INTRODUCTION

This world is a violent place. Most of the victims of violence are the weak and helpless. We see this both on the global level and on the personal level. Serbia attacks Kosovo and drives out millions of unarmed, civilian ethnic Albanians. NATO gathers its considerable force and bombs the much weaker Serbia into submission by attacking civilian targets. Husbands beat wives. Parents abuse children verbally and physically. Bullies pick on the weak on the playground. Large companies buy up smaller companies and then lay off workers and raise prices. People are jailed for no crime other than believing the wrong creed, following the wrong political leader or having the wrong color skin. . Men, women and children are bought and sold as slaves around the globe. Almost 40 million babies have been aborted in the US since 1971.

It is because of the reality of human violence, especially the violence of abortion, that churches and organizations in the U.S. instituted "Human Life Sunday". This day has been designated as a day for the church to stand up and declare the value and dignity of every human life. President Bush in his inaugural speech yesterday said that the foundational principle upon which American democracy is built is this, "There are no insignificant people born." The passage that is before us today goes even further. If you will look at vv. 13-16 the more correct thing to say is "There are no insignificant people conceived" because God is the Creator and Sustainer of every human life from the moment of conception until natural death.

However, while this psalm has application to the value of human life and therefore the wickedness of all violence against human beings, including abortion, this is not the purpose for which this psalm was written. My task as a pastor is to say what the Bible says. It is my conviction that the means God uses to save his people and to reform a culture is the clear and faithful teaching of his word. God says to every pastor what he said to the prophet Jeremiah, "You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you… I have put my words in your mouth." The word God has put in the mouth of every pastor is the word of God, the Bible.

So, as I came to this passage this week, knowing that today is Human Life Sunday, I came looking for a sermon about the value of human life. But I do not have the liberty to read into a text my topic for the day. I must determine what the text says and then faithfully declare it to you and apply it. If I don’t do that, I am as guilty of misusing the Bible as any cult. This psalm is about who God is and what its like to live in his world, not about who man is. So while I strongly believe in what Human Life Sunday is about, I do not have the liberty to use the Bible to say what I want to say, no matter how important it is. This passage tells us why it is that God has the right and the ability to be Judge and Savior and what difference that ought to make in your life.

MAIN POINT

The first thing I want you to notice about this psalm is that it is a personal prayer. David directly addresses the Lord, using the personal pronoun "you" throughout the psalm. He begins by calling God by his name, Yahweh. He is not talking to some unknown, vague "higher power" but to the only god who truly exists. He is addressing the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is talking to the God who is a Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit. He is talking to the one who said in Isaiah 44:6, "I am the first and I am the last. Apart from me there is no god." He does not engage in abstract theological speculation. He is not simply interested in having correct theology, though this psalm is intensely theological. He talks with God about how God relates to him.

The first thing David asserts about Yahweh is "O Lord, you have searched me and you know". That is what the original says. Every English translation says "you know me" but that’s not what the Hebrew says. It simply says, "you know". This is poetry and like every good poet, David uses words to draw attention to the things he wants to say. Naturally, when you read, "you know" and there is no object after the verb, you have to ask, "What does Yahweh know?" That’s the question vv. 2-3 answer. God searches each human being and when he searches he knows with complete knowledge the following things about each one of us.

He knows every time you sit down and every time you get up. In one simple act God knows right now whether every human being is sitting or standing. Who else takes such personal interest in you so as to know at every moment of your life if you are sitting or standing? He knows when you are sitting to eat or talk or drive your car or play a video game on your computer. He knows when you stand up to take out the trash or go to the store or go get the mail. But much more than that, he perceives or pays attention to your thoughts from afar. The "from afar" doesn’t mean that he is far away from your thoughts but rather he knows your thoughts when your thoughts are far from you. In other words, he knows what you’re going to thing before you think it. He knows what you will feel before you feel it. He is paying attention to your motives even before you are moved by them. He does this for every human being in the world, at the same time and he never gets confused by all the thoughts and motives that he is paying attention to. You are not even aware of even a fraction of the thoughts and motives you have in a day and yet God is paying attention to every one of them even before you have them. God never wonders about or guesses at your motives. He knows exactly why you do and say everything you do and say. He knows exactly what you think about everyone and everything.

In v. 3 he discerns or, literally, "sifts" your going out and your lying down, he is intimately acquainted with all your ways. In other words God is evaluating everything you do, all your behavior comes under his judicial review. Every move you make, God is watching you in order to sift out the wheat from the chaff, the good from the bad. But it’s not just your behavior, not just your thoughts, but also every word you have ever spoken or will ever speak, God knows them all. He knows every sentence that forms in your mind before you speak it and even if you don’t speak it he still knows it. You cannot lie or misdirect God. You can’t shade the truth or tell half-truths to him. God never misunderstands you, he never misinterprets what you do or say. He knows with absolute precision every thing you think, do and say. This knowledge is not accidental. He intentionally searches out all these things about you. He purposefully watches you and evaluates you. The God who made the whole universe, right now, has his gaze fixed upon you.

Then the psalmist moves from what God knows into a poetic description of what this knowledge feels like. He says, "You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me." The word translated "hem in" is usually translated "besiege". It is the word used to describe what happens when an enemy army attacks your city and surrounds it to keep anyone from escaping or entering. The goal of the army is to overthrow the city. "I can’t run ahead of you and I can’t fall behind you. Your hand is always upon me. I am at your mercy. I cannot escape the completeness of your knowledge of me. There is no corner of my life that is secret or beyond your ability to know." God reads your mail, your emails and listens to your phone calls. The word "wonderful" in v. 6 means "too difficult" or "incomprehensible". It doesn’t mean wonderful as in cool or neat but as in fear inspiring or beyond my ability to understand. The fact that the God who made and runs the universe actually knows me this intimately is astonishing and scary.

There is a certain ambiguity in David’s response to the thoroughness of God’s knowledge at this point in the psalm. Whether it is a good thing or a bad thing that God knows you like this depends entirely on your relationship to him and his standards. When I was in high school I was excited for my parents to come watch me play football or come to an awards banquet where I was going to get an award or talk to the teacher of the class I was getting an "A" in. But I definitely didn’t want them knowing about how I acted when I was with my friends or what I thought about. I didn’t want them talking to the teacher that was angry with me for talking back to him. I remember a time several years ago while I was running and thinking about a conversation I had that day. In the conversation I gossiped about a friend and I imagined the person I gossiped about knowing what I said. The shame I felt literally stopped me in my tracks. It caused me to groan as I thought of how they would be hurt and upset by what I said. The relationship would be over if they knew what I said. God intentionally knows everything you have ever thought, felt, said or done. How can you ever be comfortable in the presence of a person who knows you like this? That’s the question David is wrestling with at this point. He answers it but not before first considering if there is some way to escape God’s scrutiny.

Thoughts of God’s omniscience, he is all-knowing, lead David quite naturally into thoughts of God’s omnipresence, he is everywhere. But again, David is not simply thinking of God’s omnipresence as an abstract concept. He asks, "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" These are rhetorical questions. The answer is "nowhere". He imagines all the different places he could flee to get away from God. If he goes to heaven or into the place of the dead God is in both places. If he were to be able to fly as fast as light and travel to the farthest, most remote corner of the ocean, God would be there. Right now and every day of your whole life you are in the presence of God. He is sitting right next to you, right now. C.H. Spurgeon says, in light of that reality, "This makes it dreadful work to sin, for we offend the Almighty to his face, and commit acts of treason at the very foot of his throne."

When one of my children was just learning to ride a bike we were living in an apartment complex. I made it clear that he was not to ride in the parking lot. One day, a neighbor child came and told me that they had seen this child riding in the parking lot. A few minutes later this child rode up on his bike and cheerfully greeted me. I asked him, "Have you been riding your bike in the parking lot?" He looked at me for a long time and then said, "How would you know that?" He felt safe in his disobedience when I was not present and believing that I did not know. But the moment he knew I knew, he was afraid. All of my children do things that I would not approve of when I am not present. But rarely will they disobey a rule when I am right there, watching them. They aren’t that brash or rebellious. But we, every day of our lives, brashly contradict God’s laws, right to his face. David feels how uncomfortable that is and so in vv. 11-12 he wonders if perhaps he could hide in the dark in order to escape detection. But what he knows is that night and day are alike to God. God sees in the dark as well as he sees in the light. You see what he is saying, "I cannot run and I cannot hide from this God who knows me inside and out and who is always with me."

I think you can see in vv. 10-12 the beginning of a turning in David’s view of God. There is still uncertainty as to whether it is good news or not to live in the presence of a God like this. But notice in v. 10 that what God does in all these distant places is guide David. This word is always used in a positive fashion in the OT. It is the word most often used of God’s leading the nation Israel through the desert by going before them in the pillar of cloud and fire. If you are one of God’s people, maybe it’s not such a bad thing to have Him present all the time. While it is true that people who are engaged in evil use the cover of darkness to hide in, it is also true that for those who are doing good, darkness can be a threat. So it can be a good thing to have such a powerful, all-knowing friend who can see in the dark as well as the light. If you’re standing outside a locked car and its night and you are using a coat hanger to try and unlock the car and a police officer turns the corner and shines his lights on you; it is good news if it is your car and you locked your keys inside. It’s bad news if you’re trying to steal the car. Let me ask you a question. Does the fact that this all-knowing God is right next to you all the time fill you with happiness or with fear and anger? Is this reality a relief or a threat?

The first word in v. 13 is very important because it shows the relationship between vv. 1-12 and vv. 13-18. God knows you completely and is always with you because he made you. There is a line of logic that David cannot escape. When he looks at himself, he knows that he did not cause his own existence. But more than that, by simply observing his own anatomy it is obvious that the one who created him paid careful attention to detail. The human body is an impressive work of art. His existence as a physical/spiritual being capable of loving and thinking and creating and working and enjoying beauty and life tells him that there is a personal God who can be trusted.

Notice in v. 14 how he can’t help but praise God as he reflects on God’s marvelous creation. As he thinks of God’s personal attention while he was being formed in his mother’s womb he knows that God can be trusted. God’s works show that God is not out to get him. It is safe to be in the presence of one who knows him thoroughly because his creating him shows his love for him. A God who would give him all that he has given him is certainly a God that you don’t want to run away from. You want him to be present and to know everything there is to know. You don’t need to fear him if you will respond to his love for you.

Let’s highlight the evidences of God’s trustworthiness in his creating of him:

1. He created his ability to think and to feel and to love and to decide. That’s what "inmost being" means.
2. He wove him together like a craftsman weaves a beautiful rug. Just like an artist knows what the painting is going to be and then carefully applies the paint to create the masterpiece, so God made each human being.
3. His unique existence as a physical and spiritual being is awesome. There is no one else in the whole universe like him. He is custom made by God. He carefully makes every human being unique, after a design that he has known for all of eternity.
4. He made David and every human for a unique purpose. He has a plan that he determined before he began to create him in the womb of his mother.

Don’t miss David’s excitement in vv. 17-18. There is no question in his mind that it is a good thing that God knows him as well as he does and is with him all the time. All the translations have "How precious to me are your thoughts O God." However, if you’ll notice in the margin the NIV says the "to" could be translated "concerning". A number of commentators think that fits the context better. I agree. So David says, "How precious are your thoughts concerning me, O God." Do you see what he is saying? "Lord, it is so amazing to me that you have paid so much attention to me. You designed me and determined a purpose for my life and then you made me like a master craftsman in my mother’s womb. Now you are always with me, guiding me in that purpose, watching over me. You continually search me and pay attention to everything I think, say and do. How much you think about me is beyond comprehension. Your thoughts of me are infinite because you have always been thinking of me and will think about me forever. Every day I am in your presence and I love to be there. I’m so excited that I will be living with you forever."

Every human being ought to arrive at the same place as David simply by considering the enormous miracle it is that they exist. All of us ought to fall at the feet of God in worship and adoration for his kindness in creating us and his patience with us in light of our bold and brash sins that he knows all about. Everyone knows that they deserve to be punished and everyone knows that they are being treated with awesome mercy. Everyone ought to be full of gratitude to Yahweh and delight in him above all things. But that is not the case and David next reacts to that reality.

Verses 19-22 are like a lightning bolt hitting your house out of a clear blue sky. Where did this come from? What has happened is this. David, as he has been working through the existence of this all-knowing, everywhere present, all powerful God has moved from being uncertain if its good news that such a God exists to being overwhelmed with gratitude as he sees the love of God for him and for every human being in the world. He sees that God is continually pouring love on human beings and patiently overlooking sins and yet humans continue to not only ignore God but deliberately dishonor him. This reality outrages him because it is so unjust. It is so wrong for people to treat the God who cares for them so graciously with such contempt. So he tells God that he wants justice. He wants God’s name to be vindicated. This is the emotion of jealousy for the honor of God. Please note, he is not angry about how he has been treated but about how God is being treated.

It’s not hard to understand this. In the early 1990’s our government sent US troops into Somalia to help restore order and provide relief to this country that was in a state of anarchy. We were there to help all Somalians. When one of our helicopters that was going to rescue some people in trouble was attacked and the soldiers on it killed and dragged through the streets, Americans were outraged. We were there to help and yet we were treated with contempt and one of our volunteer soldiers was mutilated beyond recognition. There was no question in the American public that the people of Somalia deserved to be punished for what they had done. So we pulled out and left them in their misery, just like they deserved. All humans everywhere know it is wrong when a person has been treated with kindness and he does not return gratitude but disrespect. People who disrespect those who have been kind to them deserve to be condemned.

It’s not right that Yahweh is being treated with such contempt in light of all that he does for the very ones who treat him with contempt. They use all the gifts God has given to them for the purpose of dishonoring the one who gave the gifts. So he prays that God would destroy those who are dishonoring him. He declares his loyalty to God and his abhorrence of all who refuse to give God the praise he is due. The famous preacher C.H. Spurgeon comments, "God gave these men their tongues and they turn them against their Benefactor… from sheer malice…. to insult Yahweh’s glorious name is their amusement."

"Of this hatred he (David) is not ashamed, but he sets it forth as a virtue to which he would have the Lord bear testimony. To love all men with benevolence is our duty; but to love any wicked man with complacency would be a crime. To hate a man for his own sake, or for any evil done to us, would be wrong; but to hate a man because he is the foe of all goodness and the enemy of all righteousness, is nothing more nor less than an obligation. The more we love God the more indignant shall we grow with those who refuse him their affection…. The loyal subject must not be friendly to the traitor."

I can’t leave these verses without commenting on how this can be right in light of what Jesus says in Matthew 5: 43-45. "You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." How can it be right for David to hate those who hate God when Jesus says we are to love our enemies and pray for them? I think the answer is in the little pronoun, "your". Jesus tells us that when men make themselves our enemies by mistreating us we are to respond by loving them and praying for them. We are not to repay evil done to us with evil but with blessing. But here, David is displaying the righteous, jealous anger of God himself. The OT and the NT are full of God’s declaration that he hates those who do wrong and is going to one day punish all who do not repent. Psalm 5: 4-6 says, "You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil. With you the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies. Bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors." David is reflecting the same anger Jesus displayed when he cleansed the temple. In Mark 3:5 we are told that Jesus "looked around at them in anger, grieved over their hardness of heart." This is the same sentiment David expresses here. The other thing to note is that David is not acting in hatred towards these wicked men but rather asking God to do the just thing, punish all those who continue to dishonor and mock his glorious name. He is not slandering people like Rush Limbaugh slanders liberals or Jesse Jackson slanders conservatives. He is asking God to do what is just.

But note, David does not end by talking about the evil that others do but in asking God to keep him from doing evil. This so important. David knows that there is evil in him, not just in the wicked. He is not self-righteous. He is not boasting of his own goodness but rather depending upon God, who knows him perfectly, to reveal the idolatrous ways that are in him and to guide him into the way of righteousness. David is in a fight against sin. He does not only hate the sin in others, he hates the sin in him and shows he is not among the wicked by his desire for God to search him and guide him. He displays humility and a heart that yearns to live with God and be like God. What David is praying is the Lord’s prayer. He is asking God to make his kingdom come by destroying his enemies and saving his people. He is asking God to not lead him into temptation but to deliver him from evil. If you want to pray a prayer that you can know for sure that God will answer, this is it. "God root out of my life all that offends you and lead me along the path of delight in you and your ways so that I might walk in it through all of eternity."

© Copyright 2001 John Swanson.
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