and then to be seated. We'll turn once again to Psalm 139. Psalm 139, last time we had considered the first 12 verses. We'll return to it this afternoon and allow me to read in your hearing The verses I'll be preaching on this afternoon, namely verses 13 through 24. For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee. When I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them. mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." So far, the Word of God. We took up last time to begin expounding this psalm, which is so full of God, and in particular of his attributes of omniscience and omnipresence, applying it all unto ourselves and God's knowledge of us and his inescapable presence. And what we have further in this psalm is a continuation. So just in the previous verses to the ones read, we dwell there upon God's inescapable omnipresence. And then verse 13 comes in with the word for. And so it's giving in God's care of forming each of us in the womb an instance and indeed a remarkable and outstanding one of everything that's been said already concerning God. So that is to highlight that we are continuing to keep our sights on God Himself and His omniscience and omnipresence. As we consider further what the Lord has here in His Word towards what we are to do towards this God, we will see how we are to adore Him as Creator. how we are to agree with Him as judge, and how we are to beseech Him as the hearer of prayer. So first of all, this omniscient and omnipresent God, that we see how we are to adore Him, as Creator and indeed personally each one of us as my Creator. So here we continue to have the Lord Jesus Christ who is the one mediator between God and man who is leading our praises as they ascend to God, for we can't ever worship God acceptably outside of faith in Christ as the mediator. And how strikingly obvious that Christ is the one who's leading us in praise at this point when we consider that the Lord Jesus Himself was conceived and His human nature formed in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Now if we only had this part of Scripture excerpted and we had nothing else and if we were to study it our whole lives about the wonder of conception and development in the womb and We would never from that in and of itself arrive at the knowledge that the Son of God took our nature and that there was a conception of the Virgin, which was miraculous. So we need gospel revelation to inform us that the Son of God took our nature, was born of the Virgin, and so forth. However, when we come to these particular verses with faith, which has been wrought by the gospel, it makes them ten times as amazing, because we learn from other passages. The Son of God took our nature and He He lay, if you will, in that tiny chamber where all men must lie, the womb of his mother. He was in this position of weakness and development after his manhood and so forth. Well, then it makes our own reflections on our conception and birth that much more wonderful to consider. So with Christ leading us, let's consider how we are to consider our Creator. And the first way is as the possessor of our reins, as we see right there in verse 13, that for thou hast possessed my reins, the innermost part of man is possessed by God and there we can study perhaps with some knowledge that we've gleaned in modern history how it is that at what time the inward parts and the bowels and the organs are formed within the mother's womb. However, Well, above and beyond all of that knowledge, we need to know that God possesses the reigns of every man. So we are, the flesh is prone to think wrongly about it. My thoughts and my feelings, they are mine. And I can think and feel as I please, but it isn't so. because your thoughts and your feelings are possessed by God. The heart is for God. This is, in fact, the first and the great commandment to love the Lord our God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength, to love Him with everything that is within you. And this can help you to begin to think on that, your inward things. belong to God. Thou hast possessed my reins. And as he goes on to say, Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. There are some people who think the word covered should be translated woven. Thou hast woven me in my mother's womb. And that's possible, though I'm not particularly persuaded that it must be said that way. I'm quite content with covered. So we have the idea of God covering and protecting me when I was in my mother's womb. When I was in that position of weakness and vulnerability, God was covering me. And actually Job uses the same word. In one of the verses we read earlier, in verse 11 of Job 10, it's translated, fenced. But it's the same word in Hebrew. Thou hast fenced me with bones and sinews. referring to God's protection. So while I was in my mother's womb, God was covering me and protecting me. And he supplied me with things that would be a protection for my whole life long, like bones and sinews. God is the protector. And doesn't that bring to our minds? Just how impious and ungrateful to God it is when men will not protect a child in the womb. So everyone, every president of the United States judge, senator, state senator, everyone in government was covered by God in the womb. So why did you not perish in the womb? It's because God covered you. And so then you think about a magistrate who comes and who will not give protection to children in the womb. A righteous God would be perfectly within His rights to take away the protection from any such magistrate who will not protect the unborn. They are tempting God to remove His covering. They are displaying to all the world their ingratitude. And indeed, I would, if I could make them hear, I would summon every magistrate in our world to realize that you are summoned before the presence of God and you will have no covering if you tempt God in this way. It shows us, which we considered this morning, didn't we? That the magistrates are called God, so they should be like God. So what should a magistrate do? A magistrate should protect the weak. And so it's showing us something here about the tender protection of the great God, isn't it? Thou has covered me in my mother's womb of all the things that God does. Is he just concerned about the great events that happen in the rise and fall of kingdoms? No, he's paying attention. to the child in the womb and giving covering and protection. And all of this is a lifelong source of praise. In verse 14, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. So, in fact, all of our lives long, this should be a source of praise for us because God has made me fearfully and wonderfully that there's handiwork that has gone into the making of myself, which is obviously God's handiwork. It's fearful. It's God befitting, the power and wisdom he's put in to making me. This can be remembered with prophet even at difficult times of life. In Psalm 22, the Savior there in his agony, he goes back and remembers how God took him from his mother's womb and made him to trust when he was upon his mother's breasts. And so even if every other, reason for praise were to disappear. We would still have this. As long as we have breath and we're intact, we can say, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made and return praise unto God. And notice how when man realizes how God has made him, informed him, it makes all of God's works to be marvelous. I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous are thy works. All God's works are marvelous. And this is actually, it's pointing us to the chief end of man. which is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. So man is not the measure of all things, as some have said, but man is the observer of all things, made to stand upright with eyes in the top of our head. in order to observe all of God's works. We're made, in a sense, it's like we're a mixture of heaven and earth, because we have an earth that's a body that's from the earth, a soul that's more immediately from God, and we're like a microcosm. We should give God the praise of our own formation, and then we should look out at all His other works and give Him praise for them. And we continued and we meditate and we think upon the secrecy of the womb. We've, as it were, begun the theme of God forming us in the womb there in verse 13. We've paused and we've broken out in praise in the following verse. And then in verse 15, we return again to the theme of the womb. And the first part of verse 15, we have the idea of the secrecy of the womb. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret. And this instance of the word substance It's actually the Hebrew word for bone. So my bone was not hid from thee when I was made in secret. And it would seem probably referring to the entirety of the skeleton in the form of a man as God saw it. So think about it. We have certain kinds of, ways that we can see into secret. So like an, you know, an ultrasound is able to see into the, to an extent into the womb. And then David's referring to his bones. So we have x-rays that can make the bones to be apparent. So if you take the idea of an ultrasound and an x-ray and combine them together, that's how penetrating the sight of God is towards us. is the eye of God. It's like the ultrasound machine plus the x-ray machine and infinitely much more so. And so this shows us, you know, that God understands the deepest parts of us, the inmost way that we are wired. And so one takeaway is that however it was that we were influenced, or personally wired, or we tick a certain way, or we have a temperament, and whatever influence the time of formation in the womb has had upon that, God is thoroughly acquainted with that. So God understands your temperament. And it certainly means then that we can't get away with sin. God sees everything. It also means, when we wrap that up together with the good news revealed in the gospel, you know, the things for you that are bone deep. God knows them, the desires and the groanings and the wishes, the things that are secret in the secret place. So you once were in the secret place of the womb and God saw you there. And so now when you go into the secret place of your prayer closet, God sees you. He saw your bones in the womb. And when you come into the secret place of prayer and you utter your bone deep groanings, burdens, and desires, and you pour them out to Him, He knows you. He hears you. The secrecy of the womb. Also, the lowness of the womb is here in verse 15. When I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, Now that is quite a description of the womb, to call it the lowest parts of the earth. And it is a low place. It's an earthly place. And it's certainly an obscure place. It's not openly displayed before the world. lowest parts of the earth. So think about the Savior. This was part of his humiliation, that he who was adored by angels in the highest heights of heaven, in the heaven of heavens, that he took his place in the lowest parts of the earth, in the womb of Mary. And it shows us about Christ and his love. It shows us Our origins, we began in these lowest parts of the earth, and God was bestowing care upon us. We were curiously wrought. This wasn't one of His throwaway works, where He did it with half His attention and one eye closed or something. Exerting all the skill of His holy wisdom, curiously working you, in your mother's womb. If God bestowed such care on you when you were in the lowest parts of the earth out of the eyes of men, how much more will He still care for you? So we have the idea of the lowness of the womb. We have the idea also of development. Verse 16, I think has two parts to it. It describes our undeveloped state and God's developed plans. So it describes our undeveloped state. Thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect. So now this phrase here, my substance being yet unperfect, it's, well, it's a total of one word in Hebrew. So thine eyes did see my golem. That won't mean anything to you, but it's just driving home the point. This is one word and it has to do with that which is wrapped up. So you were once an embryo. So you once were like something that was all wrapped up. You didn't have developed parts, distinguishable parts yet. There was that stage of your development. And so think about that. Job speaks in a similar way. Hast thou not poured me out as milk and curdled me like cheese? So there's something like that, isn't there? An embryo is kind of shapeless, but it's a person. Notice that. This is, he says, my substance yet being unperfect, my golem. So yeah, an embryo is a person and therefore is protected by God under the sixth commandment. and so on. This is quite amazing. Why did God care about me when I was like that? My substance. He saw me when I was unperfect. So you might think, you know, if secret thoughts were displayed, and we can be glad that they're not, If your secret thoughts were displayed, maybe... There might be someone in this room who has thought, you know, when I walk into this room because I stand up so tall and erect, people are going to like me. Or because I've, you know, the shape of my nose, it's just really handsome. Or maybe you've thought, you know, my eyes, they've really got something captivating to them. I've got something to offer. Well, there was a point when you had nothing to offer. You didn't even have a shape. You were a golem. You were like curdled cheese. And God was paying attention to you then. Is that not amazing? It wasn't because you had some great beauty to offer to God or attract His attention. Reinforces for us a point that I made before. Those who destroy an embryo and think no one will ever know, you're wrong. God says he knows. He sees every unformed substance of every person. What should someone who's destroyed an embryo do? They should repent of breaking the sixth commandment, confess their sin to God, and find forgiveness in Christ. God saw us when we were undeveloped. It has other applications as well. Remember Jeremiah. The Lord said about him, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. So I'm not gonna say that that's limited to the time when Jeremiah was an embryo. However, because God knew Jeremiah before he even existed from eternity. However, when Jeremiah was in that condition, not even shaped yet, not even developed yet, not even formed yet, God knew Jeremiah. God knew Paul similarly, Saul of Tarsus. So God sees preachers of the gospel. when they are at that stage of being unperfect. It shows us that God uses the base things of the world to confound the wise and the strong. It shows us it's not too early to pray for our, we don't even know the gender yet, but we could pray that if God wills that he would give us sons of the womb whom he would call, convert and call to be Preacher so our undeveloped state is is here and then alongside of that. We have God's developed plan God's developed plan in the second part of verse 16 which is you can if you have the marginal notes you can consult those and They bear evidence that the language is a little bit difficult It says something along these lines in thy book. They all were written and Days were formed, but there was not one of them. So this is a tremendous comfort that all of the days of your life were written down in God's book before any one of them came to pass or had existence. Today is a day that God had in His eye and in His perfect plan and decree before you wherever born. And God has good plans. He will perfect that which concerns us. So our undeveloped state and God's developed plans. And then we have our cup running over here in verses 17 and 18. What should be the impact of thinking on God's care for us in the womb? And it should be that we're overwhelmed. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. So whenever we have true knowledge of God, it's the knowledge of one who is God, who is infinite, who far exceeds us. and who is infinite and who is also good. So His thoughts to us are precious to the eye of faith. They are precious. God in His goodness showering and bestowing thoughts and care upon me more than I can fathom. So if you were to go and You know, go to the seashore. If you were even to take an eighth of a teaspoon with you to the beach and scoop up some sand and spread it out, just see if you could count how many grains of sand there are in one eighth of a teaspoon. I'm quite sure you won't be able to do it. Yet, God's thoughts towards His people are more, the sum of them is more vast than the sand by the seashore. And so, this weakens a longing for eternity. It's good that Christ has come to give eternal life because we're going to need eternal life to return back praise to God for His precious thoughts of kindness towards us which we cannot even number. Do you want to live forever? I want to live forever, because that's the only way that I'll be able to return back praise and praise and praise to God for His kind thoughts to me, which I can't even number. My cup runs over, in essence, David is saying. And perhaps these thoughts of God's care for him were the last thoughts he was having before he was falling asleep, or maybe the exercise of thinking on the Lord and His kindness overwhelmed him and sunk him down into sleep. But in any case, he awakes and the Lord is still with Him. What a refreshing experience that is. God makes His mercies new every morning to us after we sleep. Our thoughts, when we fall asleep, it's It's mysterious, isn't it? Our thoughts relax and they drift off into dreamland. We can't keep on concentrating forever and ever, but even so, we have to relax into sleep, but the Lord is still with his people. Praise his name. And we have a little picture, don't we, of the resurrection. When we wake up and we find that the Lord is still with us, then we have a picture of the resurrection morning. I awake and I am still. with thee. So, Psalm 139, it is about the omniscient and omnipresent God. We are being instructed further regarding this God, how we are to adore Him as our Creator. Secondly, We're instructed on how we are to agree with this God as our judge. So, notice that in the Holy Scripture, there's a transition at this point, which is an effortless transition. that on God's side, if you will, that there's no difficulty here. And so we go from the consideration of these themes, these have to be some of the most tender, loving, delicate themes that we have in the whole Bible anywhere about God's care for us in the womb. And then right from there, we come in verse 19, Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. So we move from the thought of God's tenderness and care to the thought of His holiness, and He's the judge. And there's no contradiction, because God is one. And as our confession of faith says, as we confess in that confession, God is without parts. So it's not as if at one time we study one part of God and another time we study another part of God. No, God is one. And it is the same God who displays himself in his care in the womb and in punishing and judging the wicked. Verse 19, has, well, a richness to it. There it says, Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. And It affirms that God is pleased and He does do this in time. He cuts off the life of the wicked. Think about Herod. He was smitten by an angel. His bowels gushed out. He was eaten by worms, etc. So there are divine judgments that take place in time. And we also have in verse 19 a hint of the judgment of the last day. Recognize those words? Depart from me. And, you know, they're words that we have a couple times in the Psalter. Psalm 6, depart from me. These are words that Christ will say at the last day. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. So, speaking tongue-in-cheek a little bit, if you have a red letter Bible, then verse 19b should be in red. Depart from me." Because these are the words of Christ, and Christ is continuing to lead us, and what a perfect mediator He is. So, He's the one who leads us in adoring God for making us in the womb. He's the one who leads us in a desire to see God glorified as the Judge and as the Holy One who punishes and destroys the impenitent, wicked, How are we to apply verses 19 through 22? One is that we are here taught something about godly separation. godly separation. Verse 19b, again, words of Christ, but they're also to be our words. Depart from me, therefore, ye bloody men. So, the believer fixes his eye on God and sees He's holy, He's the judge, And therefore there's something in his action which is a disfellowshipping from bloody men. And so we certainly must depart from the ways of bloody men and not imitate their sin. And that does then mean that there are limits to which the closeness to which we can be associated. We cannot take the wicked as our chosen bosom friends. For example, we are to be separated out from the world. Because God is holy, we are to practice godly separation. Secondly, godly zeal. So, verse 20, for they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thine name in vain. And we were children, we were studying the third commandment together. Does that cause your ire to be awakened when God is dishonored, when His name is taken in vain. Even if it was a family member and you heard someone talking against your family member and running down their name, there would be a kind of indignation that would rise within you. But if we love the Lord, how much more will that be true? If we hear someone speaking against the Lord, taking his name in vain, and we are to place ourselves squarely on God's side, and we are to count his enemies as our enemies. Verse 22, so a godly zeal that is focused upon above all the glory of God. And also, we are to learn a godly hatred. Indeed, as it is said here, a perfect hatred. So, now the terms used here imply hatred and grief. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee, and am not I grieved? with those that rise up against thee. I hate them with perfect hatred. And this word for grief, verse 21, it seems to refer to an intense loathing or disgust. So there is a danger of failing to hate God's enemies with a perfect hatred. And that's, if you will, there are two dangers, a left-hand danger and a right-hand danger. And by way of example, Joab hated, but he didn't hate with a perfect hatred. So Joab hated, with a hatred that was motivated by personal vengeance. And so he couldn't forget that Abner had killed his brother, and so Abner came over to David's side, and Joab murdered Abner in cold blood. So that was not perfect hatred. It was hatred, but not perfect hatred, because it was mixed with the sulfur of self. By contrast, with that, we think about David, and there were aspects of perfect hatred in the life of David, because Shimei came and cursed him, and he said, you know, let him curse, and so forth. So, there's a danger on the Joab side of things. There's also another danger, which is becoming cozy with God's enemies. Anyone who exists is an image-bearer of God, and we don't hate God's handiwork in the person, but rather considering them as an enemy of God. As such, we are to hate them. And we can, through lukewarmness, fall into another danger here. So in Thyatira, Christ writes to the angel of Thyatira and rebukes that angel or pastor because he suffered, allowed that woman Jezebel to teach and to seduce His servants. So He didn't hate with a perfect hatred, because He didn't rise up in the Lord's strength and cleanse the Lord's house of impurity and seduction. Eli did not have perfect hatred, and he should have. He didn't restrain his sons when they practiced vile things against the Lord. Even David himself, the human author of this psalm, failed to hate with perfect hatred. So David was king. He was the judge. There were abominable crimes that were committed under his watch. Amnon in a indescribable way, violating his sister, Absalom, then in turn murdering Amnon. And David doesn't do anything. And we should take a warning from that. These were his sons. So it appears that David, through the attachment of flesh and blood and favoring his own children, He failed to punish evil in the way He should have done. After all, it is a solemn thought, but it is a true thought that we are heading towards the last day. And that day is a day of separation, when Christ will say, Depart. And we need to be girding up the loins of our mind. We need to be preparing ourselves for the last day. And part of what this means for the believer is that we need to be putting ourselves squarely on God's side. And we need to be preparing ourselves. And I'm not saying anyone attains it in this life. But I'm saying we need to prepare ourselves for the day when we will say amen to the damnation of the wicked. because God hates them with perfect hatred. And I'm not saying he's taking away the call to repentance. I don't mean that. I mean the impenitent wicked will be punished by God in hell forever and ever and ever and ever with no escape. They will experience his perfect hatred. And so we need to be girding up our loins of our mind and putting ourselves on God's side. So, God is holy. God is judge. We need to agree with God as judge. Thirdly, we are to appeal to Him as the hearer of prayer. And God in His wisdom has put one thing after another. We transition from the thoughts of God's tender care in the womb to these thoughts of God's holiness and He's the judge and so forth. And then there's something here at the end which we need. And there would be something pastorally wrong or spiritually wrong if we could walk away from these declarations of perfect hatred towards God's enemies. If we kind of walked away with our head held high and our chest puffed out, warning, danger, red flag. Rather, what it leads David into and what it should lead us into is this petition. And it's hard for me to think of a more perfect petition, or one that I need more, and perhaps your own heart will echo that. It's good to know that God is pleased with the petitions He's put down for us here to use. Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts. So this petition is being driven by a desire, I want to know myself. And the Christian is one who does search and examine himself diligently. And yet that searching of self is imperfect. And I want God to search me. So Job said, thou knowest that I am not wicked. And so he had an integrity and he was ready to avow and profess his integrity before God, but yet Even though we can actually know by self-examination, I'm not a wicked hypocrite, whatever my continued sins and failings, it's possible for us to know that, yet we should not, we ought not to rest in our judgment of ourselves. but we should appeal to God to search us, because His errors who can know. Psalm 19, we should search out, search for sin, destroy whatever we find, but yet we don't then sit down and rest upon our laurels. We invite God to search us, and particularly in times when our thoughts are multiplied, we want to invite God to search us. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. The word for thoughts appears to be related to a word for things branching out. So my thoughts that are going this way and that way, and it would seem thoughts that are troubled and anxious. I'm careful and troubled about something, and I don't even know what to think about the situation. I don't know what to think about myself, perhaps. But I'm asking God to search me and to know my thoughts. This petition, it's driven by a sense of one's own propensity towards evil. And see if there be any wicked way in me. So the Christian, he does not allow Sin, in the sense of Romans 7, he commits sin. But the things that he does, he does not allow. His heart and will protest against the very sin that he himself commits. So the Christian is not allowing sin, he's not approving of his own transgressions, he's standing squarely on God's side, who will slay and judge the wicked, and yet at the very same time, He knows I have a deep propensity to evil, to wickedness within myself. He uses a word for wickedness that has to do with toil, trouble, and grief, which teaches us a lesson, because sin is always a grieving, toilsome thing. It's grieving to God, It's grieving to those around me, and in the end, sooner or later, it will be grieving to me. And we should be driven in this prayer by recognizing that we are so prone to evil that we can even have a pattern of wickedness, a wicked way, which is more than just one instance of me committing a sin. but a pattern, a track, a groove that I can't even clearly see myself. Oh, but we should call upon this God of grace, omniscient, omnipresent. Ask Him to see, ask Him to search, and to lead us in the way everlasting. This, what a wonder this is. It is echoing John 10 for us. that I am the good shepherd, that Christ undertakes to be the leader who puts His own sheep forth, who goes before them and who leads them out. You need a leader. You will stumble. You cannot be your own captain and guide. But God in Christ is willing to be your leader, to be your guide. When Christ calls, He calls men out of the world. He calls them to come and to follow Him. He is exercising leadership in that. And then He keeps doing it all the way. He keeps leading His people and leads them all the way home. Praise to God's name for it. Well, we've been given, with David and through his God-breathed psalm, a glimpse here of the God who is omniscient and omnipresent. We've been taught by Him how we are to adore this God as our Creator, how we are to agree with Him as Judge, and how we are to appeal to Him as the hearer of prayer. And may the Lord bless us to put these things into practice. Amen. And would you stand with me for prayer? O Lord, our God, indeed we confess our need of Thy Word of being directed in the way laid out in thy word. Indeed, we pray, search me, O God. Try me, and know my heart, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me. Lead me in the way everlasting. We thank thee that we have the assurance that everyone that calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved, and that thou art a God who hears and answers, not for any deserving we have, but through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, would thou give us good according to our petition and our need.