1 – O Lord, You have searched me 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 know it completely, O Lord.
5 – You hem me in-behind and before; You have laid 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, O 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.
23 – Search me, O 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.
Like most public school students these days, back when I was in highschool I was required to read what is regarded by many as the classic work on Greek Mythology by Edith Hamilton. And this was one assignment that I didn’t mind because I enjoyed fantasy so it was interesting and amusing to me to read about all the various “gods” that the Greeks had dreamed up. Of course there were dozens of them-all with different powers and domains: Apollo-the god of the sun drove his fiery chariot across the sky every day. Aphrodite, the goddess of love was sort of a heavenly matchmaker, manipulating the hearts of men and women. I remember thinking of Hermes as sort of the “postal service god” because it was his job to carry messages between Apollo and Aphrodite and the rest of the guys and gals up on Mt. Olympus-and he could do this very efficiently thanks to his winged feet! Perhaps it was mythical Hermes who inspired the first wing-tipped shoes!
And of course the Greeks weren’t alone in all this god-making. The Romans had their own versions of each of these deities. We also know that the nations around Israel dreamed up their own gods as well. Some of these cultures even built “gods” out of stone or metal or wood.
Now, if you want to know why all these cultures did this-you only need look to the Bible because Scripture clearly teaches that man was created to have fellowship with his Creator. We were designed to walk in relationship with God. So, in their own flawed way, by dreaming up all these various gods and goddesses, the people of these pagan nations were simply expressing their inborn longing for God. They were trying to fulfill this longing in the wrong way; they were looking in the wrong place of course-but that is what they were doing: looking for God.
Well, in the psalm I want us to study together this morning, it is as if Kind David says to all mankind, “I have found the God you have been looking for!” In these words the shepherd/king shares his own experience with our loving Heavenly Father as a powerful testimony to the fact that, God has perfectly fulfilled his own inner need for fellowship with and guidance from his Creator. When I read this psalm I think David sounds sort of like Cinderella’s Prince Charming-in that he has found that one person whose “foot fits the shoe.” He says to all of us, “God is it! He is just what I need. He fills that hole in my soul. Let me tell you about Him. Let me tell you why God is the Who that we have ALL been looking for.” And he begins his description of the one true God-the God that all mankind has been longing for by saying, “Listen guys…:(1) .God KNOWS everything there is to know about US!
In our study of the Psalms this summer we’ve talked a lot about the OMNISCIENCE of God-the fact that God has absolutely complete knowledge. Well in this psalm David affirms the mind-boggling fact that of all the limitless knowledge that God possesses-God’s MOST PRECIOUS knowledge concerns you and me! Now-this fact that each of us as individuals are KNOWN by God is especially welcome news in our day and age, because due to the world’s ever-increasing population and to our rapidly advancing technology, you and I are becoming just one of the crowd. More and more we are seen as insignificant numbers and statistical units in a computer data base rather than unique human beings. Plus-science continues to reveal how BIG and VAST and wonderful our universe is. As a result, our planet itself has become insignificant-a speck of matter surrounded by galaxies measured by light years rather than miles.
All this makes us wonder, “Who am I? How could ‘little old I’ possibly matter in all of this?” Well in these first few verses David says that you and I are SUPER-important-we matter-to the Creator of the universe Himself. He is interested in each individual on this planet. In fact David affirms the fact that our Creator has focused His attention on each of us from the instant that our lives began. Look at verse 13. David says, “For You-God-You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place.”
Verse 16 takes God’s focus on us back to the moment of conception by saying, When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body…” Now, the Hebrew here literally means “to fold together or to wrap up.” It is in its noun form here in verse 16 and it means “embryo.” So in these verses David is saying, “In my very first seconds of life, when I was still wrapped up in embryonic form…God was watching over me. He was never absent or unconcerned.”
Now, look back at verse 1. Here David says that God, “SEARCHES” him. The Hebrew for this word literally means “to explore.” It conveys the idea of digging into or through something. I guess each of us could say, “God DIGS me!” because God explores, digs into, and examines each of us through and through. David says that even our most COMMON and CASUAL moments-sitting down and standing up are completely familiar to our Lord. I get the mental image of a little boy who idolizes a baseball player and makes it his goal in life to know all there is to know about that ball player, his batting average, how many years he played on what team, how many hits, runs, errors. He even cherishes TRIVIAL information on his hero: his favorite color, the car he drives, where he grew up, his birthday…etc.
Well, David says, God cares like that about you and me. He focuses His omniscience around us every moment of our lives. In fact he says that even our THOUGHTS are an open book to God. Now think about that for a moment. Thoughts come into our minds through a series of distant, fleeting conceptions as microscopic nerves relate to one another in the brain through a complicated process of connections. Well, David says that even THOSE are known by our Lord. As He puts it, “God understands our thoughts from afar.” Plutarch, the first century Greek biographer, had this in mind when he wrote:
“Man may not see thee do an impious deed;
But God thy very inmost thoughts can read.”
Now-you and I “see” thoughts enter people’s heads as their faces “light up” or as, in some other way, they telegraph the entrance of ideas. We can HEAR thoughts as they leave people’s minds through their mouths. But we cannot see what happens BETWEEN the entrance and the exit. Well God can! God even understands what PROMPTS us to think our thoughts. He understands the hidden, unspoken motives behind all our actions.
Have you ever yearned to be completely understood by someone-to have a kindred spirit with whom communication is easy because you two are on the same “sheet of music.” Well, as David says in these words, no one understands and knows you as completely as the all mighty and all holy God. Even though He is infinitely more different from us than we are from a single-celled organism, God KNOWS us…our thoughts and actions…our struggles and our victories…our moments and our days.
One of my favorite old movies is “Captain Horatio Hornblower” which stars one of my favorite old actors, Gregory Peck. The film is based on the novels of C. S. Forrester and it is set in the days of sailing ships when Britain was a great naval power. As the movie opens England is at war with France and Hornblower is sent on a secret mission down below South America, through the straight of Magellan and then up into the Pacific Ocean. As captain only he know his orders. The voyage takes many months and is filled with danger. They encounter storms and endure hunger, thirst, disease, and death. Then their course takes them into windless, current-less waters where the men have to tow the massive ship with the long boats-backbreaking work in the hot sun. They eventually have to ration food and water. Everyone begins to doubt Hornblower. The men whisper criticisms behind his back. Even his officers begin to wonder if he has both oars in the water.
Now-in these days there was a great difference-a great separation-between the lives of officers and the common sailor. Officers did little or no menial work. They were educated men of means. They had better food and of course had far superior quarters than the enlisted men. And the officer most removed was of course the captain. He had his own private rooms and a servant to prepare his meals and even help him dress. He was “God” to his men-he was to be obeyed at a moment’s notice no matter what his orders were or how odd they may seem. At the other end of life on a ship of war was the common sailor. He was usually illiterate and worked a grueling day for low pay and mediocre food. So when times were tough, the common sailor was the one to complain first.
In the movie, one particular common sailor-his name was Chris-was especially critical of Hornblower and during these weeks of windless doldrums his negative comments about the captain spread among the crew. Things were about to get nasty when after months of no wind, they caught a steady breeze and continued their voyage. And not long after that, they became involved in a great sea battle between their ship and the ship of the enemy.
Now, remember the great separation between common sailors like Chris and the Captain. Well in the midst of this battle-cannons were blazing-shells were exploding into decks and bows and “starboards” and “ports.” Captains on both ships were giving orders-sailors were scrambling to comply. And, at the height of the battle A MAST on Hornblower’s ship was hit by a cannon ball and began to fall toward the deck. Hornblower saw this and in just the nick of time he yelled out, “Chris! Chris! Watch out!” His warning saved Chris’ life and I will never forget his reply. Chris turned to the sailors nearest him and said, “He knows me name! He knows me name!”
Chris could not believe that his captain-so separated from him-so different from him-knew who he was-and cared enough about him to warn him of impending death. For the rest of the movie, he followed Hornblower around like a puppy dog. From then on, according to Chris, Hornblower was the finest man that ever walked the earth. He never questioned his orders again.
Well, God knows you, fellow human. Even though He is separated from you…Holy, Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient…He knows each of you. He is THE expert on you! Verse 3 says that God “scrutinizes” our paths. In other words He watches very closely every thing we do-everywhere we go. He knows our mannerisms. He is “intimately acquainted with all our ways.” In fact, David says He knows us so well, that He knows what we are going to say, before we say it.
A. W. Tozer describes this aspect of God’s omniscience in this way: “Our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick. No forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past. No unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us since He knew us utterly before we knew Him…and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us.”
So-God could not possibly know you better. And please understand, God doesn’t just ADMIRE you like a kid does a baseball star. God LOVES you. You matter to the One Who matters most. Bill Hybels puts it this way, “God gets intimately acquainted with me because He is passionately moved by who I am.” Imagine, God MOVED by the WHO that is you and the WHO that is me!
I don’t know about you but that is the kind of God I need…One Who does not just sit somewhere on some ivory throne moving stars and universes about but One Who focuses on me—One Who knows me. Well, God is that God!
And then David goes on to share a second reason that God is the God we are all looking for. He says that not only does He know us…
2. He is also always WITH us…
David says that God is not like the false idols fashioned out of stone that the nations around Israel worshiped. The people of those pagan cultures had to travel long distances to be in the presence of their silly, impotent, man-made gods. Well David says, “Not so with the One True God! No matter where we are, almighty God is with us!” Well, that means that wherever we are in life-whatever we are going through we could all say, GOD IS HERE. He is with me.
Look again at verses 7 – 12:
Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.”
Referring to this verse, Ron Mehl writes, “God works the night shift.” and aren’t you glad He does! Aren’t you thankful that no matter how dark life seems to you-it isn’t to God…and that HE never goes off duty but is always with you?!
Now-in the Hebrew Bible, the pronouns referring to God in these verses are abrupt and emphatic. It literally reads like this, “If I go up to heaven-THOU! If I go down to the grave-THOU!” It reminds me of an episode of Smallville in which a criminal is trying to escape from Superboy. He runs-but due to Superboy’s super-speed, the crook runs right into the teen of steel. The crook changes direction and flees again but runs smack into Superboy again. That’s the way it is with God. No matter where we go or where we turn, we run smack into Him because He is always with us.
In fact this is the gist of verse 9 where it says, “if I take the wings of the dawn…Your right hand will hold me fast.” In this verse David is describing the rays of sunshine that emanate out of that glowing ball in the morning light. So in essence he says, “If I could travel at the speed of light-to the nearest star. Four years later-after traveling 186,000 miles each second, when I arrived THOU would be there too.”
David rejoices in the fact that experience has taught him that God is not a distant, preoccupied Deity. He knows where we are and what we are going through because He is always with us. I read a true story a few years ago that illustrates this truth so beautifully. It concerns a man named Ken Gaub-whose goal in life was to help hurting people. And he did this by following God’s call to serve as an evangelist-conducting crusades all over the world. His ministry blossomed into a magazine, a radio and television ministry and a youth outreach program. Well in the 1970’s this traveling minister faced burnout and began to wonder if his chosen career really was God’s call. One day in the midst of all this wondering, while traveling between crusades he and his family pulled their ministry bus off of I-75 just south of Dayton, Ohio for a meal. As he saw a sign directing them to a Pizza Hutt, he thought, “That’s what I need God, a sign.” They hopped out of the bus and started into the restaurant but Ken decided not to eat. He wanted time to think and pray. He wanted to know if God wanted him to continue in this grueling ministry.
So, he started out on a long walk, and as he passed a pay phone, he heard it ring. No one bothered to answer, so he walked over, picked up the receiver and said, “Hello.” The voice of the operator said, “Long distance call for Ken Gaub.” Ken was stunned. He said, “This is crazy. This can’t be. I was just walking down the road here, and this phone was ringing…” The operator ignored his ramblings and asked again, “Is Ken Gaub there? I have a long distance phone call for him.” At this moment, Ken thought sure it was a Candid Camera set up so he combed his hair and looked around but then he realized this could not be the case because they had stopped at a random Pizza Hut. No one knew they were there. Well, the operator was about to reach the limits of her patience so she said, “I have a long-distance call for Ken Gaub sir. Is he there or isn’t he?” Ken said, “Operator, I’m Ken Gaub.” The operator said, “Are you sure?” And then another voice chimed in-that of the caller. It was a woman and she said, “That’s him operator. I recognize his voice. Mr. Gaub. I’m Millie from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. You don’t know me but I’m desperate. Please help me.” He said, “What can I do for you Millie?” She began to weep and explained that she was about to kill herself but as she attempted to compose a suicide note, she felt led to pray. As she did, she began to realize that God didn’t want her to do this. She remembered having seen Ken on TV and felt that if she could just talk to him she would get the help she needed. She said, “Mr. Gaub, I knew it was impossible because I didn’t know how to reach you. So I started to finish the note. And then some numbers came into my mind and I wrote them down. I looked at those numbers and thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if I had a miracle form God and He has given me Ken Gaub’s phone number?’ I can’t believe I’m talking to you. Are you in your office in California?” “I don’t have an office in California,” Ken explained. “It’s in Yakima, Washington.” “Then where are you?” Millie asked, puzzled. Ken told her what had happened and then gently counseled her. He led her to make a profession of faith and in that commitment Millie began a personal relationship with the Wonderful Counselor…the One Who would never leave or forsake her.
After they hung up, Ken realized that God had given him his “sign” so, he ran into the restaurant and told his wife, “Barb, you won’t believe this, but God knows where I am!” Well, God knows were you are too-because wherever you are, He is there with you.
Now think about it-having someone with us is comforting. None of us like to be alone. But our comfort increases proportionately with the size and capability of that someone who is with us. If you’re little child and you have a nightmare, it’s good to have a sibling to share the room with you-but it is much better to crawl in bed with our big strong parents! If you have chest pain, it is nice to have a nurse at your side but it is much better to have a skilled heart surgeon standing by. If you are stranded in the Australian outback, surrounded by crocodile-infested waters, it’s nice to have a common, every day tour guide…but it’s much more comforting to have…Jeff Corwin, that crocodile-hunting guy on Animal Planet.
Well no “comforter” in life is a big and powerful and loving as God-and David says, He is always with us! So-David says to us all, “God is the God we are looking for because…He knows us and because He is always with us…”And then there is one more thing, one more reason David says that God is the God we are looking for. It is because….
3. …He PROTECTS us.
In verse 5 David says, “God-You hem me in behind and before; You have laid Your hand on me-You PROTECT me God.”
Now-you may be thinking, “I’m not sure I would agree with David on this one. Because bad things continually happen to me. So, if God is hemming me in behind and before, then why is all this bad able to slip through?” Well, hear this: It is able to slip through only because God ALLOWS it to do so. You see in His sovereignty God allows things into our lives that He can use to shape and mold us into His image. He doesn’t cause bad things of course but our Creator is able to take even the inevitable bad things that come with living in a sinful world and use them as tools to mold us into godly people. And the product of this unique method of craftsmanship brings God glory-just as does the beauty of a spectacular sunrise or sunset. Do you remember in the opening verses of the book of Job where we are told of the time when Satan asked God for permission to test Job? The adversary slandered God and claimed that the reason Job was so faithful and upright was because God had blessed him in so many ways. He said that if he would have to endure suffering and loss, Job would give up on God.
Now, this shows us that behind the scenes of what Job was about to endure, there was purpose. His response to suffering would not only enable him to deepen his trust in God but would also show all mankind that God is worthy of our praise and worship and trust even in tough times. In short, there was purpose in Job’s pain. So, God gave satan permission to test Job. But listen to how He worded it. In Job 1:13 God said, “Very well, everything he has in your hands but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” In other words God put limitations on the afflictions Job would have to endure.
Well, God places similar limitations on the pain that we endure. He let’s nothing through His boundaries-His walls of protection-that He cannot use for His glory and for our ultimate good. God does not spare us from the ravages of disease, heartache, and disappointment that come from living in this sin-cursed world. But God-and only God-is able to take all of these elements…the good and the bad and make full use of every one. So, as Rom. 8:31 say, “If God is for us, who-or what-can be against us?” Remember, God is sovereign-even over our suffering and because He is sovereign, none of His plans can be thwarted. His over-arching plan for all believers is to conform us to the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ. So, our Creator is not finished creating us. He is working in and through all things to make us godly people and He knows that most godly traits can only be developed through adversity.
You know, if you read through the book of Job you would count that sixteen times he asked God, “Why, Why is all this happening to me?” Well, God never answered Job’s “why?” Instead He answered WHO. In his book on Job, Baker writes, “I have long since quit seeking the answer to that question [why] in my own life. God owes me no explanation. He has the right to do what He wants, when He wants, and how He wants. WHY? Because He is God. Job didn’t need to know why these things happened as they did, he just needed to know Who was responsible and Who was in control. He just needed to know God.”
We have the same need. We must realize that God knows what He is doing. He knows exactly what we need and how to supply it. As our Creator, God knows us better than we know ourselves. What we think may be our greatest need, may not be at all. But God unerringly knows where we need to grow. This is why Romans 5:4 says, “We rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” And why James 1:2-4 says, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
So-every adversity that comes across our path, whether large or small, is intended to help us grow in some way. If it were not beneficial, God would not allow it. For as Lamentations 3:33 says, “He does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.”
In this month’s issue of Decision magazine, Dayna Curry shares about her captivity in Afghanistan and says that their imprisonment for sharing the gospel challenged her faith. Her companion, Heather Mercer said that as their time of imprisonment dragged on, she struggled with knowing whether or not God answers prayer and wrestled with questions about the character of God. But both of these bold young ladies said that because of this ordeal God allowed into their lives, their faith in Him became stronger and deeper than it had been before. They came to trust God’s plan-realizing that He always knows what is best for us.
Well-what about you? Are you looking for God? Are you yearning for Someone with infinite power and love…Someone Who knows you…Someone Who is with you every moment of your life…Someone Who protects you from anything that won’t make you a better, stronger person? Well, look no longer because God is the God you are looking for! And He not only knows you, He wants You to know Him. He has made a way-THE way-for this to happen, in spite of our sin and His holiness, by sending His only Son, Jesus Christ, to take our sin upon Himself. Through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross we can be forgiven-we can come into relationship with the God we were designed to need. If you’ve never made that commitment won’t you do so today?And, if you are a Christian, then perhaps you need to pray with David, “Search me oh God and know my heart…see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” In other words, “Point out my sin God-help me to turn from it to the very center of Your will.” If God leads you to respond publicly, whether that involves sharing with us your decision to become a Christian or to rededicate your life to Christ or to join our church family, we invite you to do so right now, as we stand and sing by coming forward and sharing your decision with me. Won’t you come as God leads?