Psalm 139New International Version - UK (NIVUK)
Psalm 139
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 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,[a] 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;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
1 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.
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.
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,[a] 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.
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,[a] 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;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
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.
Footnotes:
- Psalm 139:17 Or How amazing are your thoughts concerning me
New International Version - UK (NIVUK)
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide
- Psalm 139:17 Or How amazing are your thoughts concerning me
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide
PSALM 139 - The Messianic Psalm of Jesus - Dependence - Assurance
THE PSALM OF THE EVERYDAY GOD.
OPENER:
As often as we come to worship, INDIVIDUAL OR CORPORATE we are faced with two contexts. The Context of the Bible where we go to in order that we may make sense of the world we live in and the context of world where we go in order to make sense of the Bible.
I would like us this morning to look at the beginning of the letter to the Colossians so that we many try and understand and set in place the context for Psalm 139. Turn with me to Col 1:15-19 and Colossians 2:9-10. Here Christ is the glory of the New Testament. Here is the truth of the filling of God and the fullness in Christ. Completeness in Christ, the fullness of God in his son. This is the great context that we find ourselves at in the pages of the New Testament. Herein is the truth of scripture for all eternity.
The fullness of God in Christ and that we are in him and complete in Him. Nothing needed to be added.
I'm not at all convinced by our modern understanding of the filling or Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
If I was to go down to the beach at Scarborough and fill up my bucket with water I might say that I have the North sea in my bucket, I would be wrong, I have some of the North sea in my bucket. What I do not have is the fullness of the North sea in my bucket.
People come to me and say I've been filled with the Spirit or baptised in the Spirit, I hope to God that they have been, as we all need the Spirit of God.
Somehow just like my bucket we have not gone far enough in what Christ has done. We will always need to seek for more. But If i took my bucket and launched it into the sea, and a wave came and filled it up 2/3rds and then another wave came so totally so much so that the bucket became submerged then I could say that my bucket was now filled with the fullness of the North sea.
This is where we need to come to when we are thinking of the work of the Spirit. He takes us and plunges us in the fullness of Christ. That we are in the fullness of God, That is the gospel.
This morning I would like to speak on the ministry of the Holy Spirit as seen in Psalm 139.
COMMENT:
For preachers:- Every good preacher will not only preach but give the hearers of sermons some tools in order for then to read and understand the scriptures for themselves. Here are some thoughts and some tools as well.
LOOKING AT THE PSALM:
- Psalm 139 should be read like Psalm 22, King David, is writing prophetically about Jesus, not himself.
INTRODUCTION:
Here we have a psalm from the perspective and testimony of Jesus, a prophetic psalm, a messianic psalm. (Granted, not one of the usual ones) A psalm that gives us insight to what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus in a perfect relationship with the father, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
THE ROLE AND MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN PSALM 139:
We have the Holy Spirit mentioned here implicitly and explicitly.
Vs 5 - "Your Hand"
Vs 7 - "Your Spirit"
Vs 7 "Your Presence"
Vs 10 - "Your Hand"
"Your Right hand"
"Lead me"
Vs 13 "You Created"
"You knit me"
Vs14 - "Your Works"
Vs15 - "I was made"
" I was woven"
Vs 17 - "Your thoughts"
Vs 23 - "Search Me"
Vs 24 - "Lead Me"
Implicitly we have the role and ministry of the Spirit through the entire psalm. In that nothing can get between, separate or pull away from what God has achieved in Jesus Christ.
The experience of the psalm is that of being in fellowship with the father, via the ministry of the Spirit just like in the ministry of the Holy Spirit to Jesus. - See the gospels for evidence of this fact.
OTHER VERSES THAT COMPOUND THE TRUTH.
VERSES ONE to THREE & THROUGHOUT:
- Jesus speaks of the perfect mutual indwelling, loving fellowship that he has had with the Father through the Spirit since eternity past.
VERSE FOUR:
_ Jesus has only ever spoken what the Father has given him to speak.
VERSE FIVE:
- The hand (Spirit) of the Father was clearly on Jesus. (Just as tin he verses above)
VERSE EIGHT:
- No fallen human has ever ascended into Heaven - they can't and it's heresy, not poetry, to suggest they can. Satan and Adam both had a go and failed. Jesus has and has done so by virtue of his own inherent righteousness.
VERSE NINE:
- Is a poetic image of verse 8. The sun is being described here. The only person equated with the sun (which each day symbolically ascends into the heavens and descends into the earth/grave) in the Bible is Jesus. Jesus is the only mediator between Heaven and earth.
VERSE TEN:
- Jesus on the cusp of his becoming a frail human and being planted inside the womb of a woman. He will be away from direct face to face fellowship with his Father, but he knows that by the Spirit, his Father is always with him as he plunges down into the darkness of a fallen cosmos to redeem that pearl of great price - the Church.
VERSES THIRTEEN to FIFTEEN
- Jesus speaks of his Father's care for him as he is being formed by the Spirit in the womb of Mary.
VERSES SIXTEEN TO SEVENTEEN:
- Speak of how the Father has prepared the Old Testament for Jesus to read so that he would know, with the help of the Spirit, what his mission was and how to accomplish it. Jesus went to the cross with the promises of the Old Testament ringing in his heart.
VERSE EIGHTEEN:
- Speaks of resurrection, victory and vindication, even death did not sever the eternal fellowship of the Father and Son.
VERSE NINETEEN to TWENTY:
- If we read this Psalm focussed on ourselves then we have no idea what to do with these verses. - They are an embarrassment to us and are confusing.
- But if it's about Jesus, then it's obvious. Jesus after his resurrection and ascension is asking the Father to do what the Father has already said he would do for his Son namely; vindicate the Son and defeat their enemies.
VERSES TWENTY THREE to TWENTY FOUR:
- The Psalm closes like it opens: Jesus, the obedient Son, humbles himself before his Father's scrutiny for the vindication of his cause.
CONCLUSION:
- See how close the love is that the Father has for the Son and the Son has for the Father, altogether in the unity of the Spirit. It is into that love, that you and I (The Church) have been swept up into. we have been plunged into this relationship that first was seen in Jesus. Not by our efforts but because of Christ.
- This Psalm is only about you and I to the extent that it tells us what are the blessings and benefits that we receive from being in Christ - born by the Spirit of God, enabled by the Spirit of God, led by the Spirit of God.
- It's not about you and I, for one I am grateful, It's a psalm primarily about the relationship of Jesus with father. I rejoice in this because I need a victorious champion, an awesome and merciful saviour who is Jesus, in my life.
- This psalm is often used as a mirror to hold up against yourself, to convict of sin, or to evaluate where we are with God.
- Often it is preached with the absence of Jesus. It's not a mirror but a lens, a vision of a relationship so perfect, so dynamic.
- A psalm about a relationship that exists for us. That we have by Grace, through Faith.
- It's a promise of a relationship that exists between God and his children, seen in the life of Jesus and now in us.
- A psalm about utter dependence. That becomes our future because of Jesus.
- This is a Psalm about a relationship with the EVERYDAY GOD, brought about by Jesus and enabled in us by the Spirit of God.
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