"You have searched me, Lord, and you know me."
Faith Baptist Church
A Psalm of Being Known - Psalm 139:1 NIV
Let's pray. Hello, and we're thankful to gather here as your family. And as always, we ask for you to speak to us. Your servants are listening. We want to know you. We want to know you. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, I want to bring you to the 1960s, the end of the decade, and man who was attempting to go to the moon. It took a lot of calculations, a lot of intense work to figure that out. And they accomplished it. At the same time, man was attempting to do something else. Man was attempting to understand and fully know their spouse. And in the late 1960s, the newlywed game came on the scene. And we have yet to accomplish that. And so these brave newlyweds would stand before a national television hoping and praying they can remember things like their wife's middle name. And I'm sure there were awkward car rides and flights back from that show when the husband blinked. And yet, it reminds us that newlywed game that we want to be known. I mean, the look on their spouse's face when the husband would blink. You could just see the wife say, "I want to be known. Please tell me you know this about me," right? And in the same way, we want to be known. We desperately want to be known. And yet, in a lot of ways, we're terrified of it. Because with it comes the risk of being rejected, of being ignored, of being abandoned, being judged. And as the years have rolled on, I don't know if we've necessarily gotten better at knowing one another. In a lot of ways with technology, I think we've gotten worse. If you think about Facebook and social media, we've invented ways that promise that you can get to know each other without the risk of being fully vulnerable. And yet, we've also lost the reward of truly knowing others. We might have hundreds of friends on Facebook, and yet in reality, not really be known. Not really have a single one of them. It's a true friend that knows us. And why that bothers us is because to fully be known, to be known as an ingredient is to be loved. I mean, think in your life, the people you know the best, or the people that know you the best, the parents, spouse. Aren't they the ones you love the most and who have loved you the most? They go hand in hand. Deep relationship requires being known and knowing others. Knowing is part of loving. Of loving God, loving others, being loved by God, and being loved by others. There's someone that I talked to a few years ago who would have been in his 20s when the newlywed game first came out. He's in his late 80s, early 90s now, and I still remember something he said to me. He talked about his family, and he said that one of the best part about being in his family is that after all these years of knowing me, they still like me. And I like that. Not sure they always liked him, but I think what he was sensing was they accept me. They know me, they accept me. They love me. And I hope you can find that type of being known here in God's family, as brothers and sisters, and it all stems from having the same father in our heavenly father and being known by him. And if God was on the newlywed game, he knows everything about each one of us. He couldn't be stumped. He knows us better than we know ourselves. That's scary, and yet maybe reassuring thought, depending on how you think about it. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And just think about the capacity that means for how God can love us. The capacity that God has for a relationship, and that he knows everything about us. And that's what our Psalm this morning, 139 gets at. David writes this Psalm, and David had a crazy life. So many twists and turns, so many different seasons to his life. One day he's a shepherd, the next he's a hero who defeated Goliath. One day he's king, next day he's running for his life, a fugitive on the run. Just a crazy life with twists and turns, and yet he reflects on how well God knows him. In some ways he figured it out, and other ways he was left with mystery. And that he hasn't fully figured it out, and there's beauty to that. I'll share that in a little bit here. But the scripture starts here in verse 1, says, "You have searched me, O Lord, and you know me." This word for no, it's a relationship type of knowing. It's not just knowing about you. It's not that they went on Wikipedia or Facebook and memorized some facts about you. But it's the knowledge of having a twin sister or twin brother. That's always there with you. And they get each other, they know each other. And it's that type of word that's being used. And verse 2 mentions this again, it says, "You know, you personally know." It says, "You know when I sit and when I rise." That word for sit is when I dwell and abide somewhere. And yet rises when I'm upheavaled and on the move and looking for a new place. He knows the state that you're in. He continues saying, "You perceive my thoughts from afar." He knows what you're thinking even before you think it. It's amazing, amazing. This word for thoughts, it means the attitudes and the purposes of your heart. The way you're aiming your life, it's actually a word taken from livestock as their grazing patterns. It says, "If God is a good shepherd saying, I know where you're going to go before you go. I know that you're going to go for the clovers. I just know you're going to go for the tall grass. I know where you're going to go. I know the attitudes of your heart. I know what you want. I know what's going to catch your eye." Verse 3 says, "You discern my going out, my lying down. I love how this copies, the last sermon I gave up here was Psalm 23. The good shepherd who lays me down in green pastures and by calm waters." And so wouldn't this God make a good counselor, a good shepherd, a good friend? I know everything about you. Continues by saying, "You are familiar with not just some, but the word all, all my ways." We see this word all used again and again. It gives an example. So before a word is on my tongue, you Lord, you know it. It uses the word all. You know it all. You know it completely. And we have a word for that, a God who knows it all. We call that omniscient. We have an all-knowing God. The Hebrew uses a word in here of behold as to emphasize that this is one of the main points. Behold, you know it all. You know it completely. And so I want you to reflect on that next time you think God made a mistake. That there are no coincidences. There's no chances. There's no accidents. And there's questions that come with this sermon such as, well what about our free will? What about our responsibility? Do we have a responsibility? Yes, we do. You might ask questions like, "How can God give more grace to one person in one situation than another?" I don't know. Neither does the Psalmist. But for the grace that the writer here has received, he gives God praise in all of the credit. For the grace this person's received, he praises God. He continues in, he says, "You hem me in behind and before." The word for him is, "You've surrounded me. You've encircled me. It's a military term. You've besieged me. There's no escape behind and before. My past, my future, you know it all, and you have laid your hand upon me." That's not just a hand of blessing, but it's a word for a hand of seizing me and capturing me. You've got me. There's no escape. That's how the Psalmist views his relationship with God. That God has laid his hand upon him, that not by his own doing has he received anything, but by the grace of God. This shepherd boy made king. He says this by the grace of God. Nothing of my own doing. But the passion of the Lord has pursued me and accomplished this. He's been captured with irresistible grace. Verse 6, I love verse 6. For those who have questions on how this all works, it says, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me." Too lofty for me to attain. I love how that's in Scripture. There's things that Scripture explains and where to search those out, the revealed Word of God. But there's mystery in God and in who he is. And I'm okay with that. Scripture is okay with that. Scripture does not explain every single thing, but it explains to us what we need to know. And we are to make the plain things, the main things, such as knowing the character of God. He is loving. He is sovereign. God makes that very clear and plain in his Scripture. And this knowledge understanding how all these pieces might fit together. It says, "It's too wonderful for me. It's incomprehensible. It's beyond understanding." Too lofty. It's too high for us to attain. We don't have the power or the ability to do it. There are a lot of smart people out there that continue to argue about how this all works out. And God knowing all of time in his hands, the past and the future. The writer here just goes, "That's too high for me. Too lofty. This God is outside of my comprehension right now." And yet it's the same loftiness. It's the same most high God that also brings us a peace that we can't explain. And a protection that we can't explain. It's in that same unreachable spot that he holds us in the palm of his hand and protects us. No enemy of God can figure him out or thwart his plans. For he is sovereign. What he wants accomplished will be accomplished. I think of Job as he asked questions during his life in the Scriptures. He had all sorts of questions. And at the end of it all, he says to God, "Surely I spoke of which I knew nothing about." And he was confronted with the right questions, which were, "Job, where did you come from? And where were you before creation?" It's just beautiful when God asks him those questions. He says, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Where were you when I stretched out the skies? Where were you when I marked out the borders of the seas?" And Job goes, "In light of those questions, God, I surely spoke of which I knew nothing about." And yet that was not a Job that was in despair of not having those answers. That was a Job confident and secure being in relationship with the God who has all the answers. Saying, "God, I'm going to trust you." "God, I know that you know, and that's enough for me." So the first six verses focus on God being all knowing. And the next six verses focus on God being all present, being everywhere. It starts in verse seven, "Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there." The Hebrew puts the word behold at the end of this saying, "Behold, you are there." Emphasizing the point that God is everywhere. God is omnipresent. And this is spoken as if one who had tried to run from God. I don't know if any of you have been in that spot where you've tried to run from God. It's not going to work. He's everywhere. Certainly there's places that we might feel closer to God. We might be more surrendered to His will. We might be more attuned to listening to His voice. Some people it's on the mountains. Others it's in the field. Some of us it's here in the sanctuary. Others it's in that spot, that chair in our porch looking out the window. For some it's on the seat of a riding lawn mower. But whether we feel closer to God or not in a certain moment, He's there. There's no corner of the earth the Lord has abandoned. There's no part of your life, He has not been present. Remember that especially for those areas in your life that you might consider trauma. Something counselors will do will encourage you to picture God with you in that moment. Because He was there, that single track of footprints was Him carrying you. He was there and He was bringing you through it. Verse 9 continues, "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast." Yet again we see this idea of God's hand being on this person, to guide them, to hold them fast. Is that comforting or terrifying to you? It's a little bit above. It puts us in our proper place. This next part even continues the theme, verse 11, "If I say surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you." God is saying, "Even in the darkness I see you." Again, is that terrifying or is that comforting? Well, here's the thing. He knows everything about you, past, future. There's no place you can run away from the presence of God. He knows everything about you. And that stirs up that vulnerability of being known. We say God knows everything, someone knows everything about me. What if he ignores me? What if he rejects me? What if he abandons me? What if he judges me? Yet, as demonstrated in his love through Jesus Christ and the cross, he loves us and he loves you. He knows everything about you and he loves you. You are fully known and therefore you're able to be fully loved. Better than any spouse, better than any parent. You are known and loved by God. And no one and no thing and no place can you run to escape that. That is true. Verse 13 through 18 we'll finish today. God is also the source of our being. The reason we exist is because it was God's idea. He wanted you. He wanted to know you and be known by you. He says in verse 13, "For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb." Think of the miracle of life. Not just physically, but he fashions our soul, our capacity for eternity, our capacity to be made in the image of God. Where does that come from when a baby is born? It comes from God. He knits that together. Psalmist says in verse 14, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well." This person sees himself as wonderfully made. I think often as Christians we don't share in the same way God views us. To get at how God views us, let's consider what maybe how he doesn't view us. Well, he doesn't view us the way Satan does. Satan views us as trash. Good for nothing. Mess ups. Deserving of wrath. God doesn't view us that way. He doesn't view us with hate and vengeance as trash to be discarded. But while we are still sinners, Christ died for us and proved to the sinner that you have immense worth in his eyes, that the image of God put in you was not extinguished through sin. It's still there. God says you are amazing. You're the crown of my creation. I want you to have a hope and a future with me. My favorite scripture of mine is out of Zephaniah 317, which mentions God like a father. He says he rejoices over you with singing church. He adores you and loves you. He knows everything about you. Verse 15 continues. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. That word "unformed body" is the word of an embryo. When you were in your mother's womb, God had plans for you. He knew you. He didn't need an ultrasound to know what gender you'd be or if you were healthy or not, he knew everything about you. He was the one knitting you together in your mother's womb. He never stopped. From the end of verse 16 says, "All the days ordained from me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Wow. Wow. You know, this last week or two has been a little crazy around here if faith baptized us on our prayer page. If I had someone say goodbye to a husband, someone said goodbye to a father, two people get much needed organ transplants, just a phone call one morning saying, "Today's your day." The two other people go to ER just trying to figure out what's going on. Yet we can take comfort on this. Let our days run God's hands. And I know many of you surrendered to that saying, "I'm trusting God. It's more evident now than ever, but it's always been true that every breath I draw is determined on God for what He is apportioned for me, for what He's given to me." Continue saying, "How precious to me are your thoughts, God. How vast is some of them?" To think that God has this kind of knowledge to all 8 billion people on the planet. I can't understand that. It's beyond my understanding. It's amazing that He can do that. And yet so many of us, we don't view that as precious as eyes on us. We almost take it for granted. They're like, "Well, of course." Or even we just ignore it and just go about our day. Can you imagine being God, having intimate relationship knowledge of all 8 billion people on the planet? Just being ignored. You probably can't believe it. Oh, that we might be one who does not ignore this God who knows this. Think about the newlywed show. One person might know everything about their spouse and their spouse goes, "I don't know what your middle name is." It's like, "Come on. I know everything about you, and yet you don't care to get to know me too." I bet what really irks the Lord the most. We see it in the scriptures are those who claim to be a friend of God who don't really know Him. To have a friend that says, "Oh, yeah, we're so tight, and yet I..." Wait, you were in the ER last night? I had no idea what? You're from Minnesota, you know? You're married? What? What did that happen? God says, "There's those that honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." You desire to know the one who knows us, everything about us. You have the capacity for that relationship. It's the closest relationship you'll ever have, and it carries into eternity forever. Getting to know this God, and getting to know this God, it never ends. Look in verse 18. This is where I had to count them, all of your thoughts. They would outnumber the grains of sand. Now, for us, the sand, we think of a beach, sand shore, but I think over in Jerusalem, sand might just be the dirt that you're standing on. It's almost like saying, try digging until there's nothing beneath you. It's going to take forever. Our God is that big. We will have eternity forever digging into the depths of God. Just scripture that I'd memorized through the help of my mom. It's out of Romans 11, verses 33 through 36, and it rings this type of flavor. It says, oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. Oh, the depths. The riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How insertible are his judgments, how inscrutable his way is for who has known the mind of the Lord, for who has been his counselor, or who has given a gift to him that we should be repaid, for from him and through him and back to him are all things. So to him be the glory forever and ever, amen. I'm okay with the big view of God, Church. I'm okay that even the name of God in the scripture, we don't know how to pronounce. There's even mystery in the name of Yahweh. I don't even know if I said that right. Even in scripture it says it's okay to believe in a God that is bigger than you. And I would admit that it is necessary to believe in a God that is bigger than you. A God that is beyond your understanding, because there's stuff out there that's beyond your understanding. You're not going to get it on this side of heaven. There's questions like Joe Bass. God, why this? Why that? It's bigger than you. And you're not going to get it. And yet the question God's asking back is, where were you when I made? Creation. Do you realize how big I am, Joe? To which Joe replied, you're right. I don't. That's the point, Church, that we have a God bigger than us. Bigger than anything you might face. That his loftiness and the most high place in which he sits that escapes much of our understanding is the same place in which we are protected and sheltered by the most high God. And under the shadow of his wings, we are safe. So give those things you don't get. Give them to God. He already knows everything about you. He knows what hurts you. He knows what's going to bring you pain. Yet why don't we listen to that God when he says, "Hey, Church, my ways are best." Walk in this way, in this path of life. Follow an obedience to my will for it's good for you. A God with perfect foreknowledge, we can trust him. So do you know the God who knows you? That last line he said, "When I awake, I'm still with you." David was a man after God's own heart. He knew this God that was bigger than him. Do you know this God that's bigger than you? In closing, I just want to mention this God that knows you so well. He knew you on the cross as Jesus was on the cross. He saw your whole life from start to finish. He knew you were coming, and he knew that you would need him. So he took the wrath and punishment of your sin upon him before you even did it. Place his hand on you. He desired to cover you and his blood shut on the cross to give you forgiveness and access and relationship so that you might also know God in return. And yet much like the first sinner with Adam in the garden, Adam hid, became afraid of relationship with God. So often, Church, we hide parts of our life from the one who already knows it all. But he's ready to cover us. This forgiveness and his mercy and his grace. And it will fill that God shaped whole in your life for relationship that no person should or could fill. And so we admit that we're sinners. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we commit our ways to him. And in that same character of who God is, a God who knows and loves us, we seek to know and love one another, to be known and to be loved by one another. And so as a Church, again, I hope you find that here. A place where you can be known and you can be loved. A place where you can get offline and find real relationship. After Church, we have our connect hour where we hope that you get to meet somebody new. Someone who needs to be known and needs to be loved. In the same way that you need to be known and need to be loved. We encourage everyone in our Church to be part of midweek small groups. Our children do it, our youth do it. Many of our adults do it. Go out and find someone new and invite them to join you during the week to do life together. We have a pool party this afternoon that you can get to know each other. Why not do it over a burger at five o'clock or swimming from three to five? We're putting a directory together for those who call Faith family their home so that we can see the faces of those who call this place home. And so that for those whose pictures aren't in there, we can realize they need to be known too. And they need a family too. We all need to be known. There's way too much loneliness out there. Let's pray. Lord, the way you know us, it's beyond understanding. And yet it assures these feeble hearts of ours that we are safe. That we are sheltered by the most high. That anything that gets us has to go through you first. And that you shielded us on the cross through Jesus Christ. So I pray, Lord, we might know you in return, deeper and deeper, all the days of our lives. We might be fully loved even as we are fully known. Give this to your church, I pray. Amen. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪