We're going to be in Psalm 139 tonight, if you'd open your Bibles there, Psalm 139. And you'll notice the superscription. This is for the choir director. It's a Psalm of David. I want to read through it before we expound it tonight. O Lord, you've searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all. You have enclosed me behind before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's too high. I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from your spirit, or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, or if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night. Even the darkness is not dark to you, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to you. For you formed my inward parts. You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with you, O that you would slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed, for they speak against you wickedly, and your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? Do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with the utmost hatred. They have become my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts. And see if there be any hurtful way in me. And lead me in the way, in the everlasting way. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your precious word and what a marvelous psalm it is. It's sober just to read it. And I pray as we look at it tonight for a few minutes, you would minister by your spirit to each of us. And we'll thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. We are living in a time in which most people are looking for some type of significance. Most people want to feel as if they're important, they're needed, they have meaning. The world in which we live tries to get people to look for meaning in areas that really don't get it. Some look for power, some look for pleasure, prosperity, some look at people. What most people don't realize is meaning comes from a relationship with God, and it specifically comes, as this psalm presents, from a proper theological grasp of the omniscience and omnipresence and omnipotence of God. Psalm 139 is a psalm of David. It is a psalm that was written for the choir director, which means this was written not only to be publicly read and taught, but also sung. And the message of the psalm is easy to see. Meaning and significance and value to life is found by one's personal realizations about God and by one's personal relationship with God. The greatest meaning in life will come to one who realizes there's a link between you and the Holy Sovereign God of the Bible. When you begin to realize this, then you begin to realize you're special. When you begin to realize there's a real link between you and God, you begin to realize you're worth something. You begin to realize your life does matter. Your life makes a difference. Now when you read this psalm, you cannot help but notice very carefully the use of the personal pronouns. You, me, I. And what those pronouns teach is that God is a personal God. And God has a very personal interest in each individual. To David who wrote this psalm, God was very personal to him. And he thought about his entire life in the context of God knowing him. And that is what gave him meaning. Dr. Chuck Swindoll said that the 24 verses of Psalm 139 answer four very important personal questions. How well does God know me? That answers the problem of identity. Question number two, how close is God to me? That answers the problem of loneliness. Question number three, how carefully has God made me? That answers the problem of self-image. And how much does God protect and help me? That answers the question of fear and weary. Now we think Dr. Swindoll is right in his assessment of the psalm, and I want to somewhat use in a general way his outline as we describe what's in the psalm. There are four very personal facts that I want to show you. First of all, God completely knows us as individuals. That point is expressed in the first six verses. There are ten facts we learn. ten facts about the knowledge God has for each one of us. Number one, He has searched us and known us. That's what verse one says. You've searched me and known me. Now the Hebrew word that's used here for searching us speaks of very careful scrutiny. We're talking here about very careful examination and exploration. It was used as a word to describe someone who would carefully explore a mine looking for gold or minerals or explore a country like Lewis and Clark when they were exploring. Give careful exploration. What God is basically saying here is God has intimate knowledge of every one of us. He has explored every one of us. He knows what we are. He searched us and He knows us. And He knows us intimately. So we would be wise to get to know Him because you can certainly see He knows us. Now the second fact is God knows when we're sitting and when we're resting. Verse 2 brings that out. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. Every time we sit down, God's aware of it. He knows when we sit down in front of a television set or a computer. Every time we sit down to rest to read a book or we sit down to read His Word, He knows it. He's completely aware of it. David lived his life with that perspective of God. Thirdly, God knows when we're up and active. At the end of verse two, he says, and you know when I rise. God knows your daily activities. He knows what time you get up in the morning. He knows what you do when you get out of bed. He knows every action, every move. He knows our ups. He knows our downs. The fourth fact is he knows our thoughts. He says that there in verse two, you understand my thought from afar. That's a wonderful thing about God. He knows exactly what we're thinking. Nobody's going to fool God. He knows our thoughts, even though He may be governing the whole world from His throne in heaven. You know, sometimes we don't even understand why we think the way we think. And if we're honest, we need to admit that. But God knows. He knows exactly what we think, and He knows why we think it before we think it. The fifth fact is God carefully analyzes the path on which we walk. Verse 3, you scrutinize my path. God knows every place we go. That's an interesting concept. I scrutinize it. I watch where my people go. I keep my eye on them. I see the path on which they're walking. That should have a real purifying effect for every one of us. The sixth fact is God carefully analyzes when we lie down. He says in verse 3, and my lying down. God sees when you're up and active, and He sees when we lie down. God's in the bedroom. Don't ever forget about that. Sometimes a child becomes afraid in their room at night. We need to teach our children, you're not alone in that room. When you're lying down on that bed or you're being wheeled into surgery, you need to realize I'm not on this bed alone. I'm not going into this surgery alone. God's there with me. He's monitoring. He's watching. He sees these times when I lie down. The seventh fact is he has intimate knowledge of all of our ways. He says that in verse three, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. God is intimately aware of everything we do. His eye is continually on us. And here's what it really comes down to. He's either approving what we do, or he's not approving what we do. In other words, he's either pleased with what we do, or he's not pleased with what we do. But he sees everything we do. The eighth fact is he knows everything that leads to every word we speak. Verse four, even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know it all. God knows everything we say. He knows everything that comes through a person's mouth. That's why James said, well, you better keep a handle on your tongue. You better understand that tongue's unruly, and it can do some real damage. And you better keep a handle on your tongue, because if you don't put a bridle on it, it ultimately is going to lead to some serious judgment. You know, rarely will a person have to repent of silence. You may have an occasion where you have to say, I should have said something and didn't. I mean, those are rare moments, but many will sin by their speech. And God says, I listen to every word a person speaks. That's what David thought about God. The ninth fact is, He encloses us from what's behind and what's ahead. Notice verse 5, you didn't enclose me behind and before. In other words, God is involved in every angle of our lives. He's involved in what's behind us, what's in front of us, even when we don't sense it, we're surrounded by God, we're surrounded by the protection of God. And the 10th fact is he has laid his hand on us. At the end of verse 5, and you laid your hand on me. That thought just staggered David. The fact that here was Almighty God with this tremendous knowledge of everything about David and yet he put his hand on him and he was guarding him and he was guiding him and David was just frankly just overwhelmed with this. In fact, As he's thinking about this, he bursts out in verse 6 by saying, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's too high. I cannot attain to it. I mean, David is thinking about the knowledge that God has of an individual, the knowledge that God had of him. And it was staggering. No other being has this kind of knowledge about a person. And in verse 6, he says, this kind of knowledge is unattainable by any other being other than God. No other being other than God can have this kind of knowledge. That's what he says. Which brings us to his second personal fact. God is always close to us as individuals. Verses 7 to 12. There's no place that one can go where God is not there. You can't travel somewhere and get away from God. You may think, well, if I go here and I get out in this remote spot, I'm away from God. Can't be done. God is everywhere present as it relates to every human being. His presence, his spirit is everywhere. Verse 7 makes that point clear. Where can I flee from your presence? Where can I get away from your spirit? You can't get away from the presence of God. One time there was a believer who was challenged by a person who asked, where's God? Where's God? And this well-grounded believer said, before I answer you that question, answer me this, where is he not? Explain to me where he isn't. Now there are seven point blank realities that David brings out here about the omnipresence of the Lord. Number one, if you ascend to heaven, God's there. That's what he says there in verse eight. If I ascend to heaven, you're there. Now the word heaven in Hebrew is plural, so it could be talking about all three levels of the heavens. It can be talking about the majestic heaven, the throne of God. I think all are in play. What he's basically saying is you could climb the tallest mountain or fly up in a jet 30,000 feet. You could take a spaceship into outer space. God's there. No matter whether it's the first heaven where our atmosphere exists, the second heaven where the stellar heaven exists, or whether it's the third heaven where God's throne is, God's there. You can't go to any of the heavens and escape God. The second reality is if you die in our inshiel, God is there. Verse 8 says, if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. Now, Sheol refers to the realm of the dead. Some believe it could be a reference to the antithesis of heaven or hell. In other words, if you're in hell, you still can't escape the presence of God. But there's certainly the inference here that you cannot escape God by dying. People who think about committing suicide are very, very foolish. Because people who think about committing suicide think they're going to escape their problems. Oh boy, you just multiplied your problem in a big way if you do that. Because now, you aren't escaping your problems, you're going to come face to face with God. If you lie down in Sheol, you can't escape God. If you go east, God is there. Verse 9, if you take the wings of the dawn, I understand David to be saying, and of course he lived in the Israeli area, and I understand David to say, I could take flight and I could head east to where the sun comes up. I could go as fast as I can. I can't get away from God. The fourth reality is if you go to the remote parts of the sea, God is there. That would be to the west. The Mediterranean would be to the west of David. And David is basically saying, if you try to go west, God's there. You can't escape God by traveling anywhere in the world. In fact, Jonah tried that. He actually tried to get on a boat and run from the presence of the Lord and escape from the presence of God and it didn't work. The fifth reality is wherever the believer goes, God's hand leads. Verse 10, even there your hand will lead me. You cannot get away from the hand of God. You cannot get away from the presence of God. A wise person understands this, and a wise person lives life in accordance with that reality. The sixth reality is wherever the believer goes, God's hand holds. Verse 10, and your right hand will lay hold of me. In other words, wherever a believer goes in life, he cannot get away from the hand of God. He can't get away. A person can go on the run and think, I'm going to run and I'm going to escape and I'm going to get away from it all. You'll never get away from God. I don't care whether it's in this world or the next world, you can't get away from God. His seventh reality is when things are dark. God is still there. Verses 11 to 12 say, If I say, surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night, even the darkness is not dark to you, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to you. Now the words, surely darkness will overwhelm me, is descriptive in Hebrew of a person being crushed or covered by darkness. We're talking here about a person who's in a very dark situation. And because of the presence of God, God sees that person in those dark moments, and God is, for His people, always working in those dark moments and when He can't see. Now, I think that David is thinking of moments when he literally couldn't see. I mean, it was literally dark in those mountain areas and caves where he was hiding, and he realized, well, I can't see what's around me, but God can. And God certainly is able to protect me and defend me and provide for me. And for the believer, this is an encouraging thing to understand that God is near people who are when they're going through dark times. But if you're an unbeliever, this is a scary proposition because God certainly can use different things in a person's life to draw them to himself. Now, the third fact is God is the one who made us as individuals, verses 13 to 18. God has ordained the life of every human being on earth. God is intimately and sovereignly involved in the conception, the fetal development, and the birth of every baby. And I wish every politician, and I wish every doctor would give very careful consideration to what these verses say. Because if they did, abortion would be viewed for what it is, cold-blooded murder that kills the life of a baby that's formed by God. And I want to say this to this flock. I don't know how any believer can vote for politicians who support abortion. I believe it'll be an issue when we get before God. Now, a politician can't change Roe versus Wade. The Supreme Court can't. And that's where we need wisdom to see who Supreme Court nominees would be to overturn this killing of babies. But it's killing babies. These babies have been ordained of God. You're going to see it here in this text. You can't help but see it. And therefore, I think when a baby is aborted, it is a murder that's being committed. Now, let me say a couple of things about that. Because the argument for abortion will go something like this. Well, suppose a woman's raped. and gets pregnant. That's an extreme argument. Rarely happens. Perhaps there are instances where it does. I'm here to tell you tonight, even if that woman gets raped and gets pregnant, that baby's our name in God. Another argument is, well, you know, the poor woman who's in a critical health condition, we should terminate the life of the baby. Let me tell you the story of John Wolvard's mother. John Wolvard's mother, when she was pregnant with Dr. Wolvard, was told, you better terminate this baby because your life will be in jeopardy if you have this baby. You might die. And John Wolver's mother said, I'm having this baby. This baby has been given to us by the Lord. I'm having this baby regardless of what happens to me. Well, not only did she have the baby and live, But that baby of hers grew up to be Dr. John Wolfe, president of Dallas Theological Seminary, who's now with the Lord. He influenced thousands of people for the Lord. Now, there are people affiliated with this church, ladies who have had abortions. I understand that. And they've experienced the grace of God and the forgiveness of God, but they recognize it for what it is. And when you talk to these ladies, and I would never reveal who they would be, but when you talk to these ladies, they will tell you That was a terrible thing. It was a sinful thing. It was an evil thing. And when you go down through this passage of scripture, you cannot help but see that. God places a high value on life. Now, I don't normally do this, but Ruth Carr has brought tonight little pictures of her little grandchild. I don't know if it's a boy or girl. She has little pictures of it. And after this study tonight, when you go down through these verses, if you want to take a little look at that embryo that's forming there, you're going to be amazed in light of this text. Now there are four critical facts that God brings out about every single baby. Fact number one, God formed us. Verse 13, for you formed my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb. Now the Hebrew word you is emphatic. David says, God, you personally, you personally formed me. You personally formed my life. My life was no accident. No matter how it began, no matter when it began, no matter who the parents are, my life was no accident. Your life is no fluke of Mother Nature. Your life was ordained by God Himself. God was in it. The personal pronoun stresses that. And this forming of you was done when you were in your mother's womb. The text says He actually wove you together, which means God actually shaped you. He formed you. He developed you in your mother's womb. And the word formed, your inward parts, literally in Hebrew reads your kidneys. And in ancient times, this literally came to refer to your vital organs. Now understand what's being said here. I'm being as honest with this text as I can be for you. God actually formed your heart, your lungs, your kidney, your liver, and all your inward parts. He actually formed the delicate inner parts that you have in your body. God says, I formed that. That's what David says. Secondly, he made us. Verse 14 says, I will give thanks to you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You've been intricately designed by the hand of God. Don't ever let anyone tell you you evolved from an ape. That slaps God in the face. You exist because of God. And I'm convinced one reason why we're seeing more and more suicides is young people aren't being taught this. They're not being taught they're being made by God. They have no sense of worth. They have no sense of accountability. They have no sense of sanctity of life. They have no sense of judgment. But God says, know this, I made you. Thirdly, he framed us. Verse 15, my frame. was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. God skillfully designed your frame and this text, this verse, has to do with your skeletal system. It's an amazing miracle, the development of a little baby. There are 275 bones at the birth of a little baby. That material structure that's formed in a mother's womb is all due to the genius of God. Now, we have certain body height and type because of him. People want to change their frame through cosmetic surgery. Taller people usually want to be shorter. Shorter people want to be taller. The truth is, we're what God made us to be. That's why I don't criticize people for their height or their shortness. That's not my business. God made them, and we better respect that. I mean, that's a person made by God. And fourthly, he planned us. Verse 16 is amazing. Your eyes have seen my unformed substance and in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them. I want you to notice what is said there. You were in the book before you were even born. You were in the book before God designed that unformed substance. You were recorded in the scroll of God. He had you written down in your embryonic state. I mean, he's the one who decided, I'm going to make this person an embryo, and out of that embryo, I'm going to turn this person, this shapeless substance, into this person that I have recorded who is to exist on my earth. God planned the moment we would be born. He planned the number of our days. Our days are ordained of him. We had a date of birth. We will have, if the Lord tarries, a date of death. And as David was thinking about this, oh my goodness, he was just rolling these things through his mind. Verse 17 says how precious also are your thoughts to be, O God, how vast is the sum of them. If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I'm still with you." I mean, as David thought about that, he just became overwhelmed. He couldn't begin to grasp the magnitude of God doing that for him. God actually knowing him and forming him and designing him and allowing him to be born. I mean, thinking about those things was precious to God. But then he thought about one other thing. He thought about the fact that, you know, God's the one who protects us and cares for us as individuals. Verses 19 to 24. There are three wonderful realities to see here. Number one, God can eliminate our wicked enemies. Verses 19 to 22. According to verse 19, David didn't want to be associated with wicked people. He wanted God to slay them. Do you see that? Oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God. We have no business being a friend of an enemy of God. We have no business palling around with people like that. And he's just built a case for the fact that God knows all things. God's involved in all things. God's everywhere present. No matter where people go, they can't get away from the presence of God. And he said, I'll tell you what I want. God, I want you to use that power of yours and slay the wicked. Those wicked, he says in verse 19, are full of bloodshed. People who kill are wicked and evil. I mean, they're just wicked and evil. They're not protesters. They're wicked and evil. I don't care what the color of their skin. And wicked people use their mouths, verse 20, to speak against God. Wicked people are irreverent. Professors and teachers that try to eliminate God or mock God, they're wicked. They're not confused. They're wicked. Wicked people take God's name in vain It's what verse 20 says and your enemies take your name in vain. They just make mockery of the God of the Bible and according to verses 21 and 22 David says God I want you to know this I hate those who hate you I Realized what you've done for humans, and I hate those who hate you And the Hebrew language expresses here a complete total hatred. David is not some neutral, pacifistic wimp here. He loathed people who loathed his God. And by the way, the object of his hatred were the people, not the sin, the people. I hate those people. See, we live in a politically correct world. They don't like to hear things like that. They don't want to be rubbed the wrong way if you stand up and point out someone as being a liar and an evil person. They don't want to hear that. But David said, that's what I do. I hate those who hate God. He hated them with the utmost hatred and contempt, and he considered them to be his enemies. You know, some people say, oh, it's so wrong to hate. Well, godly people have a godly hatred. And one of the things that godly people hate are those who are godless and evil. They hate them. In fact, Paul in the New Testament says, abhor, hate that which is evil. Hate it. Which brings us to the second reality. God can eliminate all anxious and hurtful ways in us. Verses 23 to 24. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me. I love I love his honesty. This is integrity. Now just think for a moment what God said or what David just said that God has the knowledge of concerning the individual. He knows everything. knows his thoughts, knows the way he walks, knows who he associates with, knows what's coming through his mouth. He understands his plans. He sees when he lies down. He sees when he gets up. He sees when he sits down, when he stands up. I mean, God has just expressed that. And now he says, God, what I want you to do is I want to take that microscopic sovereignty that you have and take a look at me. I want you to examine my heart. I want you to take an honest look at my heart and I want you to see if there's any evil thing going on in my world and I want you to route it out. I don't want anything in a relationship with you that has any breach at all. Now that's integrity. That's integrity. To get down before the Lord and say, Lord, you search me and you know me and see if there's any hurtful way in me, if there's any evil in me and you convict me of it." Which brings us to the third reality, God can lead into the everlasting way. Verse 24, he wraps it up by saying, and lead me in the way of everlasting. Where is the way of everlasting found? It's found in the Word of God. See, in contrast to the wicked, there's the everlasting way. And God who made us can lead us all the way into eternity. One commentator said, this is probably one of the most glorious Psalms in the entire book. It's one of the sublime compositions in the world. I leave us tonight with five parting thoughts from Psalm 139. God watches over you from the time of your conception. I want you to understand that. I don't know the circumstances of your birth, don't know the circumstances of your parents, don't know any of that stuff, don't need to know that stuff. Here's what I know, God is the one who had you born. He formed you, he had a plan, he had you written down, he had you named and he formed you and he allowed you to be born a human. Secondly, he was actually involved in designing you. He designed your organs and your muscles and your skeletal system and your personality. I mean, God was the one who did that. He's the one who said, and here's when he's going to live. Thirdly, he determined our structure. He knew who would be born tall. He knew who would be born short. He knew our structure before we were born. Fourthly, God watches out for those who tamper with his property. I wouldn't want to be one who tampers with the property of God, because God's watching over that person whether it's day or night. He's on guard. And finally, our ultimate value and meaning, and that's the point of this psalm, comes from a relationship with the Lord. That's where real value is found in our relationship with God, because people and things will let you down, but not God. God is a God that can be trusted, He is a God who is all-seeing and all-knowing, and He's the God who allowed you to be born. That is what is taught in Psalm 139. It's a great psalm, a great psalm. Our time is long gone.