limited to one certain place. He's not limited to certain locations. He is everywhere, and we cannot escape the presence of God. And so God says, can you hide in secret places? Can you hide anywhere where I won't see you? No, because I'm there. David kind of

considers that thought as well. In verse 11 and 12 here, he says, if I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you. This is amazing. If I was trying to hide from you,

Well, I could try different places. I could try to hide by geography, or I could try to hide by timing. Wait till it's dark, and then it will be much more difficult for you to find me. I remember being young and being at my friend's house, and I don't know if things are

just radically different now, or it's just my perception of things. But we would play hide and seek literally till two or three o'clock in the morning out just the whole neighborhood, you know, out down the street and everything. And I'm not even talking about good, I mean, I'm talking about La Sierra, you know, right behind the high school. That wasn't, that was never a good area even when I was young. But we would be all night and hide and seek was so fun at night because you couldn't see anything. And so we would just be laughing and roaring and hiding and chasing and just having a good time.

All of that hide and seek happening at night was not different to God than when we played hide and seek during the day. He says in verse 12, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the light shines as the day. When God is looking at things, it makes no difference whether it's day or night. It makes no difference whether it's dark or night. It's not that God has some really good night vision goggles, you know, so he can see pretty well or mostly well or, you know, see better than most people.

It's no difference. The night is the same as the day as far as God is concerned. So there's nowhere that we can hide from God and there's no time that we can hide from God. That's the point. I cannot hide from your presence, Lord. You've searched me. You've examined me and there is no hiding no matter where I go, no matter what time it is. And that can be very comforting for those who are walking with God because you understand God sees me.

no matter what I'm going through, no matter what the situation is, no matter what I'm experiencing. If I'm going through great darkness, the valley of the shadow of death, God sees me. He knows what's going on. He's aware of what's happening. Sometimes we feel so alone, don't we? We feel like we have been outside of God's presence, and not necessarily because we're running from God, but just because of what's happening in our lives. But here, as David considers these things, he realizes that

There's nothing that can hide me from your presence. There's nowhere that would take me out of your presence. You're right here with me no matter what I'm going through, no matter where I am, no matter what time it is. But again, if you're trying to hide from God, well, this will cause you a little bit of concern because hopefully you see the obvious point. You cannot hide from God. You cannot. There's nowhere that you can go where you escape God.

God's understanding and God's searching and God's examining. He knows your heart. He knows your actions. He knows your motives. No matter where you are, no matter what time it is, things that are hidden from people are never hidden from God. Well, we find point three in the next passage, verses 13 through 18.

Here we see, Lord, you fashioned me and all my days. Verse 13 says, for you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb. As David thinks about the examination of God, he realizes this goes back to the very beginning. God's involvement in my life was from conception. He says, you formed my inward parts.

And you did this in my mother's womb. You covered me. My development, my beginning there in the womb, that was your work. You did that. I like the way the New Living Translation puts this verse. It says, you made all the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb.

I like that picture, God with knitting needles, you know, just knitting you together in the womb. It's God's work is the point. He's the one who did the work of forming you from the very beginning, from conception. He did that work. He was involved in the process. He was doing the shaping and the forming and getting things to align and bringing things together. It's not just mechanics. It's not just biology. You know, it's not just, you know, systems that work.

David says, you're a part of that. You formed my inward parts. He says in verse 14, I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are your works and that my soul knows very well. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, David says. As he thinks about how he's been formed from the beginning, as he thinks about how he's made and the way that he works, it prompts him to praise God for everything

who he is and what he's able to do. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. There's so many ways that we could consider this because our bodies are absolutely amazing. I would encourage you, if you want to just kind of do a little bit of encouragement and investigation for yourself, just pick one element of your body and begin to research it a bit.

And you'll see that, man, there's detail upon detail upon detail, complexity upon complexity. Our bodies are absolutely amazing. You know, doctors can choose a specific part of the body and study it their whole life and at the end, not fully understand it. Just one part. But then you put it all together. Well, it's overwhelming.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Now, of course, we live in a day of technology and we love our technology. We love, you know, accomplishing things and we have our computers and, you know, so powerful and such. And yet it's amazing how limited much of our technology is as well. One of the areas that's fun for me to consider is robots.

And robotics are interesting. You know, they're really fascinating. And they can do powerful things, except for they can also struggle with very simple things.

And last year, not last year, but actually last month, April, there was all kinds of excitement as a Japanese company introduced and announced this robot that they put together. Now, it's not much to look at, right? But what makes this robot really stand out and cause people to pay attention is it has two legs.

and it can walk on those two legs. Now, that's something they've been trying to do for a long time, and it's very difficult. Most robots are on wheels or stationary because movement, that's really difficult. Wheels moving around, that's somewhat easy, but the whole idea

you know, thing of trying to navigate balance and different footings and, you know, all those kinds of things. There's all kinds of difficulties that they face. And so this is, you know, a feat of engineering that now they have this robot that can walk. They don't know what to do with it. They don't have any function for it, but it just, it's able to handle some, a little bit of walking, a little bit of stairs, and it's amazing. But listen, you've been able to do that since you were a tiny kid, right?

God has designed us in such a way, the balance that we have, the way that our joints work, the strength of our joints, the strength of our ligaments, the way that, I mean, it's incredible if you will stop and consider it. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You could consider perhaps your senses, your sight, your taste, your touch, your smell, your hearing, and consider any one of those things and you could spend the rest of your life

learning and discovering. There's great depth there. There's incredible engineering that has taken place for you to exist in the way that you exist. You could consider your brain. There was a study recently back in February that discovered or found or decided that the brain's capacity to store information was about 10 times more than what they thought. They

Figure it out about a quadrillion bytes. That's a one and 15 zeros after it. That's 10 times more than what they thought before. I would say probably in another 10 years, they'll find out there's even more there than that. But that's just the storage. There's the processing power of your brain that it's just incredible. It's an incredible design that God has made.

You could consider any of and each of your internal organs and how they work. And then bringing all of these by themselves, they're miracles. They're complex beyond our ability to understand. But then to bring all those together, and now you have complexity upon complexity upon complexity. And David says, I could testify, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. And so he says, I will praise you for this.

The response of understanding, the response of considering how God has designed him, informed him, prompted him to praise God. That should be the response in our hearts as well. The Lord has fashioned you incredibly as you recognize that. Like David say, I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Warren Wiersbe on this point says, accept what you are as his gift to you.

and then use it wisely as your gift to him. You are unique. God made you that way. You may look in the mirror and think, man, I wish things were different. But God formed you. He made you that way. He made you that way. He created you. He formed you. He fashioned you. Accept what he has made. Accept what he has done.

And then, I like what Wiersbe says, and then use it wisely as your gift to him. Give it back to him. As David says, I will praise you. That's the idea here. I'm going to praise the Lord. I'm going to seek to glorify God with the creation that he's given to me, with the body that he has created for me, with the person that he has made me to be.

Now, we're just talking about external things mostly, but there's also internal things. Your personality and your gifts and your talents, your spiritual components, your spiritual gifts, and all of these things. God has created you and packaged all this together. It's a wonderful design. Accept that design and use that for the glory of God.

Well, moving on in the passage, verse 15 says, That reference there to the lowest parts of the earth, it's an illustration or an allusion to the womb. And so again, he's talking about his frame not being hidden. God saw him.

Didn't have to wait till birth to find out if he was a boy or a girl. Didn't have to wait, you know, to then to be able to see him. His frame was seen by God as he was being formed, as he was, notice, skillfully wrought in the room, being skillfully made, engineered, designed by God. Verse 16, your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed and in your book,

They all were written. The days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them. Your eyes saw me even when I was unformed. So again, over and over and over, David's emphasizing from conception, from beginning, you were involved. You saw me, you were part of the work, you were fashioning me. And notice what he says here. He says, and in your book, they all were written.

Every detail about me, David says, was written when your eyes saw me while I was still unformed. This is, man, again, I got to keep moving because we're running out of time, but there's so much here for us to consider. There's so much that you could just really be amazed and blown away by God about how you have been designed. You think about DNA.

In each of your cells, you have this DNA that holds all the information that your body needs to grow and to shape and to mold and to become the being that you are. Things like your eye color and hair color and type of skin and shape of your nose and your height and so on and so forth. All those details are in the DNA in each cell of your body. Now, the only way for that to happen, think about it.

The only way for that to happen is for all those features and characteristics to be written and encoded before you were born. I mean, it's incredible to think about. God has been involved in

in your existence since before you were born so that as you are conceived and as you begin to take shape, that coding, all that information has been packaged together. It's there. It's always been there since the very beginning. What you would look like today, God wrote that out in your DNA before you were ever born. It's incredible.

what God has done. And again, not just your physical features, but he also talks about the days fashioned for me when as yet there were none of them. Hadn't even started living yet, but Lord, you've written out all of my days. God knows and has established the length of your life, the days of your life, what you will experience in all of those days and the things that you will encounter, the things that you will face all of those days. It's written in

It's established. He's fashioned it. He's designed it. Verse 17, how precious also are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Now as David, he starts about, you know, thinking about the beginning and conception and they're in the womb and then continues on and he says, man, your thoughts towards me are precious.

Your thoughts towards me are precious. And that means they're good thoughts. That means it's a good thing, right? I'm glad. It's good. It's beneficial that God is thinking about me. But how much does he think about me? How great is the sum of them, David says. If I tried to count them, they would be more in number than the sand. Think about the sand in all the oceans. That's, I mean, if you want, just go take a bucket and maybe try to count that.

And think about each one of those. It's a good thought that God has for you. Incredible. To the degree that God knows you, it would be easy for us to think, God doesn't like me very much. He doesn't think good things about me. It would maybe make sense if he had that many thoughts of, you know, I wish I would have made them differently. But he has an infinite number of thoughts towards you for your good, for your benefit, to bless you for what's best for you in eternity.

The Lord has fashioned me and all my days because he's thinking about me continually. He has an infinite number of thoughts about me. Thoughts of good. Thoughts for good. Thoughts of peace and not of evil. How precious are your thoughts to me? Well, finally, the fourth point is found in verses 19 through 24. Lord, lead me away from wickedness. Verse 19 says...

Oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God. Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men. Now, if you're following the flow here, this is a little bit abrupt, right? Quite a turn that is made here as he's talking about, oh, you know me thoroughly, and I can't hide from your presence, and you fashion me, and your thoughts to me are so precious. Lord, kill the bloodthirsty men. It's a little bit abrupt, but understand what David's going through here as he's thinking about

how intricately God is involved and how well God knows him. And whatever situation he's dealing with is probably very present in his mind. And really what's going on here is David is saying, you know, God, I want to pick your side. David is choosing sides here. He's saying, look, there's the wicked who are against you.

In verse 19, again, it says, oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God, depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men. Verse 20, for they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain. Lord, you know me well. You're my designer. You're my creator. You've been a part of this from the beginning. You've taken care of me. You have precious thoughts of me that are infinite. And there are these people that are fighting against you.

And as David considers them, he says, I want to separate myself from that kind of opposition. I want to choose sides. And Lord, I want you to know, I want to be on your side. I want to seek you. I want to be right with you. Verse 21. Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate you? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. I hate those who hate you, David says. Now,

There's a lot of things that I should say about this that I'm probably going to skip. But first of all, just real quick, that doesn't mean that we're called to hate people or hurt people. That's not what David's talking about here. The idea of hate in the Bible many times is used not in the way that we think, like, you know, inflict harm or wish evil or want to hurt. But hate often means hate and love. It's about choosing. It's about prioritizing.

So when God said, Esau have I hated, but Jacob have I loved, it wasn't that God actually hated Esau, but he chose Jacob to be the one who would bring forth the Messiah. It was about choosing. It was about selection.

And so what David is saying here is, Lord, those who hate you, those who choose not to be with you, I'm choosing to distance myself from that mindset. And again, separating a little bit the whole idea of hating God versus the people, as we often say, you love the sinner, but hate the sin, right? Like that's a reality. David's not contradicting that here. But you could think about it this way. The idea here of hate is to oppose God.

So I'm opposed to those who are opposed to you. I'm opposed to that work. I'm opposed to that concept. I'm opposed to that. He says with a perfect hatred. So again, in James, it tells us that man's wrath doesn't bring about the will of God. He's not talking about being in the flesh and being angry and hating in that way. Again, he's choosing sides.

And he's saying, Lord, I want to be on your side. And you can see that reflected in verse 23 and 24. He says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. You see, what David is doing here is he's recognizing all that God is and all that God knows and all that God has done and recognizing there are those who fight against God and God, I don't want to be part of that group.

I don't want to be part of those who try to run from you or fight against you. No, instead, Lord, I invite you, search me. Now, God has already searched him. He said that in verse 1. You have searched me. Past tense, it's done. But he says, God, search me. Why? So that you can lead me in the way everlasting. Search me, not for your benefit, God. You already know what's in my heart. You already know everything about me. But search me for my benefit that I would know. Jeremiah tells us, well, the Lord tells us through Jeremiah,

The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked and we can't even know our own hearts, but God knows our hearts. And so David says, search me, reveal my heart. And if there's any wicked way in me, show it to me and then lead me in the way everlasting. Lead me away from the wickedness that I'm gonna battle with. Lead me away from the wickedness that is there within. Take me out of those situations. Lord, I want to choose to be on your side. I wanna choose to follow you. And so lead me away from wickedness.

as he recognizes who God is, all that he's done for him, and how well he knows him. You have searched me, O Lord. You know me thoroughly. I can't hide from your presence. You fashioned me and all my days. There's no escape. So the only choice I really have is to choose your side, Lord. Lead me in your ways. And as Wiersbe said, I shared at the beginning,

This psalm can be very encouraging and comforting to you if you're faithful. If you want to walk with the Lord, that's encouraging. It's great. Yes, Lord, search me. Lead me. I want that. But for some, it's not encouraging. It is troubling. It's stressful. If you're trying to hide, if you're trying to run, let David's words remind you that you can't. There's nowhere to run. The only choice you have is to turn and get right with God.

The author of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13 says, If that causes you a little bit of turmoil within, let that be an indication to you of where you are in your relationship with God. Don't try to hide stuff from God. Don't try to pretend like you're awesome when you're not.

Don't try to pretend like you're faithful when you're not. Don't try to pretend. You might be able to get it past us. You can fool a lot of people, but everything is naked and open before God. And it says, to him, the eyes of him to whom we must give account. That is, we're going to stand before God one day and nothing is going to get by him. He knows.

And so we have the opportunity then to receive judgment for everything he knows or to receive forgiveness for everything he knows. I choose forgiveness. How about you? I want to run to the Lord, seek the Lord, turn from sin to follow him. There's really no other choice because the Lord has searched me thoroughly. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for each of our hearts. And Lord, we all have tendencies.

Going back to the Garden of Eden, we can see Adam and Eve trying to hide. It's such a futile effort. Lord, help us to recognize it doesn't work that way. And Lord, you don't love us less.

Because of those things you know about us. You know those things and you still love us the same. You still offer to us life and forgiveness and grace and mercy and have great things in store for us in eternity. Lord, thank you for your goodness towards us. We're so undeserving. I pray, Lord, for each one of us that you would help us to embrace this, to run to you, Lord, to confess and agree with you about our condition, about who we are and where our hearts are at.

Lord, help us not to hide from you or to attempt to run from your presence or to keep things, Lord, out of your sight. Lord, we try even though it's so futile. Lord, help us to recognize those behaviors in our own hearts, to stop that, to repent of those things, and to turn to follow you with all sincerity. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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