Psalm 139 August 20, 2017 A+D
+ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. +
Rebuilding and restoring a car is a labor of love. You start with what appears to be a pile of junk. You painstakingly remove the rust. You seek out replacement parts, often selecting them by hand. Some you have to make yourself. Finally, after hours and weeks of work – maybe even months and years! - you prime and paint and polish. Those of us who aren’t “car guys” don’t get it. Why spend that kind of time restoring an old piece junk? Even if you don’t appreciate cars, you can marvel at the craftsmanship that went into the restoration, and appreciate the final result. The car restorer knows every single inch of the vehicle, every bolt, every wire and every dent and scratch made perfect. And he loves them all.
Knitting and sewing are very similar. Guys, we can’t understand why anyone would want to spend hours and hours selecting yarn and fabric. Making patterns and cutting out pieces. Stitching or knitting the object in the mind’s eye until it becomes a real object. Wouldn’t it be cheaper and faster just to go down to Wal-Mart and buy it? Why go through all the trouble and expense?
Maybe that’s the point. Maybe the point is the expense, the time, the thinking about it, the love and the care that went into the car, or the dress, or the afghan. The personal touch makes the object special. There is not another in the world like it.
David says much the same to God when he prayed: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”1 David acknowledges that God created man in a special way. When God made birds, He simply said “let the birds fly.”2 and they did. But with man, God got his hands dirty. He formed Adam from the clay of the ground, shaped him, and breathed life into him.3 Divinely hand-crafted – a one of a kind labor of love. The Lord knows us inside and out.
David begins his prayer in this way: “O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.”4 God knows everything we think and do. He knows what you feel. He knows your aches. He is fully aware of your body turning against you. When so many of our young people are being taken too soon, God hears your cry “Lord, why?!” and “Why can’t you just take me home?” But God is acquainted with all your ways. When you question God’s judgment, He discerns your thoughts before they are even fully formed in your mind. He gives you the Holy Spirit through His Word to remind you your thoughts are not His thoughts. Your ways are not His ways.5 He has a path laid for you, even when you can’t see it. He still calls you His child – whether in the prime of life or showing high mileage, you still have God’s mark on your forehead and upon your heart. He still claims you as His own. His beloved creation.
When you rebuild an engine, every part has to go back in a certain order. Leave a component out, and you have to break the engine back down to put it in. The same with a pattern in a tapestry – a thread out of place ruins the image. We don’t live our lives in perfect order – far from it. We become discouraged by the things we can’t control. We succumb, in our sin, to the things we do have control over and allow them to go all sideways. We don’t do a very good job with the threads God gives us to weave ourselves. We take God’s gifts for granted, or selfishly hoard them, forgetting that we are to share them through our vocations with the world. We say the Lord helps those who help themselves, but how often do you stop to think that you may be helping your neighbor by allowing yourself to be helped by them?
God sees everything unfold, all the interactions between all people, times, and places. He sees your unique place within this tapestry. He sees what you do with the yarn He’s given you. The Psalmist continues: “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.”6 Isn’t that beautiful? There are such richness and depth to the Psalmist’s words books could be written to try to give them justice! Despite our sinful nature, God corrals us front and back and lays a guiding hand upon us. He keeps chaos at bay while allowing us to make our own mistakes. He sent us Jesus to be our example of what it truly means to be God’s child. Because we cannot live up to that example, Jesus died and rose so that you can receive forgiveness for that shortfall.
God grants us the freedom to make our own decisions – to do what is right in His sight or to pursue that which is sinful. The choice is ours, but in our rebellion, we often choose the path of sin. What a comfort it is to know God loves us so much that He provides for us the means to remain in His grace when we constantly fail. How sweet the sound of absolution, declaring you blameless and clean by Jesus’ blood shed on the cross when your guilt and remorse exposes your need to repent. When you feel that shame – your heart has been softened to receive God’s absolute forgiveness. The Holy Spirit has broken you down, taken you apart and put you back together again.
David sums it all up so perfectly: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”7 Yes! Where do we even begin? God is just so powerful, that these words are almost terrifying. Awesome in scope. Our human brains can’t fully fathom these words, but we can pray them with David. There is no place in this world where we can separate ourselves from God – no mountain or valley, nor the deepest ocean. You can’t even escape God’s presence by dying. By then, however, it is too late – either you believe in His promises and repent, or become forever cut off from Him.
His Holy Spirit is present wherever you are present. You cannot hide from God, and God does not hide Himself from you. His Holy Spirit is there within you. Christ is in you. Before the thought begins to cross your mind to call on His name, God is already responding to your prayer. If you sin, He pricks your conscience to repentance. If you are thankful, He hears your thanksgiving before you start to utter it.
We throw words around like “awesome”: “that's an awesome car you rebuilt.” or “breathtaking”: “That pattern you knitted is just breathtaking.” But those uses of the words simply pale in comparison to the incredible majesty and power of God and His intricate weaving of the threads of your life and the life of all His children together to one end – that you and all may know that Jesus is your Savior, and you have His promise of eternal life.
Again, David puts it most poetically, when summarizing the infinite glory of God’s power and love for you: “If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”8 Even when our lives seem to be at their lowest, God sees the end result. Despite our flaws and weaknesses, despite our sin and rebellion against His will for us, despite our despair at our own bodies betraying what we want them to do – God remains with His guiding hand upon us. God will not remove that hand from you. He will aid you when you call on Him and carry you home. Despite how dark the future seems, for God that darkness is as bright as the sunniest day. Feel His comfort still you, as you look forward to the day when His plan for you is fulfilled - safe in His arms in heaven.
What greater security could we ask for, than for our Creator God who knit us together, cell by cell, organ by organ; who knows our innermost thoughts and shortcomings, our sins and our successes, having us surrounded in His loving care. He took the time and the effort to make you and gave you His son to make you His own – a one of a kind son or daughter of God, precious in His all-knowing, ever-present sight. And for that, we praise Him:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart today; Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray. See if there be some wicked way in me; Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.”9
+ In the Name of Jesus, Amen. +
And now may the peace which surpasses all human understanding keep your hearts and your minds focused on Christ Jesus.
+ Amen +
κήρυξον τὸν λόγον
1Psalm 139:13-14.
2Genesis 1:20.
3Genesis 2:8.
4Psalm 139:1-3.
5Isaiah 55:8.
6Psalm 139:4-5.
7Psalm 139:6.
8Psalm 139:11-12.
9Cleanse Me, J. Edwin Orr, 1936. CCLI 3280333.