God's Intimate Transcendence (Psalm 139)

A paradox is when there's two truths, it appeared to be contradictory without a key piece of information. In the musical Pirates of Penzance, the main character was enslaved to a pirate under contract until you reached his 18th birthday, but he remained under contract for much longer than that. It seems like a breach of contract or, or a contradiction, but it's simply a paradox because there's a missing bit of information that missing bit of information. Is that the main character was born on leap day. So when he turned eighteen, he had only celebrated for birthdays.

I know it's silly to the Bible. Also contain some paradoxes which appear contradictory until a missing bit of information. Makes everything clear. We're going to be talking about one of those paradoxes today, how God can be both intimate and transcendent. I got the intimacy is such that he is personally acquainted with and involved in each of Our Lives from eternity past to Eternity future. He knows you better than you know yourself Yet God's Transcendence is such that he is beyond anything we can think or imagine. He's not restricted like we are to time and space. He does not battle against indwelling sin like us. So how could he ever understand what we experienced day in and day out? God intimately knows and understands us, but he is so far beyond what we know so far beyond us that we think he cannot really understand what we go through everyday. List two things seem to be at odds, but there's a missing piece of information. That makes everything clear. I'm going to pray and then we'll read through. Psalm 139 men will find that missing piece together to make sense of God's intimate, Transcendence.

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the song that shows us just a small fraction of your glory. But that fraction is more than we can even comprehend. I pray that as we look more closely at it, than we would see you more clearly and we changed more and more into the likeness of your son.

Please speak through me and teach us more about who you are and how much you love and care for us. We are all these things in Jesus name, amen.

Psalm 139 to the choirmaster, a Psalm of David. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know? When I sit down and when I Rise Up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my pass and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue behold. Oh Lord you know it all together. You had me in behind and before and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful. For me is high, I cannot attain it. 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. 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. If I say surely the darkness shall cover me in 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. Are you formed my inward Parts? You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for. I am fearfully and wonderfully, made. Wonderful. Are your Works. My soul knows, it very well. 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 was none of them. How precious to me, are your thoughts. Oh God. How vast is the sum of them? If I would count them there more than this and I awake and I am still with you. Oh, that you would slay, the wicked. Oh god. Oh, 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? Oh, Lord. And do I not loathe. Those who rise up against you, I hate them with complete, hatred count, I count them, my enemies. Search me, o God and know. My heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any Grievous way in me and Lead Me in the way Everlasting.

This song begins with three larger sections that each highlight a different attribute of God in personal relation to the psalmist, David. Then it concludes with three smaller sections that each highlight a different area of David's life in which he responds in light of God's character. David Express his personal relationship with God as a means for others, to identify with him. So when he says, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me, we can say the same thing.

I remember with each of the songs, we must ask, how does this depicts Jesus Christ? And what emotions is this intended to evoke? In Psalm 139, Jesus is depicted. As the omniscient, omnipresent, and Sovereign, Lord, whom David is addressing. And the emotions it evokes are off Comfort, loyalty, and humility.

Stop the first larger section is about God's knowledge of me in verses. One through six. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know, when I sit down when I Rise up you just turned my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all of my ways even before a word is on my tongue behold. Oh, Lord, you know it all together. You had me in behind them before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. Here we see the main verbs to know, to search to be acquainted. God is the subject, the one knowing searching and becoming acquainted. I am the direct object. The one being numb being searched and with whom God is acquainted. The section is often used in theology to show God's omniscience that he knows everything. It's one thing to say, God knows everything. It's an entirely more personal thing to say, God knows everything about me.

He knows when I sit down. He knows when I get up. He knows my thoughts even before I think them. He knows my schedule when I have meetings when I rest days. He knows my ambitions by Desires in life. He knows every word that comes out of my mouth even before I speak. David says in verse 6 that this knowledge is too high for him, it's unattainable. there are things that God is able to know that we're unable to know, because we're not infinite, like he is God knows the end from the beginning. I struggle to remember what I have planned for the day, as I eat my cereal in the morning,

God knows exactly when and how to act to bring about the salvation of his people from sin and death. I struggle to know when and how to pay my taxes.

God knows every intricate detail of my life.

I struggle to know what, my wife's favorite flower is. Pretty sure, it's whatever flower I buy for her.

But how is it that God can be intimately acquainted with all my ways? when so much of my life is struggling and fighting against temptation to sin,

He knows about those Temptations. But does he really understand what it's like to be tempted. Yes, he does. we read about it earlier and Hebrews 2:18, Jesus suffered and was tempted to send just like we are so he's able to help us as we are tempted. He's our great high priest who has experienced our weaknesses in order to be the mediator between us and the father. Jesus is the missing piece. Lynx. God's intimacy, with his Transcendence. God's knowledge is too high for us. It's unattainable, it's transcended but his knowledge is intimate. He knows everything about me. He's a even acquainted with my weaknesses and temptations. As Christ was made weak as a man and experience Temptations. Just Like Me. Attempting to think about all that, God knows about me is humbling. Leave me awestruck because I think I Know Myself pretty well. But there are hold volumes about me, that God knows.

But only God knows. Turn the first section. We looked at God's intimate Transcendence regarding his knowledge of me. He knows everything about me even more than I can ever hope to know. Next section verses 7 through 12 is about God's presence. With me is intimate. Transcendence regarding his presence in every place in my life. Where should I go from your spirit? Or where shall I? Flee from your presence. If I Ascend to Heaven, you are there for make my bed and shield. You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there. Your hand shall leave me. And your right hand shall hold me. 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. They're here. The main verbs are to go to flee and to dwell. In this section, I in the subject. Doing the going, the fleeing and the dwelling of the direct object is the Lord who I may attempt to go away from flea from ORD. Well, apart from the point is that God is everywhere. We cannot Escape him. And nothing can be hidden from him.

We often try to run away from my problems.

Things. Go sideways and it triggers a fight, or flight response. Oh, God is not a problem in the life of the believer. He is. Certainly a problem in the life of the unbeliever. People do not want to be held accountable to God for the things they do. So they run from him pretend, he doesn't exist. Sometimes, even Believers can run from God when their lives become difficult, and God doesn't seem to be the way they want him to be. Reminds me of how Jonah thought he could outrun God by hopping on a boat headed in the opposite direction from where God told him to go. That didn't work out so well for Jonah. Cuz you can't outrun God. You can outrun other people. Sure. But not God cuz he's everywhere. He's in the most glorious places like heaven. He's in the most wretched places like hell. He's in the farthest reaches of the globe where no one has ever set foot at the Mariana Trench in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. And he is right beside, you guiding your every step and keeping you steady in the storm of life.

Sometimes God's guidance looks and feels pleasant as our desires, align with his, but other times, it may look and feel unpleasant. like when God sent the storm after Jonah and had a giant fish swallowing

God has a job for all of us in life. And he's always there making sure that we do the job through encouragement and Providence, or through corrective action,

perhaps, instead of running from God, we may think, I'll just do a god once in the light of day, but under the cover of night, I'll do what I want and get away with it.

God is Not only present in the daylight. He's also just as present in the dark of night. He knows everything that happens when we think nobody is looking because the darkness is as light as day to him. this is so boring, but it can also be comforting especially when our hearts deceive us and lead us into temptation.

When we are most tempted to sin. God is right there beside us giving us a way of Escape has 1st Corinthians? 10:13 says and he does not leave our side even if we fall to Temptation and sin against him, Jesus is right there saying, I paid for that. You're forgiven, go and sin, no more.

He's our Advocate before the father, and in the midst of our sin, he plead our case, claiming our punishment in his death, on the cross. I was just not give us license to sin more. It's Comfort when her broken over our sin. The we're not cast aside because we messed up.

the understanding of God's presence with me and every moment of my life gives me ammunition to fight against temptation to sin and it gives me Comfort when I'm broken over my sin, I simply knowing that God is everywhere. As a distant truth about God, far removed from everyday life, but knowing that God is with me wherever I am. Has power to affect my decisions and shape, my character transforming me into the likeness of Christ. Again, Jesus is the missing piece that makes God's omnipresence applicable to our lives. His death and Resurrection on our behalf has made it possible for God's presence everywhere to be personally comforting. Without the gospel, God's presents everywhere would be terrifying.

A Jesus, made it. so that his present everywhere would be comforting and empowering to you and me personally,

3-star, the first section God's intimate Transcendence regarding his knowledge of me. The second section is intimate Transcendence regarding his presence with me. Now the third larger Section 1 verses 13 through 16 is about God's power over me. Is intimate Transcendence regarding his sovereignty over his creation?

Says for you formed my inward Parts. You needed me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful. Are your Works. My soul knows, it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, and I was being made in secret, intricately woven, in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book, or written every one of them. The days that were formed for me when, as yet there was none of them. Here, the main verbs are to make to form into weave the subject again, is God doing the making forming and weaving and I'm the direct object being made formed and woven.

God is the one who made me.

As my maker, he has Sovereign authority over my life.

No one else can claim to have, made me make sure my parents had a part to play. But God is the one who created me in my mother's womb.

God's creativity and sovereignty are on display here as completely unique. No one else is creative like God is

and no one else is Sovereign over creation. Like he is

We have creative expression. we witness that in the songs we sang earlier in the service,

But our creativity is actually more of creative arrangement. Of the things that God has created. Is transcendent in his creativity as he created everything from nothing. Anna's he perpetuates life where we simply stand in awe of his handiwork?

We also have a sense of authority over certain things or subordinates at work or children even our pets. But in our Authority. We also have others in authority, over us and our authorities, ultimately delegated to us from God, who has no one in authority over him. He is the ultimate Authority. And he is supremely Sovereign over everything.

I got sovereignty and creativity are beyond anything we can experience yet. They are personal because God Made Me. And he has authority over me.

Jesus is the one who holds this creative Authority, is Paul mentioned in Colossians, 1, 16 and 17. He says, for by him, all things were created in heaven and on Earth, visible and invisible, whether Thrones our dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him, and he is before, all things. And in him all things, hold together.

Jesus has this creative Authority. So he gets to decide what is done with his creation and how it will be used for his glory.

Paul also argues at length for God's sovereignty and salvation regarding Israel and the Gentiles in Romans 9:14 through 29, not going to read it and we won't get into the weeds that passage and debate right now. But this is what David was getting at when he wrote in Psalm 139:16 that every one of the days God has formed for me were written in his book. Even before those days came to pass God is Sovereign over every single one of my days and he is Sovereign over my eternal destination.

God knows me better than I know myself and he is with me through everything in my life and he made me and is Sovereign over every bit of my life. From the moment I was made in my mother's womb into eternity. Are these truths about our infinite God's personal intimacy with each and every one of us should cause us to respond appropriately in a different life circumstances.

That's what we'll see you next. So we saw a guy was intimate, Transcendence in the first section and God's knowledge of me in the second section in God's presence with me and then the third section and God's sovereignty over me. Now, the fourth and final section is a response to these truths in three different aspects of life in verses 17, through 24. A response to God's character to man's wickedness and to my own sinfulness. David shifts from expounding upon God's attributes, applied to his life personally to describing his response to life in light of God's attributes.

The first response to God's intimate Transcendent is directly to God's character in verses 17 and 18. He says how precious to me, are your thoughts. Oh, God. How vast is the sum of them? If I would count them, they are more than this. And I awake and I am still with you.

To the knowledge that God knows me better than I know myself. I should respond and treasure in God's thoughts and longing to know what he knows. I should also respond an author and the fear of the Lord because God knows way more than I ever could. More than anyone ever could.

It would take longer than anyone has ever lived to count every grain of sand on the Earth. And God has more knowledge than there are grains of sand.

That's a staggering thought.

A David also responds to God's presence as a comfort to him. Everyday, I wake up and I realize that God has been with me throughout the night. And he will continue to be with me throughout every night and day.

Sometimes God's presence is hidden from us. But when we realize that he is always with us and has always been with us, it is a comfort.

This reminds me of the famous story footprints. The gist of the story is a man walking along a beach looks back and sees two sets of footprints, one belonging to him and another to God walking beside him through life but he notices that through the rough terrain. There was only one set of footprints and he questions God assuming that God had abandoned him during those difficult times. God, responds by saying that it was in those difficult times. That he carried the man.

Understanding God's omniscience omnipresence and sovereignty. I should respond and loving obedience to his Sovereign, will over my life being comforted that he understands my struggles and he is with me, even when I can't see him.

Have a second response to God's intimate. Transcendence is in regard to man's wickedness in versus 19 through 22. David says though that you would slay the wicked. Oh god. Oh man 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? Oh, Lord. And do I not loathe. Those who rise up against you? I Kate I hate them with complete hatred. I count them. My enemies.

A god. Being all-knowing, all present and having all the Thor t yet knowing me and being present with me and guiding my steps in life. Should produce loving obedience in anyone and everyone?

But that's not the case, is not what we see. Many people are wicked. They do terrible things because they want to be the boss of their own life. And even sometimes be the boss of everyone else.

It's true that we should have a heart of compassion longing for everyone to be saved. But having compassion on the Lost is different from condoning, the actions of those who actively oppose God.

Here, we're not talking about those who are simply deceived or lost. We're talking about those who fully know who got is and they hate him and work against him.

Do we have compassion for Satan?

No, absolutely not. Satan is wicked and deceitful and opposes got it every turn and we would do well to hate him with complete hatred as our own enemy.

Satan can never be saved. And there are even some people who will never be saved. Do we know who those people are?

No, we don't know who those people are, we don't know who will be saved and who will not be saved. So what do we do with that?

How we tell everyone the gospel. Those who reject it and seek to destroy God, we leave to their own self condemnation.

But notice David does not seek Justice on his own. He left the Judgment of the wicked up to God. He says oh that you would slay the wicked.

I remember this fourth section is about our response to God's intimate Transcendence and our response is emotional, not physical We do not take action against the wicked. We pray for them. And pray that God would act justly. We align ourselves clearly on God's side and we agree with him about the wickedness. Are the Deeds Done by the wicked.

As a third and final response to God's intimate, Transcendence is toward my own sinfulness in verses, 23 and 24. Search me, o God and know. My heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any Grievous way in me and Lead Me in the way Everlasting.

A typically. These verses are tied to the previous small section as a sort of self-justification for hatred, as if David has just admitted his hatred. And he's now asking God to judge, whether he is, whether it is righteous hatred or not. I think this view undermines the previous section A little bit, it would be like saying I hate what God hates. I'm on God's side. God should act justly toward the wicked, but God, please make sure that I'm not being sinful in my alignment with you. Kim doesn't fit. I think it makes much more sense to take these last versus as progressing from Mankind's wickedness to my own sinfulness. We just got through denouncing, the wickedness of the world, and now we look to our own heart. And see it. That there is sinfulness there as well. David knows his own sinfulness. You &. I we each do our own sinfulness.

We know that our heart is deceitful and lead us astray into Temptations. We must respond to God's intimate Transcendence by opening ourselves up to his scrutiny, and cleansing. I'm reminded of the words of the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Does prone to wander Lord. I feel it prone to leave the God. I love. Here's My Heart. Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above

And David says, try me and know, my thoughts the word for try is like testing metal by heating it up. The same metaphor is taken up by Peter regarding the difficulties of persecution 1st. Peter 1, 6 through 7 says, in this, you rejoice though. Now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your face, more precious than gold, that perishes, though, it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The trials we go through in life. Prove the genuineness of our faith to ourselves to others and to God, although he already knows our thoughts.

In light of our own sinfulness and the deceitfulness of our heart. God's intimate Transcendence, should cause us to open up to him. Let him lead us through, whatever he would have us, go through in life.

So, this Paradox of God's intimate, Transcendence has become quite clear. When the Incarnation death resurrection and intercession of Jesus Christ is taking into account. The Gospel of Jesus is the missing piece that makes God's omniscience omnipresence and sovereignty applicable to my life personally. he knows me intimately, he is with me wherever I am, and he Sovereign, Lee guides, my every step into Eternity for his glory and my good, Praise God for his intimate Transcendence. Side with God, in his Judgment of the wicked. Open yourself up to his cleansing power in your life and the trials. He leads you through to prove your faith.

if you've not put your faith in Christ and do it today, open your heart to him to cleanse you from sin and save you from Eternal condemnation. Do not wait and be found on the wrong side of God's judgment. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for revealing to us, your omniscience, your omnipresence, and your sovereignty in our lives.

I pray that you would cause us to respond like David did to worship you. To align ourselves with your judgment and to open ourselves up to you and to your son. Who died on our behalf and Rose from the grave so that we could live in eternity with you.

Please cause your word to bear fruit in our lives.

When we find temptation banging on the door. Or even subtly whispering to be let in. I pray that your presence will be felt

all of them or to keep Temptation at Bay. And when we find that we have let Temptation in, I pray that we would run to you for forgiveness and cleansing rather than running away from you in shame.

I pray that we would feel our forgiveness in Jesus and learn to hate sin, more and more as you lead us through every moment of Our Lives.