Welcome: It is so good to see you back in our church building, only third time since Sunday March 15th 2020.
Opening Scripture verses
You have searched me, Lord,
Psalm 139:1-4
and You know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
You, Lord, know it completely.
Opening praise Lord for the years –
Opening Prayer
Heavenly Father, we come with joy in our hearts into Your holy presence today. You are a holy God and so we acknowledge that we must come with reverence before You because we are sinners in need of forgiveness.
But we also come with confidence in the name of Jesus Your Son our Saviour, who paid in full the debt that we owe thorough His sacrifice on the cross in our place. We are also so greatly encouraged because as Psalm 139 explains so well You know everything about us and still love us. You know all the bad thoughts we have considered, the words we regret speaking and the behavioural choices we regret.
Yet there is nothing we could do to make You love us more, or less, because we stand before You today clothed in the perfect righteousness of Jesus. Because of Your unconditional love for Him we are welcomed with open arms today by our Father in heaven. Help us to glorify You by all that we say and listen to in this service today, for Jesus’ sake Amen.
Bible Reading
You have searched me, Lord,
and You know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.4 Before a word is on my tongue
You, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and You lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, You are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there Your hand will guide me,
Your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,’
12 even the darkness will not be dark to You;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to You.13 For You created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.15 My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in Your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand –
when I awake, I am still with You.19 If only You, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of You with evil intent;
Your adversaries misuse Your name.21 Do I not hate those who hate You, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against You?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
Psalm 139
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Intercessory prayer using Psalm 139
Heavenly Father we come before You in our increasingly troubled world to plead with You to work in so many situations beyond our control. Help us to care enough about others to bring them to You day after day until we see the transformation of these situations.
We are distressed to see the planned launch of another major war by President Erdogan of Turkey, in this case against the Armenian people who have suffered so much at the hands of Turkey over the last hundred years. The pictures of the deliberate destruction of civilian homes and basic infrastructure of civilian life are distressing to us. We pray that the international community will finally have a conscience and wake up to the humanitarian tragedy unfolding before our eyes if no action is taken to stop it.
Lord we are concerned too at the growth in Covid-19 virus infections in parts of our land and although we are pleased that the challenges are nowhere near the scale experienced in the Spring of this year they are still a real concern to us.
We pray for wisdom for our governments in Westminster and Edinburgh that they might make the best choices possible as they seek to support people’s livelihoods as well as safeguard our health and wellbeing. We pray too for those struggling with the mental and emotional strains of the present day and ask that You would bring comfort and healing to them. In the same way we pray for those finding the pressures of their working environments affecting their health, grant them likewise, we pray, the grace and strength to be able to carry on.
We come to use the words of Psalm 139 in our prayers today:
You have searched me, Lord, and You know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue You, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and You lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Lord it is a real relief that You know me, You know us, better than we know ourselves with our strengths and our weaknesses, those parts of who we are that are beautiful inn Your sight and those that disappoint You or even at times cause You to weep over our sins and our failures.
Yet through it all whether You are rejoicing over us in song when we honour Your name or the opposite, Your love for us is absolutely amazing. We are part of Your family because Jesus died in our place. We are clothed in His perfect righteousness and when You look upon us You see us not as we are now but as we will be one day beyond this life, perfect like Your Son in His perfect humanity.
We are overwhelmed with joy that You see such potential in us to be like Him, help us this day and in coming days to bring more joy to Your heart by the way we live. May the words of Zephaniah 3:17 be said with respect to each one of us in Your sight. The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, in His love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.
Lord, I want to thank You for….
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ 12 even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.
Lord in my workplace or my social setting, in my home or that of my family members You are there. Lord in the things I am struggling with just now, even there You stand beside me.
Lord, I particularly want to bring this person…. Or this circumstance before You…
13 For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand – when I awake, I am still with You.
Lord You are the incredible supernatural God who daily works amazing miracles for the good of Your people. In human terms there are so many examples of circumstances where it appears utterly hopeless, but not where You are involved. Thank you for the preciousness of life and the miracle of the creation of new life from conception in a mother’s womb.
Lord, I want to bring before You …. where a miracle is needed today. I don’t even have the right words to know how to ask, I simply want to ask for …
19 If only You, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! 20 They speak of You with evil intent; Your adversaries misuse Your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate You, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against You? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.
Lord, there are situations in the world that only the word ‘evil’ accurately fits events taking place at the present time. As a God of love and justice You cannot but be angry that humans created to do good can do the very opposite.
I bring before You ….. and ask that You would transform evil to bring about good in this situation… Thank you that You have done that in Sudan even this year so no country is beyond hope.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Lord, I have to admit my own imperfections and ask You to look in me and show me how I can become more like Jesus in my thoughts, speech and conduct. In particular, Lord, I want to bring before You …. with which I need help at this time…
Thank You Lord for hearing and answering our prayers in the name of Jesus, Your Son our Saviour Amen.
Message from Psalm 139
Psalm 139 Who is the God we worship?
Introduction
Who is it that we worship when we gather together in church, in small groups in homes, in prayer triplets, or even on our own at home? What is this being like that we declare brought the world into being by the word of His mouth? For example in Psalm 33:6: By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth. We cannot see Him, nor His Holy Spirit because they are invisible, but we believe that Almighty God has been revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ who walked this earth two thousand years ago.
John 1:18 reminds us: No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made Him known. And in one of the most amazing verses of the whole Bible John 1:14 declares: The Word became flesh (a human being) and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
What an amazing testimony from the aged apostle John who looks back more than half a century with awe and wonder at what he had witnessed in his earlier years and for which he has given his life to tell others about Jesus. Each one of us who has come to faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, humanly-speaking has done so because someone who had previously come to know Him has taken the time to share something of their story with us. It was an incredible privilege to stand at John’s grave in Selcuk near Ephesus in Western Turkey and give thanks to God for this faithful servant of God who lived and died a faithful witness to our great God and Saviour.
But we must go back in time a thousand years before the time of Jesus on earth to the writing of Psalm 139. King David has remarkable, God-inspired insight in this Psalm about the One we worship, but it naturally falls short of the fuller New Testament revelation of the God we worship.
However, there is still so much here in this amazing Psalm to inspire and encourage us as we reflect on these wonderful words. This psalm is written in four sections and is a reflection on some aspect of the revelation of who God is. The first section is on His omniscience, that is, that God knows everything. There is nothing to be known or worth knowing that He does not know about His creation or about you or I in particular.
The second section is about His omnipresence. You and I can only be in one place at a time but God is not limited in this way. The third revelation is of his omnipotence, declared that God is all-powerful. We can often be frustrated because there are things we want to do or even need to do but cannot do. There is nothing good that He cannot do.
The final characteristic is concerning His omnirighteousness. We are a mix at times of thinking, saying and doing good things and at other times we fall short of doing what is right, but God is always consistently right in all He does.
This Psalm is not abstract or impersonal theoretical knowledge about God. It is intensely personal and relational. You can sense the depth of relationship between David and the God he is describing in this Psalm. What was true then and possible then is even more possible today when we come to God through faith in Jesus Christ. How can we be certain of that? In John 14:6-14 we can see it explained in these verses where Jesus is in conversation with two disciples first Thomas and then Philip.
Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. 7 If you really know Me, you will know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.’
8 Philip said, ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.’ 9 Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”?
10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not speak on My own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work. 11 Believe Me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in Me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask Me for anything in My name, and I will do it.
We must leave explaining the details of that amazing passage to another time as we return to Psalm 139, but I want you to grasp something of the amazing privilege we have in knowing God though Jesus. Let us look briefly at this Psalm today.
1. One who is omniscient (Psalm 139:1-6)
You have searched me, Lord, and You know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue You, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and You lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
‘I know you’, a total stranger in a public setting making this kind of statement might be encouraging to us. However, if the tone of voice was unpleasant and we were in unfamiliar surroundings we might feel threatened and very uncomfortable. The loss of a sense of control over information about us is a cause for concern.
It is something we warn younger people when they open social media accounts that things they post on line will be there forever, even if we press the delete button. The companies concerned in this case, and more generally other people with good computer skills can without too much difficulty find information about us online.
I have not forgotten a decade ago attending a parent’s evening at our local primary school. It was a session for parents about the dangers of putting information online. At the end the speaker challenged us to go home and try to find things about ourselves by asking certain questions. We were assured that far more information would be found about our personal circumstances than we would have been aware of.
It was an accurate prediction. The sad reality is that this is a mixed blessing. It can be very beneficial. When someone I know was going through some difficult circumstances in another country a few years ago I wanted to contact someone who might have been able to help. I had only a name and a job title to go on. In less than ten minutes of searching online produced their mobile phone number from a form they had filled in some years earlier. It was entirely appropriate in that context and very helpful. However, nuisance callers can make people’s lives a misery. Identity thieves who steal personal information to access our bank accounts or other financial details can cause very real distress. It is exactly the same technology, however, like many things it can be used for good or ill.
Here David goes much further and says that God knows us in every detail. There is nothing that he does not know. Even all the words we plan to say before we state them. He knows all our thoughts and opinions even when they remain unexpressed in speech. Of course He sees everything we do. A person who wants nothing to do with God will either pretend that He doesn’t exist or ignore the facts that David has explained. It must be unsettling for such a person to know that someone who wants to have a friendship with them knows them so well before they have even met.
How do you feel about what David has explained about God’s knowledge of you in the opening verses of Psalm 139? I think that our response will depend on how we view God. If we see Him as our loving heavenly Father then we will have a more favourable response because we will trust Him to use that information appropriately about us. As a Christian to know that our heavenly Father loved us so much He asked Jesus to die in our place on the cross, so that our sins could be forgiven and subsequently for you and me to be welcomed into His family by faith, demonstrates kindness towards us that is amazing. Even with the limited Old Testament era knowledge He had of God leads David to rejoice and to declare: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain (Psalm139:6). We might say we are overwhelmed or overcome with positive emotion at how God treats us in the light of His knowledge of us.
2. One who is omnipresent (Psalm 139:7-12)
7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ 12 even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.
Little children enjoy playing games of hide and seek. The very youngest able to pay such a game simply put their hands over their eyes or close them and imagine we cannot see them. An adult in such a game needs to pretend at times about what they can see if the game is to be fun for the child or children involved! The adult knows what is really going on but their knowledge is so much greater. On a completely different level God knows everything about us, not just our geographical locations! What is more David declares that God is omnipresent. We can only be in one place at once. He can be everywhere at once. This is more than my little brain can grasp. But there is so much in the natural world, especially in space, that is beyond our natural abilities to grasp without great difficulties.
There are adults who try to hide from God. They know they need to sort out their lives with God or address certain issues that need a resolution, but seek to act as if they can hide things from Him. David has never tried to hide things from God. He has made some horrendous choices in his life as well as many more good ones. He lived his life very openly and was quite willing to talk about all kinds of issues other people would want to refrain from discussing. There are people today, not just celebrities, who are happy to live their lives in the public domain. The problem is that if your life hits a bad patch there is nowhere for such a person to hide. It is no surprise that the majority of us are much more careful about what we would be willing to share in public with the wider world.
Here David is speaking in general terms of places – places in eternity, or places in this life – anywhere you would care to mention we cannot escape from God. Yet over the years there have been many individuals who have moved geographical locations to get away from God. In the Bible there is the remarkable story of the national religious leader in Israel called Jonah who was called to go to Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire to proclaim God’s judgement on them for their barbaric acts of wilful cruelty and ethnic cleansing (Jonah 1:1).
In essence Jonah replied, God You are too kind to do anything like that and if they repent, unlikely as it seems, they will be forgiven (Jonah 44:1-2). So he declined the assignment and decided to take some time out on a break in southern Spain long before it was a holiday resort so popular with British people! God was not impressed with his course of action and intervened with the remarkable events recorded in the book of Jonah.
Many years ago a friend left this country to go to another to get away from God. He sat down on a park bench in that city exhausted and having run out of his financial resources wondering what to do next. A relatively short time later that day some volunteers from a church in that city that assisted people living on the streets spotted him and asked if they could help! God can meet with us in any place. Has God been speaking to you about your need to commit your life to follow Him? I encourage you to put your trust in the One who wants the very best for you. As a Christian are you feeling alone and struggling right now because life is so hard with so many problems that appear without a resolution? David would encourage each one of us to put our trust in the God who cares for us and will meet with us right where we are.
3. One who is omnipotent (Psalm 139:13-18)
13 For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand – when I awake, I am still with You.
If the previous section of the Psalm was the panoramic view of the world that was filled with God’s amazing presence, now David turns to write about something equally remarkable. Remember that he lived thousands of years before modern scientific advances enabled us to see pictures of babies growing and moving in their mother’s wombs. Many of us have seen tiny babies responding to events outside their constricted world. We know the ‘what happens’ as an egg is fertilised and the remarkable processes that take place over the next few weeks prior to the unmistakable shape and formation of a tiny child in the womb. Those of us as parents who have had the joy of seeing our little ones growing healthily on scans at a hospital and have the pictures to retain at home have been so blessed. We also have the deepest sympathies for those whose scan pictures reveal the heartache of an empty womb after a miscarriage or the recognition that developmental problems have been spotted in the little one visible on screen that raise serious questions about the future prospects for them. Some of us reading this message will have experienced both the joy and the heartache of these scenarios.
What David very clearly points out to us is that God is the author of human and other created life. He is the Creator God. He is the one who enables life to come into being and by implication when our time comes He oversees our departure from this life as well. Here, though, the focus is on pre-natal life. There is no computer that even comes close to the remarkable complexity of the human body. Even with his limited knowledge David overflows with awe and wonder at the gift of new life and the privilege of seeing or holding a new baby.
He wrote in Psalm 139:14: I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Are you thrilled at the incredible gift of life God has given to you? Do you share with David that sense of the preciousness of life of each human being from conception to the grave? Each person is created in the image of God and that makes them of infinite value. He is overflowing with joy. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand – when I awake, I am still with You.
Do you and I need to focus more on the blessings of the good things we enjoy rather than on our frustrations and disappointments due to the challenges we experience during this covid19 virus pandemic? I challenge myself about that as much as anyone else!
4. One who is omnirighteous (Psalm139:19-24)
19 If only You, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! 20 They speak of You with evil intent; Your adversaries misuse Your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate You, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against You? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
David turns in this last section to the world around him and the situations of evil in the world that cause him to be distressed. He is a very emotional and expressive person. The evil in the world around him that he cannot solve is distressing. The list I could cite here of evil being perpetrated around the world is increasingly long. The violence and killing that goes on and on in the twenty-first century is horrific.
The idea that human beings are civilised creatures is increasingly in question in so many places. Here in this beautiful part of North East Scotland we live in a paradise compared to much of the world. Had there not been the virus pandemic I would have been in Armenia this week and might have been scheduled to preach in a Baptist Church in a community facing a barrage of missile and drone attacks on the civilian population by the Turkish Armed Forces with a little help from their Azeri colleagues. The silence of most Western Governments is absolutely shocking. David hands over the situations he cannot resolve to God. You deal with it God –please ensure that justice is done.
However, when we point the figure at others for what they do wrong there are other fingers that point back at us! David ends the psalm on a very personal note in Psalm 139:23-24: 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
God, I am not perfect either. God, I know there are things I can do better, that I can be a better person and You can help me to more reflect the kind of person You want me to be. He invites God to speak into his life – will you and I do that today? May God help each one of us resolve to be the best we can be for Him, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Closing Song Guide me o Thou Great Redeemer –
Closing Prayer
Thank You Lord for the wonder of our creation and growth in our mother’s womb, together with the joy of all that You have done in our lives in the years to date. Help us to have confidence and an expectancy of You working in our lives in the days to come. Encourage us when we are low in spirits to keep going; challenge us when we are complacent or ignoring the blessings we have to enjoy; convict us when we are in the wrong in our attitudes, words or actions, so that we in turn may be a source of joy to You as You see us interact with and blessing other people in the choices we make. Help us together to experience some little glimpses of heaven on earth as we look forward to the wonders of the new creation You have in store for us beyond this life, for Jesus’ sake Amen
The Benediction:
May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God
and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore, Amen
Our next service is planned for the same time on Wednesday 21st October at 11am.