A Love Than Won't Let Us Go

Anyway, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 139, Psalm 139. It's our privilege this morning to Be able to look again at this particular Psalm, we're gonna end up spending a total of 4 weeks in the Psalm, and this is the second of those 4 weeks. And if you want to give a title to the section of the Psalm that we're gonna be looking at today, it would be a love that won't let us go. A love that won't let us go and we'll be looking at verses 7 through 18.

George Matheson, is a name that might be familiar to some of you. He was born in 1842. poor eyesight afflicted him from birth, but he was a, a bright young man, a bright student, and he graduated with honors from college at the age of 19. After college, he pressed on with his, theological, studies to prepare for the ministry.

Around the age of 20 he became engaged to a woman. But it was while they were preparing for a married life together that George Matheson received the devastating news that he would eventually be going entirely blind. When he informed his fiance of this bad news, she responded by telling him that she did not want to spend her life, the rest of her life with a blind man. She broke off the engagement and left him alone to process his grief.

It was while Matheson was in seminary doing his theological studies that he went totally blind. But with the help of his sisters, he was able to complete his studies. he became a pastor of a church and was eventually preaching weekly before a congregation of 1500 people. Over the years of his ministry, his sisters would help him to write his sermons and get them memorized for him to deliver from memory on Sundays.

In 1882, when George Matheson was 40 years old, one of his sisters informed him of her own plans to get married. George was happy for her, but he knew immediately that life would be harder for him without her. Her upcoming marriage also reopened the wound of his earlier broken engagement. And on the evening before his sister's marriage, George Matheson was by his own telling, Experiencing severe mental suffering.

And in the throes of that mental suffering, he wrote a poem. And as he tells the story, it took him 5 minutes to write the words of this poem, and he never once went back to touch up those words or to edit them in any way. These words became a hymn. That is still sung by many today.

And the words of this hymn go like this, Oh love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. I give thee back the life I owe that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be. Oh light that followest all my way. I yield my flickering torch to thee.

My heart restores its borrowed ray that in thy sunshine blaze its day may brighter, fairer be. Oh joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to Thee. I trace the rainbow through the rain and feel the promise is not vain that morn shall tearless be. O cross that lifts up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee.

I lay in dust life's glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red life that shall endless be. These words penned in 5 minutes in the midst of severe mental suffering. In a moment of suffering, George Matheson surrenders himself to God. Just you see that in the language here, with the surrender that is fueled by his meditation on a love that will not let him go.

A light that follows him all the way. A joy that seeks him through his pain and a cross that lifts up his head. What George Matheson did on the eve of his sister's marriage is the very thing that we see that David does in Psalm 139. We know from the Psalm that David is experiencing some significant hardship.

In the Psalm, he talks of men of bloodshed and men who speak against God. We know from verse 23 that David is experiencing anxious thoughts. Yet he deals with such things by thinking deeply about God's overwhelming and loving involvement in his life. And thinking these thoughts about God.

ends up transporting him to a wonderful place of surrender that we see expressed in the last two verses of this Psalm. And so, if you want, if you're here today and you want comfort in your trials, if you want balm for your wounds, if you want peace to replace your fears, Then you will want to study the thoughts that David is thinking. About God And about God's loving, overwhelming involvement in his life. Thoughts that lead David to a very good place of perspective and surrender and that will have the power of leading you and me to that same place.

The way we'll break down our study this morning is we'll observe 10 contemplations of David regarding God's overwhelming and loving involvement in his life. And the first two of these are a summation of what we saw last week in the first few verses of the Psalm, but let's just state them on this list by way of review. The first contemplation that David gives expression to here is in speaking to God. He basically says, God, all there is to know about me, because you want to know.

He says in verse 10 Lord, you have searched me and known me. when I sit down and when I rise up, you understand my thought from afar, you scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, it all. This knowledge that God has of us that David gives expression to here means that God knows everything about us.

He knows all the good, the bad, and the ugly. He knows the depths of our hearts, things about us that no one else knows and that we would not want anyone else to know. God knows everything about us, yet amazingly, instead of moving away from us, because of that knowledge, he actually moves toward us. And this leads us to the second contemplation that David voices regarding God's overwhelming and loving involvement in his life where he basically says to God, you have moved toward me and reached out and laid your hand upon me.

Verse 5, he says, you've enclosed me, you've enclosed me behind and before and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is too high, I cannot attain to it. David marvels that God would know him so well and still move toward him and reach out to him. In love and in friendship.

David finds this knowledge too wonderful. It's too high. He cannot fully comprehend how God could know him this well and love him still. There's another contemplation that David gives expression to as the psalm unfolds.

Regarding God's overwhelming, loving involvement in his life, and this is where we'll pick up today. Contemplation number 3. that he expresses here is this, speaking to God, he says, you would persist in being with me even if I tried to flee from you. He says in verse 7, where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence? In verse 7, David is asking two questions. Where can I go from your spirit is the first of those questions. The word spirit here or the Hebrew word translated spirit here can truly be translated as spirit.

Even Spirit capital S, speaking of the Holy Spirit, or it could be translated as it is sometimes in the Old Testament as breath. It's quite possible that David is thinking of the Holy Spirit here, but it's also possible that he is thinking of breath. In this passage, which denotes very close proximity. When you can feel someone breathing.

And hear them breathing, that's an indication they're pretty close to you. Understanding David to be talking about the breath of God might be reinforced by his second question, where he says, where can I flee from your presence? And the word that is translated presence here is the Hebrew word for face. David is literally asking, where can I flee from your face?

So putting the two questions together, we could understand David to be asking, where can I go from your spirit or from your breath? Where can I go to get away from your face that is always looking upon me with most intimate scrutiny. Notice in this verse that David uses the word flee. In the second half of verse 7.

He's thinking literally here about how he might run away from the breath of God and from the face of God. Clearly, David at this moment is experiencing a mixed reaction to God's closeness to him. He's amazed by it, he's blessed by it, but he's also spooked by it. As one commentator says, David's first reaction to God's closeness is the wonder of verse 6.

But the second reaction is the urge. To escape And we can identify with this, right? Yeah, I think if we're honest, we could. We want to be close to God, but we also fear Him.

As Oswald Chambers says, we are incurably suspicious of God. We are touched and comforted by God's overwhelming involvement in our lives, yet there's a part of us that's freaked out by it. We want to run to God. In our times of trial, yet we also see times when we want to flee from God.

In his confessions, Augustine himself admitted that after becoming a Christian, even after becoming a Christian, His encounters with God were marked by the union of love and dread. And we see the union of love and dread here in Psalm 139 as well. David, I think, is rendering all of us a wonderful service and giving expression to the conflict that all of us feel at times. Think about Peter who left everything and followed Jesus Christ.

He wanted nothing more than to be with Jesus, right? And yet, in Luke chapter 5, verse 8, Peter says to Jesus, go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Peter wanted nothing more than to be close to Jesus. Yet there were moments when he, being aware of his sinfulness and Christ's holiness, wanted Christ to move away from him.

We find both of these feelings here in Psalm 139. David has been enjoying God's intimate knowledge of him and closeness to him. He rejoices in the fact that Jehovah God has reached out and placed his hand upon him, but a feeling of dread now comes over him, and he wants to flee. But where, where do you go when you want to run away from God?

Who's everywhere Well, David is gonna try and let's see how it works out for him. He contemplates fleeing from God, and in verse 8, he says, if I ascend to heaven, You are there Literally, he's saying if I ascend to the heavens plural. To the Earth's upper atmosphere and then beyond to the universal heavenly expanse where the sun and the moon and the stars are, even if I could go there. I would find that you are there.

And you wouldn't, Lord, simply be there because you followed me there, you'd be there because you were already there before I arrived there. So observe where he tries to flee next. In the second half of verse 80 says, if I make my bed. And Shio, behold.

You are there. The word shiel basically is, it's the Hebrew word shiel. That speaks of the grave and even the nether world of spirits where the dead dwell, the departed spirits dwell. And David is saying here, if I turn from the heavens, And flew back toward Earth and then burrowed my way into the ground and went as deep underground as I could, even entering into the realm, as it were, of the nether world where departed spirits dwell.

I would, upon arriving there, stop and turn and still see your face right there. I would still feel your breath upon me. I would realize that I'm not one whit further from you, Lord, than I was before I started to flee. So we learn here that if you are interested this morning in fleeing from God, The heavens are not a good place to go because he's there, and the grave is not a good place to go.

Shiol is not a good place to go because God is there also. In fact, speaking of Shiel, Here's how much God loves you and me. Write down this reference in Acts chapter 2, verses 27 and 31. Peter in the sermon he preaches on the day of Pentecost, is quoting from Psalm 16, telling us that Christ himself descended into the depths of Shiel, or the grave.

On our behalf, yet God raised him from the dead and brought him up out of Shiel. Which is translated as Hades in the New Testament Greek. So if you try to go to the grave in order to flee from God, You will discover that Christ already died on the cross and went to the grave in order to bring you into relationship with God. You would realize that 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ literally made his bed in Shiol, and God loved his son in that very spot and raised him from the dead, in order that God might bring you and me into relationship with Himself.

So David here is striking out. He's not able to get away from God's face and breath, but he's not giving up. This brings us to another contemplation of David that he gives expression to which conveys his appreciation of God's overwhelming, loving involvement in his life. The 4th contemplation here that he expresses to God is this saying, God, you would persist.

In loving me, even if I tried to flee from you. Look at what David says next. He says, if I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there, your hand will lead me and your right hand. Will lay hold of me.

Taking the wings of the dawn is simply a poetic way of saying, if I flew toward the east. Because, and I, I did research on this, back in Bible times, the sun rose in the east. Wow. I do that work for you guys.

You're worth it. Just like it does today. And David is saying basically if I flew as far east as I could. Then notice what he says next.

If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, he's talking about the Mediterranean Sea, which was to the west. of Israel. So this is David's way of saying, if I went as far east as I could go, Or if I traveled as far west as I could go, dwelling on some deserted island out in the middle of nowhere, even there, you would still be with me, Lord. In fact, you would not just be there and with me, but you would be there helping me with both of your hands.

In fact, notice what God would be doing with his two hands. In verse 10, David says, even there, your hand, and we know from the context that we'll see, your left hand will lead me. In other words, you'd be there, Lord, telling me where to go next. Pointing me.

In the right direction. And David also says, and your right hand will lay hold of me. The picture is of God leading David with his left hand and with his right hand still maintaining its hold on David. It's almost a picture of David, trying to go somewhere to flee from God and then he thinks he gets away from God and then he feels God still holding on to him with his right hand.

And with his left hand, God is saying, why don't you try over there to get away from me? And no matter where David goes, God is not only there, but holding him. And ready to lead him, ultimately back to himself. David is realizing no matter where he goes, God is there, and God is fully engaged in loving and helping David with both of his hands.

David's trying to get away from God, but it's not working. But David is not going to give up. He has one more idea. He says in verse 11, if I say, surely the darkness will overwhelm me and the light around me will be night.

A good paraphrase of this would be, if I say, let the darkness cover me like a blanket and let the light around me be blackest night. So now he's covered in darkness. Yet look at what David realizes. Here he is wrapped in a blanket of darkness trying to hide from God, but then he realizes something.

Look at verse 12, even the darkness is not dark to you, and the night is as bright as the day, darkness and light are alike to you. David realizes that the darkness does not obscure anything from God's view. People in our world today and throughout history, they commit their deeds, evil deeds and darkness, thinking they're less visible somehow, that's not true. It might as well be daytime.

It doesn't matter to God. God sees as well in the darkness as he does in the light. And David is now realizing how ridiculous his flight from God is. He's realizing how ridiculous the notion is that darkness could succeed in concealing him from God.

It sounded like a good idea in the moment, but it's silly. David is like a kid. A child who thinks that closing his eyes or covering his own eyes will keep God from seeing him. Our son, Brendan is 24 years old right now living in Minnesota.

And when he was just a little tyke, there were times where Donna and I would put him to bed in his upstairs. bedroom. And then there were times where 2030 minutes later, Donna and I would be sitting downstairs and we, we would see Brendan coming down the stairs. Toward us.

But it was the way that he came down the stairs that always intrigued us. He would come down the steps backwards. And with his face pointed away from us, and he would have his hand over his eyes. Don and I are sitting there staring at him, and we could see him plain as day, but his face was pointed away from us and he had his hand over his eyes.

Apparently he thought that as long as his own eyes were covered, And facing away from us, then we would not be able to see him. And so Don and I would sit there sometimes just quietly and just let him Do that for a bit, and get most of the way down the stairs, and then we would say, Brendan, we see you. And then he would feel really foolish. That's a little bit like what David.

is doing in these verses and he's realizing the foolishness of it all. He's tried everything to get away from God and nothing works. Even darkness cannot hide him from God. He cannot escape from the face of God and from the breath of God, no matter where he goes or what he tries.

So David gives up. The gig is up and he realizes that no matter the location, no matter the circumstances, no matter the darkness, there's nothing that I will ever be able to do to get away from this God who is so lovingly and overwhelmingly involved in my life. Everywhere I go, God is there, his face is there, his breath is there, and God is maintaining his hold on me. And ready to guide me with his hand.

So it's at this point. Of the Psalm that David turns a corner and begins to ponder the question, why? Why is God so persistent in pursuing me and not letting me out of his grasp? There are many reasons, but David ponders one very deep train of thought that explains why, to his satisfaction.

And this brings us to a 5th contemplation that he expresses regarding God's intimate and overwhelming involvement in his life. And by the way, I'll just warn you, this is not the thing that we probably would have thought about on our own. But David goes there with inspired logic, and we need to go there with him, and that's why God gives us Psalms like this, to take us in directions we might not have otherwise gone. His 5th contemplation that he expresses to God is this, you formed my inward parts.

You formed my inward parts, he says, for you formed my inward parts. The word for is the Hebrew word for because. So whatever follows this word for or because serves as the reason that David is realizing. That God is so set on loving him, and why it is true that even the darkness could not hide David from the Lord.

And he says, because, and literally the Hebrew reads this way, for you yourself formed my inward parts. David's internal organs did not form on their own. They're not the product of just automatic processes. God himself formed David's inward parts.

In a context like this, the word translated formed, it's actually the Hebrew word that means to acquire. it, and, and, and putting that idea together with the context here, David is basically saying that you formed my inward parts as your own possession. The assumption here is that whatever God creates and forms, it's his. He owns it.

It belongs to him. So David is saying, you formed for yourself my inward parts, and informing them, you acquired them as your possession, they're yours. You might be interested to know that the word that is translated inward parts here is actually the Hebrew word for kidneys. Quite literally, David is saying, I know why you persist in loving me and being with me wherever I go.

It's because you form my kidneys. As your own possession. The question is, why would David single out his kidneys? Is it because his kidneys were the only internal organs created by God and formed by God?

Is David saying, Lord, I don't know about the rest of me, but I know you formed my kidneys. Not at all. David is using this term to denote the extent of God's creation of him. The kidneys are deep in the abdomen of a person.

They were the last organs that the priests of Israel would get to when they disemboweled an animal for sacrifice. And because of this fact, the word kidneys was often used to speak of the innermost parts of a person, the deepest parts of a person, the essence of who that person really is. In fact, we see this in Jeremiah chapter 12, verse 2, Jeremiah is criticizing Israel's worship. And says to God, you, God, are near to their lips when they worship, but you are far from their kidneys.

That's literally what the Hebrew says. And that's a bad thing. True worship is supposed to not just engage your lips, but your kidneys too. In other words, your innermost being, your innermost person.

And so all in all, David is saying, God, you've created and you own every part of me all the way down to my innermost parts, my kidneys. And that's why you love me and pursue me so. Think about it. If, if God Did not create us or if he only created a part of us, but not all of us, then he would not have claim to all of us.

And he would not love all of us the way that he does. So David has stated here that his realization that God will be with him. Regardless of whatever extreme location he might flee to. And to explain why he's just stated that God created all of him, all the way down to the deepest organs in his body.

Now he goes back In his thinking to an extremity in time. To the time that he was in his mother's womb. And he ponders God's involvement in making him from the very beginning. of his life.

And this brings us to the next contemplation that he gives expression to regarding God's overwhelming and loving involvement in his life, where he says to God, You fashioned me in my mother's womb. You fashioned me in my mother's womb. He says, you wove me in my mother's womb. The word wove speaks of taking different parts and weaving them into a functioning whole.

David is saying, God, when I was in my mother's womb for 9 months, throughout the stages of my Development in her womb. You were the one weaving me together. I started off as one cell, but by the end of that 9 month term, you had woven trillions of cells together to make me what I was when I came forth from My mother's womb. You wove together the muscles and the tendons and the bones and ligaments and the amazing network of blood vessels and a heart that pumps that blood along with every other part of me.

Everything that constitutes my physical being, you wove it all together to work in harmony with one another, and you did all of that when I was housed inside the dark and cramped confines of my mother's womb. In part, David is realizing here how silly it is to think he can hide from God in the darkness. He's saying, God, you, you wove me so intricately together when I was housed inside my mother's body. It was dark in there.

Yet you performed. A ridiculously fantastic miracle. Inside the darkness of my mother's womb and fashioning me, clearly darkness presents no challenges for you at all. I spent 9 months hidden.

In the cramped and dark confines of my mother's womb, and you wove me together inside that darkness as if I was in the full light of day. Isn't God amazing I remember my own children being born and with all 4 of our children, I remember. In their earliest days when right after they were born. Staring at their little hands with their little fingers and the little fingernails, all the parts were there.

What an amazing spectacle they were. And God fashioned them. In the darkness of Donna's womb with not a whole lot of room to work with. There's only one proper response to these thoughts, and that is to worship and praise God.

Amen. And that's exactly what David does at this point of the Psalm. He says in verse 14, I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it very well.

Literally, verse 14 reads this way, I make you known. Or I acknowledge you. And here's the reason for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The Hebrew wording here is somewhat awkward to translate.

My best stab at a literal translation of the Hebrew would be, I will acknowledge you for all inspiring deeds. I am wonderfully distinguished. That's literally how the Hebrew reads. In other words, David is saying, God, in weaving me in my mother's womb, you did an awe inspiring thing.

And inasmuch as I am a unique product of your handiwork, I am wonderful. I am a wonderfully distinguished spectacle. Of your creation. Now how can David say this?

Look at what he says. Wonderful are your works and my soul knows it very well. God, the fact that you created me and wove me together in my mother's womb makes me do two things. Number 1, it makes me stand in awe of you.

And it changes the way I view myself. And your care for me. If your works are wonderful and I am one of your works, then that makes me a wonderful product of your handiwork. And now I know a little more deeply why you pursue me so and why you insist on being overwhelmingly involved in my life.

Guys, this is the self-esteem. That can arise from a robust knowledge of truth and a robust appreciation of the greatness of God and His creation of us. On the opposite extreme, when you cut people off from the knowledge of God and from the knowledge of God's intricate and loving creation of them, you cut them off from the only truly satisfying foundation for a healthy self-esteem. This is what's happened in our culture today.

Modern education teaches children that they are the product of chance. A product of natural selection and descended from primates. There's no God in the telling of where we came from. And then teaching that the same educators observe that their students suffer from a low self-esteem.

So monies are invested in starting up programs designed to build up the students' self-esteem. Yet here is David, thousands of years ago without the help of any modern day self-esteem program. Arriving at a pretty exalted view of himself as he realizes that he is a wonderfully distinguished product of God's amazing handiwork. And this is not arrogance in this passage either.

Notice David does not say, I give praise to myself because I am wonderful. Oh, he says, I give thanks to God. I acknowledge him. I make him known because he's the one who created me and made me the wonderful product of his handiwork.

That I am David is declaring truth about God and about himself, and he says, my soul knows this very well. David is sure, and you need to be sure too. You need to know very well that there is a God. And that he is a God who performs wonderful works.

And that among the wonderful works of God is you. And the people around you. Interestingly, David realizes that in going back to his time in His mother's womb, he hasn't quite gone back far enough. So David goes back even further than his fetal development in his mother's womb.

And look at the next truth he contemplates, truth number 7, where he says to God, basically, you saw and fashioned me in my pre-fetal development. He says in verse 15, my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Your eyes have seen. My unformed substance.

In short, David is saying, God, you did not just form me. In my mother's womb, but you saw my unformed substance when it was still in the depths of the earth. You saw the trillions of atoms that were eventually to become a part of my body when those atoms were as yet still in the dirt of the ground. Think about this, guys.

Every atom. That is now in your body making up your physical constitution. Every one of those trillions of atoms existed during the week of creation. Somewhere God brought those atoms into existence with a specific plan that they would one day Be a part of your body.

And through the course of history, God had his eye on each of those atoms. And he is the one who shepherded all of those trillions of atoms to the point where they are now included in your physical constitution. That's amazing to consider. David is pondering these things and he continues to ponder God's overwhelming, loving involvement in his life with yet another contemplation.

This brings us to number 8 where David basically says to God, you determined my days before they existed. You determine my days before they existed. He says, and in your book were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. In other words, before I came into existence, David is saying, God, you don't even just know me, you actually keep a book on me.

There's a book entitled David with all the millions of intricacies of information about every single aspect of me, including how many days I would live. This had to be a comforting thought. To David, to know that God had already determined his lifespan. David is going through a trying season in his life.

At this moment, and from the Psalm we learned he's dealing with men of bloodshed who were opposing him and opposing God. David's experiencing anxieties also, but here, he takes comfort in the certain knowledge that God already had his life span determined. David will live exactly as long as God has planned for him, not a day longer and not a day shorter. Than what God had ordained.

David is overwhelmed at this point of the Psalm and he just explodes with amazement. This leads us to the 9th contemplation that David gives expression to in order to convey the idea of God's overwhelming, loving involvement in his life. Where he basically says to God, your thoughts regarding me are precious and vast. Your thoughts regarding me are precious and vast.

Verse 17, how precious also are your thoughts to me, oh God. How vast. is the sum of them. Interestingly, the word thoughts, the Hebrew word translated thoughts is the same word used in verse 2.

The word could be translated as purposes, intentions, or thoughts. David is finding God's thoughts, God's purposes, God's intentions toward him to be exceedingly precious and vast in number. He's realizing here how deeply and how intricately God has thought about him. He's realizing how precious and valuable God's thoughts toward him are to his own existence and survival.

And not only are these thoughts precious, but David says, how vast is the sum of them? If I should count them. They would outnumber the sand. David is not speaking hyperbole here.

He's got some idea that though he does not know the exact number, he's got some idea that there's a huge number of grains of sand on the planet. And he's saying that however many grains of sand there are on earth, the number of thoughts, Lord, that you have thought about me is more than that. Couple of years ago, I was reading. A blog written by a guy named Robert Krulwich.

Who ran some calculations and arrived at a guesstimate of how many grains of sand there are. On all the beaches. Of planet Earth and maybe you woke up this morning saying, I wonder how many grains of sand. There are on Earth.

The number he came up with was roughly 7 quintillion, 500 quadrillion grains of sand on all the beaches of Earth, and here's what that number would look like. Right there, you see it on the screen. Let's assume that number is right. I have no reason to disagree with that number.

Let's assume that that number is right. And let's understand David to be saying that the number of thoughts. That God has thought about him exceeds that number, 7 quintillion, 500 quadrillion grains of sand. Astronomers tell us that there are actually more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on Earth.

In this passage, we learn that there had been more thoughts inside the mind of God toward you. Than all the grains of sand on Earth. Think about how much thought God has put into you. Your body is made up of over 37 trillion cells, each of which features a complexity that rivals a modern computer.

Think about your skin for a moment. Just look at your forearm and chart out there just one square inch of your skin. And just one square inch of your skin, God put 19 ft of blood vessels, 36 heat sensors, 75 pressure sensors, 600. Pain sensors, 90 oil glands, 625 sweat glands, and 9000 nerve endings and 19 million cells in all.

Imagine the thought that went into that design and that's just one square inch of your skin. Think about all the thoughts that God engages in that sustain your life, your body produces 2 million red blood cells every second, without a single conscious thought on your part to make that happen. These are the results of God's thoughts toward you. Clearly, God is a being of intelligence.

who is infinitely beyond our comprehension. And we learn in a passage like this that we have to take him seriously. We also learned that we have to take ourselves seriously and our fellow man seriously, too. It's a sobering thought to consider that God has thought trillions of thoughts about me.

It means I can't act like my life doesn't matter and just do as I please. To know that God has put this much thought into us is thrilling, but honestly guys, it honors us with an honor that is almost too heavy to bear. And that's why there are many in our culture today who would rather believe that we came about by chance, by random chance, than to believe that we are created and intimately sustained by a God who thinks about us, each one this much. Knowing all of this should change the way you look at yourself, the way that you look at God, it should alter the way that you look at your fellow men.

If I introduced you to someone this morning, and said, I want, I want you to meet someone here, whom God, the God of the universe has thought about more than 7 quintillion times. What would you think of that person? How would you treat them? Would you take them seriously?

I think you would So how about treating your wife? And your children And your brothers and sisters, and your co-workers. And the homeless man sitting outside the door of the 7-Eleven. In a way that reflects a mindfulness of this truth.

David is in a wonderful state. of reverie, as it were, as he ponders the trillions of thoughts of God toward him. And this brings us to the final contemplation that he voices regarding God's overwhelming, loving involvement in his life. Let's word it this way.

Which is straight from the text, when I awake from my reverie, I'm still with you. He says, when I awake, I am still with you. Some commentators suggest that David might have fallen asleep as he pondered these things. Yet when he awakened from his sleep, he's rejoicing in the fact that he and God are still together as much as they were before.

If David is not referring to that, at the very least, David is saying, God, I am right now in such a heightened state of meditation and worship as I ponder these things. But even when I awaken from my present state of reverie, And worship and meditation, and I'm back to the normal grind. I'll still be with you. As much as I feel that I am right now.

This last statement that David makes in verse 18 brings a fitting conclusion to this section. David began this section spooked and wanting to flee from God. And he ends this section cherishing the thought that he and God are together. And that's even implied in the language.

It's not just that he says in verse 18, God, you're with me, but I'm with you. I like you being with me. And I like being with you. David is not fleeing from God anymore.

He's embracing this God. Who is so lovingly and overwhelmingly involved in his life. His desire to flee is gone and his greatest joy is that he and God are together. Just as we close, let me Ask you some questions and perhaps you can ask each other these questions in your care groups this afternoon and this evening and tomorrow night.

I would ask you, how many of you would say that thinking these few thoughts about God in the last hour, How many of you would say these thoughts have impacted you and actually transported you to a better place spiritually? Raise your hand. I guess you really couldn't say no. I didn't mean to put pressure on you there, but But if you have felt anything of the power of these thoughts, guys, that's the power of meditating on God.

The power of thinking right and biblical thoughts about God. And so I ask you, how, how deeply do you think about God? How deeply and how frequently do you think about God? AW Tozer once said, what comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.

So let me ask you, when you think about God, what are the thoughts that come to your mind? Do you think the thoughts of God that David is thinking and giving expression to here? How much time this week have you spent thinking? About God, beholding Him, gazing upon him.

And just pondering and enjoying him. I would also ask you, do these things about God? To be true, and do them very well? As David says, he knows them.

The things David's expressing here, they're not just things he knows, he knows them very well. Are you a student of the Bible? To the point where these kinds of things about yourself and about your God, and them well. To the point where you can confidently think these kinds of thoughts about God in your moments of fear, in your moments of anxiety, in your moments of temptation.

We have a God who's overwhelmingly involved with us because he wants to be. Whether we want him to be or not. Some of you in this room, I'm sure in a room this size, some of you are running from God. You're running from him, and yet you're noticing no matter where I go, he finds me there.

It's time to quit running. God loves you and he loves me. He loves us with a love that will not let us go, even in those moments where we wish he would let us go. And the only proper response to such a God is to quit running from him, and to surrender to him and to join David in saying to God, search me, oh God.

To bow before him and say, all right, Lord, I give in. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me. And know my anxious thoughts.

And see if there'd be any hurtful way in me. And lead me. I'm giving you control, Lord. Lead me.

You take the lead and lead me in the way. Everlasting If you've never prayed that prayer to God, I pray that this will be your prayer today. Stop running, bow before Him. And surrender To this God who loves you so overwhelmingly.

Let's pray together Lord, we, just stand in awe. Of you and your ways. You are so wholly other. And yet you are so near.

To each of us, it is in you that we live and move and have our being. And we pray, Lord, that such truths and such contemplations would melt our hearts. strip us of our defenses. To quit fleeing.

And to allow ourselves to be fully captured by you and your love. We are flawed. We have sinned. And brokenness because we live in a fallen world that's fallen because of sin.

But even in giving up. And surrendering to you, we say to you, Lord, see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me. I'm giving you control. May that be our response to you today.

We thank you for this opportunity, Lord, that we have to give of our offerings to you, responding to your love. We pray that you would receive the funds that we give in this offering and Do much, Lord, with every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus. And at the same time we surrender ourselves to You in His name. And all God's people said, man.