Read Psalm 139

Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

139 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

    you discern my thoughts from afar.

3 You search out my path and my lying down

    and are acquainted with all my ways.

4 Even before a word is on my tongue,

    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

5 You hem me in, behind and before,

    and lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

    it is high; I cannot attain it.

 

7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?

    Or where shall I flee from your presence?

8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

9 If I take the wings of the morning

    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

10 even there your hand shall lead me,

    and your right hand shall hold me.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

    and the light about me be night,”

12 even the darkness is not dark to you;

    the night is bright as the day,

    for darkness is as light with you.

 

13 For you formed my inward parts;

    you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]

Wonderful are your works;

    my soul knows it very well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16 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.

 

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

    How vast is the sum of them!

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

    I awake, and I am still with you.

 

19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!

    O men of blood, depart from me!

20 They speak against you with malicious intent;

    your enemies take your name in vain.[b]

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

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

22 I hate them with complete hatred;

    I count them my enemies.

 

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!

    Try me and know my thoughts![c]

24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,

    and lead me in the way everlasting![d]

 

Mpt-The Lord is great and He leverages His greatness in love and all encompassing intimacy towards His children.  Our response is a heart of greatfullness and intentionality towards the relationship.

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• Start with God, then move towards His motives, then His acts
• Explain the fallacy of seeing ourselves as the hero 
  • Ie, we are the focal point and God does all of this because we are so great
• Explain how this text wouldn’t make sense if God isn’t the focal point and we get our worth from Him

 

*Our God is just too much, mmmmm, headshake 

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it

• • What knowledge
    • 1) the capacity
      • Psalms 145:3 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable

• Isiah 55:8-9

• • • Omnipresence-all/places vs-1-2
    • Omnipotent-all powerful vs 13-14
    • Omniscience-all knowing vs 2-4, 16
  • 2) the intimacy
    • That God in His all everythingness has made me/you/us the object of His loving care and affection
    • Verse 17-18
• What is our response to this God and His intentionality towards us? 
  • It is verse 6, 14

 

**What are His acts towards us?

• He intentionally is with us
• He knows us
• He leads us
• He helps us

 

Walk through vs 1-12 explaining this

So what?

• Case study is our life
  • He knows whats going on
  • He knows whats in your head and heart
  • He knows your actions
  • He knows what you can take 
  • He is leading and guiding
  • His hand is on you and the situation
• We forget
• We operate as if these aren’t facts

 

*****Our response to God’s Greatness and Intionality towards us

• • After singing the praises and describing how good our God is, the holiness, the beauty, the kindness, the love, the author turns their attention to the antithesis of that, sin and wickedness

• Vs 19-22

• Our response is two fold
  • 1) to hate sin and wickedness, especially that found in ourselves
  • 2) as God to give us a course correction
• End with the gospel using vs 23-24

Sermon Outline on Psalm 139