PSALM: 139 - LIVING WITH THE END IN MIND - May 7, 2023
MESSAGE BY PASTOR DANIEL PARK FROM
BETHANY BAPTIST CHURCH IN RICHMOND, BC.
1 O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me
2 You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do.
4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.
5 You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!
7 I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.
9 If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10 even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.
11 I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night—
12 but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvellous—how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
16 You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
18 I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!
19 O God, if only you would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers!
20 They blaspheme you; your enemies misuse your name.
21 O Lord, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you? Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you?
22 Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
INTRO
We have to reflect on our understanding and attitude in regards to God, His Word, salvation, our relationship with God and everything we learn in the Scripture.
Do we truly appreciate what is at stake here?
Because eternity is what is at stake
God is Everything Everywhere All At Once 1-12
I once had some Jehovah’s witnesses come to our door and ask me, how can the Holy Spirit be everywhere all at once in every person?
to which, the only thing I could think of to say was,
“Because He’s God”
Yeah but, how does it make sense?
“Because He’s God…”
I think it’s easy to miss the fundamental absolute-ness of the divine sovereignty of God
And this is excusable because we are mere human beings,
That try to understand things according to the scope we have
And the truth is that we barely understand the concept of sovereignty these days
Throughout Revelation, we have been hearing a lot about a throne, and the One seated on it - Like in chapter 20:11
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.
From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
In any culture, a throne signifies a monarch’s reign
It symbolizes power and authority and right to rule
The throne you see is of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and other Realms and Territories, including the Commonwealth
Of which, Australia and Canada are part of
Problem is, times have changed and we don’t have many monarchs on thrones with absolute sovereignty any more - except for a few countries
Even in Canada and Australia the monarchy does not have much bearing despite being the head of our states
Most of us have grown up without this kind of idea
We were raised that the people have the power to install the leaders we desire to implement the ideals of the people, with checks and balances to ensure fairness and equality to all.
No one has absolute power
Because no one should
I think when people think about absolute power and sovereignty, it’s often negative these days.
All powerful? Corruption!
All knowing and seeing? That’s a police state! Infringement of individual rights!
All just and pure? Plain impossible!
And so when it comes to God, who the Bible says is:
That is, Sovereign, Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, immutable,
Love and mercy, Veracious, righteous, just
People often don’t know what to do with this in its entirety.
So we limit the scope to smaller bits, often in isolation of each other
And even for Christians who believe God, it can be hard to truly embrace His absolute sovereignty.
Which I think is why some parts of the Book of Revelation can be difficult to stomach
In it, we are given the clearest and fullest “revelation” of the transcendent God.
But this absolute sovereignty is expressed in the most intimate and personal way in Psalm 139
See how King David - an absolute monarch himself, expressed and understood God’s absolute sovereignty
It is one of the most powerful description of who God is and what He is like
THIS is what divine absolute sovereignty means to us
God IS everything everywhere all at once to us!
God KNOWS everything about the when where what why how of us
And I like how most of the examples are just mundane things
Like sitting and standing around, moving or traveling around or just chilling at home
God is not just with us and for us when we desperately need something or when things are amazing or painful
He is everything everywhere all at once ALL THE TIME
We actually know a lot more of what this is like than we realize
The people we love and are dearest to us are everything everywhere all at once to us
Our spouses, children, grandchildren, parents, friends (some of them)
God is with us and knows us through our best times, worst times, and all the boring times
the time waiting to fall asleep, all the time sleeping, every time waking up
Doesn’t that kind of describe your spouse?
Or kids…
Or you wish, your girlfriend or boyfriend…?
God goes before us and follows us
We cannot escape or get away from His presence
Wherever and whenever, He is always there
To some, this may sound a little creepy and stalky…
But only if He is a stranger
If you think about it, doesn’t this describe your daily life with your family and the ones you love?
-God’s absolute sovereignty means we are never alone
As He is ALWAYS there to guide and support us.
God’s omnipresence means all metaphysical concepts and limitations have no meaning
I love the way verses 11-12 describes this
Light is no more revealing than darkness
And darkness hides nothing more than light to God
Because God just, “is”
God IS everything to us, everywhere we are, all the time
2. God Already Knows
God’s omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence in our lives began long before we were born or even conceived
In fact, our very existence is all thanks to His sovereignty
We owe our existence to God
All life and humanity is hand-crafted by God Himself
No one is ever an accident
No life is unworthy of existence
And from His personal and intimate involvement in our existence
Comes His regard for us
How He sees us
To God we are,
Wonderful
Complex - meaning of substance and worth = Worthwhile
Marvellous
Precious
And we always on His mind
Can you see that you matter to God?
You are not randomly generated and easily replaceable
You are hand-crafted by God
Verse 16 says that,
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
Taken clinically, this could make some people feel uncomfortable
and judged
Now there’s a word nobody likes
You might remember from 2 weeks ago in Revelation 20:12-13.
12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
it’s not certain that “the book” in Psalm 139 and the books in Rev 20:12 are the same
But I think it could be because I believe the idea is the same
I believe there should be a few accountants among us…
Who would be very familiar with the idea of books that are kept up to date in any organization
Bookkeeping is necessary to know the financial health and longevity of an organization
It is not used to destroy or ruin
But to kept to prevent bankruptcy and ruin
So a shout out of appreciation to all our accountants!
Human judgment is post-mortem
Because we cannot know until something happens first
Not so with God
God is watching over us, always, but not as Simon Cowell on a talent show
But as a parent watches over their baby
Every moment, action, triumph, even failure of ours is lovingly noted and cherished by God
So that every moment, triumph, and even failure is can be an opportunity
Opportunity to experience and live out love and grace.
The tension IS real though.
The thought of someone knowing us inside out
Seeing and recording our every moment could feel invasive violated
Because we value our privacy and independence
But we can now understand that the absolutely sovereign God’s default regard for us is infinitely:
Wonderful
Marvellous
Precious
Doesn’t that fill you with peace and joy?
3. Sin is Dealt With
There is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the last few verses of Psalm 139.
A lot of people don’t think it belongs at the end of one of people’s favourite Psalms.
My personal theory is that David is personifying sin, expressing his deep emotions and struggles concerning sin’s consequences
Remember, this is poetic writing
I DO NOT believe the passage justifies Christians going after people living in different sins and voicing hatred of them and seeking their destruction
Sin is the one barrier that separates us from God who is absolutely sovereign
David sees a glimpse of the glory of God and the amazing grace of His love for His creation - namely us
But as a sinner, the frustration is immense!
So, he bursts out…
And this is my alternative rendering of what I believe he was expressing in verses 20-22
O God, if only you would destroy the wickedness that is sin!
Get out of my life, sins, you murderers of eternal life!
Sin blasphemes you; resulting in sinners misusing your name.
O Lord, shouldn’t I hate sin that hates you?
Shouldn’t I despise sin that opposes you?
Yes, I hate sin with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies.
We saw in Revelation 20:14-15 that wickedness and sin does die before the new heaven and new earth
Proving that God’s sovereignty IS absolute
The acceptance and appreciation of the absolute sovereign who loves us should draw us to Him. to love what He loves and to hate what He hates
Sin and God are not polar opposites of each other
Sin is more like something small in front of the sun
It’s just going to be consumed
Sin has to be dealt with
Only when we own up to the sin in our lives and are willing to submit ourselves to God
Can He lead us down the path to everlasting life with Him in the New Jerusalem
Living as a Christian is not the end.
That is the beginning
And we need to begin with the end in mind
The end is eternity
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came and died in our place to deal with sin once and for all
and then He rose back to life from the dead
And physically ascended to heaven
As a preview of what we will experience later on:
Eternal life in heaven with God
Something I had to cut out of the video about Arthur Stace is that before he started writing Eternity, which he identifies as when he found his calling,
He was already evangelizing and preaching on street corners
Doing ministry to help the homeless and alcoholics
While working as a janitor.
But the message of Isaiah 57:15 that impacted him so deeply, needs to reverberate in all us today:
The high and lofty one who lives in eternity,
the Holy One, says this:
“I live in the high and holy place
with those whose spirits are contrite and humble.
I restore the crushed spirit of the humble
and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts.
We need to live confidently with eternity in mind
and that means living with an active hatred of everything that tries to keep us from eternity with God.
And embracing everything that rushes us towards eternity with God
Simply put, we need to submit to God’s sovereign judgment over our lives admitting that He knows it all already
We submit by surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ
Believing that He is the Son of God and the only one who could save us from our sins
That Jesus has taken the all the judgment that is meant for us
And that He is the only way to heaven and eternal life with God
If this sounds unpleasant or unnatural to you, it’s ok.
Bear with me, with us and the messages that I hope you will keep listening to
If this is starting to make some sense to you, this is your time
to begin living with the end in mind
You are ready to admit to your lack of abundant life because God is missing in your life
You are starting to be OK with God’s judgment because the Bible says Jesus was already judged in your place
And you like the idea of having an absolute sovereign God who never leaves you or betrays you
If this is you, please come talk to me, or P. Rob, or P. Joe or just come to the front after the service and we would love to help you begin your life with Eternity in mind, today.
Eternity is being in a relationship that never sours or ends
Being with someone you love and never needing to separate or say goodbye
And it is built on love
God wants us to live with love in mind.
If you are in need of prayer as you maybe are in difficult situations in your life, just write your name in CONTACT, not necessarily the email, and write in short the need, and Pastors and I personally will pray for you anytime, in distance.
For those living in Richmond, BC you can stop by or visit the church and Pastors can pray for you anytime. and also you can write your name and the need you are asking to pray for in CONTACT. And remember that God loves you so much and so do we. AMEN.