Celebrating the freeing, supportive presence of God.  So your experience of God may become your experience of life.  It is wonderful what God can do!

  

 

 

“The Inescapable God”

April 30, 2006

Praise & Worship Service

Psalm 139

7 pm - April 30, 2006

 

            This particular chapter in the book of Psalms is uniquely designed to speak to the person who has a basic belief in God, and goes about challenging that person to a new awareness of God’s inescapable presence. Though written for the faithful, even the agnostic is given pause by its intimate and omnipresent descriptions.

            For a person trying to escape the presence of God, this chapter is tremendously un-nerving and claustrophobic, leaving very little wiggle room for one seeking to be free from the creator’s dynamic interest. But for the faithful, it serves as one of the most powerfully reassuring passages in all of Scripture—particularly of those passages which do not use liturgical repetition such as chapter 136.

            Authorship of Psalm 139 is attributed to David, the historically beloved King and General of Israel. My translation divides this chapter up into four poetic paragraphs.

            The first paragraph addresses God’s intimate knowledge of who we are and what makes us tick. David says that God has done a search on each of us and that is why we are known to him. God’s search is far more comprehensive than a Google Search because it searches the heart and the motivations deep within us — God is well acquainted with all our ways. There is not anything about us that is not known by God, who made us.

            David declares that God takes notice of when we sit or rise up, our thoughts are known to God even at great distances, and even before our words take shape on our tongue and lips, God knows what we are about to say. 

            Verse 5 near the end of the first paragraph shows how intimate God wishes to be with us: “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.” David does not attempt to explain what that means, but rather concludes: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.”

            Paragraph 2 reassures us that there is absolutely no location to which we can travel, that we will be lost to God. If we rocket to the highest heights, or dig to the lowest depths we discover that God is there. If we board an airplane at dawn or an ocean liner on the farthest seas, God is there to lead us and to hold us steady. The paragraph concludes that we might think that the darkness of night is a time that God might lose track of us. Better than night vision goggles, the darkness is just as bright as the daylight to God.

            The third paragraph deals with our creation by God—even the process that takes place in the womb. God imagined our bodies and our lives before they ever came about and continues to have many thoughts about us as we live our lives out.

            The closing paragraph makes a radical transition. It moves from navel gazing to the real problems of life which affect us on a daily basis. David refers to those who make our lives more difficult to live as “wicked” and “bloodthirsty.” At first these words may seem too strong for us. After all, David was a General over an Army and then a King over a nation with enemies. But as we stop to reconsider, our world still is radically affected by the wicked—particularly when they attain positions of leadership and can truly affect our daily lives and the daily lives of the hungry and needy. And if we associate the word “bloodthirsty” with all kinds of wars and killing—be they drug wars or land wars — we are certainly exposed to that on almost a daily basis. We are not that far from this early description. Ask those who live in the inner city or fight in Afghanistan or Iraq.

            David is hopeful that his hatred of evil people is a perfect hatred or a righteous hatred. But because he can not be absolutely certain that it is righteous, David concludes this entire chapter with an intimate prayer for forgiveness and cleansing. Hear his words one more time in the concluding two verses:

            “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

*Psalm 139

1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
 2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
         You understand my thought afar off.
 3 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
         And are acquainted with all my ways.
 4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
         But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
 5 You have hedged me behind and before,
         And laid Your hand upon me.
 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
         It is high, I cannot attain it.
         
 7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
         Or where can I flee from Your presence?
 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
         If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
 9 If I take the wings of the morning,
         And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
         And Your right hand shall hold me.
 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
         Even the night shall be light about me;
 12 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.
         
 13 For You formed my inward parts;
         You covered me in my mother’s womb.
 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
         Marvelous are Your works,
         And that my soul knows very well.
 15 My frame was not hidden from You,
         When I was made in secret,
         And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
 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.
         
 17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
         How great is the sum of them!
 18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
         When I awake, I am still with You.
         
 19 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
         Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
 20 For they speak against You wickedly;
         Your enemies take Your name in vain.
 21 Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You?
         And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
 22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
         I count them my enemies.
         
 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
         Try me, and know my anxieties;
 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
         And lead me in the way everlasting.

 

 

 

  

 

 

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