Automated Transcript
Good morning. We’re going to try very hard this morning not to cough because if we start, we’re not going to stop most likely. Uh, I went to the doctor and the doctor said, you have what everyone else has and there’s nothing I can do for you here. Take these pills that may get better. So, uh, it’s, it’s not contagious,
but the drainage is pretty bad. So, uh, if we, if we start coughing, uh, just, just be patient, eventually quit. Take your Bibles if you will, and open them to Psalm 139 we’re going to spend, we spent last Sunday morning in this passage. We’re going to spend some more time in it this morning and again,
next week we’ve been noticing a series of faults from this passage. Oh, around this central idea. God knows you. God knows me. David writes this, Saul, were they distinct message to declare God, to declare his glory, to declare his power, his majesty, his knowledge, his mind, his omniscience, his omnipresence? Yes. All of those things.
That’s not why David wrote them. So David took the pen of inspiration and he wrote this all not to declare just how great God is for God is great, but to declare that God in his greatness, in his omniscience, in his almighty nature, in his army, present nature, God cared about David as a singular individual on this earth and we are not to stay in back and look at this passage and to read these words as David writes them and read them and think,
well, it’s sure is nice that God cared about them. David, that’s not the point where to draw. That’s not the reason why the Holy spirit calls David depend this, this song we are to read this Solomon to be reminded that as God knew David as God in in all of his mind and all of his power and his majesty cared for David uniquely as an individual person,
not just a person who was alive, not just run out of all humanity, but as an individual. God cared for David. God fought concerning David. God acted based upon David, but we learn that God does that for each of us. David writes in Psalm one 39 verse one you have searched me and know me. David will declare at the end of Psalm one 39 in verses 23 and 24 search me,
O God and know my heart. He says, you have shirked me out. You have know me. You have investigated me And I hope you will continue to do so. Do you want to have a best friend who never thinks about you? Yeah, I mean when you picture in your mind what a best friend is. Well, someone who’s who’s like your own heart,
someone who’s incredibly close to you, do you want do you picture in your mind that person who never imagined you exist until they see you coming, never thinks about you in times of quiet when when they go, you know what I’ve been thinking about you Who never gives any contemplation or thought to you whatsoever until you just happened to be in there presence? Is that the idea of a best friend?
No. A best friend is Warren who is thinking about you when you’re not there, who does things for you when you don’t ask them to, who’s imagining what you might be doing, her, considering you as giving fault and care and concern and love to you without you asking. This is the idea that David brings forth concerning God, one who searched him out.
David’s not negating the necessity of us as humans, longing for searching, for being obedient to God. That’s, but that’s not his point. His point is that God had a desire to search out and know David personally, and this is a lesson to us that God knows us. He knows he knew David. He searched out David to know him, but God desires to know each and every one of us.
But notice the end of verse 23 and 24 he says, search me God and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties. Test me. God, examine me. Understand me personally is David’s cry even to his cares, his concerns, those things that he is anxious for. Verse 24 and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.
So here David calls upon God who has searched him in the past who hasn’t known him, who knows his every action is noses, every thought and he knows his sitting down verse two and is rising up. He knows the faults that David will think before David ever thinks. Then that’s what we discussed last week. We come now to verse three and understand as David expresses that God knows my actions and my speech.
Notice verse three you comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. David says, you’ve looked at me, Lord, you’ve searched me out, you’ve examined and investigated me and you know every action I take<inaudible> There is a multi billion dollar business in our country that is 100% made up of telling people what someone else did. It’s called news.
I mean we get newspapers, there’s magazines, there’s broadcast television, there’s internet, there’s blogs, the list goes on and on and on and it’s all made up of telling other people was someone else. But David says, when it comes to God, you know, not you search out and you’ll figure it out. You know, present tense. You mind sitting down in my rising up,
you understand my thoughts are far off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word on my tongue, but behold the Lord. You know it all together. God, you know, lie every action. And as we discussed a little bit last week, this idea to some will not be a good thing.
They will not imagine this idea of God knowing everything do and everything they say and thing. You know what? I’m really bad about that. Yeah. They might not be imagining that it would be a good thing to have a judge, a creator, and all powerful King. Knowing where every action<inaudible> We can see throughout our society, individuals who code to a point in their lives because of their deeds,
because of their ways, because of their decision. Well, they seek earnestly to keep their actions hidden. Jesus said concerning the Jews, that being a reference in context to the Jewish leadership, but they were those who did their deeds in the dark because their deeds were evil because they were evil because their actions were sinful and wrong. They sought to hide their actions.
Yeah. David told them centuries before, you can’t hide your actions from the Lord. I can hide my actions from the Lord. We can think of a time in David’s life where David had committed a sin where David had compounded that sin with lies had ultimately had compounded those lies with murder. Yeah, and David knew people knew about it, but David was the King.
Okay, And everyone in the society had determined, well, he’s the King. It’s in his hands. He’s the ultimate authority, but God’s prophet Nathan came to David and declared to David that he was wrong. David wasn’t the ultimate authority. And Nathan brought this story to David. He says there’s a man who has one small lamb and the neighbor, another man who has many flocks and many herds.
Yeah. And this member of grade wealth comes in because of his desire to feed a guest. He takes the one lamb that this man has and he takes it and he kills it. He feeds his guests with it. David is upset. David is irate. David wants to know who is this man? I’ll kill him myself. He was in the major ending date he had in the nation towards this man because what he had done was wrong.
He took, instead of taking from his own, instead of taking from what he had, he stole from someone else out of his own selfishness. Nathan looked at David and said, thou art the man. David was not perfect. And yet David was the one who said, God, you know my every action and God you please search out my every thought.
So as we mold our minds to understand David’s perspective here, as we seek to get a perspective on what David is saying and how we can desire God to know us and to know him in return. Let’s begin. Yeah, and in job chapter 28 job chapter 28 this patriarch makes this statement, Joe chapter 28 and in verse 24 speaking concerning God, verse 23 God understands its way and he knows its place.
Speaking concerning death and destruction for he looks to the ends of the earth, AMCs under the whole heaven job and his place in patriarchy and his place in time. He understands that there’s nothing hidden from the Lord. There is nothing that is done under heaven that is hidden from God. Proverbs chapter five in Proverbs, chapter five Solomon, the son of David,
will write these words for the ways of man. Verse 21 are before the eyes of the Lord and he ponders all his paths. Reinforcement, reinforcing this idea that David has expressed that God saw David and that God knew David and that God knew his every thought, his every word of his. Every action. These writers reiterate that that’s not just true about David.
It’s true about all humanity. God knows what happens in this life. There are those who contemplated many times throughout history as they sought to enact evil deeds as they sought to turn away from God. They would say concerning God, he neither sees us nor knows us. Isaiah chapter 29 But such was wishful thinking. Such was simply not true and God would make it clear to those individuals in that time.
I do see, and I will judge so he knows our actions. He also knows our speech. He knows what we do. He knows what we say. Turn to Matthew chapter 12 Matthew chapter 12 and in verse 34 Jesus accuses those who were present within credibly strong words because they were wicked because they spoke against God because they could witness miracles and the power of God happening right before their eyes and deny it and go so far to not just deny it,
but to claim it was the power of Satan. Jesus said in verse 34 brood of Vipers. How can you being evil speak good things? Jesus looks at this group of people and he calls them a family of snakes, Not just any snake, not your garden variety snake, not the kind of snake that you see on the ground. Yo snake over there.
I’m just, I’m going to stay out of its way. It’ll be okay. No, He calls them a brood of Vipers. Vipers are a type of snake that are known For just being mean.<inaudible> Ambitious and seeking out prey and attacking. Even when not propagated. Jesus says, concerning these people, he says, you brood of Vipers. How can you being evil speak good things.
Now this is a question that is not searching for an answer. This is a question that is has an apparent answer. Notice what he says for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak,
they will give a account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words, you will be justified. And by your words, you will be condemned. Jesus says, concerning these men who are evil, Jesus says, concerning these men were unlike just Jesus says, concerning was brood of Vipers as he was calls them. Then you cannot produce good out of your mouth.
Now, this is not the idea that they could not repent, they could not change, they could not turn back from sin and begin serving righteousness and begin producing good. No, he’s saying your heart is evil and as long as it stays that way, all you protect deuce is corrupted by your sin. Everything you say is corrupted by your evil.<inaudible>.
David began Psalm one 39 with God knows my faults, Having discussed his thoughts, he says, and he knows my actions and he knows my words before I even speak them. Jesus accuses these individuals of being so evil that they could not produce any good thing from their mouth. And so when we are taught, so we are reminded that we have to control Our actions and our words.
James would write in James chapter one he would write to these Christians and he would say to them, so then my beloved brethren, let every man be Swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to Raph. He says, as you look at your decisions and you look at your reactions as you look at your daily life determined to do these three things,
be quick to hear. Now, for those of us who are by nature talkers, that one’s not easy. It’s not easy to be quick to hear, especially when you compound on top of that slow to speak. I can’t tell you how many times in my life that the quickness of my mouth has gotten me in trouble Because my brain says, well,
here’s the answer. Long before it ever fought to process, was anybody talking to you? Why don’t you be quiet? We need to learn to control our thoughts and in doing so, control our mouths. This is a larger problem for some people than it is for others. And we understand that. And yet is a command to all of us. It is a responsibility of us to look at ourselves and to say,
I need to sin first. So many times, arguments, disagreements, friction in relationships. Destruction in a home begins with not listening. First being ready to answer that parent, that child, that spouse, that grandparent, that grandchild being willing to answer before we’ve heard. We need to be those who are Swift to hear and slow to speak. But then there’s that third aspect of this command Swift to hear,
slow to speak, slow to wrath. James says, you not only need to control your reaction, you not only need to control how you hear people and world, what rapidity you hear versus what you speak, but you need to control your anger. We examine our lives, our actions, and our speech. We need to be careful that we’re not allowing our anger to control us instead of the other way around.
We get into a situation, we get into a disagreement with someone and we begin answering them instead of listening to them, and then we begin to get angry with them for something they never even did or never even said What’s wrong. We’ve become Swift to Amber swarf to speak and slow to hear Instead of what God would have us to be. Turn to Titus chapter two.
Titus chapter two As Paul writes to this preacher and in Monisha is this preacher to admonish others, encourages him to set forth the qualifications of elders, to instruct elders concerning their responsibilities, instruct young men concerning their responsibilities to teach older women, to take their responsibilities, a younger woman, to teach them or take their responsibilities. He then says in verse seven in all things showing yourself the guy,
he says, Titus, if you’re going to do all of this, if you’re going to fulfill your role as a minister of the gospel, if you’re going to fulfill your word as a preacher, you need to look back at you. He says in all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works in doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility sound speech that cannot be condemned.
That one who has an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. That’s a high standard. Paul sets an incredibly high standard for tires as a preacher, as a teacher, as a young man, that he be blameless, But his speech be in such a way that no one could accuse him. No one could claim he was out for himself or seeking only his own.
Paul says, you watch yourself, guard yourself as we return to the book of Psalms. In Psalms one 41 we read in one Psalm one 41 and in verse three an incredible piece of wisdom. Somas writer says, set a guard. Oh Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. This is a prayer to God, a request of God,
a petition to God. God, would you be in control of my mouth? Would you defend my mouth? Not so that every argument that I make is correct, but that I keep my mouth shut when it needs to be<inaudible>. It’s interesting as you examine this idea that back in Psalm one 39 David says something else here in verses five and six after he’s talked about his thoughts,
after he’s talked about his actions, after he’s talked about his word, he says this in verse five you have hedged me behind him before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. David says, concerning God, you’ve searched me. You’ve known me am you’ve set a boundary for me.
He says, you’ve had judged me in in front. You hedged me in, in back. You’ve set a guard, a protection for me. Sure That we might not. Sin is the idea. What is the guard that God has said? What is it that God has done that is protecting David from sin turned us on one 19 I think you’ll get your answer there.
I don’t think that this is talking about daily interactions. I don’t think the David is expressing the idea that God’s hedged him in in some sort of literal sense. I don’t think a magical hedge grow up around the nation of Israel so that nobody would attack it. I don’t think that’s what he’s talking about. Remember, David’s not talking about his kingdom. He’s talking about his thoughts,
his actions, and his words, and he says, God, you’ve hedged me in. You’ve built a protection for me. Psalm one 19 Verse 11 says, your word, have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you? So I’m one 19 verse 23 and 24 says, princes also said, and speak against me, but your servant meditate on your statutes.
Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. David says, when I’m a raid in front of those who have political prominence, who have political mind, who have political power, and they are my enemies, I go to your word and I allow it to be my counselor. I allow it to direct my path. Verse 33 teach me, Oh Lord,
the way of your statutes and I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding and I shall keep your law. Indeed I shall observe it with my whole heart. David cries to God and he says, teach me your statutes, your ways, your laws so I can keep them. Psalm one 19 verse 46 I will speak of your testimonies also before Kings and will not ashamed God.
When I stand before Kings, when these canes from the nations around me come before me, I don’t want to use my wisdom. I don’t want to rely on me. I don’t want only my own knowledge to be what comes out my mouth. I might destroy myself. I might make a fool of myself. I might become a shame that my words,
but not if I speak your words. Isn’t it interesting that David’s son Solomon, when he comes to the throne, we read concerning the occasion where the queen of Sheba comes up to inquire, to see for herself if what she has heard about Solomon and his wisdom. Okay, It’s true, And she returned home. Having said the half has not yet been told.
How was it that Solomon spoke and ruled with such wisdom? Because the wisdom didn’t originate with Solomon. It wasn’t his words. It was God’s Psalm one 19 verse 59 versus 59 and 60 we read, I fought about my ways and turned my feet to your testimonies. I made hazed and did not delay to keep your commandments. What’s the picture that we’re getting here?
The picture of protection. The picture of avoiding being ashamed. The picture of one who has the ability to have counselors when all around them are people who are doing wicked. A picture of one who’s got something in his heart so he might not sin against God. What is the protection that God afforded David? It was his word. It was his law,
his testimonies, his statutes. So we read in Psalm one 19 verse 97 Oh how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day you through your commandments make me wiser than my enemies for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers. For your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients because I keep your precepts.
I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. I have not departed from your judgments. For you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste? Sweeter than honey to my mouth. Those are through your precepts. I get understanding. Therefore, I hate every false way. So let’s back up and let’s bring this together.
David says, God, you’ve searched me and you’ve known me. You’ve known my thoughts and you know my every action. You know my every word before I speak it. You know who I am, but God, you’ve protected me. You’ve hedged me in and protected me from me. So often our own worst enemy is ourself. So often our own worst demon is right inside us in our own choices and our own struggles.
And yet David says to the Lord, you’ve hedged me in and kept me from destroying me. But how did he do it, David? How did it God direct your paths? David, how did God protect you? David, I put my self in your law. I made your word my meditation all the day I made sure I didn’t depart from your word.
I spoke your word when people were around me and instead of my own wisdom, I spoke yours and I wasn’t ashamed. I relied on you and from that reliance you have produced my safety. God knows me. David says, and I want him to continue to know me. David says, Because he directs my path And I walk in his light. As you’re here this morning,
who directs your path in whose light do you walk? If it’s not God’s, you walk in darkness because you don’t produce any light on your own. Jesus said, you are the light of the world. Sitting on the set on a Hill cannot be hid, but Jesus never intended us to take upon that the conclusion that we were the light and produced it.
We are to reflect the light of God. So if we direct our own paths, having no light in ourselves, we walk in darkness. And yet God tells us that we can walk in the light as he is in the light. And when we do the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all our sins and contend continues to cleanse us first. John chapter one.
So in whose light do you walk in whose light do you make your choices? By? Whose law do you live? If you’re outside the body of Christ this morning, why are you still there? Why not be obedient to God? If you have questions, we’ll sit down and study with you. If you have things that you’re not sure about, we’ll help you understand them from the scriptures you have need of changing your life.
So you know God the way he knows you. Why not begin to do that today? Why not begin now? Why not come forward as we stand and as we sing.