Fully Known and Fully Loved | Psalm 139

My name is Tyler and so for those of you who don't know me

and I help serve in the families kids ministry and just excited

and thankful and just I think it's always an honor and a

privilege and a joy every time I get to be up here.

And so it's been a little a little while, but just thankful

and that I get to share the Lord with you guys, share his word

and just share my life in him with you and just pray that

you're refreshed. But just even watching those

videos, I mean, I think just the Lord was ministering to me even

as I was sitting down, just thankful for John and the team.

Just was thinking even about like, you know, we title those

letters to the church, but just even thinking about like Paul's

letters to his church and just the places of, you know, there's

testimonies being shared, there's encouragement being

given, there's things that John's sharing, that's it's

doing something deep, obviously in the team, but then we get to

receive it. And so I'm thankful for

technology that we don't have to wait till something's written

down that we get to hear from our family, but just so many

things that God is doing and that we get to be a part of.

And so, yeah, we've got team in Italy.

We've got Colombia leaving this week, right?

Yeah, on the 28th, Correct. Cool.

So yeah, many more people will be gone next week, but it's

good. God is doing a lot.

And then I think Italy Impact team leaves next Sunday.

Yeah, not just one guy going out, there's many more, but he's

the most excited. But yeah, God is doing so much.

And yeah, if if you have been with us over the last several

years, you know, our mission season and summer series have

become just a familiar part of our yearly routine here at

Antioch. And although we seek to live out

our vision of Jesus family mission each day of the year,

these two to three months, they give us a tangible opportunity

to actively live it out wherever we go, whether that isn't Italy

or Colombia or a lot of college students going back home, but a

lot of us here in Oviedo. And so just thankful for the

opportunity just to actually live this stuff out.

And this year, as John mentioned, and as Nathan and

Eric have already shared the last two weeks, we're seeking

the Lord for strength as we spend the summer in the Psalms.

And we're asking God to tender our hearts to see transformation

in our lives and our family strengthen and the gospel

reproduced in our city and in the nations.

And this is something God is inviting us into daily, not just

on Sunday mornings, but every single day of our lives.

And as I was thinking about what to share, like at the beginning

of this, Proverbs 423 came to mind, which says watch over your

heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of

life. And even in the NIV, it says

everything you do flows from it, flows from your heart.

And if you're in family ministry, if you're a guy, we

recently started a new book. It's a little one, but it's

called How to Lead Your Family. It's by Joel Beaky and just

talks about as being a man in the home to model what it looks

like to be a prophet, priest and king as Jesus was.

And I couldn't help but just even think about in the intro

there's a story about John and James Patton and just wanted to

share it. It's John is the son, James is

the father. But John was a Scottish

missionary to the natives in the New Hebrides Islands in the

South Pacific. He faithfully preached to the

cannibal Islanders despite receiving frequent death threat

threats. The Lord mightily used him to

convert many Islanders as well as influence other godly men to

become missionaries in the South Pacific.

Although Patton faced enormous difficulties and sorrows, he

persevered out of love for Christ.

And one way that God prepared patent for his work was through

the example of his godly father, James.

James worked in a shop in the family home in Scotland.

James's children remembered his fervent prayer for them before

the throne of grace. He used a small room in the

house as a prayer closet, and his regular visits to it deeply

affected his son and his son. John later wrote after just

thinking about his father says tither.

We don't use that word anymore. Tither daily and often times a

day. Generally after each meal we saw

our father retire and shut the door and we children got to

understand that prayers were being poured out there for us as

of old by the high priest within the veil in the most high place.

Just so sweet and just encourage me just even thinking about

being a dad, being a father, just as I read this past week,

just to to seek the Lord diligently daily and how many

times I struggle to do that. But James's life was one of

praise and prayer that greatly affected his family and those

who are impacted by the gospel. It started in the home, but you

saw his son impact so many. And if we want to make Kingdom

impact, then we need to bear our hearts out to the Lord and let

him strengthen us. And a great place to start

tending to your heart, to allowing the Lord to strengthen

you is the Psalms. The Psalms are sweet collections

of praises and prayers to God from his people who've

experienced everything, as you guys know, from the mountaintops

of joy to the valleys of despair.

And the Psalms help they, they give us words for what we're

feeling or what we're going through.

Even when you can't articulate it, you can sometimes read the

Psalms and say, man, I can't even express my excitement and

joy and the Lord. And they used to read Psalms of

thankfulness and joy. And there's times when you feel

low and you're like, man, I don't know how to express my

despair or my pain or my trial or the fear that I feel.

And the Psalms give us words and they're so rich.

We can like regularly find language for the things that

we're going through. And This is why so many of us,

we we turn to the Psalms in our times of reading and spending

time with God and we hold on to specific verses, we hold on to

specific passages and we go back to them in various seasons of

our lives. And that's even what we got to

see. Just want to honour Nathan and

Eric and just the ways, you know, bringing us in to, yes,

this is God's word, but this is how it's impacted me.

And that's what we want to share with you guys is how God's

personally impacted us through the Psalms.

And we're all in seasons. I mean, we can go around the

room. I can, I can even look out at

some of you guys that I know you're going through things and

we need the Lord's strength and he wants to speak to us.

But the constant truth, no matter what season you're in, no

matter what you're going through, is that God's truth is

for you, His promises are for you, and that everything that

you need is found in Him. And even as John was talking,

this is something we can read and we can know into

intellectually even, but is it something that we're actually

receiving and believing and walking out in?

And so I was talking to John, just even catching up this past

week and talking through some different things for ministry.

And just something he shared with me was God is faithful to

provide strength when we fully surrender to Him.

And some of you may know or may not know, but it's definitely

been a season of surrender for Sarah and I and our family.

And just a couple weeks ago, our daughter Olivia, she's just over

3, like 3 1/2. She had open heart surgery.

And we've known for a very long time she's had to have it.

So it wasn't emergent, but we got it prepared us and we needed

strength. And thankfully, you know, she's

doing great at home and she's back to her usual self.

It's crazy to see just what you know, what modern medicine can

do, but ultimately what God has done in her life.

And it's just been a season where we have had to throw

ourselves at the feet of the cross and throw ourselves at God

and say, Lord, there's anxiety, there's fear at times, there is

rejoicing. There is so many different

emotions and feeling that we're going through, but we're going

to trust you. And in that place, there's been

so many just Psalms that we've meditated on and gone to.

And so one of those that I've gone to and turn too often and

just pray. That'd be a great source of

encouragement to you guys. This morning is Psalm 139.

And so I titled the message Fully known and Fully loved.

And so if you guys want to go ahead and turn there with me,

but yeah, Psalm 139, it is one of the most beautifully written

Psalms. It's one of the most profound

meditations on God. It's also one of the most well

known. Most of us have probably read it

before I was even texting someone this week and they're

asking me, you know what I was preaching on and told them Psalm

139 and they just simply texted back my fave.

Like, like I was like, yeah, my fave too.

A lot of other people's faves and so, but it's just sweet to

see like, man, it's it's it's familiar, but just pray that God

would speak fresh life over you this morning with it.

And it contains great truths about God.

But the words of King David are extremely personal and intimate,

which is a lot of what John was even sharing.

What we're talking about this summer.

We see that David knew to be true, or we see that what David

knew to be true about God and what he experienced in his

walking with him throughout his life was his personal intimate

relationship. And I think James Montgomery

boys sums it up pretty good. And he says Psalm 139 has both

head and heart. It is strongly theological,

dealing with such important doctrines as God's omniscience,

omnipresence, and omnipotence, but is also wonderfully personal

because it speaks of these attributes of God in ways that

impact the psalmist and ourselves.

And something that you know, I was continually going back to as

I was meditating on this is that David knew God experientially,

which meant he had walked with him closely and would open his

heart to him frequently. And that's what I want for you

guys this morning. And that's what I'm praying for

every single day, that we would know God experientially because

we've walked with Him closely every day and we opened our

heart up to him frequently. This is what God is inviting

all, all of us into, not just this morning, but every day of

our lives as we walk with him. And so if you want to, if you

guys have it open, I'm going to start read it, all of it, and

then we'll go back through each verse and I'll give some

headings. But Psalm 139 says for the choir

director, a Psalm of David. O Lord, you have searched me and

known me. You know when I sit down and

when I rise up, you understand my thought from afar.

You scrutinize my path in my lying down and are intimately

acquainted with all of my ways, even before there was a word on

my tongue. Behold, O Lord, you know it all.

You have enclosed me behind and before and laid Your hand upon

me. Such knowledge is too wonderful

for me. It is too high.

I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from your spirit,

or where can I flee from Your presence?

If I sent to heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed and she'll behold you are there.

If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part

of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right

hand will lay hold of me. If I say surely the darkness

will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night.

Even the darkness is not dark to you, and the night is as bright

as the day. Darkness and light are alike to

you, for you formed my inward parts.

You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you, for I

am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and

skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book were

all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet

there was not one of them. How precious also are your

thoughts to me. Oh God, how vast is the sum of

them. If I should count them, they

would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with

you. Oh, that you would slay the

wicked. Oh, God, depart from me,

therefore men of bloodshed, for they speak against you wickedly,

and your enemies take your name in vain.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

And do I not load those who rise up against you?

I hate them with the utmost hatred.

They have become my enemies. Search me oh God and know my

heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if

there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting

way. Amen.

It's good. It's like almost.

Sometimes we just like close it and be done.

Just so so rich and so true. Doesn't need a whole lot of

explanation, but God wants us to see just how personal he's

speaking to us this morning. And I don't know, even before

going through this, if I've actually appreciated how well

the David has organized this Psalm and how beautifully

written it is. But just to give a little

summary of everything, it's kind of broken up into four, six

verse sections, verses one through 6.

David is writing about God's knowledge of him.

Verses 7 through 12 speak of God's presence in his life.

In verses 13 through 18, David acknowledges that God has made

him. And in verses 19 through 24, we

see David's prayer for holiness and righteousness, for a pure

heart and strength as God continued to lead him.

And so we're going to basically just have 4 points, and I'll go

through each six of those sections for the morning.

The first one is you are fully known there if anybody has Apple

devices or Amazon devices at their house, Anyone, anyone.

So this is a little bit of a struggle in our household.

Sarah does not like them too much.

And I think they're useful at times, but there's just times

when you know, the light doesn't work or something will just come

on and Sarah will just like stop, stop listening to us.

She'll like tell headquarters, like stop listening in our

conversations. And it's actually funny.

Last night we were putting our kids to bed and one of the bulbs

I had to change out. So it wasn't, it wasn't synced,

but like the kids don't know that.

Sarah doesn't know that. So yelling at the bulb and and

like finally turn it off and then Sarah's saying goodnight to

the kids and literally the little Alexa thing says sweet

dreams. It was, it was weird.

I was out in the living room and all the kids and Sarah were

like, oh, stop it. But it was just just those

moments, right? You guys even know, like

sometimes you'll just be talking with someone and then you'll get

a random app on your like a promotion on your phone and

you're like, I never have looked that up in my entire life.

Like who is listening to me? But there's just these types of

things that they make us uneasy because we don't know who's

listening to us on the other end.

There's a lack of trust because there's no relationship in in

those scenarios. On the other hand, was thinking

of it, you know, most of us parents, we have the baby

monitors in our households. And for some reason, you know,

our kids, they grow to know that they can trust that to be seen,

to be heard, because who's on the other end?

Their mom and their dad, they know that they're loved, they

know that they're cared for and they're being watched for their

good. And if it makes you feel uneasy

that God knows your thoughts before you thank them, then you

may not know him as you should. And I think that speaks true of

if you knew him, you'd know that He has, He loves you and He

knows you, and that's why He knows your thoughts and your

actions from afar. This is the invitation, again,

as I said, just to get to know God experientially, walk with

Him closely and open your heart up to Him frequently.

There may be something in your life that he is convicting you

of that may be pulling you away from greater intimacy with Him.

And He loves you so much and He presses on your heart and on

your mind the places that that no one else see that He's

actually drawing you back to Him.

If there's a trust in God's good character, if you actually know

Him as we should, which David had grown to know, then the

truth that he understands your thoughts from afar should bring

you an immense amount of comfort and peace every day of your life

that you are known this much by our Almighty God.

In verse 3, David, should I get the other one?

There we go. You scrutinize my path and my

lying down and are intimately acquainted with all of my ways.

And God shows his concern for us and that he gets into our lives

fully. God helps us see what is

beneficial and what is not. And that's what this word

scrutinize means it it's like a winnowing fork.

And if anybody has seen those, but you know when the you're

separating the wheat from the chaff, it gets in there and it

throws it up and the wind blows it away.

And that's what God does in our life is he scrutinizes and he

gets in there and he probes. He says this is not beneficial

to you and this is beneficial to you and I'm going to show you

and I'm going to actively get in there and, and do this work in

your heart and in your life. He knows everything about us,

our weaknesses, our strengths, the way we respond in certain

situations before we respond to them.

He knows our fears, what produces anxiety, what produces

anger, if we're struggling with any sort of depression or

control. He knows us better than we know

ourselves. Many of us.

Sometimes someone asks you how you doing?

Like I don't even know sometimes, but we need to spend

time with God because he knows Job 31 four says, does he not

see my ways and number all my steps?

David says in verse 4. Even before there is a word on

my tongue, Behold, O Lord, you know it all.

I want to pause throughout my day.

I don't, I don't do it enough. But just to say behold, O Lord,

you know it all. And not just intellectually we,

I mean, I think many of us could say I understand that.

I understand that God knows everything.

But in my heart do I actually believe and does it change the

way I live my life to say, behold, O Lord, you know it all

and I can't. I mean, last time I said this

was probably to my kids when, you know, trying to figure out

if they're lying or not about washing their hands or going to

the bathroom or brushing their teeth or did you actually push

her? Did he push you?

I don't know. But what we can say and what we

say often is that the Lord always knows.

He knows the intentions of your heart.

He knows it all. And Hebrews 413 says, and

there's no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are

open and laid bare to the eyes of Him whom we have to do.

Everything is laid bare before Him because we're fully known by

God completely and intimately. He not only knows our words

before we say them, but He knows the conditions of our heart and

saying it. Everything we think is uncovered

before God. And there are situations in life

that causes these. Almost hidden conditions of our

heart to start bubbling out. We don't want to get caught,

that's why we lie. We don't want to look bad, so we

exaggerate. We feel insecure.

So we either talk down about ourselves or talk down about

other people. But Luke 644 says out of the

abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So just to encourage you guys, let the Lord deal with your

heart. He already knows it.

So that your words can be edifying, building up, honoring

to Him, loving, full of grace and sweet out of a true, true

and pure heart. We need to proclaim more often

and even make this part of your your day.

Behold, O Lord, you know it all as David said.

And verse 5, you have enclosed me behind and before and laid

your hand upon me. And some other translation says

hedge me in or hen me in, but it's just a hedge of protection

the Lord is putting around David and you.

And farmers would sometimes plant thorny bushes or thorny

tall plants to protect their vineyards or their crops from

animals getting in. And that's what the Lord saying

is like, I'm actually protecting you, this hedge of protection

around you. Psalm 34 seven says the Angel of

the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he rescues

them. Psalm 125 two says as the

mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people

from this time forth and forever.

Isn't that good? This understanding gave David

great daily confidence and security.

Isaiah 4110 says do not fear for I am with you.

Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will

uphold you with my righteous right hand.

And verse 6, David's, you know, undone by just being known by

God. And he says such knowledge is

too wonderful me for me it is too high.

I cannot attain it. That's all he can say.

The complete and intimate knowledge that God has of David

and all of his life is beyond him.

His actions, his heart, his motivations, his thoughts, his

words and all of his ways are in God's hands.

And David can do nothing but praise God for it.

This is what we see in Romans 1133, says, Oh, the depth of the

riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments, and unfathomable His

ways. For who has known the mind of

the Lord, and who became his counsellor?

Or who has first given to him that it might be paid back to

him again? For from him and through him and

to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.

Amen. And this is what this is what

David's saying to him be the glory for knowing me this much.

These verses, like I said, this should cause a sense of praise

in us to pause and remind us that He has sought us out and

not left us alone. That the Lord has gone in to The

Cave into the dark places of your heart, and actually grabbed

you and rescued you and put you at the feet of the cross, and

you're His. And you can rejoice in that.

And as David has taken this understanding of God's perfect

knowledge of him and personalized it, so should we.

And sometimes I know that's even like we pause even thinking that

way when we're reading. I know sometimes I have.

But there's nothing but intimacy and personal, personal

relationship going on in this passage.

And so we want to personalize it and we should.

And something to bring just into your times this week is what

does it mean to you that God knows you completely and

intimately and just start writing those things down?

How would meditating on that change the way you lived and

respond to your spouse, to your roommates, to your Co workers,

to your kids, or even the way that you fought ongoing sin in

your life? How would knowing, knowing, and

believing that God knows you intimately in this way help you

fight those battles? So move on to verse 7.

David transitions by saying, Lord, not only do you know me

fully, but you are always with me.

So point #2 He is always with you.

You are never alone. David says, where can I go from

your spirit or where can I flee from your presence?

He was aware that God was always watching over him.

He understood that it was impossible for him to do

anything, which God was not a spectator.

And we see this in Jeremiah 2324.

Can a man hide himself in hiding places?

So I do not see him, declares the Lord.

Do I not fill the heavens and the earth, declares the Lord.

And many of us can attest there's been moments in our life

where we have tried to hide. We have tried to, in a sense,

run away from God in His presence.

We even see this in the first man, the first woman in Genesis

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3. After they had sinned, they

heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the

cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid

themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the

garden. And then even in in Jonah, Jonah

one when God told him to go to Nineveh in verse 3 says, but

Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of

the Lord. There was fear, there was

disobedience, there was shame. The list goes on and on and on.

But what in your life actually causes you to draw away from

God, to hide to in a sense, run away?

Try to run away, As we'll see, and I love this quote by Charles

Spurgeon says neither by patient travel nor hasty flight can we

withdraw from the all surrounding God.

That good. Neither by patient travel, if

it's slow you feel that slow drift or by hasty flight.

We just want to get out of certain situations because

things start coming up in our heart.

Neither by any of those things can we withdraw from the all

surrounding God because God loves you.

He does not allow you to hide or run away from Him.

He is always with you and you are never alone.

And David in verses 8-9 just talks directionally.

He says if I send to heaven, if he goes all the way up to where

God is, you are there. If I make my bed and Sheol,

we're just talking about the grave and talking about death

downward. He said even there, behold, you

are there. If I take the wings of the dawn,

just talking about when the sun rises from the east, if I dwell

in the remotest part of the sea and in Israel the Mediterranean

Sea was to the West. He says if I go from where the

dawn rises to where this where the furthest spot I can possibly

think of, which is West far into the sea, you're with me.

He says in verse 10. Even there your hand will lead

me and your right hand will lay hold of me.

And wasn't this the promise of Jesus at the very end?

Matthew 28, he says, I am with you always in every direction.

Wherever you go, I am with you. God's presence is there.

Wherever David found himself shepherding sheep, king over

Israel, musician, fugitive in the wilderness or trying to

escape a father on the run, he trusted that even there God's

mighty hand would lead him and hold him.

And David was praising God for his consistent presence in his

life. In Psalm 7328 says, But As for

me, the nearness of God is my good.

It is good that God is so near the one I encourage you just to

take time throughout your day to thank God for his presence and

his nearness just how near he is.

Sometimes when you just pause. That's a lot of what I mean I'm

sharing this morning is just pause.

Take moments of your day to pause and this may be

challenging at times when we are confronted with situations in

life in which there we have no answers.

Often we find ourselves saying, God, bring me in on what you're

doing. Why is why is this happening to

me? Why am I at this place in my

life that I don't understand? And David expresses his heart to

God in verses 11 and 12, saying even in dark moments, even in

trial or frustration, doubt. He says, if I say surely the

darkness will overwhelm me and the light around me will be

light will be night. Verse 12 even the darkness is

not dark to you and the night is as bright as the day.

Darkness and light are alike to you.

So how many of us has said or said thought something like

David saying surely this darkness that I feel in this

moment is it will overwhelm me and the light around me will be

night or at times I know our hearts can cry out just even in

love. Where, where are you God, where

are you? I need to hear you.

I need to know that you're near. I know I've had those fair share

moments of my in my life, whether it be driving on the

road by myself or just moments of and seasons of weariness and

and tiredness. Just God, I need you.

I need you to show up in my life and it may not even be sin

related. It could just be a valley season

that you're going through that we even we see David went

through many, but he says even the darkness is not dark to you

and night is as bright as the day in first John 15 says this

is the message that we have heard from him and announced to

you. This is this is what we all

believe that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.

The Lord is, is present in the darkness of your despair,

hopelessness, and depression. And he has, he overcomes it.

He's not just present, but he overcomes it.

Psalm 1828 says, for you, light my lamp, the Lord my God

illumines my darkness. And then John 812 Then Jesus

spoke again to them saying, I am the light of the world.

He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the

light of life. Darkness cannot shut out

anything and in verses 13 through 18, David praises God by

writing. He's not only do you know me,

not only are you with me, but God who knows all and is in all

or with all, made you. He made you point #3 He made you

and will sustain you. You are fearfully and

wonderfully made. He made you.

He made you and sustained you. You're fearfully and wonderfully

made. I know this is, you know, some

of this part of the Psalm. We've read it so many times or

we've heard it so many times, but I just pray that you'd

receive it fresh this morning. It says in verse 13 for you, 4

in my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb.

And David is just talking. It's such relational language.

Again, just this forming. It's talking about being bought

or acquired or created and possessed and just his inward

parts. Talking about everything inside

of him, not just his physical body, but his spiritual body as

well. His his heart, not just his

physical heart, but just who he is.

He says you wove me, You've covered, protected, You've

hedged me in, You weave me together.

No one can create as God can create.

And Isaiah 4424. Thus says the Lord, your

Redeemer, the one who formed you from the womb.

I am the Lord. I the Lord am the maker of all

things, stretching out the heavens by myself and spreading

out the earth alone, and just thinking just how vast got it

and how big he is. And this is what David has in

mind, and thinking how intricately he wove him in his

mother's womb. Verse 14 I will give thanks to

you, for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well.

Again, David's just. He's this fearfully, he's just

in awe, He's astonished about what God has done.

And this word wonderfully just means distinct.

It's distinguished and it's kind of a weird way to word a

question. But said, have you ever been in

awe or astonished that God created you?

You have you ever been in awe or astonished that God created you

you. And maybe that's something you

never asked before or thought of, or maybe it's something that

you don't want to think about. But David is basically saying,

God, thank you for making me me. And I was just even looking up.

And some of us have probably heard just about how every

person in the world has a unique fingerprint and even read even,

you know, I guess I didn't think about this before, but identical

twins, I mean, we'll have to check on like Logan and Hudson,

but even identical twins have different fingerprints.

And it's just amazing that God can design in such a way that

says you are, you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

You are unique. And my fingerprint is on you

specifically and how you were made.

And so we, we so often look poorly at ourselves or compare

ourselves with others. We wish our physical features or

our giftings or characteristics were different.

I wish I was more like this. I wish, I wish I was more like

that. I wish I was better at this.

All of us, every single one of us, has those thoughts.

The way we speak, the way we think, the way we act.

We so much look at ourselves and through this Psalm, God is

calling us to have godly confidence in Him and to thank

Him for making us distinct and distinguished.

You are made exactly the way God intended you to be made, and we

should praise Him for our uniqueness.

We were created according to His perfect plan and He made no

mistakes in making us just as we are.

He roots out our our sin nature and he cleanses us over time.

But how are you are wired and made and the characteristics

that you have and your physical abilities, everything God has

made you and he had thought about it.

David says my frame was not hidden from you when I was made

in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth.

He's just talking about, you know, back then they didn't have

echocardiograms, X-ray, they didn't have ultrasounds, they

didn't have 3D images that we get nowadays.

They don't didn't have DNA testing.

But he's saying in the hidden secret places that no one sees

until that baby comes out, You made me and you knew me.

And he places God places value on every child from the moment

of conception. From the moment of conception,

he says you are mine and I made you verse 16.

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance and in your book we're

all written the days that were ordained for me when as yet

there was not one of them. God is creator and sustainer of

everything. But more personally, which is

what David's trying to communicate through this Psalm.

God, God, you made me. You don't just you didn't just

create everything you made, you created me.

And you don't just sustain everything, you sustain me.

David was expressing his full trust and surrender to God that

he made him and was leading his life.

God made no mistakes in making David and he had guided him

perfectly and would continue to do so, so that his own glory

would be magnified and David would be blessed.

And all of our limitations and ailments difficulties, we must

trust God has a mighty plan for us and even thinking of our

daughter Olivia and you know when we were in Gainesville, for

those who don't know we we're going to have the surgery got

rescheduled, come back home had to be like quarantine.

So it was a crazy season. But just before we left

Gainesville that first time, there was some disappointment.

Obviously there was just we had to change a lot of things and

thinking like the night before she's about to go through the

surgery. We got to pick up everything, go

back home and come back in four weeks.

And so it was late. And Sarah and I, you know, I

just said like, Hey, let's just get out our, our phone and let's

start a note and just write like, you know, God's

faithfulness over Olivia's life since we knew that, you know,

that you were pregnant with her. And we just went like line by

line by line by line by line, since we knew that we were

pregnant with her. I mean, early on and just the

things that doctors told us about her and then things we

found out along the way and just seeing just, I mean, if you guys

have seen her, you cannot tell anything is like wrong inside

her body. But she's got a list of things.

But she's got a smile on her face and and you know, I'm

praying that, you know, as she grows up, she can say, Lord, I

am fearfully and wonderfully made.

And you know, we get to look at God's faithfulness in her life

and that's that glorifying God is, is why he's made you unique.

It's not so that you can be up here or like I can be up here

and bring glory to ourself. And no way it it, it takes the

glory and it puts it back on God.

Everything that happened with Olivia, I mean, it was for God's

glory. And we get to magnify him

because of it. And I can't help but think of

John 9123 when Jesus and disciples were outside the

temple and his disciple, there was a man who was born blind.

And Jesus, or, you know, his disciple said, was it this man's

sin or was it his parents? And he just said, no, it was

neither this man's sinned nor his parents, but it was so that

the works of God might be displayed in him.

And that's what all of us can say.

If you feel weak, if you feel like, man, I'm not like this.

I'm not like that. Or physically, if you're going

through something, say God, I can praise you because I'm

fearfully and wonderfully made. You know exactly what you're

doing in my life, and you're going to bring your glory.

And David says, how precious. I mean, this is our response,

right? How precious also are your

thoughts to me? Oh God, how vast is the sum of

them? If I should count them, they

would outnumber the sand when I awake.

I'm still with you. And just thinking about the

video where they, they took 30 minutes just to write out

everything they were thankful for of God.

I mean, this is saying if I should count the thing, they

would outnumber the grains of sand on all the seashores.

And it's an unfathomable number. We can't stop in our writing a

remembrance of God's precious thoughts to us.

And it's just, it's sweet and intimate what David's saying.

So question, are the thoughts of God to you of great worth, or do

sometimes your thoughts take precedence?

What hinders you from meditating on them more often?

We need to spend less time in our own thoughts and thinking

about ourselves and more time thinking about Him and

recounting the precious thoughts that he has of us.

And so as we come to the final six verses, it does seem like

there is an abrupt shift and David's focus.

But these verses, in the form of a prayer, actually give us a

glimpse into David's situation and why he's drawing on God's

perfect knowledge, presence and power in his life.

They show David's thoughts and emotions towards those who are

continually rejecting God and deliberately practicing evil.

And one commentator wrote the wickedness in view here has

resisted love. And Isaiah 65, two talking about

God's outstretched arm, He says I spread out my hands all day

long to a rebellious people who walk in the way which is not

good, following their own thoughts.

And even David says in return for my love, they act as my

accusers, but I am in prayer. Thus they have repaid me evil

for good and hatred for my love. We see David's passionate

loyalty. And his love for the Lord and

how he wanted to separate himself entirely from those who

are speaking against God. And Psalm 26 five says I hate

the assembly of evil doers and I will not sit with the wicked.

Psalm 31 six that I hate those who regard vain idols, but I

trust in the Lord. And James Montgomery boy sums it

up pretty good. He says his decisions, his

decision was to separate from evil persons entirely.

This separation does not mean that David never had anything to

do with sinful people. He himself was one.

It only means that he did not want to be with those who were

openly marked by evil or or hatching evil actions.

So taken was he with the greatness of God that he wanted

nothing to endanger his relationship with God.

He, his relationship with God, his nearness, his closeness was

everything to him and he wouldn't let nothing stand

against it. The important thing to know is

David, he went on the offense in his prayer life and he trusted

the Lord to vindicate. And so we cannot remain neutral

towards evil or sin, especially in our own hearts.

We must bring all of our thoughts, our desires and

motivations to the Lord in prayer, which is where we'll

land this morning if the band wants to come up.

And as we just go into ministry time, I know there's a lot

there. And I'll finish with the last

two verses, but just if anything stuck out to you, pray that you

would again, rest, pause, even just say going to ministry time.

Behold, O Lord, you know it all. You know, you know me, You know

every part of me. David knew God experientially,

which meant he had walked with him closely and would open his

heart to him frequently with everything that David had

already written down in mind. God, you know me fully,

completely intimately. You're always with me, I'm never

alone, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made and you will

sustain me. He goes on to write.

Search me, oh God, and know my heart, try me and know my

anxious thoughts and see if there be any hurtful way in me

and lead me in the everlasting way.

Just a sweet prayer that we can pray every single day.

David was inviting God into his heart to examine him thoroughly

and to purify him of anything that might hinder his walk with

God. Same, God, search me.

You know me better than I know myself.

You know me. You know everything about me.

Before there's a thought in my mind, before a word leaves my

lips, you know me. He was asking him to purify him

of anything that might hinder his walk.

God, is there, Is there things that I'm believing or running to

that hinder my closeness and my intimacy with you?

Because that is everything to me.

So just I wanted to invite you to turn to him this morning and

say that same prayer. God search me, know my heart.

Ask him to help you walk closely with him to abide in

relationship with him and lead you in the living way.

This is the enduring way. God your way.

It's, it's narrow, but it, it produces life.

It brings life. So yeah, I just encourage you

guys come to the front, turn to a neighbor.

If there's anything, any anxious thought, any thought that is

just it's in your mind, it's preoccupying your, you know,

ability to even be present and worship or just to sit with him

throughout your day. Don't just keep going throughout

your day. Pause and spend time with God

and turn to him. So I'll pray for us and

encourage you guys to receive prayer this morning.

Thank you Lord, and thank you for the Psalm.

Thank you for just not David's life, but God, your life through

David that we get to see how you knew him.

God, you know us that you made us in our mother's womb.

God, you gave us everything physically.

God, you gave us our heart. God, you gave us, You made us,

you created us. You weave us together.

God, I pray that we bring our anxious thoughts to you.

God rid our hearts of and our minds of just God wanting to to

be someone we're not or be something that we're not.

God, I pray that we'd rest and have godly confidence in you

that would produce joy. It would produce a fear and an

awe in you, God, that we would come running God into your

throne of grace and find help in our time of need.

Because we know that we have a a heavenly Father who cares, a

heavenly Father who is present, a heavenly Father who is active

and pursuing us every day of our life.

But no matter what we're going through, where we're at, what

we're thinking, what is our mind got, the things we're struggling

with at home, I thank you God. You're saying I am there and I

am with you and I am for you. Come to me, come to me, come to

me. Give me your anxious thoughts

and I will lead you on the everlasting way in Jesus name,

Amen.