Fearfully and Wonderfully
Psalm 139
Introduction.
Last week was a successful week of
The children aren’t the only ones who learned something this week. I learned several very important lessons.
First, Panda Mania was not the original title for our VBS materials. The publisher originally called it Panda Monium. Almost as soon as the title was announced, people started complaining. Panda Monium is a pun, based on the word pandemonium. It turns out this word originated from the ancient book Paradise Lost by John Milton. Pan = “all.” Demonium = Latin “daemonium,” or demons. It was originally a reference to Hell, the place where all demons live. Evidently, there are people who do not think Hell is a good theme for VBS…Or at least they don’t think it is a very good idea to compare the VBS experience to an experience of Hell.
Second, I learned how to get church members to invite their friends to church. Mr. James promised the children that if they would bring a friend to VBS, he would give them a lollipop. So, I am announcing a new outreach strategy today…Lollipops for everyone who brings a friend next Sunday. In fact, if you bring two friends, I will give you two lollipops!
Third, I learned how to increase the offerings. We had the largest VBS missions offering this week…Over $280. It seems that the secret to raising money is to divide the church into boys versus girls. Starting next Sunday, we are going to take up two offerings—a boys offering and a girls offering. The group raise the most money gets to hit Mr. James in the face with a pie. (By the way, the girls won the missions offering contest.)
Read Psalm 139.
1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in-- behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
15 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,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
(NIV)
The subtitles in our Bibles tell us that Psalm 139 is a Psalm of David. Of course, that doesn’t tell us much about it. The phrase “Psalm of David” could mean this is a Psalm written BY David. It could also mean this is a Psalm written FOR or ABOUT David. If it was written BY David, we don’t really know where to place it in the biblical / historical account of David’s life. But it sure does sound a lot like David as we know him.
This is an intensely personal confession of faith in God. The Psalmist does not write so much ABOUT God as he writes to God. God is not a thing or an “it.” God is a person or a “you” who hears our prayers and answers our prayers. In fact, we can take Psalm 139 and incorporate it into our daily prayers. It fits our Twenty-First Century experience of God as much as it fits David’s experience thousands of years ago. Praying the words of Psalm 139 will help us to understand the personal nature of God.
There are three great themes in this Psalm. It describes God’s Knowledge…God’s Presence…and God’s Power. Classical theology uses the word “omni” to define God’s Knowledge, Presence and Power. We affirm that God is Omniscient—or that God is All Knowing. We affirm that God is Omnipresent—or that God is Present in all places at all times: God’s Presence is unlimited. We affirm that God is Omnipotent—or that God is All Powerful: nothing impossible or too difficult for God.
These “omni” characteristics of God are true. However, they develop from philosophical theology. Psalm 139 is not a philosophical Psalm. It is an incredibly personal Psalm. It does not describe God in the abstract. It describes God in personal and human experience.
This is why we ought to pray Psalm 139. Praying the Psalm will help us to understand it in a proper light. Prayer retains the personal and intimate nature of the Psalm. God is Omniscient, but more importantly…God knows me personally. God is Omnipresent, but more importantly…God is Present in my life. God is Omnipotent, but more importantly…God is All Powerful in my life…I am perfectly and completely submitted to God’s rule over me.
When I have read Psalm 139 in the past, I have focused on one verse and one theme. Verse 14 reads, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…” Yet, there is more to this Psalm than one verse and one theme…
Fearfully and Wonderfully Known by God.
The Psalm begins by describing how fearful and wonderful it is to be know by God. God knows me intimately and personally. God knows me better than any other person. God knows me better than I even know myself. God knows my words before I speak them. He knows my thoughts before I think them.
God searches me and knows me…I know what it feels like to be searched. It is not a pleasant experience. It is a fearful experience.
I remember the first time I flew on an airplane after September 11, 2001. The TSA agents searched me like no one had ever searched me before. Of course, the airport searches have gotten worse. But my worst experience was the first week of May 2003. Shauna and I were flying from
She took a bright orange highlighter; highlighted all my personal information; and wrote the letters VIP on my boarding pass. Then, she hollered, “We’ve got a VIP over here!” And let me tell you…Flying as a VIP is not as fun as it sounds. Everywhere I went, they pulled me out of the line of non-VIP’s and searched me. Shauna tried to wait on me, but the TSA agent said, “Honey, you might as well go on. He’s gonna be here for a while.” I would rather not tell you the rest of the story.
I had nothing to hide on that trip. I wasn’t doing anything wrong. But, I was still afraid that they might find something. Of course, it made matters worse that every person who searched me seemed a little disappointed when they couldn’t find anything.
It is a fearful thing to be searched by God. The TSA might not find anything. But God knows all the things we hide from others. He sees our sins…He sees our greed…He sees our lust…He sees our anger…
This ought to remind us of the story of when David was chosen to be King of Israel. Samuel looked at the outward appearances of David’s brothers and was impressed with what he saw. But God rejected David’s brothers. Human beings look at the outward appearances, but God looks at the heart. God sees us for who we really are.
We hide the dark parts of our lives from others. We believe if other people know what we are truly like on the inside, they won’t like us…They won’t accept us. Remarkably, God searches us…God knows us…And God accepts us.
To say God accepts us does not mean that God turns his back on our sins to let us live any way we want to live. God has provided the only way to deal with our sins. He sent his Only Son, Jesus, to die on the cross as the remedy for sin. When God knows about our sins, he can forgive our sins…
Knowledge is the basis of relationship. Perhaps it is important to confess that God knows all things. I think it is more important to say that God knows ME…God knows YOU. If God did not know us, we could not have a relationship with God.
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made by God.
God knows us personally and intimately, because God has created us. We are fearfully and wonderfully made by God.
One way to interpret the word “fear” in the Old Testament is something like “reverent” or “awe.” It’s possible to interpret this as, “I praise you because I am awesomely and wonderfully made…”
The human body is an amazing thing. Our bodies have the capacity to eat food and magically convert it to energy. Our bodies warn us about danger through a complex system of nerves and the sensation of pain. When we injure our bodies, they heal themselves. Our bodies are miraculous…something that could only be created by God himself.
Notice the way Psalm 139 describes creation. It says that God “knit” our bodies. I think this tells us a couple of important things about God’s role in creation.
First, the work of a knitter is artistic work. It involves careful attention to details and its goal is to create something beautiful…Not something ordinary.
Second, knitting is work that is done with the hands. This ought to remind us of the story of Creation in Genesis 1 and 2. For the first five days of Creation, God spoke, and things came into being. God said, “Let there be light.” And there was light. God said, “Let there be plants.” And there were plants. God said, “Let there be animals.” And there were animals. But that is not what God did on the sixth day. On the sixth day, God did not speak. He reached down to earth and scooped a handful of dirt. God carefully molded and shaped that dirt until it started looking like a person. Then, God breathed into his creation and placed his own breath—his own life—inside the first human. For five days of Creation, God spoke things into being. On the sixth day, God got his hands dirty.
Your life is a miraculous thing. But it is not a miracle of biology. It is a miracle of theology. Genesis 1 and 2 remind us that God was personally involved in creating the first man and woman. Psalm 139 reminds us that God didn’t stop being personally involved in creation after the first week. Every human life that has ever existed was personally crafted by the hands of God.
God is All Powerful and has created all life. But more importantly, God has personally created ME. God has personally created YOU. God knows you, because God created you. God is the proper basis of your life. Don’t give your life away to biology. Give your life away to God. He is the one who crafted you into the person you are.
Fearfully and Wonderfully Loved by God.
God knows us personally and intimately, because God has created us. We are fearfully and wonderfully know by God, because we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God. And remarkably, God loves us anyway. We are fearfully and wonderfully loved by God.
I think the Psalmist expresses God love for us in at least two different ways. God loves us so much that he will not leave us alone. God loves us so much that he has a plan for our lives that he leads us toward.
God has a plan for our lives that is better than anything we could ever plan for ourselves. He had this plan in mind while he was knitting us together in our mother’s womb. He made each of us unique with the specific gifts and abilities that we needed to fulfill his perfect plan. But, God knows us so well that he knows we would not be able to fulfill his plans without his help. Therefore, God is always present with us…to lead us away from the bad decisions and lead us toward the right decisions.
The Presence of God is both fearful and wonderful. There is no escaping from God. We can climb into the heavens. God is there. We can dig under the earth. God is there. We can fly off to the middle of the ocean. God is there. We can live into the future. God is already in the future.
The Psalmist uses a terrifying image to describe the Presence of God. God hems us in. He is above us, below us, in front of us, behind us, and all around us. While it is tempting to say this is like a big bear hug from God, that is not the image. The image is of an enemy army laying siege on a city. The city has been hemmed in by their enemies. The enemy is above, below, in front, behind and all around the city. There is no escape.
In the Civil War, Union General Ulysses S. Grant laid siege on the Confederate Fort Donelson in
“No terms, but unconditional and immediate surrender, can be accepted. I propose to move immediately on your works.”
God loves you so much that he refuses to leave you alone. God is pursuing you! In fact, God loves you so much that he sent his Only Son, Jesus. God provided the way for your sins to be forgiven. God provided the way for you to have a personal and intimate relationship with God himself.
Wherever you go, God is there. There is no escape. He demands your unconditional and immediate surrender. This is the only way for the inescapable Presence of God to change from fearful to wonderful. We must surrender to the Power of God. God is All powerful…But that means almost nothing unless he has Power over our lives. It must be personal. We must personally experience the Power of God.
Conclusion.
There are a lot of people in this church who know me. In fact, there are a lot of people in this town who know me. It’s a good feeling to go into a restaurant and be recognized and greeted by other people. I like to eat at Morales of First Street, because the waiter knows me. When I walk in, he fixes my drink and brings it to my table without even asking me what I want to drink. And he gets it right without asking!
But there are a lot of important people in the world who do not know me. The Queen of England doesn’t know me. The President of the
There is one important Person who does know me. The God who created me knows me. He knows you as well. AND…He loves you enough to pursue a relationship with you.
I suppose it is possible for you to push God out of your mind and forget about him. But it is impossible for God to forget about you. You are his unique creation. He loves you and wants you to surrender your life to his plan and his control.
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