Psalm 139 in your copy of the scriptures. Psalm 139. I thank the Lord for each of you. I thank the Lord for the way that you have received the Word of God that's been preached. A number of you have expressed that it was helpful in your own spiritual lives and in your journey. I thank the Lord for that. Of any prophet that comes, it does come from Him. praise his name. I also thank you for the prayers that you offered up for our dear pastor Dale Smith. He and I have been very good friends since we met in 1988. And he has fully recovered. He's got his sparkle back. He's back in the pulpit. And we are very thankful for that. And thank you for the prayers for me as well and teaching the college and career group. What a privilege that is. This is a group that is really loves the Lord. And they're communicating with each other so often that sometimes I have to turn my phone off with the group texting. But they share sermons and blogs and posts and so forth. And it is a wonderful, wonderful group. And actually, we've reached out to some who aren't in our church who come to that. It's a small group, about 15 college and career that come. And we generally host them in our home. We sing the word. We teach the word, we pray the word, and then we have conversation, and during the conversation, I ask one or two to give testimonies as to how the Lord has saved them, and it's a rich blessing. We're a little past the age of college and career, but they accept it, so we're thankful for that. Well, Psalm 139, follow in your copy of the scriptures as I read this psalm once again in your hearing. A psalm of David to the choir master. 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 form 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 could 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. So the reading of God's holy, inspired, and errant word, and we thank God for His word. In an introduction to a sermon by C. H. Spurgeon on Psalm 139, verses 17 and 18, where the psalmist says, how precious are your thoughts, and so forth, Spurgeon says this, You, God, see me is a note of the most serious kind when sounded in the sinner's ear. But to those who are the people of God, there is nothing dreadful in the thought that God sees us. There is nothing to cause us to despond or to make us feel gloomy in the fact that God compasses our path and our lying down. In fact, In proportion, as we are fully reconciled to God, love Him, and rejoice in Him, it will become a cause of joy to reflect that our best friend is never away from us, that our protector's hand is never removed, that the great observant eyes of the divine love are never closed. And my dear friends, if God is your best friend, aren't you thankful that He sees you? Aren't you thankful that He is with you? Aren't you thankful that He takes His special interest in you? Well, Spurgeon goes on to say, in the same sermon, he says, Oh dear friend, could we ever go to any place where God is not to be found? That would be the hell of hells to His people. and I personally say amen to that. I don't want to be where God isn't and of course we can't be where he isn't. We've seen that he knows everything in the first six verses. We've seen that he not only knows everything but he's everywhere present in verses 7 through 12 of the text that we've been looking at. Well this particular Paragraph that we're looking at it. It's probably more than one paragraph, but this section verses 13 through 22 Really speaks of the wisdom of God Our God is all wise I thought, as I was reflecting on that, I found this verse, Psalm 104, verse 29. Oh Lord, how manifold are your works in wisdom you made them all. And really what we see in these verses are the works of God. In some of the verses, we're going to look at the wisdom of God under two broad headings. We're going to look first of all at the examples of God's wisdom in verses 13 through 16. And then we're going to be looking at the responses that the believer has to God's wisdom in verses 17 through 22. But first of all, we look at the examples of God's wisdom. And there's two examples, two examples of God's wisdom. And really, if I were more theological, which I should be, I know, I would label this sermon about the decrees of God. And the decrees of God are manifested or shown in his works of creation and his works of providence. Now, I've labeled this the wisdom of God, but those of you that are very theological, think in terms of the decrees of God, okay? And there are two ways that God manifests his decrees, as I've said, in creation and in Providence. Well, we're going to look at the two examples of God's wisdom, first of all, in His works of creation. The works of creation is God's making all things of nothing by the word of His power in the space of six days and all very good. I hope we don't have any evolutionists here this morning. If you are an evolutionist, God help you and forgive me for not agreeing with you. We believe that God made everything. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's the way the Bible begins. And I'm sure that you are, as I am, happy with that wonderful truth. Well, let's look at the example of God's creation. And what David does is he focuses in on a particular Important part of that creation look at verse 14 and notice. It's all personal again all very personal David says for you formed my inward parts You knitted me together in my mother's womb This is absolutely astonishing You see what David is saying. He's saying God you are the one who made me to be like I am and Every single person here today, including all of you precious children, and even the youngest ones, listen to me for just a moment. You know why you are the way you are? Do you know why you've got the color eyes you've got? Do you know why your nose is as it is? You know why your mouth is as it is? You know why it is you are as tall and will be as tall as you're going to be? It is because God knitted you together. when you were in your mommy's womb. Now, I don't remember being in my mother's womb, nor do any of us, do we? But while we were there, God was weaving and knitting us to be just like we are. We'll have to make application of that in a few moments. But this really causes us to think about the whole study of anatomy. And even a thoughtful consideration of the body Our body is an amazing thing, and that's exactly what David says in verse 14. He says, I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I remember the first pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Green Isle was there from 69 to 75, and there was a young lady, two young ladies, I think, actually, who went off to nursing school while we were there. I remember them coming back and perhaps I remember this because my wife told me that she was discussing with them. And one of them said something like this, I don't see how anybody couldn't believe in God once they have studied the human body. I remember reading another man who was obviously not a believer. He thought he could make the eye better than God did. So what arrogance? better than God made the eye? I don't think so. I thought, if I were to meet him, I'd say, why don't you try it? See if you can really do it, you see. But think of the human body. Just think of one thing. I was interested in the heart. And think of the heart. Did you know, I didn't know, but I take the authority's word for it, that the heart pumps 7,000 liters, that's 1,849 gallons of blood a day. This is around 52,834,410 gallons over an 80 year lifespan. Now I turned 80 in July. That means my heart has pumped more than 52,834,410 gallons of blood, and it's still working. I don't think anyone has ever created a pump like that. Now, I know my pump's gonna stop someday, I realize that. And not everybody lives to be 80. But the fact is, David says we're fearfully and wonderfully made. And you children and you young people, or even you adults, you study any part of the human body and you'll see the wonder and the glory of what God has done. Evolution cannot in any way explain it. It just doesn't make sense. But it makes sense when we see God as the author and the creator of this. and again i want you to notice in verse fifteen what we say he says my frame was not hidden from you when i was being made in secret intricately woven in the depths of the earth each individual has been intricately woven in the depths of the earth this means in your mother's womb john calvin put it this way uh... he says that He comments that if an artisan works, he does so in light. But God chooses a place of darkness to weave together his creation with an incomprehensible skill. In darkness, he does this. He is God. He is God. Well, that's the first example that we see of God's creation, and I'd like to spend a whole lot more time there and talking about it, but you can talk about it around the lunch table today. to see God's creation of our bodies. And not just our bodies, but the personalities we have. I mean, we all have different personalities. I know the psychologists classify them in different groups, and that's legitimate, that's very legitimate. But we have the personality we have, even though it's been affected by sin, because of the way God made us and put us together. Some of us are great extroverts, some of us are introverts, and some of us are somewhere in between. But God made us that way. Well, let's look at the second example of God's wisdom, and that is His Acts of Providence. And we see that in verse 16. And again, we can go to the Catechism. What is God's providence? Or what are God's works of providence? God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions. All His creatures and all their actions. Did you know, and I know you know it because you studied the Bible, but did you know that God even governs the actions of sparrows? Not a single sparrow falls except God. Except God causes it to fall. All its creatures. and all their actions. But more specifically, He governs all of our actions and everything about us. And this is what David says in these verses. He says, verse 16, Your eyes saw My unformed substance, and Your book were written every one of them. What was written in His book? The days that were formed for Me, when as yet there were none of them. Not only does God take interest in weaving us together, but He takes interest in every single one of our days. Every single one. And they were all written in the book before we were even born. This is what God has done. We've got to be overcome with an astonishing thanksgiving and praise for God. Now, some of you are saying, I don't like some of the days that God ordained from me. And I understand that. Because not all our days were perfect and glorious, were they? Many of our days were tainted by sin. Many of our days were tainted by sorrow and difficulties. But yet, as we shall see, God has ordained these days and he sustains us in the midst of them. email notification this morning from our church written by a dear friend of ours whose father's funeral was yesterday. We expressed our sorrow that we could not attend his father's funeral. He's a bachelor. He is old enough to be retired now, this friend. But on the same day that his father's funeral was held, he received notification that at 2 a.m. yesterday morning, He received a notification that at 2.30 his mother died in the nursing home. The same day, his father's funeral, his mother died. That's difficult. That's a very difficult providence, isn't it? But I know exactly how he's responding because he wrote it in an email. This is what God is doing. and he submits to it. God is molding him in that way. So even that is determined by God. Now we need to make some necessary deductions and applications from this truth of God's wisdom both in creation, the creation of our bodies, and in providence, the ordering of every one of our days. The first necessary deduction that we must make is we must see the value the value of human life. God is the one who has knitted us together. And he has knitted us together in his own image and likeness. Now, this week we were shocked. The whole nation is shocked. It's still in the news. about this 14-year-old boy who took the life of four people there in Georgia at his school. What did he do? He destroyed the lives of four people who were knitted together in their mother's womb. That's what makes this crime of murder so serious. And then I thought at the same time, everyone is abhorred, and rightly so, at what this 14-year-old boy did. But on the other hand, in many of the states in our land, lives are taken in the mother's womb with the sin of abortion. Do you realize what's happening? That which God is knitting together man comes in and destroys. And there have been, I think now, over 65 million abortions since 1973. Now I know Roe v. Wade was overturned, but it seems to have made very little difference. I know the state in which I live is wide open for abortion. And it's not going to change. But I want to add this note, and that is, even though this is a very serious sin, it's not one that cannot be forgiven. You may have friends, or perhaps there's someone here in the past that has had an abortion. I tell you, dear friend, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from that sin. and restores. And as we cry out against these sins, we must remember, we must remember the forgiveness of Christ and we must remember the hatred that we've had towards human life, which according to our Lord Jesus Christ, if you call someone an empty head, you're guilty of breaking the sixth commandment. We use the term moron when I was a kid. I don't know what's used now, but that too is sin and that can be forgiven. But what we learn from this is the value of human life because it is God weaving together that infant in the womb. And it is a sin against Almighty God. But as we think about the value of human life, we must also think about those who are different from us. There are people who have disabilities. How are we to think of them? They are precious in God's sight. God wove them together. A number of years ago, there was a couple that came in to tell me about their child. It was their, I think it was their eighth child, wasn't it, Reina? I think it was their eighth child. And they'd been born. Wonderful family, Christian family, to tell that this young man was missing a particular chromosome. And the, I said, oh, I'm so sorry. And the father rebuked me. He said, no, he said, don't be sorry. This is the person God has given us. And we were thankful. And they told this couple that the child would probably not live past his teenage years, but they didn't believe it. And they, the mother, did everything with the support of the father, everything within their power to give this young child all that he needed. We called him the governor at our church, because he greeted everybody. He went to college and graduated. Shepherds College. Ever heard of that in Wisconsin? It's for those with disabilities. He graduated. Not only did he graduate, but he graduated with honors. And he has since continued to live and give great blessing to the church of which he is a member, and blessing to many in society. Why? Because these parents understood that here was a young boy missing a chromosome, true enough, but had been knitted together in their mother's womb. and gave him every advantage, and he's still prospering. And if you were to meet him, he probably goes circles around you in many ways, but he's a precious life. And so we must remember that all life, all life, And we must remember that every human being anywhere in the planet, no matter their race or color or origin or whatever, has been knitted together in the mother's womb just to be like they are. You know we all have the same father and mother, don't we? His name was Adam and her name was Eve. And none of us here can deny that. And all of us, if we could trace our genealogy, we'd go right back to Adam and Eve. Ah, yes, yes, we must understand. That's a necessary deduction. And also these verses, as we make further deduction, teach us that every event in our life is ordered by God. It's all ordered by God. And we're thankful for that. Some of us have had lives which have been relatively easy. Oh, with the difficult days. Some of you have probably had lives that have been full of sorrow and difficulty and pain. But it's all been ordered by God. It's all been ordered by Him. So, let us remember that. But these verses, as you think about it also, show the great need of every sinner to repent of his sin. Because, dear friends, listen. You, are a creation of God. And not to listen to Him, to turn from your sin, and to trust the One He sent to be the Savior for sinners is a great wickedness. And you will be judged if you don't believe. And children, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe. It is God who has made you the way you are. for his purposes. Well, that's the examples we have of God's wisdom. Now let's look at responses. There are two responses that the psalmist has to the wisdom of God in this portion of scripture. And the responses are found in verses 17 through 22. And again, he responds in verse 17, How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast the sum of them! Verse 14, he says, I praise you, O Lord. And here's another place where I said, I think I said in the first sermon, I said, I wish I could be eloquent. I wish we could just lift our souls in thanksgiving and praise to almighty God. Because this is what David is doing. He says, I praise you. He says, your thoughts are precious to me. He says in verse 18, if I could count them, they are more than the sand. I wonder if he tried to count. But he knew that his thoughts were more than the sand. Awake, he says, I am still with you, is what he says. This must always be our response. We think about how he made us, when we think about how he has ordered our lives, that he made us this way. And he ordered our lives this way. And so as you reflect, On your nose, your eyes, your ears, your feet, your height, your weight, well, the weight we can solve a little bit, can't we, if we need to. As we reflect on all these things, we need to do as David did, and that is to give praise to our great and glorious God. But you know, sometimes we tend to complain. Now maybe you don't, but some of us do. We tend to have some complaints. the way that God put us together. Some may look in the mirror and think, oh, if I just had this little bit different facial feature, it would be better. No, no, no, no, no, don't think that way. Or may think if I were just a little taller. Now you guys, they wanna play basketball. I don't know if we've got anybody like that here today or not that likes to play basketball. I loved basketball. And I thought at one time, In my basketball days, I was 6'1". I thought, you know, if I could just be 6'3", whoo, that would be great. No, forget all that. God made us the height that we should be. I'm not 6'1", anymore. You shrink when you get old. But God made us the height that we should be. He made us with the dexterity that we should have. I think about David. How did God put this man together? He gave him the dexterity to be a great warrior. He gave him the wisdom to become a great leader and a king of his nation. God made him that way because he had a particular purpose for him. And so he fitted him just for that reason. And so he has fitted you and made you and given you the abilities and the skills and the gifts that you need to fulfill his purposes. You young people and you children, some of you probably don't know what kind of a doctor you're going to be yet when you grow up. But maybe some of you won't even be doctors. You'll be something much more important. You'll be an auto mechanic or a bus driver or whatever, whatever it is that God has ordained. He's fitted you and made you for it. And I just encourage you not to be complaining about what you aren't, but rather be thankful for what you are. Um, And as I said, David expresses this, how precious are your thoughts to me? He says in verse 17, how precious are your thoughts? I want to read you just a little bit about from Spurgeon here again, from the treasury of David, when he talks about how precious the thoughts. Spurgeon says, when the psalmist says, when I awake, I'm still with you, verse 18b. He says, thy thoughts of love, are so many that my mind never gets away from them. They surround me at all hours. I go to my bed, and God is my last thought. And when I wake, I find my mind still hovering about His palace gates. God is ever with me, and I'm ever with Him. This is life indeed. Can you say that at night your last thought is about God? Can you say that when you wake in the morning your first thoughts are about God? Well, Spurgeon did. And we ought to, because David could do that. He says that your thoughts are so precious to me. Oh, we need to grow in grace and knowledge so that the thoughts of our God become more and more and more precious to us by His grace and by His help. You know, His thoughts are precious to us because they're always tender. They're never harsh. Have you ever had people be harsh with you? It hurts your soul. God is never harsh with us. He's tender with us. Oh, He'll rebuke us. The Lord Jesus will rebuke us. The Holy Spirit will rebuke us. But He'll always rebuke us in love and tenderness. He doesn't hit us over the head with a 2x4. It may seem like that at times. But even when it's hard, the fruit is obviously the fruit that's come from love. Even as a father pities his children, so the Lord pities his own children. And so, David says, his thoughts are precious to me. So that's the response. You see, the first response of David to this wonderful truth that God has created us, that God has ordered every event in our life, Thanksgiving, praise, precious are the thoughts. And then we have these verses in 19 through 22, which almost seem out of place in this psalm, don't they? Perhaps if you've been reading this psalm and thinking about it, you've come to those verses and say, how does this all fit in Psalm 139? Have any of you thought that way? I did. As I studied it, how does this fit? All of a sudden it seemed like we switched gears. Like we did 180. But it does fit. And I hope to show you how it does fit. Because the believer's response is a righteous indignation. It is a hatred. And it is a very important response. This is necessary. Why? Well, when David thinks about the knowledge of God, which he ended in verse six by saying, it's too wonderful for me. When he thinks about the omnipresence of God, and he gives thanks and praise to that, that there's nowhere he can go to get away from God, his best friend knows him and hovers over him. and keeps him. And when he thinks about the wisdom of God, how can one not then come to hate those who would kill this God by taking his name in vain, by denying these very truths, which David highlights for us in this psalm. And so, in righteousness, he sides with God against those who are opposed and against those who hate God. Why? Well, he says they're men of blood. And my mind fast-forwarded to our Lord Jesus Christ. We read about Him this morning in the Scripture reading, didn't we? Falsely accused. voluntarily suffering and yet uttering not a word. Why did they want to kill him? Because they hated God. That's why they wanted to kill him. Why did they deliver him to Pilate? And even though the Roman authority, Pilate says, I find no fault at him. And they cried out, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. And they did crucify him. What was the problem with these people? It's the problem that David foresaw, as it were, as a prophet in these verses, when he said, they're men of blood. They hate God. They speak against God by not acknowledging and embracing the great truths of who God is. in all of His glory, in all of His glory. And so, the psalmist says, do I not hate those who hate you with a complete hatred? Some translations say perfect hatred. Either one is fine. I sort of like the idea of the perfect hatred rather than the term the complete hatred because it was a perfect hatred. You know, God, did you know that God hates? at the same time that He loves. Incomprehensible, but it's true. Remember our Lord Jesus Christ when He was here on earth? And we are to hate as God hates. God does not hate the person of a man. Remember, Jesus wept over Jerusalem. He said, only if you had known this your day, what was coming to you. He wept. He sobbed over Jerusalem because of their wickedness and because of their sin. And yet, the day came when the judgment came. Those who hated God were indeed judged. I think of our Lord Jesus Christ where we really see, and the Bible says that he is the express image of the Father. There's so much about God that is mystery, that we don't understand. He's incomprehensible. He's unchangeable. He doesn't have any fits of anger like we do. Nothing like that. He is angry with the wicked every day, the Bible says. And yet he's kind to the wicked every day. He gives food and sunshine and blessing like he is. The sunshine today is shining on those who are wickedly sinning instead of being in church and hearing the word of God. All that is true. And we are to have that same attitude. Again, I think Spurgeon did such a good job of explaining this. He says of God, when verse 21 says, Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? Do I not loathe those who rise up against you? Spurgeon says he was a good hater. For he hated those only who hated good. Of this hatred he is not ashamed. But he sets it forth as a virtue to which he would have the Lord bear testimony. And then Spurgeon says, to love all men with benevolence, that is the kind of benevolence that God has by giving them good things, all men, sunshine, food, rain, clothing, families, and so forth. He says to love all men with benevolence is our duty, but to love any wicked man with complacency would be a crime. I always have to think about it when I think about God's love of complacency. So children, your parents all know this, but I didn't know it, so I'm gonna explain it to you. By complacency, we could say approval. That is, if we love wicked men with approval. In other words, here's a man who's, or let's put it this way. Children, I don't know if you've ever been bullied. I hope not. I was bullied on the bus. I had this big old guy sat behind me and he would take me, put his arm around me and then he'd rub my head with his fist. I tell people that's why I've got the bald spot. So he bullied me. I didn't tell my folks, but one of my friends told my folks and Jim Eggleston. And so he came over with my parents and my dad says, this was happening? He says, yes. Jim says, I'm going to take care of him. He says, he can sit with me on the bus. It was a win-win because he sat by his girlfriend, which meant I sat by him. He could sit closer to his girlfriend. So it was a great deal for him. And it was a protection for me. So I was bullied. So if I would have loved, I was supposed to love this bully with benevolence, that is not wish him ill, not wish that he'd get run over by the bus or anything, although he did get kicked off once. Not with, not with, I could love it with benevolence, but not with complacency. I could never come to a place where I really approve of what you're doing to me and to others as a bully. No, no, no, no, no, no. We don't love men with a love of complacency or approval. That would be a crime, Spurgeon says. 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 or less than obligation." And that's true. We have an obligation to hate wickedness. Wickedness is perpetrated by men. At the same time, to be like our God and not wishing that someone would run over him with a bus. You see. And that's what David is saying here. And my dear friend, that kind of hatred we need to have. At the same time, we understand that we can love with benevolence and pray that God might save their souls by his grace and for his glory. That's the perfect hatred or the complete hatred of which David speaks here in this passage. Well, there's more I could say, but I'm going to quit. And we just want to think a minute about what we've looked at this morning. What we have seen, and I trust that you have seen it, is the comfort that there is in God's wisdom. It should be a comfort to us to know that God knitted us together in our mother's womb so we are today exactly what we should be and are. I want all you children to realize that. You are what God intended. He made you this way. And the personality He gave you. Now, He didn't make you sin. I don't mean that. We have to repent of our sin. We live in a fallen world. But nonetheless, Thank God for the way you look, your personality. Thank God it's the way He made you. And don't ever look down on anyone else who's different from you. Never. We're all created in the image and likeness of God. We all have the same daddy and mommy, Adam and Eve. Let us never forget that. And then, remember that God has ordered every single day in your life. There's been no mistakes in any of the days that you've experienced. I suppose this is especially applicable to those of us who are older. Because we can all look back at certain days and say, oh, I wish that never would have happened. Either because of my own sin or because of what other people did to us. but we have to know that God ordered that for our good and for his glory because he tells us that he loves us with an everlasting love and he tells us if we are in Christ that all things work together for good to those who love God and the purpose is that we might be more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ and if we understand all those events in our lives correctly we will say I'm glad it happened even the most difficult things I'm glad it happened because it has helped me more and more conform to the image of Jesus Christ. And then what should we do with this? Give him thanks and praise. We should worship. I praise you, David says. I praise your name, verse 14. And say, how precious to me, Lord, are all your thoughts. Bring us to the place of thanksgiving and worship. And then finally, let us not forget that it is right to be angry and sin not, to have a righteous indignation against sin while we still love the sinner and long for their salvation. God help us that we can be like David, who is like his Lord. Father, thank you for this psalm. We pray that you'd help us by your grace to live in light of it, May Jesus be honored and glorified in our lives. Forgive us of our sins when we are not like this, when our hatred is less than perfect, when we complain rather than praising, when we think we could do better with our days or with our bodies than what you have done. Forgive us, we pray, of that. Help us, we pray, to rather submit to you, to love you, and enjoy you in our lives. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.