I read it over four days, looking at about five or six verses each day. He sees through us. David sings of the omniscience and omnipresence of God, which will overthrow the power of the wicked, dealing with them according to his justice. The tears that fight irritants differ from the tears of sadness, which contain 24 percent more proteins. There is no place to hide from God. Psalm 139:1–12. He graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (Th.M., 1976 in Bible exposition) and Califo... More, 4. In coming to know Him, we come to know ourselves. “Thou hast explored me, as men dig in mines, and make subterranean excavations. So David exclaims (v. 6): “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.”. A David Psalm GOD, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. Browse Sermons on Psalm 139. The Psalm may be thus summarized Ps 139:1. EXPOSITION VERSE 139 Verse 139.—In 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. 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.”. 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. Happily, once we give up our flight and allow ourselves to be found by this relentless “Hound of Heaven” (as Francis Thompson described Him in his poem), we discover that His intention is not to harm but to bless us. The Search OF the Savior: Why Jesus Came, Part 2 (Gal. But God saw them! Every person has in his or her body sufficient proof that God exists. If there are approximately six letters in an average word, the information content of a human chromosome corresponds to about 500 million words. How much is that? 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 “meditation” or “wisdom meditation” label. "You know me, Lord," says this man, "intimately -- inside and out." 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 God’s everlasting way. This is not so much a prayer that God may know him (which He already does, v. 1), but rather that David might know himself through God’s purifying, refining fire. R. C. Sproul explains along the same lines: If there is such a thing as perfect hatred it would mirror and reflect the righteousness of God. From a lowly shepherd boy watching over sheep to a mighty king shepherding the nation of Israel. 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. 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 … In the blinding light of His holiness, we recognize instantly the desperate need we have for inner purity. Psalm 137 – 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. We fear being totally exposed. But in any case, the awesome thought that God skillfully made me and ordained the days of my life ought to make me see that I can’t escape from His power and sovereignty. I have been enjoying books by other Bible preachers of this time period and thought I would try Spurgeon, as well. Happy New Year: Past, Present, and Future Perspectives, 4. By the way, even if you suffer from birth defects, God declares that He made you. In fact, we can’t even know ourselves thoroughly. And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Your stomach has 35 million glands which secrete the right amounts of juices to allow your body to digest food and convert it into stored energy for your muscles. The closest we can get to knowing another human being ought to take place in the marriage relationship. The point of these verses is that there is nowhere that one can hide or escape from the presence of God. For the choir director: A psalm of David. Psalm 139 was one of the last psalms written by David. Is theistic evolution a viable option for Christians? Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) provides a verse by verse commentary on this sacred hymn, Psalm 139. 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 … But to fear God is to hate evil (Prov. King David even survived murdering Uriah the Hittite. However, the Lord understands perfectly how this truth fits into all other truths about the creation. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue,. Can we hide from God? In that case, David would be referring to God’s hand on his life from conception through eternity. He points out that the Viking landers that put down on Mars in 1976, each had instructions in their computers amounting to a few million bits, slightly more than a bacterium, but significantly less than an alga. (v7-18) III. Psalms 139. 139. There is a point of contact between our knowledge and God’s knowledge. 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. 7-12 in the larger context of the psalm as a prayer for God’s help against enemies or persecutors. The first three deal with different attributes of this inescapable God as they relate to the individual: His omniscience (vv. Q. 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. Psalms 139:1. Knowledge without obedience leads to deception and pride. The thought that darkness doesn’t hide us from God leads David to consider that God formed him in his mother’s womb. 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. You have searched me and known me: David prayed to Yahweh, understandin… A comforting thought. 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. Tucker and Grant consi… 3 You see me when I travel. Biblical faith boldly proclaims the inescapable presence of God in Psalm 139:7-12. Other parts of the brain control involuntary processes, such as digestion, glandular secretions, the rate at which your heart beats, etc. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. Twenty billion bits are the equivalent of about three billion letters. 1:18-23). Picking up the receiver, he murmured in a low, sexy voice, “Talk to me, baby ....” Suddenly he flushed bright red. Must we (Ps. We’re continuing in our series on the greatest Psalms, and today we’re looking at Psalm 139. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary PSALM 139 Ps 139:1-24. Both we and God, for example, know that the statement “two plus two equals four” is a true statement, that it corresponds to reality. “It is clear, then, that the sequence of rungs on our DNA ladders represents an enormous library of information. For the director of music. So what’s the bottom line? Your first reaction to that thought is probably, “Where can I run to hide?” It seems to have been David’s thought (v. 7). Listen to this: A single human chromosome (DNA molecule) contains 20 billion bits of information. Augustine observed, “Men 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 wondering” (in Reader’s Digest [1/92], p. 9). Read Psalm 139 commentary using The Treasury of David. From moments of victory over giants to moments of shame with a woman who wasn’t his wife. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.--As though he said, "O LORD, thou art the heart searching God, who perfectly knowest all the thoughts, counsels, studies, endeavours, and actions of all men, and therefore mine." He said weakly, “Oh, hi, Mom” (Reader’s Digest [6/84], p. 32). Then, scrutinize yourself by inviting the searchlight of God’s Word into your innermost thoughts and feelings and by yielding yourself to be obedient to God’s ways. This is an excerpt from Spurgeon's Treasury of David, a classic commentary on the Psalms.“Psalm 139 is one of the most notable of the sacred hymns. How can a person develop a sense of God’s unshakable presence, so as not to sin? It showed them in a graphic way that God takes sin seriously. 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. He even knows my thoughts from afar (v. 2b). 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)! How vulnerable should we be? Second, I must constantly yield my whole life to God. Like a caged bird, He’s got me surrounded, with His hand upon me (v. 5). Do you want to escape God in the place of the dead (Sheol)? Of David. You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. Does debt affect giving in modern times in light of the Israelite tithe and slaves? Yet most people today have never heard of John Gill. If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. But the amazing thing is, this God who knows us so thoroughly, who knows every awful thought we ever have, desires to have a relationship with us. 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! Does it seem like a vice rather than a virtue? Study the bible online using commentary on Psalm 139 and more! O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Some obey willful commands; others perform their duty in response to unconscious commands from the brain. 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" Or who makes him dumb or deaf, or seeing or blind? 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. To say that something as finely balanced and complex as the human body is the result of sheer chance plus time is nothing short of ludicrous! Since we cannot escape from this all-knowing, all-present, all-wise Creator, we cannot escape from the need for holiness. It’s not a generic psalm; it’s intensely personal, between David and God (note the frequent “I” & “me”). Verses 1-24 One of the most notable of the sacred hymns. This is the historical context of King David’s psalms. Though hidden from human eyes in that day before sonograms, David was not hidden from God’s eyes (v. 16). JOSEPH A ALEXANDER Psalms Commentary (1864) Spurgeon had high praise for Alexander's work writing that it "Occupies a first place among expositions. 7-12); and, His omnipotence as the sovereign Creator (vv. He is intimately acquainted with all my ways! Your retina also has four other layers of nerve cells. Is it not I, the Lord?” (Exod. The Bible describes King David as a man after God’s own heart (Act 13:22). 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. As David thinks about God’s 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. You can hide in the dark, but God is light and He will find you out (vv. Psalm 139 Three headings: I. They were naked and not ashamed in each other’s presence (Gen. 2:25). As a man and woman live together in that lifelong commitment, they grow to know one another’s actions, words, and--to the degree that they openly communicate--thoughts and feelings. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. One evening the phone rang. Do you want to head east (“wings of the dawn,” v. 9) or west (“remotest part of the sea”)? Copyright 1993, Steven J. Cole, All Rights Reserved. (Spurgeon, C. H. Lectures to my Students: Commenting and Commentaries)Rosscup adds: This is one of the more thorough older exegetical works on the … The inescapable conclusion of the fact that we can’t escape from the living God is an inescapable commitment to holiness. Think about what David had been and what David had become. 139:21-22)? It contains a brief chapter or devotional on each verse in the psalm. THE COMPLETE WORKS OF C. H. SPURGEON Within this set you can access other study helps [ bible, theology, commentary, sermons, and more ]. Find Top Church Sermons, Illustrations, and Preaching Slides on Psalm 139. David no sooner mentions the wicked and his hatred for their irreverence than he quickly realizes his own need for God’s cleansing. 1 O Lord, you have examined my heart. “The hymnic nature of the first eighteen verses seems to support the claims of Hermann Gunkel and Claus Westermann” (915). You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. “Lead me ....” When God’s Word exposes where I’m wrong, I must submit to the Lord and walk in His way. Whole Psalm. I haven’t even mentioned the complexity of human cells. God is there! 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. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away. Even before a word is on my tongue, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Behold, O Lord, You know it all.. 5 You have enclosed me behind and before,. What does this mean practically. Psalm 139:24 (NIV84) —24See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. You understand my thought from afar. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. What principles guide how much we share with others? (Psalms 139:4 RSV) That’s 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. We wrongly think that Christians should not hate anything. To ignore that kind of evidence renders a person without excuse (Rom. 1-6); His omnipresence (vv. When Moses complained to God that he couldn’t speak eloquently enough to lead Israel out of Egypt, God said, “Who has made man’s mouth? the idea that God is not far off, but is near to each of us. Altogether the system makes the equivalent of 10 billion calculations a second before an image even gets to the optic nerve. They all work together to keep us alive. 4:4-7). How much more would we live uprightly if we constantly kept in mind that God is present with us everywhere we go! Psalm 139 is a psalm that is clear that abortion is murder. It … 13-18). 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down,. With the first couple, God performed an object lesson that pointed ahead to His ultimate solution. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary PSALM 139 Ps 139:1-24. 8:13). 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. O LORD, You have searched me and known me.You know my sitting down and my rising up;You understand my thought afar off.You comprehend my path and my lying down,And are acquainted with all my ways.For there is not a word on my tongue,But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.You have hedged me behind and before,And laid Your hand upon me.Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;It is high, I cannot attain it.a. Part of your brain regulates voluntary matters, such as muscle coordination and thought processes. 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. God knows us. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. If a typical book contains 500 such pages, the information content of a single human chromosome corresponds to some 4,000 volumes. ¨+ÑØæé ;“}8öçÅI?’ëûcŠÚL‰„ˆdå¾­ê+'t—yµiû¦jÛ¿ª—́:V } –m 2‘ŽŽÈÝôU-´†‚~ ð`R¡ìÿ °ˆJlˆ. That information comes to your brain through the miracle of the eye, which has 100 million receptor cells (rods and cones) in each eye. So David is saying that you can’t escape from God. One who hates his enemy with a perfect hatred is still called to act in a loving and righteous manner toward him (“Tabletalk” [11/91], p. 9). Even the closest human relationships fall short of total knowledge. I must become a doer of the Word, not just a hearer who deludes myself (James 1:22). You know everything I do. And laid Your hand upon me. What do you do with a God like this? Or, he may be referring poetically to God’s presence after death, in the resurrection. Although Psalms 139 is just one of around 80 or more psalms authored by King David, it is the most utilized by those engaging in Negative Theology. It is a clear and judicious explanation of the text, and cannot be dispensed with. Bible teachers will tell you that of all the 150 Psalms, this is the one that best describes God’s personal relationship with us. Each of the other vital organs and glands in your body works in complex conjunction with the others to sustain life, which science can’t explain or create. One square inch of your skin has about 625 sweat glands, 19 feet of blood vessels, and 19,000 sensory cells. There has been considerable debate about the precise genre of this psalm. and know everything about me. From 1977-1992 he was the pastor of Lake Gregory Community Church in Crestline, California. He is there! With David we must exclaim, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!” (v. 17). AN EXPOSITION OF PSALM 139 by Charles H. Spurgeon One of the most notable of the sacred hymns. Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) provides a verse by verse commentary on this sacred hymn, Psalm 139. It has 10 billion nerve cells to record what you see and hear. Do a careful study of vv. 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). 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? Christianity is not following a set of rules or going through a bunch of religious rituals. But even so, you can be married for years and still discover new things about your mate. More than 500 muscles connect to these bones. If you are longing for intimacy, security, and purpose, your search begins and ends with God. (v23-24) I. Jude 22-23 reflects the fine line between loving sinners but hating their sin: “And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.” Holiness means living apart from the wicked and staying undefiled from their sin, but reaching out to them with the message of salvation. 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. Again, David is intensely personal about it: God isn’t just everywhere; everywhere I go, He lays hold of me (v. 10)! Because of our sin and God’s holiness, something had to be done to remove that barrier to our relationship with Him. What do we lose when we negate God as Creator? Consider the miracle of the human body: Every second more than 100,000 chemical reactions take place in your brain. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there! God knows absolutely everything about me! We have a syrupy, sentimental notion of love in our day. Since the human race fell into sin, that kind of total intimacy has been threatening to every person. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. Since God is everywhere, you can’t get away from Him. 2. These eight Psalms are the devout Israelite's Manual of private prayer and praise. Does God love everyone equally (Ps. This little book is a nice study guide about Psalm 139. --Christopher Wordsworth. Whole Psalm. This is unfortunate, since his works contain priceless gems of information that are found nowhere except in the ancient writings of the Jews. 19-24) sets forth the inescapable response to the inescapable God: personal holiness. The heart muscle itself beats over 103,000 times each day, pumping your blood cells a distance of 168 million miles. “Search me, try me ....” David is inviting God to shine His pure light into the inner recesses of his thought life, where all sin originates. Can you imagine their shock at seeing death for the first time as they watched the blood spurt and the animal writhe as its life-blood drained from it? Turn there in your Bible. David sings of the omniscience and omnipresence of God, which will overthrow the power of the wicked, dealing with them according to his justice. 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. Yet he thinks that life on this planet evolved by chance! There is no escape from His thorough, penetrating knowledge. That is the message of the beautifully-crafted Psalm 139. But, as Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately wicked; who can understand it?” We can’t know our own motives and inner drives apart from God’s revealing it to us through His Word. You have more than 200 bones, each shaped for its function, connected intricately to one another through lubricated joints that cannot be perfectly duplicated by modern science. There are two elements to a holy life in these verses: First, I must constantly expose my inner life to God. A Lasting Legacy: Choosing A Wife For Isaac (Gen. 24:1-67). If you want to be holy, not just outwardly, where you can fake it, but inwardly, you must constantly confront your thought life with God’s Word. Who, I ask, has more faith--the creationist or the evolutionist? Why are we afraid to be known thoroughly? (v1-6) II. He’s there, too! 1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me.. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;. That God creates and ordains the days of each human life gives significance and value to each life and it strongly confronts the abortion of any baby, even if it is supposedly “defective.”. Although the Bible doesn’t 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. We have a longing to know and be known, but only within safe limits. Psalms 139 He preached in the same church as C. H. Spurgeon over one hundred years earlier. 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