The God Who Knows and Is Near

We're going to listen to the reading in a few minutes' time, but before then, let me start.

In 2015, the computer gamer and gaming creator, Marcus Pearson, commonly known as Notch, he

was the creator of the computer game Minecraft.

If you've got teenage kids and sons, you probably know about Minecraft.

He sold his company to Microsoft for $2.5 billion, and he owned 70% of the company.

He earned $1.7 billion in that transaction.

One of the first things he did was he outbid Jay-Z and Beyonce on an offer they'd put in

a house in Beverly Hills, just because he could.

But anyway, a couple of months later, he is sitting in Ibiza.

Ibiza's an island of Spain, a real kind of party island.

He's sitting in Ibiza, and he sends out a couple of tweets.

This is when Twitter was still called Twitter.

And the tweets go as follow.

548, the problem with getting everything is that you run out of reasons to keep trying.

550, hanging out in Ibiza with a bunch of friends, partying with famous people.

Well, Marcus Person is not the first person, and certainly not the last person, to experience

the irony of being surrounded by people all around you, people having a good time, partying,

having fun, and yet feeling this weird sensation of being alone and isolated, feeling alone in

the midst of all these people.

And again and again, we hear the reality.

It feels ironic that some of the most lonely people in our world are those that are not

without anybody around them, but those that are surrounded by others around them.

And of course, the digital age in which we live has only exasperated us, right?

MIT professor of social studies, Sherry Turkle, she wrote a book, an amazing book, in 2011.

So it's a little dated now, called Alone Together.

And she writes how the digital age has only exasperated us.

The fact that we are surrounded by people and voices, and yet we feel more and more alone.

Listen to what she says.

She says,

Technology has become the architect of our relationships.

We fall prey to the illusion of companionship, gathering thousands of friends online, and yet

confusing tweets and wall posts or Instagram posts with authentic communication.

We have the illusion of companionship without real friendship.

We turn to technology to help us feel connected in ways that we can comfortably control,

but we are not so much in control and not so comfortable.

Sherry Turkle's touched on something quite amazing there, that in order to have real relationships,

relationships that actually impact you and change you, you've somehow got to relinquish control.

You've got to somehow step out of your comfort zone.

And yet we find it so difficult to do this.

We live in a city in which we are alone together.

And I think Hong Kong, actually, we struggle with this even more than maybe other major cities.

And one of the reasons for that is because, one, we work so hard.

We work such long hours.

If you're working 50, 60, 70 hours a week, it's really hard to find the time to build deep relationships,

to get people to know people and to open up yourself so that other people can know you.

But I think the other reason is, in Hong Kong, we are experts at saving face.

Right?

We're experts at playing the game and knowing how to put our best foot forward,

of looking like our world is all fine when we can easily crumble inside.

In the words of Sherry Turkle, we are alone together.

I wonder if you resonate with this.

Friends, do you ever feel alone, isolated, neglected?

Do you ever feel overlooked or marginalized?

Do you sometimes feel forgotten?

Do you ever feel like nobody cares or nobody really knows you?

This summer, we're going through the book of Psalms.

And today is the last Psalm that we're looking at.

And the book of Psalms was the prayer book of ancient Israel.

It was the book that they used to help them in their prayers, but it was also a book of theology.

In the ancient world, not many people could read or write.

Almost nobody had access to their own personal scriptures like we do today.

And so the book of Psalms were these songs that David and many others wrote that helped them pray to God,

but also taught them about the character of God, the nature of God.

And we've looked at all these Psalms over the summer.

And today we come to our final one, Psalm 139, which we sang about earlier.

And this Psalm is going to tell us that those who know God are the most secure, loved people on all the planet.

And it shows us how the kindness of God changes us deeply inside.

And so on that note, can I invite Reza up to come and do our reading this morning?

And just one note, while Reza comes up, you can come on up.

That last song we sang this morning is taken from Psalm 139.

And it's the first time I think it's ever been played and sung publicly ever because Phoebe wrote that song.

And so Phoebe, great to have one of your songs that you wrote this morning.

It's a great song.

Well done for doing that.

And well done for being brave enough to put it out there for us to sing it.

I know that takes a lot of courage.

That was a great song to sing this morning.

So let's listen to God's word as we read Psalm 139 together.

Good morning, church.

Our scripture reading for today is in the book of Psalm 139.

To the choir master, a psalm of David.

Starting in verse 1.

Oh, 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, oh, Lord, you know it all together.

You hand 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, where darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts.

You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am furfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works.

My soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you.

When I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed substance.

In your book were written,

every one of them, the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake and I am still with you.

O that you will slay the wicked, O God!

O man 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 not love 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.

This is the Word of God.

Great, thank you, Riza.

Let me just pray for us as we come to us.

Father, we want to hear you speak to us from your Word.

We want to know what you have to say to us.

As we say each week, God,

we're not interested in the thoughts or the opinions of man.

We get plenty of those out there on our phones every day.

God, we want to hear your Word.

We want to hear what you have to say.

God, won't you open up the eyes of our hearts

and unblock our ears to hear you speaking to us.

God, we pray that Psalm 139 will come alive to us today.

We pray this in your great name.

Amen.

Okay, if you've got your Bible or the bulletin open,

keep it open.

We're going to look at this and look at the Scripture quite a lot.

So I want to encourage you to have it open in front of you.

This Psalm is made up of 24 verses,

and it breaks up into four sections of six verses each.

So it's quite a straightforward breakdown.

The first three sections,

verse 1 to 6, 7 to 12, 13 to 18,

are quite similar.

It's the same idea that David is giving from different angles.

And then the last section is quite different,

or we see David's response.

In the first three sections,

we see how God knows us and cares for us.

In the last section,

we see how God's love changes us.

So let's dive in and take a look at it.

Look at the first section with me,

1 to 6.

I'll read it again.

It says,

Oh 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.

You are acquainted with all of my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, oh Lord, you know it altogether.

You hem me in behind and before.

You lay your hand on me.

And such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It is high.

I cannot attain it.

One of the things that should strike you straight away

when you read these verses

is how many times it talks about the word known

or describes being known.

Lord, you've searched me.

You know me.

You discern my thoughts.

You are intimately acquainted with all of my ways.

Every word, every thought,

every desire in my heart.

God, you know it.

You understand me.

You get me.

David is basking the fact that

every aspect of his life

is known to the God that he's come to worship

and praise.

God knows him and understands him.

God, there's nothing about my life

which is outside of your understanding

or getting, your feeling.

Look at verse two.

He says,

you know when I sit down

and when I rise up.

I don't know if you've ever had this

where you're looking for somebody

maybe at home or in the office

and you go to every room in the office

and you're calling them

and you can't find them

and you turn to somebody and say,

has anybody seen John around here?

God never has that thought.

That thought never crosses his mind.

He never says,

has anybody seen Henry?

He knows every aspect of our lives.

He says,

you understand my thoughts from afar.

Verse four,

even before a word,

even before a sigh,

even before a cry of joy,

even before a cry of frustration

is on my tongue,

you know about it, Lord.

In other words, God,

you know me and understand me

better than I even know myself.

God, you're intimately acquainted

with all of my ways,

all of my thoughts,

all of my hopes,

all of my dreams,

all of my longings,

all of my fears,

my anxieties,

the things that I worry about,

my elderly parents,

that medical report

that I'm expecting this week,

my job insecurity.

God, you know about each one of them.

You're intimately acquainted with them.

You know them perfectly.

David acknowledges that this is sometimes hard to comprehend.

It's hard to understand how can God know everything about our lives.

He says,

such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It's too high.

I cannot attain it.

God,

and yet he knows the certainty of it.

God, you know me.

You know me better than I know me.

You know me perfectly.

Friends,

do you,

like so many in our city,

ever feel alone,

unknown,

isolated,

forgotten,

overlooked?

Do you ever wonder whether anybody knows what's going on in your heart,

whether anybody cares?

David reminds us that the God of the Bible,

the God that we've come to worship and praise this morning,

is not just,

he's omniscient and he's sovereign,

but not just in a general or cosmic sense.

It's true that God knows everything about the universe,

things that we haven't even discovered yet,

things about how black holes were formed

and what's on the other side of them

and what the universe is going to look like,

a hundred billion years from now

and what's beyond even the furthest expanses

that we've been able to discover in the universe,

beyond our furthest telescopes.

God knows all of that,

but he's saying it's not just that God is omniscient in that sense,

he's omniscient about every minute,

intimate detail of our lives.

Your cosmic,

powerful God knows and understands

our inner life,

our thoughts,

our fears,

our hopes,

our feelings.

More than just know it,

he understands it.

Look at the second section,

verse 7 to 12.

It's not only that God is all-knowing,

David delights in the fact that God is all-present everywhere.

He says,

where shall I go from your spirit?

Where shall I flee from your presence?

If I were to ascend to heaven,

highest heavens,

God,

you would be there.

If I make my bed in Sheol,

in the grave,

in hell,

God,

you would be there.

If I take the wings of the morning

or dwell on the uttermost parts of the sea.

Just remember,

in the ancient days,

people didn't know the world was round,

they thought it was flat.

If you sail too far,

you're going to fall off the cliffs of the sea,

and who knows what's beyond the abyss.

David says,

even if I were to do that

and go beyond the end of the abyss,

God,

I don't know what's beyond there,

but I know that you will be there.

Even there,

your hand will lead me.

Your right hand shall take hold of me.

Now,

Psalm 139

obviously comes

two Psalms after Psalm 137.

Okay?

You don't need to be a rocket scientist.

Work that out.

Psalm 137

is one of the most difficult Psalms in the Bible

because it's written at a time

when God's people

had been taken out of Israel into Babylon.

And the Babylonians were a ruthless nation.

They came and attacked Israel.

They slaughtered thousands of people

and they dragged the rest of them

into exile in Babylon.

And Psalm 137

is this heartfelt lament

as the people agonize

over being stuck in Babylon.

Well,

Psalm 139 tells us

that even the most God-forsaken place

on the planet,

a place like Babylon,

a place like war-torn Ukraine,

even that it's actually not God-forsaken

for God is with us

in the midst of those places.

Even the most immoral,

corrupt place you can imagine,

God is there with His people.

But that's actually not really

David's concern here,

is it?

David isn't so concerned

about the physical geography

of the place

where the God is there.

He's more concerned

with the metaphysics.

He's concerned about

where can I go in my heart?

Where can I go psychologically,

emotionally?

God,

will you be there

if I go to the darkest night

of the soul?

In the deepest despair,

God,

will you be there

or will you abandon me?

Look at verse 11.

He says,

surely the darkness

will not cover me

and the light about me

be as night.

Even the,

sorry,

if I say surely

the darkness

will cover me

and the light

be as night,

even the darkness

is not dark to you.

The night is as bright

as the day

for darkness

is as light

with you.

David says,

even when wickedness

and despair

and suffering

surround you,

when you're overcome

with grief,

you're overwhelmed

with anxiety,

God is not forgotten.

God is not abandoned.

God is not given up

with you.

He's there with you.

He's there already.

Verse 12,

darkness and light

are alike to you.

The dark night

of the soul

is not a place

where God

has abandoned you

but a place

where you discover

and find God

in a whole new way.

God has gone before you

and He's there with you.

Verse 10,

even there your hand

will lead me,

your right hand

lays hold of me.

I don't know

if you've ever experienced this

but the picture there is

if you're walking

in complete darkness,

maybe you're hiking somewhere

and you come

into some complete darkness,

there's no moon,

it's pitch black at night

and you're stumbling,

you don't know

where you're going

but there's somebody

who does know the way

and they take hold

of your hand

or maybe you're walking

down a dark alleyway

and there's no light

and you're petrified

but there's somebody

who knows what's going on,

they take hold of your hand

and they lead you

and guide you.

He says,

your hand will lead me there.

It's not just that God

is vaguely omnipresent.

If you set your heart

and He'll lead you

and guide you

and sustain you

through every season of life.

David goes on,

look at the third section here,

verse 13 onwards.

David here describes

the fact that every aspect

of His being

is intimately known

and designed by God.

Look at verse 13.

It says,

you formed me God

in my inward parts,

you knitted me together

in my mother's womb.

It's amazing to think

that even before

our mothers knew

that they were pregnant

with us,

when they were completely

oblivious and had no idea,

God was there forming

and knitting cells together,

multiplying and forming,

multiplying and forming,

so that the first embryonic form

of you was being formed.

God knew about it.

Verse 14,

I praise you,

I'm fearfully

and wonderfully made.

My frame is 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,

even when as yet

there were none of them.

David's point here

is that His existence

is the result

of God's deliberate

and intentional will.

David reminds us

there's no such thing

as an accidental baby.

There's no such thing

as an unwanted baby.

Each one of us,

designed,

brought together by God.

When I was growing up,

we had a family friend

that was a musician

and he had just recorded

an album in the studio

and he was living with us

for a couple of months

before he moved overseas.

And so,

he's staying in our home

and the first delivery

of his new album,

his CDs,

arrived at our house.

They'd just been cut

and labeled

and packaged

and they arrived at our house.

And so,

he opens the box

and he takes out

the first of his new album.

And he puts it in the CD player

in our living room

and he puts it on

for us to listen.

And as we're listening

to the songs,

he's describing

each of the bits of details.

He's saying,

listen, listen, listen.

There's got to be

this bass riff now.

Wait.

And then you hear it, right?

Or he says,

hey, do you hear that sound

behind the chorus?

The reason we put that in

is because we wanted people

to hear this part.

In each song,

he's describing

the minute detail

and the little intricacies

of the song

that most people

will be completely oblivious to.

Why?

Because he's the creator.

He's the artist.

He knows every minute detail

of every song

and why it's there

and what the purpose is

and what it contributes

to the song.

David's point here

is that God knows

every minute detail

of his people.

He knows us physically.

He knows us emotionally.

He knows our hearts.

He knows what's going on.

Nothing about us

is an accident.

Before you were born,

before conception

had taken place,

before the first

tiniest cell

had multiplied,

God had designed

your life

and planned you

and who you'd be.

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 were none of them.

Friends,

if you are in Christ,

God's care for you

and God's love for you

is not like the love

that we have

for other people

because we've gotten

to know them

and we've discovered

something wonderful

about them,

something lovely

about them.

God's love

and care for us

is what brought you

into being

in the first place.

God initiates

our existence.

God doesn't complete

our existence.

As we've said many times

before,

God's love for us

is not based on something

that he's discovered

about us

but something that's found

in his heart,

not something

that's found in us.

And so again,

I ask you the question,

do you ever feel

neglected,

alone,

unknown,

uncared for?

Do you ever feel

misunderstood

that nobody gets you?

Friends,

you see what God

is saying here?

The sovereign God

of all creation,

the one who brought

galaxies and universes

into being,

who designed

the solar system,

knows and understands

every care

and every detail

of your life

and he's watching

over you.

He knows the cares

of your heart.

He knows the agonies

of your heart.

He knows what keeps

you up at night.

He's carrying,

sustaining and guiding

you.

And look at verse 17.

Verse 17 is unusual.

He says,

how precious to me

are your thoughts,

O God.

One commentator says,

what David means here

is how precious

are your thoughts,

O God,

about me.

He says,

God,

when I think of the way

that you carry me

on your heart,

it blows my mind.

How vast is the sum

of them?

God,

it's not just a fleeting

thought you have.

God,

you think about me,

you carry me

on your heart

continuously.

If I were to count

all your thoughts,

there would be more

than the sand.

I'm awake

and I'm still with you.

He says,

God,

it's like a dream.

I can't imagine

this as possible.

I wake up

and it's still true.

You care about me.

You know about me.

Every detail

of my life.

Psalm 139

tells us

the sovereign God

is sovereignly involved

and cares about

every intimate detail

of our life.

Now,

God's word

always has a purpose.

The purpose

for God's word

is not just

to fill our minds

with information

so that we say,

okay,

that's good.

God's word

is always meant

to change us.

It's meant to impact us

and to influence us.

So how is God's

good word

of Psalm 139

meant to impact us?

Well,

one of the ways

that we should not

respond to it

is by God's grace

should not make us

more self-centered

and self-absorbed.

Okay?

Remember Augustine,

the great theologian

from the 4th century,

he said,

one of the problems

with humanity

is our sinful nature

makes us curved

in on ourselves.

We always look at life

through a me lens.

We always tend to think

about how life

through the lens

of my own life

and myself.

And that's the problem

with the current narrative

in our world.

Our world tells us

just to satisfy yourself,

pursue your own happiness,

find meaning in yourself.

But the problem is,

it's just encouraging us

to become more and more

introspective

and self-absorbed.

And the problem is,

we never become free

from ourselves.

But God's grace

is different.

God's good kindness

to us

doesn't exasperate

the problem

and make us

more self-absorbed.

It should lead us

to God

and open us up

to become more God-aware

and to free us

from our self-absorption.

God's grace

and kindness

are different

to the modern

self-help books.

God's grace

and kindness

is not meant

to reinforce

our self-obsession,

but to free us

from it.

One of the things

that God's grace does

is to deliver us

from ourselves

and help us

to love and treasure

God more.

And that's what we see here.

God's amazing kindness

and tenderness

and sovereign goodness

to David

doesn't pander him

so that David wallows

in self-absorption,

thinking,

look how wonderful I am.

Even God thinks I'm amazing.

That's not the point.

It actually turns David

outward

from being absorbed

about himself

to now being

astounded by God.

God's sovereign care

draws David

into God.

And so look at

verse 19 to 22

with me.

He says,

Oh, that you would

slay the wicked,

O God.

You men of blood,

depart from me.

Then he talks back to God.

God,

they speak against you

with malicious intent.

Your enemies

take your name

in vain.

God,

do I not hate

those who hate you,

O Lord?

Do I not loathe

those who rise up

against you?

I hate them

with a complete hatred.

I count them

my enemies.

Now,

it's a different

tone here,

right?

The first 18 verses

are like amazing.

God,

you know me,

you care about me,

you're so tender

and wonderful.

And then you get

to verse 19,

you're like,

huh?

I've got a confession.

This week when I was

preparing for this,

I was using an old

Bible of mine,

one that I got

in university.

And the first 18 verses

are underlined

and highlighted

and there's notes

in the margin.

It's like amazing.

And verses 19 to 22

are conspicuously bare.

Obviously,

I didn't like them

so much

when I had that Bible

for the first 10 years.

What's going on here?

The Bible is full

of this actually.

And if you think about it,

it makes sense.

Friends,

do we not all

rise up

and defend

and protect

that which we love?

If you love something

or you love somebody

and then somebody else

comes and offends

or denigrates

or insults

what you love,

how do you feel about it?

Don't you take offense?

Doesn't it rile you?

We don't just keep calm

and carry on, right?

Passion and anger

can be an expression

of selfishness

if the things

that we get angry about

are when things

don't go our own way.

But they can also

be an expression

of love.

The thing that you get

passionate and angry about

shows what you love

the most, right?

If somebody offends

or abuses

or insults your wife

or your sister

or your child,

what do you do?

You don't just

stoically carry on.

No, even the most

timid person

becomes a lion.

They get riled.

They get angry about that

and rightly so.

Right?

Because the enemies

of those that you love

in a way

become your enemies.

You don't just lie down

and take it lying down.

You stand up.

In Psalm 69

David says something similar.

He says,

zeal or passion

for your house

consumes me, O Lord.

And the insults

of those that have

fallen on you

fall on me.

David says,

God, when people

insult you

and blaspheme

your name,

I take it personally.

I get riled

and get angry

about it

because I love you,

God,

and I hate

seeing people

treating you

like that.

And that's what

David,

that's what's going

on here.

David expresses

this outrage,

this anger

at those who

call themselves

followers of God

but then blaspheme

his name,

murder others,

kill others,

and act unjustly.

He says,

God,

your enemies

take your name

in vain.

Therefore,

I count them

as my enemies.

I get angry

about it.

Friends,

how do you know

that you love God

and that God's grace

has changed your life?

One of the ways

you know

is that you love

what God loves

and you hate

what God hates.

You see that?

The immensity

of God's sovereign

grace and care,

God's sovereign

awesomeness

and his amazing

grace for us

is meant to so

draw us

into him

that now

it changes

our lives

and now

we start

to love

what God

loves

and we hate

what God

hates

and our lives

start to get

orientated

around God

except that's

not the only

thing that

God's grace

does.

God's grace

draws us

into him

so that we

center our lives

around him

but it does

something else

as well.

You see,

God's grace

to David

has caused

him to hate

the evil

and the wickedness

that he sees

in the world.

He sees

this injustice

and he says

God,

there's something

wrong about this.

He sees

corruption in the church

and he says

God,

it should not

be like that.

But the problem

is one of the

things the gospel

tells us

is that the

problem with the

world is not

just out there,

is it?

It's also in here.

In the words of

G.K. Chesterton,

what's wrong

with the world?

I am.

I am.

You see,

the wickedness

and the problem

and the hypocrisy

and the brokenness

of the world

is not just

on Wall Street

or,

you know,

Peter Street

or the big banks

or institutions

or politics

or the education.

It's actually

in my heart.

It's my self-absorption.

It's my self-righteousness.

It's my bigotry.

It's my selfishness.

And so look at

what David,

what God's grace

does to David here.

It doesn't just

cause David

to hate the wickedness

out there,

but the wickedness

within.

In other words,

God's grace

doesn't just

make you passionate,

it also makes you humble.

And so look at

how David ends

this psalm

in response

to God's amazing

kindness and care.

Verse 23,

Search me,

O God.

Know my heart.

Try me

and know my thoughts.

God,

even my most private

and intimate thoughts,

I'm opening them up to you.

God,

if there is any

grievous way in me,

literally any

idle, loving way in me,

O God,

come and change me.

Lead me back

to your path,

the way of everlasting life.

Let me ask you a question.

What do you do

when you feel

insecure,

when you feel

threatened,

when you feel

unsure about

how somebody's

going to

treat you?

Typically,

we close up,

right?

We close down.

We don't share

too much information.

We make sure

that we're not

too vulnerable

with those

that we feel

insecure about.

But what do you do

when you feel

100% safe

with somebody?

What do you do

when you feel

100% secure

with somebody?

When you know

that somebody's

only ever got

your best interest

at heart?

When you know

that what you share

with them

is going to be

kept 100%

in confidence?

They're not going

to share it

with anyone

or use it

against you.

What do you do?

You open yourself up.

You're willing

to be vulnerable

with them.

You let them

into the most

intimate and secret

places of your heart,

right?

Friends,

the story of the Bible

is that the sovereign God

who made the galaxies

and the cosmos

and everything about us,

the God who knows

every single thing

about you,

the best about you

and the worst about you,

the one who knows you

even better than you

know yourself.

Do you know what he did

with that information?

He went to the cross

and he took the fall

for you

and that changes us

because now we can

live for him

but now we can also

be secure enough

to open our lives

up to him.

Friends,

the God of the Bible,

the one who knows you

is the safest being

in the whole universe

and because he knows

everything there is

to know about you

and he won't shame you

and he won't belittle you

and he won't mock you

but rather he treats you

with unbelievable kindness,

that doesn't lead us

to become more self-absorbed

or more self-focused

or closed up,

it leads us to say,

God,

my life is in your hands.

Come and have your way.

Friends,

Christ's immense grace

and love and care for you

gives you such

an immense security

it should lead us to say,

okay God,

I know that with you

I'm in safe hands.

You're not gonna ride of me,

you're not gonna take

advantage of me.

Here's my life,

have my way.

God,

come and have your way.

Search me,

oh God.

If you see anything

in my life

that grieves you,

come and change my life.

Change the trajectory,

change the path

that I'm on.

God,

lead me to your path,

the path of everlasting life.

Friends,

do you know God like this?

Have you opened yourself

up to him?

Friends,

do you ever feel alone

and misunderstood,

overlooked?

Do you sometimes feel

that nobody cares about you?

Nobody knows you?

Do you sometimes worry

if the anxieties

in your heart

you carry them alone?

That nobody understands

what you're going through?

Do you find it difficult

to be vulnerable

and real,

to let people in?

Friends,

there is a God,

the one who knows you

better than you know yourself,

who loves you more

than you love yourself.

And he's already

paved the way

for you to open yourself up,

to let him in,

that he can lead you

the way

of everlasting life.

Let's pray together.

Oh,

Heavenly Father,

thank you for this

amazing psalm,

God.

It's a psalm

that is very famous.

We sing about it,

we talk about it,

we discuss it

throughout the ages.

But God,

when we stop

to think about it,

it is such good news.

That God,

you know us

and you care for us.

God,

thank you for the good news

of your sovereign omniscience

and yet your intimate care.

God,

thank you for the good news

that though you know us

inside and out,

what you chose to do with that

was the most astounding thing.

You went to the cross for us

and you died for us

to carry our shame,

to carry our guilt,

to carry the things

in our lives,

God,

that nobody knows about

and that we've sworn

we'll never tell anybody about.

You know them

and you carried it

to the cross.

God,

I pray that this morning,

Lord,

that your sovereign grace

and your

perfect

knowledge of us

will lead us,

God,

to open up our lives

and to trust our lives

to you.

To not have to make life

work on our own terms,

but to come

and to trust you.

God,

that you know this morning,

if you have utiliser

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in this Toomer song,

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a free gem

to use the auth generated

and then you can

take a closer look

and see if you have

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one that's going to place

a whole place

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