I'm going to ask you a question, and I'd like you to give me an answer if you can. I want you to tell me, please, anyone here, could you please tell me what year I was born? Me. What year was I born? Anyone want to tell me? Oh, yes. 1860. Yes, 1860, that one hurt, that one hurt. I know my hair says 1860, but it's not quite. What about, yes, maybe another question. Spence, I want you to tell me, please, what is my favorite food? Pizza. Wrong. That's a great guess, I know. My stomach again, my stomach says pizza, but no, it's not quite my favourite food. I want to try something over there, so let's come this side. Jake. I want you to tell me if your friend here, is it your cousin? No, Mr. Smith, not quite. I thought we're all cousins in the Lord. We're all brothers and sisters in the Lord. There's a cover up. Jake, I want you to tell me your friend's favorite color. What's her favorite color? My favorite color? His favorite color. I don't know. Blue. Blue? Is that right? Is it your favourite colour? No? Not for yes, no. Shake for no. No, no, it wasn't. No. See. That's zero out of three. We're asking a lot of questions that you don't know. You don't know about me, and you don't know about each other. Why is that? I wonder why that is. I'll tell you why. It's because we haven't spent long enough hanging out with each other to be able to find out those things. Mum and Dad will probably know everything about you. They've got a very different knowledge that you would have of your friend sitting next to you. Mum and Dad might have a very different knowledge of the knowledge that you have about me. For instance, I know for our house, I know one of our children, we know they cannot go to sleep without a nightlight. So I won't embarrass them, but it's Mia if you wanted to know. But no, no, it's not Mia. And then the other, one of our other children has to have complete darkness. Only us, only us as mom and dad, moms and dads know that about our kids. But I tell you, it's a very deep knowledge, it's a very different knowledge about people, about each other, that mums and dads have, and that God has an even deeper knowledge about you than mum and dad has. God has an even deeper knowledge about you. than anyone here knows. And Pastor Peter's gonna tell us more about that in Psalm 139. It's a shame that we didn't have any babies in the house, but there was two babies that were born this week. Isn't that special? You were all born, weren't you? Yes, you were all born, I'm sure you were all born as you're sitting here. God's Word says that He knitted together all of you, all of us, before we were even born. While we're still in mummy's tummy, isn't it amazing that God pieced us together bit by bit? God's Word also tells us in that psalm that He knows our very, when we go to sleep, how long we're gonna sleep. When we get up, He knows all those things. I wanna ask you one last question. Can you tell me what, girls, I'm gonna ask Sophia and Asha there. I'm gonna ask you two. Harry's sitting, this is Harry sitting behind you. I want you to ask, tell me what Harry's thinking right now. Does anyone know what Harry's thinking? What is Harry thinking? Yes? Chocolate? Harry, is that what you're thinking? Are you thinking chocolate? It could be. Oh, well, spot on. That's a great guess. God, we don't know what each other's thinking. We don't know what Mr. Shellard's thinking. We don't know what Mr. Smith is thinking. God knows what they're thinking. God knows what I'm thinking. God knows what each of you are thinking. God knows what you're going to say even before you say it. Those are those wonderful truths that come out in that Psalm we're going to come to. with Pastor Peter very shortly. So stay tuned for more. God knows you with a much deeper knowledge than any of us. He knows our hearts. God cares for you in a much deeper way than any of us, than mums and dads, than all of us. Good morning. This is a lovely familiar lectern. I have to say, I feel like a bit of a country mouse in the city. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the size of this congregation. Nelson congregation is so much smaller, but thank you so much for praying for the work in Nelson, and please keep doing that, that the Lord would cause us to flourish for his glory and in blessing many other lives with the gospel. So thank you for your prayers. Thank you for the privilege of being here this morning to open God's Word for you. Thanks, Duane, for leading us so wonderfully. And actually, I was going to preach on Psalm 139, but Duane's given us such a great exposition in the children's talk, my work's done. Well, I thought, what should I preach on? as a visiting preacher, what should I bring? And I thought, I know I'll preach about God. That's a good idea, isn't it? I want to preach Psalm 139 as it reveals the character and the glory and the grace of God for his people to encourage all of our hearts and to draw us closer to him to know and love him better and know his wonderful presence in our lives. That's what our souls need. In the midst of everything, above everything, is a continuing and greater vision of God himself. I've been reading through a devotional book on the Psalms and here's one lovely quote. on the Psalms, which I think is applicable to Psalm 139 and what we're doing this morning. He says, God is not a surface phenomenon, slight and changeable like moods or weather. He comes to us in the depths, sharing what is most eternal in himself with what is most needful in us. Get that last line? So glorious. He comes to us in the depths, sharing what is most eternal in himself with what is most needful in us. And I believe that's exactly what Psalm 139 does. It lifts us up to the profound greatness of the one true and living God, but it's so intimately connected with us in our need. So that's what we'll look at. By the way, just to cover all the bases, if you're worried about my finger, it's okay. Just a little tramping injury. It's not sore, and so just don't focus on my waving finger. I'm going to read Psalm 139, the whole chapter. We're going to work through the whole chapter, so buckle up for this great portion of Scripture. Psalm 139. If you've got a pew Bible, it's page 489. O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the light About me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. O, that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me. They speak against you with malicious intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Let's just pray briefly as we come to this. Lord, thank you for your revelation of yourself to us. If you had not spoken, we would not know, and yet you reveal yourself in all your glory that our hearts may be enriched. Minister to our hearts this morning, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. First part of the psalm, three paragraphs, the God, the all-knowing God, the God who knows everything, then the God who is present everywhere, and then the God who is all-powerful, and then the psalmist's response to those three great realities about God. So we just deal with those three revelations of God's character, the God who knows me. If I said I am an INFJ, who knows what that means? Any hands? No? Up two. See those hands. INFJ, okay, so it's one of those personality tests, so whatever you think of personality tests, don't stress about that, but it's one of those personality tests where you end up with being categorized by four initials. That's my four initials, apparently, according to this particular book. What's striking, again, so we have different perspectives on personality tests, but the striking thing about the book that I've looked at is the title of the book. The title of the book is Please Understand Me. That's what drives it, you see, this sense, this desire that we have that we be understood. We're all, you know, just in this group. Everybody's so different. We all have our personalities and all our individuality and our complications, and sometimes we feel like we're not known or understood. There's this desire for our life story to be known and understood by others. Actually, it's more than that. It's a desire to be known, understood, and accepted. But the reality is, of course, being known and understood can never be perfectly achieved in this world. Duane beautifully illustrated that. We just don't know one another completely. And the depths, all that stuff about us, all the meditations of our hearts and minds, the stuff we wrestle with or have wrestled with, but that's the beauty of the psalm. There actually is someone who perfectly knows us and understands us. And he accepts us. I'm going to come back to that at the end of the message, that profound reality that he knows, understands, and accepts. But there it is in those opening verses. He knows everything about us. He knows everything about you. He knows everything about me. He knows what I do. He knows what I think. He knows where I go. He knows my life story before I even speak. He knows what I'm thinking. He knows my attitudes and my emotions, my loves, my hates, my evil thoughts, and my good thoughts. He knows. Verse 5 says, you hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me." That hemming me in is, I think, basically saying we are contained and embraced and cannot escape from the reality of God knowing us. Because He's God, He knows. There's nowhere to hide from the knowledge of God. Well, we call that, in theological terms, the doctrine of omniscience, omniscience, all-knowing. God is all-knowing. The true and living God is infinite in His knowledge, but that's where the reality of God isn't just a removed surface reality out there. It is deeply, infinitely personal, because in His infinite knowing, He knows us. He knows me. He really knows you. He knows everything, but he knows little old me. All the world might forget little old me and pass by and ignore me, but God does not. God of the universe knows me and he knows you. Well, the next paragraph goes a little deeper. It's the God who was ever present. Verse 7 says, where shall I go from your spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence? It's an interesting way of expressing it. He's not necessarily saying, I want to run and hide from God, but in this question, he's saying, is there anywhere that I could be where God is not? And his conclusion is, there's nowhere. Even if he tried to, there isn't anywhere where God is not. Where shall I go from your spirit, or where shall I flee from your presence? And then he goes into questions and possibilities of places he could go, and still God is there. Well, again, if we put that in theological terms, it's God's omnipresence. God is everywhere present. Just pause for a moment and let your mind be blown by that reality. It's not like God is like the paint on a wall where he's kind of spread thinly all over the place. In the mystery of God's greatness, the fullness of God is in every place at every moment. So you and I can only be here, right? Well, God is fully here, but he's also fully in, well, Nelson or Africa. Not bits of God, the whole of God is fully present in every place. That's pretty mind blowing, isn't it? It's a wonderful reality though, because it again, it becomes deeply personal. Because what it means is for the Christian, Those who belong to him through Jesus Christ, that means we are never alone. Think about that issue of aloneness. In that book, there's a book, Union with Christ. And he talks there about the concept of aloneness. He said, we are more connected across the world through technology and social media, yet he suggests technology offers us substitutes for connecting with each other face-to-face, substitutes for connecting face-to-face, and we might actually end up feeling more alone than ever. An American writer in the 1980s wrote, the whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that the sense of loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary people, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence. It's pretty depressing, but in a broken world, we can all feel still somewhat alone. And it's a reminder, actually, that we are created by God and wired for relationship. That's why we feel aloneness so intensely, because we're wired to not be alone. The glory of the gospel again, and what's revealed in Psalm 139 is that we are not alone, ever, because God is fully present with his children. He goes through in this paragraph all the places He could go. If I ascend to heaven, verse 8, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. What He's saying there is, if I go to the highest point in the universe, God's still there. If I go to the lowest point in the world, God is still there. Verse 9, if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the outermost parts of the sea, what he means by that is if the wings of the morning is the dawn, the sun rising in the east, as far as you can go, whatever way east is, I'm sorry, or the outermost parts of the sea, he means the Mediterranean Sea, which is west. So no matter how far I went east or no matter how far I went west, God's still there. God's still present. But notice verse 10. He says, he doesn't say you're just there. In verse 10 he says, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. God is not present like an introvert, just there. He's actively present, holding the psalmist by the right hand and leading and guiding him. That's even better than simply not being alone. It's being helped and led by the gracious God. In verse 11, he says, if I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, He meditates on the possibility of being separated from God in darkness. That's a really helpful issue that he raises. Can I hide in the darkness? Well, think of the kinds of darkness we experience. If I'm asleep, or I'm unconscious, or I'm in surgery, Or I'm in the darkness of my besetting sins? Or in the darkness of depression or grief? Does that shut God out? No. In all of the darkness, the gracious God is still fully present. Verse 12, even the darkness is not dark to you, the night as bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. His presence in our darkness is light. So here we are, the child of God, never unknown, never alone, never uncared for, and then the third description of God's character is His power. How does he know me so well? Well, this unfolds the fact that in his power, he knows me because he made me. Verse 13, for you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Here actually is another illustration of another dark place where you might be hidden from God, but in the womb from the very dawn of your life, God is there creating you. God is actively at work. It's a beautiful reminder, isn't it? Even as we've celebrated births this morning. That conception and pregnancy and birth are not accidents. of biology. None of us, none of you are an accident of biology. You were made by God, made by him, for him. Our bodies are the handiwork of God. One writer says, one old writer says, everyone carries in their own body reasons enough for reverent gratitude. Again, what's being spelled out here is His power. So there's a theological term, sorry for that, that we probably know, it's omnipotence, all-powerful. God's power is infinite, there's no limit to His power. Because before Him, there was nothing. He's always existed. He is mighty over everything. But again, it's not abstract. See, it's not abstract, it becomes personal. That power. Verse 16, your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them. That power is personally and intimately connected with each of our lives, ordering our lives. There is nothing happening in our lives that is outside of his sovereign power and purpose and control. How reassuring is that in the midst of everything we experience. He has carefully ordained not only the span of our days, not only the length or the timing, he has carefully ordained the content of our days. And as challenging as that may be sometimes, we know we can trust this God. Well, these three great characteristics of God, he knows, he's present, he's mighty. Well, how does the psalmist respond to that reality? He does three things. His first response is praise, worship, thankfulness, gratitude. Verse 17, he says, how precious to me are your thoughts, O God, how vast is the sum of them. Any deep meditation on these realities will create in us a heart attitude that God's thoughts are precious, more valuable than anything. God's thoughts, God's ways, God's character, God's grace, more precious than anything this fickle world can offer us. Verse 18, it actually makes me smile if I've understood it correctly. Verse 18 says, he says, how precious to me are your thoughts, how vast is the sum of them. Then he said, if I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake and I am still with you. I don't know if you can see what's happening there, but what he's saying is if I start counting God's thoughts, they are so many and so great, I'm just gonna fall asleep counting them. It's even better than counting sheep, right? And so he falls asleep counting them because they're more than the sand. But then he says, I awake and I am still with you. He's sleeping after meditating on God. God never slumbers, but continues to hold his child. That's worthy of praise, don't you think? Second response here, which is harder and more complicated, and I don't have time to grapple with it, so go to the theologians in the room. Verses 19 to 22 is what we call imprecatory verses. He's so angry with those who don't honor God that he says really hard things about them. And there's a lot to think about there, but just a very quick way of dealing with this is, not to get distracted by the hatred, but first to see the heart that drives that. And the heart that drives that is he has meditated on the greatness of God and he is filled with zeal for that God and his glory. He's just lost in love and wonder. And then he thinks about those who don't love and wonder about God. and he's offended for God because of that. So there's a zeal, you see, a right zeal for the glory of God. He has moved to a jealous anger about anyone that would not love this God. What are we to do with that? post-Easter. What are we to do with that in the light of the death and resurrection of Christ to bring a gospel of salvation to the world? I suggest that we are to be driven by the same zeal, but the expression of that zeal is the desire that people who don't know this God and love and worship Him should come to know Him and be redeemed in Jesus Christ so that they then will be caught up in the same wonder. God will vindicate himself in the end, but our call now is to seek that people who don't know the glory of this God will be drawn to know him so that they will experience the joy of glorifying him. That's a zeal. And then the last thing, in the last two verses, which is so key, we actually sang from these verses before the message. Verse 23 and 24, this is his third response, is a glad submission to amazing grace. A glad submission to amazing grace. He says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. See what's happening here? He's just expressed a profound zeal and frustration with those who don't know and honor God, but he doesn't finish there. He finishes with asking God to examine his own heart. It's not the prayer of a self-righteous legalist who thinks, I know this stuff and I'm great because I know this stuff. He doesn't see himself as better than others. After expressing his own love for God and his hatred for evil, his closing prayer is an open-hearted humility, asking God to examine his own heart to ensure that his own loves and hates are rightly ordered, that they be consistent with the wonderful character of God that he's been talking about, and that God would root out of him that which is unworthy. See that search me? And if there's something grievous in me, then lead me in the way that is pleasing, everlasting. It's a beautiful prayer, and I don't know if you notice, but he began the psalm by saying, in praise of God, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. And then he finishes by saying, God search me and know me. He celebrated that God does this and his closing prayer is, God, I want you to do this. Search me and know me. That's exactly what I want. It's exactly what I need. Now, here's what I want to finish with. There's an interesting challenge here. A question that can be created, even as we've talked about God knowing us, even as Dwayne very helpfully said, do you know what so-and-so is thinking? And then he said, God knows, and I'm sitting out the back thinking, oh, I hope I'm thinking good things, because God knows. Here's the question. How can God, the holy God, both know me and love me? Because we know, knowing enough about ourselves, that this stuff that God will know, that's not great, that's not holy, that's not pleasing. You see, the psalmist has the courage. Why does he have this boldness to be able to say, it's okay, I want you to know me? How can God both know us and love us? Well, that's the gospel of grace, isn't it? See? He knows our every sin. He knows our sinfulness. He knows it. I mean, I think I'm a sinner. I think I'm a great sinner. But he knows even better than me what a great sinner I am. But he says he loves me. And that's the gospel because he has provided an answer to what he knows. He sent his son to take the penalty, not abstractly, for every sin that he knows. He sent his son to bear the penalty for every one of those, the whole of it. He took the penalty for all that is wrong and shameful and inconsistent in me so that it is dealt with and done away with, so that we know we can be completely known and completely loved. Tim Keller, in his book on marriage, says this about the issue of being known and loved. It's quite striking. He says, to be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. And then he says, to be known and not loved is our greatest fear. See, to be known and not accepted, known and not loved because of what is known, And then he says, but to be fully known and truly loved is well a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. Just again, think about this. When we consider our sin, the striking thing is, he doesn't simply choose to love us for our sin. It is that our sin draws him to us in love. It's the very existence of our sin that grieves the heart of God and causes him to do what needs to be done about it. It doesn't repel him, it draws out his tender heart. That's beautifully explored in that book called Gentle and Lowly. He quotes the Puritans, and the Puritans taught, when we sin, the very heart of God is drawn to us. That's counterintuitive. We think when we sin, the very heart of God is repelled, right? The gospel tells us when we sin, his heart is drawn to us to rescue us from that sin and deal with that sin. If we don't know that, you see, when we sin, our way of dealing with sin is to cover it and justify it and excuse it. But the gospel says, no, you can be open because God has moved to deal with it. and forgive and to cleanse and to pick you up and dust you off and empower you again. Another writer says, there is comfort concerning such infirmities in that your very sins move him to pity more than anger. Pity more than anger. Christ takes part with you and his anger is turned upon your sin to ruin it. That's counterintuitive. We think his anger is turned upon us. It's not. It's turned upon our sin to ruin it because he loves us and he wants us to know him better. His affection shall be the more drawn out to you. A writer says, it's not how we think about this reality, it's not how the world around us thinks, but he said, we should bow in humble submission, letting God set the terms by which he will love us. So here it is, he knew our sin, his heart is drawn to us to rescue us all the way from heaven to the cross. That's what we celebrate at Easter. So we can be real and honest with him. He already knows. He already cares. He's already present and powerful. Again, this great quote, because of that, we can affirm these two great realities. I am more sinful than I ever dared to admit, but I am more loved than I ever dared to hope. That's the gospel. And again, you see all of the truths of Psalm 139 come to us in and through the person of Jesus. He is the yes and amen to these great realities. Jesus is all-knowing. He says, I know my sheep and I lay down my life for them. Jesus is all-present. He says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Jesus is all-powerful, all-authority. in heaven and on earth has been given to Him, our Savior. If you have trusted Jesus Christ, then these are truths that allow you to face today, tomorrow, and eternity. And if you have not trusted Jesus Christ, then I plead with you, come to Him so that you can know this God for today, tomorrow, and for eternity. Let's pray. Bless you, Lord, for these glorious truths about you, how our hearts need them. Lord, again, you know our hearts, each one of us, you know what we need. Please minister your reality and your truth and your person to each of us in our need. Bring your eternity to meet our needs that we would live for you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.