Thatâs not to mention the miracle of the ear and how it translates sound waves into meaningful speech and sounds; or of touch, taste, and smell. I havenât even mentioned the complexity of human cells. Yet most people today have never heard of John Gill. They were naked and not ashamed in each otherâs presence (Gen. 2:25). And not only did God make me through His creative power, but also He ordained all of my days before any of them came into being (v. 16)! What would be its equivalent, if it were written down in an ordinary printed book in modern human language? The final stanza (vv. Those Psalms were the united utterances of national devotion. Again, David is intensely personal about it: God isnât just everywhere; everywhere I go, He lays hold of me (v. 10)! How can I love them and hate them at the same time?â C. H. Spurgeon helpfully explains the balance: To love all men with benevolence is our duty; but to love any wicked man with complacency would be a crime. (Psalms 139:4 RSV) 19-24) sets forth the inescapable response to the inescapable God: personal holiness. But even so, you can be married for years and still discover new things about your mate. He graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M., 1976 in Bible exposition) and Califo... More, 4. The Psalm may be thus summarized Ps 139:1. Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) provides a verse by verse commentary on this sacred hymn, Psalm 139. The closest we can get to knowing another human being ought to take place in the marriage relationship. Study the bible online using commentary on Psalm 139 and more! It sings the omniscience and omnipresence of God, inferring from these the overthrow of the powers of wickedness, since He who sees and hears the abominable deeds and words of the rebellious will surely deal with them according ⦠The first Soviet cosmonauts irreverently joked that they didnât see God from their spaceship. The psalm falls into four stanzas. That means that God has fashioned and has a purpose in this fallen world even for those whose bodies or minds are not perfectly formed. They all work together to keep us alive. Considering how fearfully and wonderfully we are made should cause us to break forth in thanksgiving to God (v. 14). Browse Sermons on Psalm 139. I must become a doer of the Word, not just a hearer who deludes myself (James 1:22). The inescapable conclusion of the fact that we canât escape from the living God is an inescapable commitment to holiness. We canât love God properly and be complacent about sin. You know everything Iâm going to say before I start the first sentence. He knows everything about you; He is with you wherever you go; He has created you and ordained the days of your life. ïIf you are longing for intimacy, security, and purpose, your search begins and ends with God. Like a caged bird, Heâs got me surrounded, with His hand upon me (v. 5). 1-6); His omnipresence (vv. To ignore that kind of evidence renders a person without excuse (Rom. Second, I must constantly yield my whole life to God. From moments of victory over giants to moments of shame with a woman who wasnât his wife. Find Top Church Sermons, Illustrations, and Preaching Slides on Psalm 139. Each of the other vital organs and glands in your body works in complex conjunction with the others to sustain life, which science canât explain or create. This holy⦠The point of these verses is that there is nowhere that one can hide or escape from the presence of God. Though hidden from human eyes in that day before sonograms, David was not hidden from Godâs eyes (v. 16). This is the historical context of King Davidâs psalms. He is there! Do you want to escape God in the place of the dead (Sheol)? You know my thoughts even when Iâm far away. Biblical faith boldly proclaims the inescapable presence of God in Psalm 139:7-12. Behold, O Lord, You know it all.. 5 You have enclosed me behind and before,. To avoid digesting itself, your stomach produces a new lining every three days. âThe hymnic nature of the first eighteen verses seems to support the claims of Hermann Gunkel and Claus Westermannâ (915). I know what youâre thinking: âI was just making a little progress in learning to love my enemies and now this guy Cole comes along and tells me Iâm supposed to hate them with a perfect hatred! Even before a word is on my tongue, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. âAnother quality eBook from Chapel library. It is at its heart a personal relationship with the living God who knows you thoroughly. Their fig leaves were not adequate; God slaughtered an animal and clothed them with its skin, showing them that they could not be restored to fellowship with a holy God without the shedding of blood. I have been enjoying books by other Bible preachers of this time period and thought I would try Spurgeon, as well. That information, incredibly, comes from the astronomer, Carl Sagan, who thinks it all happened by chance (The Dragons of Eden, Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence [Ballentine Books], pp. For the director of music. Both we and God, for example, know that the statement âtwo plus two equals fourâ is a true statement, that it corresponds to reality. In coming to know Him, we come to know ourselves. It is a clear and judicious explanation of the text, and cannot be dispensed with. 1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me.. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;. God is there! King David even survived murdering Uriah the Hittite. One who hates his enemy with a perfect hatred is still called to act in a loving and righteous manner toward him (âTabletalkâ [11/91], p. 9). Turn there in your Bible. Ps 139:2. If there are approximately six letters in an average word, the information content of a human chromosome corresponds to about 500 million words. (v23-24) I. Some of the Jewish doctors are of opinion that this is the most excellent of all the psalms of David; and a very pious devout meditation it is upon the doctrine of God's omniscience, which we should therefore have our hearts fixed upon and filled with in singing this psalm. You have searched me and known me: David prayed to Yahweh, understandin⦠Although the Bible doesnât specify, I believe God slaughtered a lamb and explained to Adam and Eve the coming Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. With the first couple, God performed an object lesson that pointed ahead to His ultimate solution. It would be perfect to the extent that it excluded sinful attitudes of malice, envy, bitterness, and other attitudes we normally associate with human hatred. But as soon as they sinned, they tried to hide from God and they sewed fig leaves to hide their nakedness from one another. It is equally clear that so rich a library is required to specify as exquisitely constructed and intricately functioning an object as a human being.â. Coupled with that, your lungs automatically breathe in the right amount of life-giving oxygen (about 438 cubic feet each day), which just happens to be mixed in the right proportions (about 20% oxygen, 80% nitrogen) in our atmosphere. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. It sings the omniscience and omnipresence of God, inferring from these the overthrow of the powers of wickedness, since he who sees and hears the abominable deeds and words of the rebellious will surely deal with them according to his justice. âSearch me, try me ....â David is inviting God to shine His pure light into the inner recesses of his thought life, where all sin originates. When Moses complained to God that he couldnât speak eloquently enough to lead Israel out of Egypt, God said, âWho has made manâs mouth? This shows us two aspects of holiness which we must develop: Does the thought of âperfect hatredâ strike you as odd? 19-22); and then quickly to add a prayer that the God who had searched him (v. 1) would continue the process, so that if any sin still lurked in the dark corners of his own life, David could root it out and walk in Godâs everlasting way. Would he say that the Viking spacecraft could evolve, given enough time? God knows absolutely everything about me! You enter that relationship when you put your trust in the substitute He provided, the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty for your sin with His death on the cross. the idea that God is not far off, but is near to each of us. Why are we afraid to be known thoroughly? 2. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. ¨+ÑØæé
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ð`R¡ìÿ °Jl. Iâm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what Iâm thinking. Some obey willful commands; others perform their duty in response to unconscious commands from the brain. That information comes to your brain through the miracle of the eye, which has 100 million receptor cells (rods and cones) in each eye. He knows my words: in fact, He even knows what I am going to say before I say it (v. 4)! The more we love God the more indignant shall we grow with those who refuse him their affection (The Treasury of David [Baker], VII:229). Listen to this: A single human chromosome (DNA molecule) contains 20 billion bits of information. One of the greatest truths in life which we all know, but which we all must come to learn, is that there is no escape from God. As David thinks about Godâs searching knowledge, His ubiquitous presence, and His infinite wisdom as seen in his own body, he is led first to cry out to God to destroy the wicked, affirming his own abhorrence of them (vv. Your retina also has four other layers of nerve cells. Psalm 137 â The Mournful Song of the Exiles Because this psalm is a remembrance of Babylon, many commentators believe it was written after the return from exile. There is a point of contact between our knowledge and Godâs knowledge. and when I rest at home. Of David. What do we lose when we negate God as Creator? Verses 1-24 One of the most notable of the sacred hymns. It must be paid for through death. Others insist the psalm is a prayer of an unjustly accused person, given the final strophe, while some have suggested it is a complaint uttered by a psalmist in the midst of hostility.Others still highlight the wisdom themes present and prefer a âmeditationâ or âwisdom meditationâ label. (Spurgeon, C. H. Lectures to my Students: Commenting and Commentaries)Rosscup adds: This is one of the more thorough older exegetical works on the ⦠âIt is clear, then, that the sequence of rungs on our DNA ladders represents an enormous library of information. âLead me ....â When Godâs Word exposes where Iâm wrong, I must submit to the Lord and walk in His way. Happily, once we give up our flight and allow ourselves to be found by this relentless âHound of Heavenâ (as Francis Thompson described Him in his poem), we discover that His intention is not to harm but to bless us. In that case, the insistence that God has searched and known the psalm writer (the message and hope of Psalm 139, as noted by its use as a framework ⦠Continue reading "Commentary on Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18" We have a longing to know and be known, but only within safe limits. In the conventional understanding, the Psalm in the weekly lectionary is chosen to meditate on the First Reading and, like that reading, to anticipate the Gospel. A great tragedy, some can spend years listening to sermons, reading the scriptures, even teaching the Bible but not enjoy a close relationship with God. A David Psalm GOD, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, © The Lockman Foundation, Related Topics: Spiritual Life, Worship (Personal), Sanctification, Character of God, Steve served as the pastor of Flagstaff Christian Fellowship from May, 1992 through his retirement in December, 2018. But it also showed them that in His grace, God would provide the substitute so that no sinner need be separated from God or pay the penalty for his or her own sin. Because of our sin and Godâs holiness, something had to be done to remove that barrier to our relationship with Him. God alone knows us thoroughly. This is unfortunate, since his works contain priceless gems of information that are found nowhere except in the ancient writings of the Jews. To hate a man for his own sake, or for any evil done to us, would be wrong; but to hate a man because he is the foe of all goodness and the enemy of all righteousness, is nothing more nor less than an obligation. (v1-6) II. There has been considerable debate about the precise genre of this psalm. If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. But, as Jeremiah 17:9 says, âThe heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately wicked; who can understand it?â We canât know our own motives and inner drives apart from Godâs revealing it to us through His Word. There are two elements to a holy life in these verses: First, I must constantly expose my inner life to God. 13-18). 2 You know when I sit down or stand up. Whole Psalm. So David exclaims (v. 6): âSuch knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.â. If you want to be holy, not just outwardly, where you can fake it, but inwardly, you must constantly confront your thought life with Godâs Word. God has already determined the day of our birth and our death and since only God is the Author of Life, only He can take it ⦠As a man and woman live together in that lifelong commitment, they grow to know one anotherâs actions, words, and--to the degree that they openly communicate--thoughts and feelings. Or, he may be referring poetically to Godâs presence after death, in the resurrection. If there are about 300 words on an ordinary page of printed type, this corresponds to about two million pages. Thus I want to express its main message and points in the first person singular: Since I cannot escape from God, I must commit myself to holiness. Your first reaction to that thought is probably, âWhere can I run to hide?â It seems to have been Davidâs thought (v. 7). This little book is a nice study guide about Psalm 139. In that case, David would be referring to Godâs hand on his life from conception through eternity. Psalm 139 is a psalm that is clear that abortion is murder. For the choir director: A psalm of David. When David says (in v. 18), âWhen I awake, I am still with You,â he may be referring to the fact that each morning the thoughts of Godâs omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence are still with him, so that he canât escape the overwhelming fact of God in relation to himself. In fact, we canât even know ourselves thoroughly. From 1977-1992 he was the pastor of Lake Gregory Community Church in Crestline, California. The Bible describes King David as a man after Godâs own heart (Act 13:22). Your body is an efficient machine: to ride a bicycle for an hour at ten miles per hour requires only 350 calories, the energy equivalent of only three tablespoons of gasoline. You can hide in the dark, but God is light and He will find you out (vv. Do a careful study of vv. Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) provides a verse by verse commentary on this sacred hymn, Psalm 139. Thatâs what David is saying here: Look upon God: He knows you thoroughly; He is with you everywhere you go; He has wondrously created you and sovereignly ordained the days of your life. Before the fall, Adam and Eve enjoyed open intimacy with God and with one another. Twenty billion bits are the equivalent of about three billion letters. If we manage to dodge Him in this life, we must still stand exposed before Him on that fearful day of judgment. 4:4-7). He knows my actions: When I sit down and when I get up (v. 2); when I go somewhere and when I lie down (v. 3). In the opening six verses of Psalm 139, there are eight different Hebrew words that stack up to tell you that God knows your story intimately: "O LORD, you have searched me and known me! Since you canât escape from God, you must commit yourself to holiness. Thou hast searched into my secret parts, and known me.â Yet he thinks that life on this planet evolved by chance! How did it accidentally happen that your body could speed up your heart rate to the proper speed to meet increased oxygen demand when you exercise and slow it down when that need is met? Then, scrutinize yourself by inviting the searchlight of Godâs Word into your innermost thoughts and feelings and by yielding yourself to be obedient to Godâs ways. Since the human race fell into sin, that kind of total intimacy has been threatening to every person. I read it over four days, looking at about five or six verses each day. Tucker and Grant consi⦠EXPOSITION VERSE 139 Verse 139.âIn the last two verses David spoke concerning his God and his law; here he speaks of himself, and says, "My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies have forgotten thy words:" this was no doubt occasioned by his having so clear a sense of the admirable character of God's word. Augustine observed, âMen go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wonderingâ (in Readerâs Digest [1/92], p. 9). 7-12 in the larger context of the psalm as a prayer for Godâs help against enemies or persecutors. After presenting the sublime doctrines of God's omnipresence and omniscience, the Psalmist appeals to Him, avowing his innocence, his abhorrence of the wicked, and his ready submission to the closest scrutiny. Is clear, then, that the Viking spacecraft could evolve, given enough time Perspectives, 4 before! Nowhere that one can hide in the place of the Psalm as man. Are about 300 words on an ordinary printed book in modern human language in,. Excuse ( Rom all Rights Reserved ïif you are there as they relate to the Lord? â (.... 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