Psalm 139
OUR ALL-KNOWING, ALL-PRESENT, ALL-POWERFUL AND HOLY GOD
I could not think of a shorter title. It is all about God.
This wonderful psalm of praise is often referred to as the “OMNI”-psalm. That little prefix omni comes from the Latin for ALL. God is omniscient. He is all-knowing. God is omnipresent. He is all places. He is everywhere. God is omnipotent. He is all powerful. A word closely associated with omnipotence is omnificent. God is the all-powerful Creator. He made all things. The psalmist celebrates these attributes of God. In the last part of Psalm 139 the psalmist will focus on the holiness of God.
The short title at the beginning of Psalm 139 tells us that it was written by David to the choirmaster (most likely Asaph). Really, though this psalm is addressed TO GOD. David had a unique and a wonderful perspective of God. We can see this in Psalm 139. It is a deeply personal psalm.
READ Psalm 139:1
What an incredible thought. The God of the entire universe knows David. He knows ME! And He knows YOU! Yes, the same God that created a universe so vast --- how can I even explain it to you? Let me just start this way: Light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second. So, in the time that we are in this class this morning (about one hour), if you were to have shined a light at the beginning of class it would have traveled 670 billion miles. It would take light going that fast 50 billion years to travel from here to the outer edge of the universe. That is just the known universe, what our scientists with all their technology have been able to determine is out there. What I am trying to tell you is that our finite minds cannot fully comprehend just how far away that is. Likewise, we cannot fully comprehend just how big the God who made it all is (because the God who made it all has got to be bigger than His creation). And yet this same God searches and knows each one of us. Charles Spurgeon said that “God actually thinks of us, and thinks of us often.”
READ Psalm 139:2
God knows all of our activities. Even our secret thoughts, all the things we keep hidden from everyone else, He knows. And knowing all that, He still loves us and accepts us as His children. And aren’t you glad that He does?
READ Psalm 139:3
God knows everything about us. He knows how we feel, what motivates us, what makes us angry, what excites us, what we enjoy doing and what we do not particularly like doing. He knows us intimately. Matthew 10:30 states that God even knows the number of hairs on our heads! I think about that every time I travel and I enter a city. And every one of these cities (especially in Texas) on their city limits signs has the population. I think about this as I go through every town and I see that population listed there. God knows every single person in that city by name. That means that He knows all 56,366 people who reside here in Rockwall, Texas by name.
READ Psalm 139:4
God knows what we are going to say even before we say it. Nothing you or I tell God is going to surprise Him. When I am listening to that still small voice inside me, I can often hear Him saying, “Chris, don’t say that!” I need to be listening because, invariably, if I do not listen and I say it, I regret it. God knows what you are thinking. He knows what you say even before you say it.
READ Psalm 139:5
God is with us throughout every situation in our lives. He is there in every trial of life that we face. He is right there protecting us. He is guiding us and loving us completely! David makes an interesting statement there at the beginning of v 5. He says, “You hem me in.” He is talking to God here. So, there may be times when it is necessary for God to “hem” us in; in other words, to restrain us from doing things that are going to hurt us, hurt others or hurt Him.
READ Psalm 139:6
These truths about God cause David to pause and reflect and admit that he cannot fully comprehend it all. In Romans 11:33 Paul puts it this way: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!”
So, here in these first six verses we have a profound statement on the omniscience of God. David now affirms that God is present with us wherever we go.
READ Psalm 139:7
Do you remember, in Genesis, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden right after they sinned? They tried to hide from God among the trees of the garden. They felt guilty for what they did. How did that work out? Not so well. God found them. Moses tried to elude God, but God found him on the west side of the wilderness at Mount Horeb. Jonah tried to run away to Tarshish, but God found him in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. Let’s face it. Any efforts to flee from God are futile and foolish.
READ Psalm 139:8
Whether we are in the far reaches of space or buried deep within the earth, we cannot escape the presence of God. Even Sheol – the place of the dead – the grave – is not apart from His presence. That is an interesting thought, isn’t it?
READ Psalm 139:9-10
If we could move with the speed of light to a distant galaxy, we would find God already there. If we could reach the deepest part of the ocean, the Marianas Trench, over 35,000 feet deep (that is a long way, almost seven miles deep), God would be there.
This is how David pictures God… with one hand He guides us and with the other hand He protects us and keeps us secure. Now, how secure are we? I like the way Paul put it. He said, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). I would say that is pretty secure.
READ Psalm 139:11-12
Many crimes and evil acts are done under the cover of darkness. People feel like that they cannot be seen in the dark of night. One of Job’s companions, a man named Elihu, correctly stated in Job 34: “For His eyes [speaking of God] are upon the ways of a man, and He sees all his steps. There is no darkness or deep shadow where workers of iniquity may hide themselves” (Job 34:21-22).
There is a song out entitled “In the Room.” The chorus of that song says this (it goes right along with what David is saying here):
If I search the heavens high (He's there)
If I search the earth below (He's there)
If I make my bed in hell (He's there)
No matter where I go (He's there)
Where can I run from His Spirit? (He's there)
Where can I go from His presence? (He's there)
Even in the deepest depths (He's there)
No matter where I go (He's there)
So, in these verses we have an amazing description of the omni-presence of God.
Next David sees God as the Master Creator. The term I mentioned earlier is “omnificent.” God fabricated human life. Conception and birth are not merely biological processes that just happen by chance. The eternal God makes it happen. He is our Creator which makes us a divine design.
READ Psalm 139:13
What did God do? He “formed” us. He didn’t just throw us together, did not mass produce us on an assembly line; but rather, He “knitted” us (the idea here is an intricate workmanship). Where did all this all take place? In our mother’s womb. You know, Pro-choice and Pro-life supporters have argued for decades over when human life begins. The Bible makes it is clear (this verse) that human life begins in the womb. Which is why most Christians are Pro-life.
READ Psalm 139:14
We are not accidents. God has a purpose for our being here. The way that He made us fits perfectly with His divine purpose for us (or purposes). We are indeed His workmanship, as David says, “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
READ Psalm 139:15
God is pictured as the skillful weaver who puts together the complex parts of the human body. If you know anything about anatomy and physiology, the body is very complex. All of His creative work takes place in deepest concealment, inside the mother’s womb, poetically described here as “the depths of the earth.”
READ Psalm 139:16
In other words, God saw all of this even before I was conceived.
The “unformed substance” that he talks about here in v 16 refers to the embryo. God is at work even in the very earliest stages of development. Human characteristics begin to develop shortly after conception. By day 20 the foundations of the brain, the spinal cord and nervous system are already established. On day 21 the heart begins to beat. On day 28 the muscles and backbone are forming. By this time, just 4 weeks after conception, eyes, ears, arms and legs have begun to show. Within 30 days after conception the new life has grown 10,000 times larger than the original fertilized egg! All within the first month. I saw a billboard recently from ProLife Across America which shows a baby. The tag line states, “I had fingerprints 9 weeks from conception.”
The last part of v 16 says that even before we were born God had ordained our days. He knew when and where we would be born, how long we would live, what we would accomplish, who we would marry, whether we would be saved; and when, where and how we would die. He had it all planned out before we even existed!
This is what God told the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you, Jeremiah, in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). That happened before Jeremiah was even born.
READ Psalm 139:17-18
So, David acknowledges and expresses thanks for the care that God has taken of him all of his days. He says, “How precious to me are Your thoughts to me, O God!” What are God’s thoughts toward us? He loves us! “For God so loved [you and me] that He gave His only begotten Son… so that we would not perish but have everlasting life.” He loves us that much.
I love that last sentence in v 18. It says, “I awake, and I am still with You.” Every morning when I first wake up, the first thought that pops into my head is, “I am still alive! Thank you, Lord, for another day.” That is my first thought. And then, of course, I start thinking about all the things I have to do that day. But that is my first thought. “Thank you, Lord. I am still alive. I made it to another day.” I know a lot of people who died a lot younger than I am now. “Thank you, Lord.”
Finally, at the end of this psalm, David turns his attention to God’s holiness. Encountering God’s holiness reminds us of our sinful condition. The prophet Isaiah expressed this feeling when he saw a vision of the Lord. God was sitting on His throne high and lifted up. And Isaiah, his reaction to that was, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips…” (Isaiah 6:5). He was overcome with his own sin, who he was, in the presence of holy God. So, even the best among us are sinners.
What does that word “holy” mean, when you talk about God and God being holy? It means that He is perfect and pure, untainted by evil or sin. When we talk about the holiness of God that is what we are talking about. One of the manifestations of holiness is a disdain for sin and for evil.
Notice what David says next. His tone shifts from one of praise – he has been out there just praising God for who He is – and all of a sudden, his tone shifts and reality sets in about where he is at, all the problems he has, all the enemies he has. And he makes a request of God…
READ Psalm 139:19-22
Quite a shift in his tone, isn’t it? But this is more than just David’s personal vendetta toward his enemies. David regards HIS enemies as GOD’S enemies. He realizes that God will have to deal with them. David cannot do it. He will not be able to fully render justice. We are not God’s soldiers fighting a holy war against the evil infidels of the world. God is perfectly capable of conquering Satan and his cohorts. However, with that being said, we should not just sit idly by. There are times when we are called to boldly stand against evil and the enemies of God, to say something. But ultimately, we need to realize that God is the One who WILL administer justice and not us.
To love God and to fear Him is to be intolerant of what He hates. God hates sin. Therefore, as His people, we should hate sin as well. Yes, even the sin in our own lives. And that takes us to the last two verses of the psalm.
David comes full circle. He started off with God searching the heart. See how he ends up…
READ Psalm 139:23-24
David personalizes his thoughts about the holiness of God. It is one thing to strike my enemies. But now I have to look at my own life and say that I have sin also. He knows that God searches his heart. He asks that God point out his sin to him. You know, it is so easy for us to recognize the sin in others, but to see the sin in our own life, that is a little more difficult. It requires the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us. We undergo, in effect, a spiritual biopsy. Once the sin is discovered, we can then deal with it through confession and repentance. If we do this, the result will be a blessed and productive life that pleases God – “the way everlasting.”
That is Psalm 139. It is a great psalm, don’t you think? I have just a few applications for our lives from Psalm 139. Let me tell you, it is all about God.
God knows everything about us. He knows us better than we know our own selves.
God is everywhere we go. We can never escape His presence.
God is our wonderful Creator and Sustainer. He knows what we need physically, emotionally and spiritually. God knows and He provides. He knows us. He knows what we need.
God is holy and He hates sin. We, as His people, need to be sensitive to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit in us. And then deal with any unconfessed sin honestly before God.
Our all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful and holy God.