Fully Known By God

Let me, invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Psalm 139. We're continuing our series on worship in The Psalms and To that end, I want us to spend a few weeks in one. 39, and if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be fully known. By God, fully known by God.

It is not my custom, you guys know this, to quote from Howard Stern. In my, sermons, he's a man of great wickedness who has much to answer for to God. but back in 2015, last year, there was a moment of honesty that took place in an interview between Howard Stern and his co-host in their interview with Bill Murray, the, Hollywood actor. About an hour into the interview, Howard Stern asked Bill Murray this question.

He said, is there something that you question in your own life? Like, why haven't I found that great love of my life? Do you ever reflect on that? Howard Stern asked.

Bill Murray exhaled audibly and paused for a few seconds and then he said, well, I think about that, I do. Think about that. He goes on to say that the reason that he has not found the great love of his life is because there's something else that he needs to do first, that he's afraid to do. And that is to work on himself.

And what he's not working on that he says that he should be working on is becoming more of a person, more connected to myself, he said. Stern then asked him, well, why aren't you working on that? Why are you not taking care of that? Stern's co-host asked Bill Murray the question, what is stopping you?

What has stopped you from getting in touch with you? Howard Stern interjects and says, you're afraid to. That's what stops me, I get afraid, he said. Bill Murray replied by saying exactly what stops us from looking at ourselves and seeing ourselves is that we're ugly.

If we really, if we really look hard. We're not who we think we are. We're not as wonderful as we think we are. Howard Stern replied and said, I think you hit it on the head.

I think the hardest thing for anyone to do is to confront who you are and to sit there and work on it. Most of us want to run away from that. That's the way it is. Even though a lot of good stuff would come out of it, it's just too painful.

And Bill Murray replied with these words, it's not just painful, it's hard. It's difficult because there's parts of us that say, hey, let's not do that right now. Let's just have another donut. Let's just tell each other how wonderful we are.

There's some part of you that wants to turn off the demand to see yourself. It's a human dilemma. It's the original sin. It's something where there's a flaw that makes it very difficult to look at yourself.

Bill Murray's right. What he describes here may not be the original sin, but it is the human dilemma on this side of the fall. If we're honest, we would all have to confess that we are all naturally very afraid. To see ourselves truly.

Yet, thankfully, the Psalms are in part designed to help us to work past that dilemma. And to give us the courage and the wherewithal to actually look at ourselves and see ourselves truly. As Timothy Keller says, the Psalms take us deep into our own hearts 1000 times faster than we would ever go if left to ourselves. Eugene Peterson says the Psalms take me excruciatingly deeper.

In the core of me. In the Psalms, we learn much about God. We learn how to look at and behold God, but we also in the Psalms learn how to look at ourselves and to sit still under the gaze of God as he searches us through and through. And that's exactly what we see happening.

In Psalm 139. In order to understand this particular Psalm, Psalm 139, it's probably best that you skip to the very end of the Psalm and read the final two verses. You don't really get to the heart of the Psalm until the final two verses when David speaks to God and invites God. To do 6 things with regard to him.

Listen to what he says in verses 23 and 24. He says, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts, and see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way. These 6 requests represent David inviting God to search him and to know him utterly, and to see everything that may be wrong with him.

His anxious thoughts and any hurtful ways or ways of sin that are in him, and he's giving control of his life here to God and asking God to lead him in the everlasting way. And I, I wanna exhort you not to skim over these two verses and think that they came easily for the psalmist or that they come easily for us. As great as these ending verses sound, they represent the three things that we all fear the most. Let's think about this.

The first thing that we fear is nakedness before God. A nakedness that Adam and Eve feared in the garden after they sinned, a nakedness that fig leaves could not cover. The second thing we fear is being found out in sin by God. It's what Adam and Eve feared, and it's why they fled when they heard the sound of the Lord God walking.

In the garden in the cool of the day. And the 3rd thing we fear is the loss of control and giving that control over to another person, God. Obviously though, David, at this point of Psalm 139, is OK with being naked before God, having his sin discovered by God, and he's OK with losing control and giving that control completely over to God. Clearly, this is a man.

In his most vulnerable state before God, and he's OK with that. Oswald Chambers once said, man is incurably suspicious of God. But here in verses 23 and 24, David is a man who seems like he's been cured of his suspicion of God. He's naked before God, willing to be found out in sin by God, and willing to give God complete control over leading him out of his sin and onto a different path.

So when we read verses 23 and 24 of Psalm 139, our question should be, how does a person get to this place? How did David get to this place of nakedness and vulnerability and surrender before God? How did he get here? And if that is your question, I have good news and that is that the answer To that question is found in verses 1 through 22.

Actually, you can call verses 1 through 22, the path to complete vulnerability and surrender before God. And starting today, we're gonna be contemplating David's journey to this amazing destination that we see in verses 23 and 24. of complete and full surrender and transparency before God, which is the essence of true worship. In total, there are 4 main movements that we see in Psalm 139.

In verses 1 through 6, we see David pondering God's loving knowledge of Him. In verses 7 through 18, David is pondering God's loving presence with him. In verses 19 through 22, we hear David expressing his hatred of all things that are contrary to God. And in verses 23 and 24, we see David surrendering himself with full and complete abandon to God.

This morning, we're gonna look at verses 1 through 6 as David ponders aloud God's loving knowledge of him and in the coming weeks, we'll look at the other sections of the Psalm as they unfold all the way to the final section where David gives expression to his full surrender before the all-seeing and ever loving eye of God. If you wanna get to the place in, in your life where you can honestly speak the words of Psalm 139:23 and 24, then don't just memorize those two verses. Study the prior verses.

Become a student of how David got to that place.

And the first thing he does to get there is he ponders God's loving, intimate knowledge of him. And you'll want to ponder the same thing in verses 1 through 6, if you want to get to the destination that David gets to at the end of the psalm. So here's how we'll look at this section of Psalm 139. There are 9 truths that David gives expression to, that he voices regarding God's intimate and loving and relational knowledge of Him.

And you'll find that if you're looking at the insert, that has the nine points of the outline, I'm not being creative with the outline, it's just pretty much whatever the text says, that's the point. that we are articulating in the outline for this morning. 9 truths that David expresses here to God. And the first truth that he expresses to God is you have searched me.

You have searched me, oh Lord, you have searched me. The very first word of Psalm 139 is the word Lord. David is calling God by his personal name, which is Jehovah or Yahweh. David's whole train of thought in this Psalm begins not with himself, not with his circumstances, but with Jehovah, God.

We're gonna observe later in the Psalm that David is dealing with enemies at this time in his life. We know he's experiencing anxious thoughts as well. We see that in the final two verses of the Psalm, there's even sin in David's heart that David is wanting God to search out and discover and bring it into the light. So with this anxiety and this sin, and with the trials of having to deal with enemies that are afflicting him, so what does David do?

He goes on a lengthy train of thought in this Psalm, and that train of thought begins with Jehovah. So just in the first word, Of this Psalm, we learn a profound lesson. Oftentimes when we're anxious or we're in the midst of trials or there's sin in our life, our trains of thought don't begin with God. They don't include God at all, or perhaps if they do include God, They include God only as a last resort, but the example of David here in this Psalm teaches us to start with God.

And then think from there. Reason on from there. If you wanna end up in the good place that David ends up in in verses 23 and 24, you want to start your trains of thought with Jehovah. Literally, the name Jehovah or Yahweh is from the Hebrew word to be.

and it literally, you could translate it, he is. That would be a literal translation of the name. Yahweh, he is, and we know this because of what God says in Exodus chapter 3, when God called Moses to go to Egypt and deliver the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, Moses says to God, who shall I tell them? sent me and what does God say?

God answers by saying, I am who I am. Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me onto you. This is God telling Moses his personal name and speaking of himself, he tells Moses that his name is, I am. And that makes sense to us, but we're left with the problem if this is all that we knew is what is said here in Exodus 3 and what follows.

And the problem is, how does the name I am square with the fact that Moses never once tells the children of Israel that God's name is, I am. Why does Moses instead tell Pharaoh and tell the sons of Israel that God's name is Yahweh? Which is different than what you see on the screen. Well, the answer is found in the fact that these two words are related.

The name I am is merely the first person singular form of Yahweh, which means he is. In other words, when God speaks of Himself in Exodus 3, He says, my name is I am, because he's the one speaking. But when Moses speaks of God, he says that God's name is, he is. As one writer says, the precise name Yahweh results when others speak of him in the third person and call him Yahweh, which means he is.

Does that make sense? This name of God speaks of God as the all sufficient self-existing one. He just is. And his existence is not dependent upon Anything or anyone else to sustain him.

For us, we need air to breathe. We need food to sustain our lives and to be able to exist. God needs nothing. He is self-sustaining, self-existent.

That's part of what's represented in the name of God being he is. But this name also serves as the beginning of a sentence that is begging for completion. A subject and a verb that beg for a predicate noun or a predicate adjective and being the great he is, God, in part is saying to us, I am the beginning of the sentence that you will spend the rest of your lives completing. With a dazzling array of nouns and adjectives that describe all that I am.

That you discover me to be to you. It's interesting that throughout the Old Testament, we find Yahweh or he is followed by a number of completers. What you see on the screen are some of them. Yahweh Siku could be translated as Jehovah is our righteousness or simply he is our righteousness, and the sentence is completed.

Yahweh Mekadesh could be translated as Jehovah is holiness or he is holiness. Yahweh Rohi. That Carlos read last week in Psalm 23 verse 1 means Jehovah is my shepherd, or he is my shepherd. Yahweh Yere means he is provider.

Yahweh Shalom means he is peace. Yahweh Rafa means he is healer. Yahweh Shama means he is there. And Yahweh Nisi means he is my banner, and the list goes on in the Old and New Testament.

The cool thing about God in the Old Testament, especially, is that, the people of Canaan, the people of Babylon, the people in the surrounding areas where Israel found themselves had hundreds of deities representing hundreds of needs that they had in their life. They had a God to meet every need. Israel had one God with 100 names. They had one God who met all of their needs.

His name is I am, or he is, and his people keep discovering facets of all that he really is to them. And this all sufficient. Multifaceted Jehovah is the one that David is beginning his train of thought with in this Psalm, and he says, oh Lord, Oh Jehovah, you have searched me. The word search means to explore, to examine thoroughly.

Jehovah, David says, you have searched me with the result being that, and this leads us to the second truth that he expresses to God. And that is, me. me. You have searched me and known me, David says.

The word me. is actually not in the Hebrew text. Literally, the passage simply says you have searched me. And, there's an element of resignation here.

David has been searched out thoroughly by God, and the result is, God knows, God knows. What is clear from the language here is that God knows all that there is to know about David because God has searched him out and because God wants to know. We have to be careful with how we study and analyze Psalm 139. Will Varner.

From the Master's College, I believe is right when he says that Psalm 139 is too often theologized to become a textbook for the omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence of God. And indeed, all of those attributes of God are taught in Psalm 139, but in fact, this Psalm is saying something more, for example, than merely the fact that God God is omniscient. If you came to God and said, God, why do everything about me? Down to the tiniest detail of my life.

Why do the numbers of hair even on my head? How would God respond based on this Psalm? Would he say, well, because I'm omniscient, I have to know, I don't have a choice. It's one of my attributes.

Or would he instead say, I know everything about you. Because I want to know everything about you. I know you utterly because I have searched you through and through, and I want to know every detail about you. You matter enough to me to where I actually find it relevant information.

I want to know even the number. of hairs on your head. David says, God, Jehovah God, you have searched me. And the result is, everything there is to know about me.

I've been found and discovered by you. David continues with the 3rd truth regarding God's loving knowledge of him. This brings us to the 3rd expression of truth that he voices to God. Basically, let's put it this way, he's saying to God, my activities.

He says in verse 2, when I sit down. And when I rise up, These two verbs sitting down and rising up are representative of everything that David ever does. Keep in mind that when someone back in this day sat in the gate, that's when they were conducting business. As a king, it was when David was sitting on his throne that his real business was being conducted.

I'm sure David also sat down. to rest and relax for a bit or to engage in conversation. So David is saying, Lord, when I sit down for relaxation, when I sit down to engage in conversation with friends and family, when I sit down to conduct business Business and do my job as a king. And when I rise up and go about any of my other day to day affairs, all of my actions, all of my activities, them thoroughly.

all of my activities. You see the good things I do when no one else sees, and you see the sins that I commit, all of them. Even the sins that no one else sees. David takes his thought a little further with his 4th expression of truth regarding God's loving knowledge of him.

Where he basically says to God, my thoughts before I think them. my thoughts before I think them. He says in verse 2, you understand my thought from afar. He's saying, God, you not only know my activities, but you also know what I'm thinking.

And the word thought here is the Hebrew word that could also be translated with our English word purpose or aim or motive. This Hebrew word doesn't just speak of a thought that you might think while sitting on your couch. At the end of a long day. This word also speaks of the motivations that drive your actions.

David is saying, when I act, Lord, the intentions and the motives of my heart that lie underneath those actions and drive those actions. Not only that, but David says, you understand my thought from afar. In other words, God, my thoughts, even when my thoughts are still far off. You don't just know what I'm thinking when I'm thinking the thought, what I'm going to think before I even think the thought.

See, guys, God, God knows everything you think. Even before you think the thought. Long before a thought surfaces into our conscious mind when it's still swimming around and our unconscious. Subconscious mind and isn't even fully formed.

God sees it and he knows it utterly. He knows what's going on in our conscious minds and what drives our actions. He also knows our thoughts before those thoughts turn into actions, and he even knows our thoughts before we actually think them. This means that God sees your good thoughts.

And your good motives, even when others don't see them and they misjudge you. It also means that God knows every evil thought, every sinful thought that you or I might think. He knows the evil thoughts perhaps that you have entertained. This past week that nobody else knows about.

This expression of truth from David also means that even when we don't understand our own thoughts, which is often, even when we don't understand our own motives, God does. God is the ultimate behavioral expert, understanding the whys and the wherefores of human behavior, and he understands those things better than Sigmund Freud ever did or BF Skinner or Carl Jung, or even Doctor Phil and Oprah Winfrey. God understands us completely and totally. This is why we should value the Bible more than any other self-help book that we might be inclined to read.

This book that we're looking at this morning was inspired and written by a God who understands you completely and utterly. He understands you so well that he knows your thoughts even before you think them. So whenever you hear someone open up this book and say, truly, God says, you should sit up and pay attention. You should want to hear what this God says.

Because this is the God who knows you better than anybody else. Whenever you believe in Jesus, whenever you spend time with God in the morning or evening, reading his word, you're putting yourself under the care of the one who knows you so thoroughly that he even knows your thoughts before you think them. And so what he says in this book to you is perfectly suited to your needs. David continues reflecting on God's loving knowledge of him and gives expression to 1/5 truth.

Let's put it this way, he says to God, you scrutinize all that has to do with me. You scrutinize everything that has to do with me. He says, you scrutinize. My path, and you scrutinize my lying down.

The Hebrew word translated scrutinized has the idea of very close inspection. It pictures God almost as squinting in concentration as he is observing us. And everything about us. David says that what God is studying here is my path and my lying down.

And this expression adds to what's already been said. Our path speaks of everywhere we go, it speaks of our manner of life, the road that we are on, and our lying down refers to resting, it refers to sleeping. In the Old Testament, this word translated lying down also includes what a person does sexually. And David is saying that God sees everything.

With absolute and total precision, the good and the bad about your path and about your lying down. The fact that God scrutinizes your path. Think about that for a moment. It, it, it means that he's, he's not just looking at you and everything you do, but it also means that he's looking at the path you're on.

He's looking at the road that you are on. And this is comforting. David is saying, God, you carefully observe not just me, but you are also looking at my path and you're looking at everything that is on my path. Even when my eyes are not on the road as they should be, your eyes are always on the road that I am on.

And you see everything ahead of me and around me and behind me. You scrutinize my path. There's nothing that has anything to do with me, that you are not fully focused on and fully concentrating. On scrutinizing.

I would ask you this morning, does, does it help you To know that God is gazing, not just at you, but that he is gazing at your path. And studying everything that has to do with you. With intense concentration. Does that comfort you?

It does me When, when there are things that are on my path that are causing me anxiety, it helps me to recognize in those moments that God is not only looking at me, but that God is also looking upon that thing that I'm anxious. About I've never shared this from this pulpit before, but, back in, 2008, February of 2008, when the gospel primer was, being prepared for publication in the, in the weeks prior to it being released. I don't know where this came from, but I, I found myself, experiencing literal anxiety attacks about typographical errors and printing mistakes.

In the published edition of the primer.

And I would literally have dreams at night of receiving the first copy of the printer from the publisher and opening it up and finding embarrassing typos, blank pages, pages out of order or some mistake that the printer had made. There were so many details at that point that were completely out of my control and the book was about to be seen by thousands of people and there were moments when the whole thing was just freaking me out. But what I did in those moments that helped to keep me sane?

my wife would probably question how sane I really was, but I could have been worse.

But what I would do is in those moments where like I would wake up after one of those dreams, I would lying on my bed, I would look up at God. And I would see his gaze directed toward Bemidji, Minnesota. Which is where the primer was being prepared for publication. And I would study his countenance as he looked not just at me, but as he looked toward Minnesota.

And that brought me, his gaze toward Minnesota brought me more comfort than it would have if he was only looking at me. It comforted me beyond words to know that God was looking after what concerned me and it helped me to leave it all to him. And go back to sleep. I learned then and I'm still learning that it is the knowledge of God scrutinizing not just us but scrutinizing our path that frees us from worry.

And I would encourage you to let that thought sink in. If we could but see the face of God as he gazes with passionate concern at everything that has to do with us, we would never ever worry again, ever. These are things that David is pondering, God is scrutinizing. His path and his lying down, but it gets even more intense than that.

This leads us to the 6th expression of truth regarding God's loving knowledge of David. And let's word it this way, he says to God, you are intimately acquainted with all of my ways. In verse 3, he says, you are intimately acquainted with all of my ways. The word that is translated intimately Acquainted with means to enter into neighborly.

or familiar relationship with. This is a relational term. David is saying, God, you have moved close to me, and you have become, you've made yourself my intimate companion in all that I do. Almost literally what David is saying is, God, you have usefully companioned yourself to me, in all of my ways.

The word that is translated intimately acquainted with is actually used to speak of what a, what a woman did for King David in becoming his nurse in 1 Kings chapter 1, verse 2 and 4. You can write that reference down. 1 Kings chapter 1, verse 2 and 4, and how she cared for him in the final days of his life. In fact, the word is translated as nurse.

In those passages. Think of a modern day nurse and how intimately familiar a nurse is with their patient, caring for them and tending to them, knowing and recording their vitals and monitoring their condition at all times and tending to their needs. God, Is all of this and so much more. To us as he usefully companions himself to us in all of our ways.

Not just some of our ways, but all of our ways, not just in good times, but in bad times. Not just when we're on the mountain top, but also when we find ourselves walking through the valleys. Of life. God.

Intimately companions, usefully companions himself to us in all of our ways, on all of our paths. I went through a spell about 15 years ago now when I had back problems for about a 6 month. Period. And some of you have had bouts with back pain, so you can understand.

I had sciatica. and could not sleep at night for longer than 2 hours. I went 6 months without one time being able to sleep for longer than 2 hours at a time because my back would, would tighten up and I would wake up a couple of hours later feeling like lightning bolts were shooting up and down. My legs and from some standpoints, it was a miserable 6 months for me.

I'd have to get up every 2 hours during the night in pain and then I would walk, I would pace downstairs in our house for about 30 minutes until the pain subsided, my back loosened up a bit and I was able to go back to bed for another couple of hours. I did that for 6 months, but even though it was painful and miserable from some standpoints, my memories of that 6 month period are sweet. Those 30 minute walks in the wee hours of the night turned into wonderful times with Jesus Christ.

Literally, I would wake up in the middle of the night.

And it was as if Christ was standing by the side of my bed waiting for me and I would open my eyes in pain and I could sense him right there saying, let's go, let's go. And through the wee hours of the night, he would walk with me as I paced through the house for 30 minutes before I was able to go back to bed. He was such a wonderful companion. To me during those times that I found myself actually starting to look forward to waking up again.

In another 2 hours, knowing that he would be standing by the foot of my bed, waiting to walk with me again. As I walk through the valley of sciatica. Together with him. That's what the psalmist is cherishing here, cherishing the fact that God has intimately and usefully companion himself to him and all of his ways, in good times and bad, whether he's roaming in the wilderness, running from King Saul, or sitting on his throne and reigning as King.

God was intimately acquainted with him in all of his ways. He goes further and gives voice to yet another truth about God's loving knowledge of him. And that is, he says to God, my words before I speak them. my words before I speak them.

He says in verse 4, even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, it all. God, me so thoroughly. He's saying that every word I speak, public or private, every word I speak, and not only that, Lord, but even before I speak the word, what I'm going to say. it all.

This is actually The only time in scripture where we see the expression, know it all. In the Bible. God is truly the only know it all. The reason we're offended by people who are know it alls is because we know they're not, right?

But they presume that they are, but God is the know it all. I've been married for 28 years, long enough that my wife usually knows what I'm going to say before I say it. And usually she's right, but occasionally she's wrong because she does not know it all. But God always knows exactly what I'm going to say, even before I can speak those words.

And that's what David is giving expression to here. Imagine someone knowing you that well. A part of what David is trying to say is that not only does God know our words before we speak them, but he knows the meaning. He knows whatever it is that we are trying and wanting to express with our words even before we express them.

In other words, when I, when I try to express or explain myself to God, he already knows everything that he needs to know long before I pronounce a single word of explanation. Even if my words fail to capture what I'm thinking. Or feeling when I pray to him, he knows my meaning. This also means that God hears those words that we speak in private.

To others, It means that God hears the words that we speak when we're in the car all alone. No one else is in the car and somebody cuts us off on the freeway. God hears everything, every word. We ever speak.

So we can sum all this up. David is saying, God, you've searched me. me, my activities, you scrutinize my path and my lying down, my thoughts before I think them, my words, even before they reach my tongue. That's how thoroughly me.

So let me ask you a question this morning. If somebody knew you that well, what do you think they would do? Would they love you still? Would they move towards you or would they run from you in terror?

That's the million dollar question that we all have. For example, if, if I could somehow magically impart to somebody in this room, I could have them come up and, and magically impart to them the absolute and total knowledge of you that David is attributing to God in this passage to where this person knew your every thought, your every action throughout the entirety of your life. Including all the things about you that no one else on earth knows. And I can impart that knowledge to them somehow magically.

My question for you is, what do you think that person would do when they saw you? Do you fear that they would run from you? In terror. That is the fear that we all have.

The thought of being known like this. In some ways it's wonderful, in other ways, it's scary. This is why Bill Murray and Howard Stern say that they're afraid to look honestly at themselves. But guys, it is this fear of being known that prevents people's love from meaning all that much to us.

Because if people love us, but they don't know us, know everything about us, then we're always left wondering, would they still love me if they knew everything about me. As Timothy Keller says, to be To be loved but not known is comforting, but superficial. To be known and not loved. is our greatest fear.

But to be fully known and truly loved is what we need more than anything. And that's the great need that all of us have, to be known and loved by the same person. And Psalm 139 teaches us that this need gets met in God. This is where things get really amazing at this point of Psalm 139, the eighth thing that David gives expression to this God who knows him so utterly, warts and all sins and all anxieties and all, and rather than God moving away from him, look at what David says that God has done.

Here's the eighth truth, you move toward me and surround me on every side. He says, you have enclosed me behind and before. In other words, God, you've moved toward me, you've surrounded me, and you have become my neighbor on every side. You didn't run away from me, after all that you have come to know about me.

Instead, you have moved toward me in love. The Hebrew word translated enclosed is from the Hebrew word that means to besiege a city. In a military context, an army will surround a city in order to conquer that city and bring that city to a place of surrender. And that's what David is saying that God has done with him.

He's saying, God, in every direction I look, I see that you are there. In front of me and behind me, on every side, I see that you have moved toward me and surrounded me to the point where there's no way for me to escape. And not only has God moved toward David and us and surrounded us on every side, but 1/9 truth that David gives expression to, he says to God, you've laid your hand upon me. Verse 5, you've laid your hand upon me.

God, you've not only moved toward me, but you've reached out and you've laid your hand upon me. You've taken the palm of your hand as it were, and you've reached out and you've touched me with a touch of love and friendship, a touch that says you are mine. Lord, you evidently are not afraid to touch me. You also evidently have not decided to set your hand against me.

Instead, you've reached out and you've put your hand upon me. Evidently God is not repelled by what he sees in us, knowing us so thoroughly. We may be lepers spiritually, whom no one else would ever want to come near to or touch if they knew the full truth about us, but here we learn God moves toward us in our sin. He moved toward the psalmist in his sin, and he reached out and he laid his hand upon the psalmist and he does the same to us.

And we now know that we are completely known. And loved by the same person. How do we respond? To all these truths.

Well, You don't have to guess at this. David models what our response should be. He utters three exclamations. He says such knowledge is too wonderful.

For me. This is, this is too wonderful for me, Lord. That you would know me this well, and that you would know me in this loving way. I don't understand how it is that you could know me as you do and move toward me and relate to me the way that you do.

David is saying something like, What I think it's Chris Tomlin is conveying in the song indescribable, incomparable, we say to God describing him unchangeable, you see the depths of my heart and you love me the same. You are amazing, God. You are amazing God. In that song that we're gonna sing in just a moment, the writer is amazed at many things about God.

He tells every lightning bolt where it should go. He fills heavenly storehouses laden with snow. He imagines the sun and gives source to his light, it's light. That's a, those are amazing things about God.

But the final thing in this song that we're amazed at is that this God would see the depths of our heart, and he would love us the same. Yes, you are amazing, God. You're amazing, God. David then says such knowledge is too high.

I, I cannot attain to it. I could never know myself as well as me, and I also can, I can never fully get my mind wrapped around the thought that you would know me so fully. And still love me. As you do That's the song that David is singing at this point of the psalm, and it's your song too.

The God that David is describing here is David's God and your God, and everything that David is saying is something that you can say also. In fact, the truth is you and I can say more than what David says. David's blowing fuses as he's pondering these truths. And he's just an Old Testament saint.

With his songwriting skills, imagine what he would have written if he were able to sit at the foot of the cross, where all of the realities that he's given expression to are on consummate display in their fullest fruition. Think about what God has done for us at the cross. God could have looked upon us and our sin. He could have said, I know you utterly and totally and because of what I know about you, I don't want anything to do with you.

You are worse than a leper to me. But instead of doing that, this God who knows us fully, who knows us utterly, moves toward us and he sends His Son into the world and calls him Emmanuel, which means God with us. And what did we do to him? We killed him, you and I.

We killed him. Which makes us murderers, murderers of God, and Martin Luther would say, don't try to deny it. Don't try to deny that you killed Jesus, you have the very nails in your pockets. But this is the beauty, it's at the cross where you and I committed our worst deed.

Which means that at the cross we're stripped bare and exposed for who we really are. It's at the cross we're, we're brought out of hiding and we're forced to face the very thing that we feared the most, which is to look honestly at ourselves. Yet at the very spot where you and I committed our worst deed, at the very spot where you and I are exposed, For who we are at our worst, God in that spot moves toward us with love and friendship. He reaches out his hand and he lays his hand upon us and gives us the eternal gift of friendship if we believe in Jesus Christ.

I'll close with this. Rebecca Pippert in her book, Hope has its Reason says in the cross, God demonstrates the deepest law of acceptance, for to be convinced that I have been accepted, I must be convinced that I have been accepted at my worst. This is the greatest gift an intimate relationship can offer, to know that we've been accepted and forgiven in the full knowledge of who we are. And even greater knowledge than we have about ourselves, and this is what the cross offers to us.

If you're here today and you have never believed In Jesus. You've never come to the foot of the cross and allowed yourself to be exposed there. You've never come to the foot of the cross and beheld him and called upon his name for salvation. I beckon you this morning, come to the foot of the cross.

Allow that exposure of yourself to happen. Call upon the name of Jesus and believe in him to be your Lord and Savior, and then you will spend the rest of your life worshiping this indescribable God who sees the depths of your heart. And who loves you the same. You are amazing, God.

Amen. God is amazing. Let's pray together. Lord, touch all of our hearts today.

Melt our hearts with the deep knowledge that you have of us and the love that you have for us nonetheless. May we be overwhelmed and brought into worship. Because such knowledge is too wonderful for us, it is too high. We cannot attain to it, but you have.

We worship you. And invite you to search us and to try us and to know our hearts. See if there'd be any wicked way in us and lead us. In the everlasting way.

That's our prayer. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give up our offerings to you, receive these funds. Do much with every penny that is given for the glory of Jesus, and whose name we pray, and all God's people said,