Fully Known and Never Alone (Psalm 139)

Good morning church. We're in week three of this summer in the Psalm sermon series that we've been doing. We've been looking at these amazing pieces of scripture throughout the middle book of our of our Bibles.

One hundred and fifty Psalms where we find everything all the emotions of humanity. The joy the sorrow the grief the doubt the fear the all expressed to the longings of our heart and all expressed under the watchful eye of a loving and almighty God. It really is an amazing piece of scripture that we've been looking at together over these weeks in this month.

What you have in the Psalms is is really kind of a poetic theology written in such a way that we can better understand the God that we seek to to know as our God. Understand all the ways that we think about God all understand all the ways that we may limit God or make God more agreeable to us. All those things are there for us in in the Psalms.

It's an amazing piece of scripture. And what we're reminded of in Psalm 139 that is our song for the day is that there are a lot of really big things. Big theological words that are contained in this one song words like omniscience and omnipotence and omnipresence words that are huge big kind of grand theological statements. But those words are all there but but not in those words. We don't use these big seminary kind of words in the Psalm there. They're conveyed by means of expressions of things that tell us these things in a very easy to understand ways.

I think one of the great benefits of the Psalms is that these truths are shared in a in an entirely personal way. And so what I want to do this morning for a sermon is I want to share something entirely personal with you. What I want to tell you about is this is how I personally learned to be a disciple of Jesus Christ by by cheating on my wife. I might explain that I thought that might get a more response than that. But OK. Heather and I have been married now for 33 years. We've been together for 37 years. Now I'm not saying my wife is a big deal. I think my wife is a big deal.

But but one time when Heather was in Washington D.C. lobbying Congress on behalf of student financial aid for college students. She was at one appointment at one floor of the building and she took an elevator down to the next floor so that she could go to the next appointment. And when the elevator doors opened up there she stood face to face with Hillary Clinton at the height of her political influence and Hillary Clinton got out of the way and let my wife walk by. I'm not saying my wife's a big deal but I think my wife's a big deal throughout all the years that we've been together. Heather has traveled a lot. She's traveled all over the place She's always presenting at some conference in some part of the United States and several times during the year. She seems to always be on the go. In fact she's there today. She's she's been at one of those conferences this weekend. Now let me stop and tell you that when I realized that Heather was not going to be here at all on this Sunday. I did share with her exactly how I was going to start my sermon today.

I mean I'm not always smart but I ain't stupid right. I still haven't really explained what I mean by cheating on my wife. So when Heather and I got together she made it perfectly clear in no uncertain terms that she didn't really like onions. And for some reason she liked him even less when I ate them something about the way it made me smell. I don't I don't know but and she also was not a big fan of facial hair or or a scratchy face. She told me that if I ate onions and I didn't shave then she she might not give me a kiss good night. Now I will tell you that I like onions a lot. And while I'm not the hairiest guy in the world I'm not a big fan of shaving. And so I had I had decisions to make.

I had to decide if I like onions more than I like a kiss good night. I had to decide how much I really disliked shaving. And so whenever as Heather is out of town like she is now I cheat on my wife by eating onions and by not shaving.

Also she let you know that she's traveling home right now this morning so she's not going to hear any of this until it's all over with. But but that also means that when I get home today I've got a I've got to shave and I've got to brush my teeth a few more times. Right now Regina just read to us Psalm 139 one of my favorite Psalms of all of them.

The psalmist asked the question over and over again where can I go from your presence God. And then tells us over and over again there is nowhere high low light dark nowhere that we can go that is away from the very presence of God. The psalmist makes it clear throughout the Psalm that we are fully known by a God who is always present with us.

The God has searched us and knows us. God knows what we do. You know when I sit down and when I rise up the psalmist says Psalm 139 uses this kind of proverbial phrase that would have been something that the people of the day would have known to kind of talk about how God is fully aware of all our everyday kind of mundane ordinary things of our life as Jesus would later say God even knows the number of hairs on our head which for some of us is easier than it is for others. Right. God knows my actions. God knows my movements.God knows whether I had onions on my burger yesterday. God knows whether I shaved or not. God knows everything that I do.

Psalm 139 goes on to say not only does God know what I do but God knows what I think. In other words I can't deceive God because God knows even my thoughts. In fact we are told that God discerns our thoughts from afar. That means that the distance is not a hindrance for God. God never goes out of town which means that while it may work for me when Heather is out of town to eat onions and not shave and to cheat on her for my discipleship it will not work because God is always there. And God fully knows everything that goes on in my mind.

The psalmist tells us that God knows what I do. God knows what I think. And then the next thing the psalmist says is that you God know what I say you know what I say even for those words form on my tongue.

So the psalmist asked over and over again where can I go from your presence and over and over again tells us that there is nowhere that we can go that is away from the presence of God. That God is present everywhere. There is no corner or dimension of this this universe that God is not there.

No place that is hidden from him. Whether I go to the highest heavens or to the depths of hell God is there. God is presence everywhere.

The psalm tells us that God knows our the smallest aspects of our everyday life. God knows our thoughts. God knows our words before we speak to him that there is just simply nothing hidden from an all knowing God.

Did you hear what the psalm said you you are familiar with all of my ways Psalm 139 conveys the staggering truth that the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what we do where we go what we think what we say what we long for all that we need. He knows everything.

So what's the response to all of this. How do we respond to something like this to the psalm lays out for us. Well I think there are two ways that we can look at this one is to say oh my God this is the scariest thing ever.

I'm scared to death. This is a terrifying reality of God really knows everything about me. God knows what I do what I think what I say God is everywhere and knows everything.

All of us have this this fear I think that that if people really knew us if they knew what I thought about if they knew the where I've been if they knew the words that they were almost out of my mouth that were just on my tongue and just about ready to go. If they really knew me if they really knew me and all that stuff then there is no way they could really love me. So often we want to be loved but we're simply afraid to be known.

We're afraid to be known because we can't believe that that people who would really know us would actually love us if they really knew all those things about us. And we are scared. We're scared that that if God really knew me if God really knew all that stuff about me there's no way that that kind of a God could love somebody like me.

One of my favorite passages in scripture is from 1 Corinthians 13. It's the part of the Bible we usually call the love chapter. We read a lot of weddings and different things like that. It tells us that faith hope and love by these three but the greatest of these is love and somewhat we're familiar with that part of it. But there's another verse just before that that is my favorite. And it says that now I know in part then I shall know fully even as I am fully known how awesome it is that a chapter of the Bible talking about how the love is the greatest of all of these tells us that we are loved and yet fully known. So God knows your heart your fears your thoughts your words your motives your dreams your frustrations. He knows all of it and loves us anyway. He knows your your past your present your future. He knows what's going on around you in you through you to you. He gets you God gets you to be fully known like that gets a little bit scary. It seems risky but you can be rest assured to the psalmist that a God who knows us this well still knows us enough to love us.

The Psalm also says a little bit later in these verses that we read that if I say surely the darkness will cover me and the light about me be night even the darkness is not dark to you the night is bright as day for darkness is as light to you day and night darkness and light all the same to God. So if you feel like the darkness is about you know that that darkness is as light to God that if you feel like somehow you're in the dark night of your soul that that is a way in which God is ready to shed a little light of his love all upon you. Psalm 139 encourages us to respond in a different way.

It encourages us to respond with amazement and wonder. It says this is beyond my ability to fathom such knowledge is too wonderful for me. There can be only one reason that we can respond that way that a God who can know us that well can be absolutely be trusted.

Only God is wise enough compassionate enough forgiving and gracious enough to know us that well and really love us that much. That's a faithful God when God is presented as somehow being always everywhere but but only for the people who are somehow right with God. Then that leaves the rest of us poor saps those of us sitting in pews and those of us standing in pulpits kind of wondering what happens to us.

We we love God and we want to worship God but but if God can God really love someone like me that's filled with doubts and fears and worries who doesn't always seem to have all the answers can God really love someone like me. And we feel that way. There's no way that we cannot hear the words of Psalm 139 and know that our God who fully knows us will never leave us alone will never leave us alone.

The psalmist just didn't get the memo that that's the way that God works the way somehow we we make God work that he understands God is someone who is ready to love you in the midst of everything else. Psalm 139 reminds us that God's perfect knowledge is not something to shame us but to invite us into a a deeper relationship with that kind of God. And so listen to the way the Psalm says again, such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It's an unbelievable privilege to have a God who loves us that much even though he knows us all about us. He is our God who knows us. It's not just that God knows everything. I mean that's that omnipotence. God knows you. It's not just that God is everywhere. That's on the presence. But God is everywhere with you. It's not just that that God is aware of everything in your life. That's that that's omnipotence. But God is aware of everything in your life. Not just everything that goes on around the world.

How wonderful it is to know that we have a God who fully knows us, our thoughts, our actions, our words, all of it and yet loves us anyway. Loves us enough to always be there. Loves us enough to know that we are never alone. That's what it means when it says if I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even their God, you are with me. Your right hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. That's security. That's blessed assurance. There's one more thing I want to make sure I understand that you understand and I'm clear about today.

And that is that Heather never told me that I wasn't allowed to eat onions or had to shave. She just told me that if I chose to do those things, then then I was also going to she might decide choose not to give me a kiss. Good night. So I had decisions to make. There is a lesson there for us as as followers of God to know that God is interested in a relationship with us. Our faith is personal. It's a it's a way in which God wants to be in relationship with you and thereby it's also about rules because rules make relationships possible. Rules show us how to live in our relationships. They don't threaten relationships. They enable relationships. We know this from everyday life and the relationships that we have. God is ready to be in relationship with you.

One of the things it says is that when Psalm 139 says that your right hand will touch me. It's a it's a way in which a reminder to someone about Hebrew practice that was there in the Old Testament where where a father would hold his hand over a child's head and say my blessing upon you. This is your name. This is who you will be. This is your place in the family. This is what your future will look like. It was a very important act for a Hebrew family. And what that this first means to us is that our God our God tells us that we are his sons, his daughters. We are his children and that this is who we are.

This is what our future looks like. This is the blessing of what it means to live as a child of God is that we are those people in the end of the Psalm. The last couple of verses that we read the psalmist comes to a full stop takes a breath and moves away from worrying about other people and says to God search me God and know my heart test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting God. Look at me. Look at all about me. Look at everything that goes on in my life and everything that's about me. Find out what's wrong with me and help me to become a better follower of you. And since God knows us better than we know ourselves, God can be trusted to do just that. So each of the 150 Psalms that we've looked at, the ones we've looked at and all of them are addressed to someone. And this Psalm is addressed to the choir master, a Psalm, a director of music. This song was written to be sung in worship.

We need more songs that sing like this. Things that talk about God's omniscience and omnipresence and omnipotence. Things that are presented to us in very personal ways. This Psalm is profoundly theological and yet deeply personal. The psalmist is singing what he knows about God personally, experientially, intimately. Today we've read Psalm 139. I've talked about it with you today, seeking to understand what it is that God thinks of us. And now I'm going to invite our worship team to come back up here. And they're going to come back up here. And Adelie is going to sing to us. Psalm 139 is our time of response. As we listen, as we listen to the words that she sings to us today, may we hear again how much our God loves us. May we hear the assuring notes that we are fully known and never alone.