The Wings of the Dawn
An exegetical treatment of Psam 139, addressing the theme of God’s attributes. This sermon was originally preached November 5th, of 2006 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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introduction
I. who God is
a. omniscience v.1-6
b. omnipresence v.6-12
c. omnipotence v.13-16
d. omnibenevolence v.17-18
II. our response
a. spiritual warfare v.19-22
b. humble confession v.23-24
conclusion
introduction
we started this church almost exactly a year and half ago. since that time we have preached 72 sermons. we began by studying the book or romans and out of those 72 sermons only 8 have not been from romans. so it is a rare thing when we depart and preach from a different part of the bible. we think that the best and most honest way to deal with the bible is to go through a single book and wrestle with it so that we can really try to understand what the author was saying. but today is one of those days rare days when we are going to take a break from romans.
we are in the middle of this intense section of romans about battling sin in our lives. romans sometimes can just have this weight to it and it can start to feel very heavy and its good but you just need some air. so hopefully today is some air. next week justin will be back and we are going to have one of our services with extended time with music and singing and communion and then we’ll have our family meeting afterward. in the two weeks after that i will finish up romans 6 and then it will be december and we are going to preach through the four weeks of advent on jesus. so that’s the plan.
today i wanted to preach on something that would be encouraging to us and when i thought about my life and what has been most encouraging to me i realized the most encouraging times are when i have been reminded of who God really is…what he is like. and it is those times when i walk away from whatever it was that sparked those thoughts and i have a smile on my face and a sense that everything is okay.
in all the bible there is perhaps not a better passage that describes some of the key attributes of God and how seeing those things about him causes us to adore him than psalm 139. and psalm 139 is a beautiful psalm that reminds us what sort of being this God is and how good it is for us to know him.
About this psalm an old puritan named George Gilfillan said this, “Here the poet inverts his gaze, from the blaze of suns, to the strange atoms composing his own frame. He stands shuddering over the precipice of himself. Above is the All encompassing Spirit, from whom the morning wings cannot save; and below, at a deep distance, appears amid the branching forest of his animal frame, so fearfully and wonderfully made, the abyss of his spiritual existence, lying like a dark lake in the midst. How, between mystery and mystery, his mind, his wonder, his very reason, seem to rock like a little boat between the sea and sky. But speedily does he regain his serenity; when he throws himself, with childlike haste and confidence, into the arms of that Fatherly Spirit.” let’s read psalm 139.
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. [1]
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there were none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain! [2]
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts! [3]
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting! [4]
there are six stanzas or verses in this psalm, which was actually written down and sung in hebrew during ancient worship services, and what i would like to do is to look at what about God and about us as human beings that each of these stanzas point to. i’m not going to get down and dirty and deal with every single word and phrase here like we do in romans because if we did that we’d need to spend a month on this psalm at least.
now, a couple of things first to know. one is, this psalm is a prayer. you can learn a lot about what people believe by listening to the things they say when they pray. and sometimes other people can pray the most amazing things that encourage you so much. that is why it is good to regularly get together with other people (like in the men’s or women’s midweek bible studies) and to pray outloud together. but this psalm was most likely written by david, son of Jesse, after he became the king of Israel, the king whom God had said was, “a man after God’s own heart.” and because of that and because of the kind of man we come to know david as in the bible and because he is an inspired writer of holy scripture, there is something very special about this psalm. it seems to not only teach us so much about God but it also reflects a certain intimacy with God which draws us in strikes a chord within us because we know and feel such similar things.
the second thing i want to mention is that the words of this psalm describe who God is and what he is like but it isn’t written the way that modern western philosophy text books are written when the speculate about who God is. there is a ton of philosphy in these words but they are really written much more like fredrich neitzche writes in his book, except that he is writing to say that there is no God. david says in another psalm, “the fool has said in his heart there is no God.” so let’s look at this psalm and see what david’s God is like.
omniscience
i have a reputation for using big words so i am just going to roll with it this morning because it is good for us to learn some things and big words just sound cool. so “omniscience.” the first stanza, verses 1-6 is about God’s omniscience. the word “omni” means all and “science” means knowledge, so omniscience is all-knowing.
A.W. Tozer says this about God’s omniscience. “That God is omniscient can be inferred…God perfectly knows himself and being the source and author of all things, it follows that He knows all that can be known. God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurarity and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones, all dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell.”
that is a little philosophy for you but listen to the personal tone of david’s psalm. “O LORD you have searched me and known me! you know when i sit down and when i rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
there is a very personal sense about God here. that God searches us. and he watches us. he somehow sees all that happens in our lives from when we get up in the morning until we go to bed. and not only that but he is able to somehow discern our thoughts. and the sense here isn’t like some sort of foggy psychic reading but rather acute and awareness. there is no answer to how he does this, but he does. hebrews 4:12-13 says that God “discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart. and no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to his eyes.”
listen to the next line in the psalm, “you search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.” God’s personal interest seem to not only involve his immediate knowledge but that he takes an active interest in us. he searches out our path and all our ways. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to strengthen those whose hearts are fully comitted to him.” so he knows all our activities, what we are doing or not doing and he takes an effort, excercising his energy to do this. and not only does he know all that but he even knows what we will say when we encounter what we encounter in life.
david’s response in realizing this starts to make sense when you think about you hem me in, behind and before and lay your hand upon me. such knowledge is too wonderful for me. it is high. i cannot attain it.” we can’t even conceive of such a being with this kind of knowledge. no human being is like that. God is wholly other and what he is is wonderful! God is an amazingly omniscient (all-knowning) God. this is fun! it brings almost an automatic joy to the heart for us to know that God knows us with such intimate detail and care.
omnipresence
let’s look at the next omni word, “omnipresence” so that means all or everywhere present. louis berkoff says God’s omnipresence is “that perfection of the divine being by which he (is beyond) all spatial limitations and yet is present in every point of space with his whole being.” the eastern religions, animistic tribes and other pantheists rightly recognize that there is something spiritual to everything that we encounter on this planet and that there is an enormous unity in God but they fail to see that God even yet greater than that. as the great saint anselm said about God, “nothing can be without you, not in place or time but all things are in you. for nothing contains you, but you contain all things.”
listen to David’s words as he realizes that God’s presence is not only wherever he goes but even beyond. “where shall i go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” the question of a heaven or a hell when we die is one that mankind has wrestled with for ages and david recognizes that God is something is not done away with after this life on earth, his presence extends beyond this life. God is not a God who is bound by the limits of space and time. coming to know him is an eternal thing that extends far beyond what we begin to experience of him here and now.
and his presence on earth is the same, “if i take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” david recognized that though God did not manifest himself in clear ways all the time that his presence was everywhere unlike humans who can only be in one place at a time. david had probably read the words of the torah in Deutoronomy 10:14 where Moses said, “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it (Deut 10:14).”
i believe it is a great encouragement to us to know that wherever we go and whatever we do that God is here for us. many of you here are in college or have graduated from college recently or have just started your own family by getting married. and your minds change about things, about where you will go and what you will do. and that is okay, we as the resolved want to support you in whatever and wherever God calls you and hopefully a few of you he put it on your hearts to rise up and help build this church and expand God’s kingdom in this city. J
but david words here are so cutting, even in the uttermost parts of the sea, God will be with you. no matter where we go God is there. i love God’s words to moses’ protégé joshua, i wrote it on the little white board on our refrigerator the other day for amy, “Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go (Josh 1:9).” God is with us, even when it doesn’t seem like it.
david knew that too. look at the next words, “if i say, ‘surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,’ even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.” anyone here had some dark times? maybe you are in them now? but God knows the dark times and those are the some of the times when he shines the brightest. it is the dark times when we often question and cry and cuss and scream “where are you God!?!” and he is right in the middle.
it is a true thing and if you learn it now it fix it in your heads it will help you your entire life…the best and brightest glimpses of the glory of God most often come the trials of hardship and pain (repeat). so what are we to do when all is dark? run to God. he is there. like psalm 46 says, “God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be cast into the heart of the sea, though its water roar and foam, though the mountain tremble at its swelling…The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress (Ps 46:1-3,11).”
omnipotence
the third omni word, “omnipotence.” potens is latin for power and so omnipotence is all powerful. Wayne Grudem states, “There are no external constraints on God’s decisions, God’s omnipotence is reference to his own power to do whatever he decides to do…(which) is also called God’s sovereignty (meaning free, sov, free reign or rule).” God is the only who is completely limitless in all regards. A.W. Pink invites us to “consider that distant period before the heavens and the earth were created” and he says this, “God might create or not create according to His own good pleasure. He might create this way or that way. He might create one world or one million worlds, and who was there to resist His will? He might call into existences a million different creatures…and who was there to challenge His right?”
david recognizes that we are creatures created by God’s omnipotent power. look at his words, “for you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. i praise you for i am fearfully and wonderfully made.” our scientific knowledge of the human body increases and increases but the complexity and the beauty of the way our organs work together could not be more properly descibed as being knit together. no loving parent cannot look at a newborn child and think what a wonder the thing is that was made inside of them. from sex to inception to 2 trimesters of pregnancy and all that is involved and happening inside a mother’s womb. fearful, careful, wonderful making! and david sees God in that. he sees the design. no one could ever look at the car motor and not think there was a designer that made all those parts to function together. and birth is infinitely more complex than a car motor. God designed our bodies to function in such a way that we are able to make babies.
and even beyond just the mechanics of it, there is this train of intimacy that runs through this psalm. you formed my inward parts…there is this interactiveness, an exertion of God’s power, in birth where God is working and putting things together, setting them up. and indeed scripture sees God as always acting in his creation. Hebrews 1:3 says that God sustains or “upholds the universe by the power of His word.” it is as if he let his hand go for an instant everything would come tumbling down. he is always acting. always involved. he is the all-powerful God.
david recognizes his power in everything. “wonderful all your works; my soul knows it very well.” yesterday morning i sat outside on an upstairs patio drinking coffee and talking with jason while we watched the waves roll in on pacific beach. a wonderful work of God. as i looked out across the water and saw the swells coming in i couldn’t help but think of Isaiah 51:15 “I am the Lord God who churns up the seas and makes its waves roar.” yes, i know waves come from storms but i don’t think storms come from the flap of a butterfly’s wing in south asia, like chaos theory thinks. no, everything comes from the power of God.
lastly look at the power of God described in verses 15-16 of our psalm, “My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.” wisdom and maturity in faith will teach us that God not only owns everything we lay eyes on but that he owns us to and made and determined us for his glory. in jeremiah 1:5 God tells him, “before i formed you in the womb i knew you.” and in ephesians 1:4-5 we read that God “chose us…before the foundation of the world…(and) predestined us…according to the purpose of his will.”
now people get all bent out of shape about this and start talking about possible worlds and about God looking into the future or God not knowing the future or what’s fair and what’s free all these other stupid things. let me just tell you this. life is much easier if you give up thinking that everything ultimately depends upon your foolish, feeble, and sinful decisions. if we, like david, instead say, i am yours…every one of my days you have laid out for me even before they happen, then the pressure is off. we can be free to worship and follow God and when we screw up or when we are confused or hurt we come running to him and know that he planned this and since he planned it everything will be okay. just do that. don’t try and get God off the hook and think that our small little brains could comprehend an infinite diety. he doesn’t need you to do that. just love him and adore such a God that could even orchestrate so many details not only of one person’s life but billions and billons throughout the planet and throughout all time. that is amazing. that is a God who is worthy of our worship.
omnibenevolence
lastly, we have our final omni for the day. there are many other attributes or characteristics that are wrapped up in the being of God but omnibenevolence is the last one reached for by this verse we are looking at today. benevolence means good, so omnibenevolence means all-good. i’ve really been into quoting a bunch of dead guys today so i figured we’d go to one of our favorites, jonathan edwards to introduce our last omni word.
here is jonathan edwards on the goodness of God, “there is an infinite fullness of all possible good in God – a fullness of every perfection, of all excellency and beauty, and of infinite happiness…[and] this infinite foundation of good sends forth abudant streams…[this] foundation is in itself excelent, [and] the emanation, increase, repetition, or multiplication of it is excellent…[it] shines forth in beams of communicated knowledge and understanding and holiness, moral excellence, beauty, joy and happiness…[and] this disposition…[is] his own fullness and was what moved him to create the world.”
no one writes things like that these days. the arrangement of words and alliteration reflects this groping for something so good and so great it is beyond description. david felt that. verses 17-18 are david’s words marveling at the goodness of God. listen, “how precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.”
look at that word, “precious.” it comes from the hebrew word yeqar, which is something that is costly, valuable, rare and rich. it is used in hebrew writings to refer to things that have intrinsic worth like jewels such as onyx, gold, and jasper, very precious and desirable things. david here explodes in praise to God because he realizes that the goodness of God is so precious it is unending…God’s goodness is so vast he compares it to the sand.
some students at the university of hawaii tried to come up with some estimates of how much sand there is on the earth. they took a spoonful of sand and using a magnifying glass determined how many granules were in that spoonful. then based on estimates of the sqaure feet of sand on the ocean they came up with a number. seven quintillion five quadrillion grains of sand. that’s a seven with 18 zeros after it. that’s a lot of sand. but it is a tiny amount compared to the unending quanity of God’s goodness.
how precious God is. his goodness is unparalled. and and it is what we need. there is this tone of satisfaction in david’s voice. it is like this at long last, at the end of a journey accomplishment or discovery…”ah! how precious to me…O God! I am with you.” whatever and wherever we are in life, no matter what we are going through…the answer is that we need God.
conclusion
let’s conclude this morning by reading the rest of the psalm. “oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain! do i not hate those who hate you, O Lord and do i not loathe those who rise up against you? i hate them with complete hatred; i count them my enemies. search me O God and know my heart! Try me and see my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting!”
after reflecting on all these great and glorious things about who God is david all of the sudden feels the tension inside him and he hears the voices of those around him and he ends this psalm by casting himself upon the mercy of God.
in life there will be battles. battles of heart. our affections can be some of the most formidable enemies but at the same time give us some of our greatest delights. there are battles of mind. there are all kinds of ideas and philosophies running about theses days and there comes a point when we must decide what we think and why and begin to believe something and build our lives on it. there are battles in relationships. people are made for relationship and relationship with others is what we were made for. but relationships will inevitably bring trial and difficulty and strife because we are sinful human beings. and some relationships have to end because they are death to us and some just need healing. but battling is something we will not escape. the question is how you battle. will you turn to the all-knowing, everywhere-present, all-powerful and all-good God? or will you walk away trusting in your own knowledge, your place and power, thinking you know what is good for you? that is the question this psalm drives at us.
look at the example of david. what does he do? search me and know me O God…lead me. be my God and let me follow you because i cannot determine my own path. if i try on my own i will surley fall victim to wickedness.
douglas coupland wrote this little book called, “life after God.” which is this great story of him traveling and interacting with life and people. and the theme of the book is that there is no God and that there is no reason to believe in him. God is an impossibliity. you read all the way to the very end and on the second to last page he says this, “now here is my secret. i tell it to you with an openness of heart that i doubt i shall ever achieve again, so i pray that you are in a quiet room as you hear these words. my secret is that i need God. i am sick and can no longer make it alone. i need God to help me give, because i no longer seem capable of giving. to help me be kind, as i no longer seem capable of kindness. to help me to love, as i seem beyond being able to love.”
what a great confession. and that is my confession and my plea this morning. we need God. he is great, an all-knowing, everywhere present, all-powerful, and all-good God. be encouraged. keep following after him. keep embracing the gospel, adoring his son Jesus Christ who radiates the glory of God to us. if you haven’t ever really made that turn to follow Jesus, do it now while you may as coupland said it, have an openness of heart. if it has been awhile and God has become a distant figure to you. be renewed. let the sweetness of his grace cover you. he loves and accepts you. he took all of our sin and punished it in jesus on the cross for us. now all that is left is the bounty of his mercy…and it is a wonderful mercy.
Let’s pray.
