Have you ever told somebody that you loved them, but did not really mean it? Rather, you were just trying to impress them. I warn you, you cannot do that with God.
David teaches us that in Psalm 139. In that psalm, he speaks of his love for God. In fact, he tells God of his love for Him. In verse 14 he speaks of praising God: “I will praise thee,” he says. One praises one whom he loves. In verse 21 he says, “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee?” Whatever it can mean now that a man hates other men, when David expresses that he hates those who hate Jehovah, he expresses the depth of his love for Jehovah. In expressing his love for Jehovah, David is sincere. That is evident from the fact that throughout the psalm he speaks of Jehovah knowing all things, and even his own heart. That is Psalm 139, the psalm that teaches us about Jehovah, the all-knowing God.
We are going to study that psalm, the Lord willing, for several weeks, first of all so that we can know Jehovah better; secondly, so that we are more ready ourselves to praise Jehovah, and thirdly, so that we are motivated to live our whole life before His face.
In Chapter One we examine verses 1-6. Please open your Bible and read these verses.
In these verses David not only speaks of Jehovah’s omniscience, the term by which we refer to Jehovah’s knowing all things, but he speaks of that omniscience as applied to God’s people, in fact, to His child David. “O LORD, thou hast searched me,and known me.”
Let us explain, first of all, what the omniscience of Jehovah is. That Jehovah is omniscient means that He knows all things. He knows Himself, first of all, His mind, His will, what He will do, what He thinks. Jehovah knows these perfectly.
Secondly, He knows His creatures. Every single creature He knows. What place that creature occupies in His creation He knows. When that creature will be born and when that creature will die He knows.
Thirdly, Jehovah knows, in a special way, His people. That is the knowledge of love. Of that especially David is speaking in Psalm 139, for he speaks as a child of God: “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.”
When David speaks of Jehovah’s knowing all things, he does not merely mean that Jehovah has an awareness of what might happen, that Jehovah knows the various possibilities that exist in David’s life, the various choices that David will have to make. Some speak today of Jehovah’s omniscience in that way — Jehovah knows what He will do if history takes this course or that course, but He does not know what course it will take. Or, some might say, Jehovah knows what He will do if this man believes, and He knows what He will do if that man does not believe; but Jehovah does not actually know whether such a man will believe or not. That is not true of Jehovah! When we speak of Jehovah’s omniscience, we mean that He actually knows everything that will happen in time and history, and that He knows these things not merely because He is able to see ahead in time, but because He determined what will happen.
So Peter says to the Jews, for example in Acts 2:23, when he speaks of the death of Jesus Christ: “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” Peter tells the Jews that their wicked act of killing Jesus Christ was carried out because of the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. God determined that act from all eternity. In Psalm 37:18 we read, “The LORD knoweth the days of the upright,” that is, He knows the days the righteous live. He knows when those days begin and when they end. He knows everything that characterizes those days. How can He know that? The answer is, because He has determined all things. Jehovah is the all-knowing God because He is the sovereign God who, from all eternity, determined what would happen in time and history.
Now David bring this doctrine of the omniscience of God to a personal conclusion when he says in verse 1: “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.” What does David mean by “searched me and known me”? What does Jehovah know about David? David explains, in the first place, in the following verses that Jehovah knows his activities, however ordinary they might be. Jehovah knows his downsitting and his uprising (v. 2), and Jehovah knows his lying down (v. 3). To sit down on a chair, to get up off a chair, to lie down on a bed or get up off the bed — these are such common activities in our lives that we do them without thinking. But the Lord knows what we are doing and when we are doing it.
Jehovah is the all-knowing God
because He is the sovereign God.
Secondly, David speaks of Jehovah knowing how he lives his life generally. “Thou compassest … and art acquainted with all my ways” (v. 3). One’s path and one’s ways refer to the customs or habits in his life — when one spends spare time, what he does for recreation, what his purposes in life are. Jehovah knows these things — things that we are not always aware of. Our customs and our habits sometimes have to be told us by other people. Jehovah knows them because He determined them.
Thirdly, Jehovah knows every word that we speak. “For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether” (v. 4). How quickly we forget the words that we speak. But Jehovah remembers them.
Now you say, “But does Jehovah really know these things because He determined them; and is that really the point of David — that even before we knew these things about us, Jehovah knew?” The answer is, “Yes, that is what David means.” For he goes on to say, “There is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether,” that is, even before the words are formed on my tongue, Jehovah knows them. And in verse 2, “Thou understandest my thought afar off.” You may think that your thoughts are known only to you. After all, nobody can see inside your head. Wrong! Jehovah knew them even before we formed them.
This is the doctrine of the omniscience of God as David sets it forth in Psalm 139. Do you think that God does not know about you? Do you think that God does not know the things you are doing and saying and thinking? David, as a child of God, says He does.
This is a confession of a child of God, then. And it ought to be a confession that you and I are ready to make also. But along with making the confession that Jehovah does know all things, we must confess how He knows all things. How is it that Jehovah has this knowledge?
David answers that question in the psalm when he says, “O LORD, thou hast searched me.” To search is to examine. The word that David uses in the Hebrew language translated “search” in our King James version refers to a very careful and intense scrutiny. Think, for instance, of the work of an archeologist as he searches a piece of ground for historical artifacts. He does not quickly look over that piece of ground, dig here a little, there a little, and then quickly give up his search when he does not find anything. An archeologist carefully and painstakingly searches that area of ground, digging and taking note of every little thing that he finds, to determine whether it be of real value for him or not. So Jehovah God: when He searches His people, He does not merely take a cursory glance at them. He digs into the recesses of their hearts. “O LORD, thou hast searched me.” David knows that Jehovah has seen his heart.
There is another verb in this text that speaks of how Jehovah knows us. “Thou compassest my path and my lying down.” That word “compassest” refers to the work of threshing. When a thresher threshes wheat, he shakes (at least in the Old Testament times) the wheat so that the wheat and the chaff are separated. That is what God does with us once He has examined our heart and found what is in it. He distinguishes or separates what is of substance from what is not, what is truth from what is lie, what is pleasing to Him from what is not. Jehovah has this knowledge of His people because He can see their hearts.
But there must be another answer given to the question of how God knows all things. That is, He knows because He is God. Even though David speaks of God having searched and compassed his heart, do not think that Jehovah does not know anything until He takes time to investigate. Jehovah does not know all things because He learned them. He does not know all things even because He has intuition. He knows all things because He is the all-knowing, sovereign God.
David knows that Jehovah has seen his heart.
Now, have we given two contradictory answers to the question of how Jehovah knows all things? On the one hand, He searches and distinguishes right from wrong. On the other hand, He is God. No, these are not two contradictory answers. David speaks of God searching and compassing him from the viewpoint of David’s experience. That is, God does know all things without having ever investigated or studied them. But the child of God who says, “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me,” the child of God who speaks of Jehovah knowing all his activities, all his customs and habits of life, his words and his thoughts, experiences the searching of God.
The child of God does that, first of all, by the operation of a good conscience. Jehovah, working in His children’s hearts by His Holy Spirit, causes their consciences to testify of the results of Jehovah’s search. When David says, “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me,” he will go on later in the psalm to speak of his understanding of what the result of the Lord’s search is: that David is a child of God, pleasing to God, for the sake of Jesus Christ.
So it is for God’s children also today. By the operation of a good conscience, God tells us what He finds in us. A good conscience, now, not being merely one that never convicts of sin, but rather a good conscience being one that convicts of sin when one has sinned, and testifies of righteousness when one has not sinned. That is the means that God uses to bring to the knowledge of His people what He knows of them.
That is not the only means. There are others. God performs this activity by the preaching of the gospel and of the law, by our reading of Scripture and by prayer that God will show us what He thinks and sees of us. The child of God prays, as David will at the end of the psalm, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” When we pray that prayer, and when we turn to Scripture and read the Word of God to find out what the will of God is, God, in answer to that prayer, and by the means of Scripture as it is read or preached, tells us what He thinks of us, what He thinks of our actions. Then, sometimes, the child of God must confess, “I have sinned and the Lord knows my sins.” At other times the child of God can say, “I have done right, not of myself, for I have not the power of myself, but in the grace given me in Jesus Christ, I have done right.”
By the operation of a good conscience,
God tells us what He finds in us.
That is the knowledge of God and the way that God shows His children that He has that knowledge.
Now, not only does David make a confession about Jehovah’s omniscience and also about the way in which Jehovah could have this knowledge, but David expresses how wonderful this knowledge is (v. 6). “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” It is wonderful, that is, it is incomprehensible. It is high, that is, it is far beyond us. David expresses in this verse that this knowledge that Jehovah possesses is a knowledge that David as a mere creature, and even as a child of God, will never have.
That also must be your confession and mine. In saying that Jehovah is the all-knowing God and that we, mere creatures, cannot attain unto this knowledge, we are expressing how different we are from Jehovah. He knows all things. Our knowledge is limited. What a God Jehovah is!
Understanding that He knows all things, we must stand in awe of Him. David indicates that in verse 4: “There is not a word in my tongue but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.” When David thinks of the all-knowingness of Jehovah, he is moved to awe and reverence of Jehovah God.
Why is it that this knowledge is so wonderful? Not only, first of all, because, as we have explained, it sets God apart from us, shows that He is sovereign creator while we are creature and that He is unlimited in everything while we are finite, but this knowledge is also wonderful because of the effect that it has on the people of God who take it to heart. They will endeavor then to see themselves as God sees them. There are those who are concerned to see themselves as others see them, desiring to make a favorable impression on man. Their goal in life is to know how man sees them in order that they might know how to act. Let that not be so much your desire, as it is your desire to see yourself as God sees you. When we do that, we have given evidence of the wonderful nature of God’s all-knowingness and especially of its gracious and wonderful effect on us who take it to heart.
When David thinks of the all-knowingness of Jehovah, he is moved to awe and reverence of Jehovah God.
That will lead us, then, to guard against sin. Where did you sit in the past week? Where do you plan to sit in the coming week? God knows where. Is it in the kind of seat that He will be happy with? Is it in church, or is it in a place that shows hatred and contempt of God? On what sort of bed did you lie this past week? On what sort of bed do you plan to lie this coming week? Might it be the bed of fornication and adultery? Jehovah knows. Or might it be the bed, the marriage bed, which is undefiled? Jehovah knows. What works do you plan to do in this coming week or what works have you done? Jehovah knows. What are your thoughts, your secret thoughts? Are they pleasing to Him? Jehovah knows. What words have you spoken? Have they shown hatred of others, perhaps? Jehovah knows. When we remember all this, we will guard against sin.
The wonderful effect of this omniscience of God on believers will be, furthermore, that they confess their sins to Him. That confession will not consist of our telling Him something that He does not know. But when we confess our sins to God we will be saying to God, “O Lord, thou knowest my sins. And Thou hast graciously brought them to my consciousness, and now I confess them and seek Thy forgiving grace.” That is the wonderful effect of knowing the omniscience of Jehovah.
There is another effect for the child of God, and that is the effect of comfort. If Jehovah knows all things, having determined all things, then there is nothing that happens in your life and in mine of which He is unaware. Is that not a wonderful thing to know in times of trial and trouble? A word of comfort, it is, in all of the afflictions that we might face. Not only is Jehovah aware of the troubles that we face, but He has determined them and He will use them to our salvation.
Can you say with David, “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me”? Can you say again, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it”? And in so saying, are you expressing your conviction that Jehovah is the all-knowing God?
May God’s people always make this their confession.
Chapter 2: His Omnipresence
Last chapter we studied the first six verses of Psalm 139 and explained the doctrine of God’s omniscience. We explained that doctrine as meaning that He thoroughly knows all things, not merely that He knows all possibilities or all conditions, but that He has determined all things. And we applied that doctrine of the omniscience of God especially to the knowledge of His people and all that they do in life, and to His knowledge of their heart.
The question now is, how can God know all things? How can He know all things about me, and how can He know all things about you at the same time? What explains His omniscience? The answer is that He is God, He is eternal, He is sovereign, but the answer also is found in verses 7-12 of Psalm 139, as David speaks of the omnipresence of God. Those verses should be read now.
Here David sets forth the doctrine of the omnipresence of God. That God is omnipresent means that He is everywhere present. I am not omnipresent, nor are you. We can be in one room at one time, one place at once; but Jehovah is everywhere. And by everywhere, we do not only mean everywhere on the planet Earth. God is everywhere in His whole universe. As a result, He knows everything that happens everywhere. Nothing escapes Him. I do not know right now what is happening where you live. I do not know right now what is happening on the other side of the world, in Europe, in Asia, or Africa, or Australia. But God does, for He is the omnipresent God.
God relates His omnipresence and His omniscience not only in Psalm 139 but also in Jeremiah 23:23-24, where God says through Jeremiah, “Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.” When the Lord says through Jeremiah, “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” He speaks of His omnipresence. When He says, “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?” He is saying that, because Jehovah is omnipresent, He is also omniscient and all-knowing.
How can God be omnipresent? Because God is not a creature and He is not a material being, but He is Spirit. God is Spirit. Jesus told the Samaritans that in John 4:24. He is not bound by space or time. He is above space and, therefore, He is able to be everywhere. Once more we confess, just as we did last week, that this God is greater than we are. We are mere creatures, mortals, material beings limited in where we can be at any given time. But Jehovah, the one true God, is not limited.
David confesses the omnipresence of God in Psalm 130 especially by showing the futility of the attempts of men to escape His presence. David himself does not desire to escape the presence of God. When David asks in verse 7, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” David’s point is not to say that he really seeks to escape from God. Rather, he asks a rhetorical question, by which he means to show that the answer is: “Nowhere. No one can escape God.”
Yet some men do try to escape the presence of God, and David speaks of their attempts from the most extreme to the least extreme. “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there” (v. 8). Some might try to escape from God by escaping from creation or the universe as we know it. They might go into heaven, that is, into outer space; or into hell, that is, the grave — to the highest or the lowest place on earth. Men might prefer death to standing in the presence of God. That would be a very extreme attempt to escape the presence of God, but men might try it.
Another way in which men might try to escape the presence of God might be to stay on the planet Earth but go as far away as they can. David says in verse 9, “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.” To take the wings of the morning, that is, to follow the dawning of the sun — that means to go west, of course. The sun dawns from east to west. “If I should dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea.” David writes as one who lives in the land of Canaan, on the eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea. He speaks as one who might go to the western part of the sea to try to escape the presence of God. But the answer is, still God will be there.
Another person might try to escape the presence of God by being covered with darkness. David says in verses 11 and 12, “If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day.” Because human beings need light to see, we might think that God needs light to see. If we work under cover of darkness, He cannot see us.
In these ways David speaks of attempts of men to escape the presence of God.
Why might men do that? The main reason would really be that man, as a sinner, is trying to escape the just punishment or chastisement of God. We all know that God exists. That God exists is impressed on the conscience of every human. And the attempts of men to escape God indicate that all men know it. Yet man seeks to escape God because he is a sinner who, by nature, loves his sins and wants to continue in his sins. If sinful man, however, should stand in the presence of God, he will be judged.
So David speaks of the attempts of men to escape the punishment and the judgment of God. He speaks of desperate attempts: fleeing, taking the wings of the morning, going with the speed of light. And while David speaks of attempts that are futile, the child of God must confess that, in fact, we do at times make such attempts. Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden made attempts to escape the justice of God. That was no different, really, than trying to escape His presence. They did so by making excuses for their sins. It might not be, then, that you or I try to go as far west as possible, or as far into outer space as is possible, or into the grave; but every time we deny our sins or try to cover up our sins or excuse them, we are trying to escape the presence of God.
We read of the wicked unbelievers who, in the last day, will call the mountains to fall upon them (Rev. 6). In Exodus 14 we read of the Egyptians trying to flee while they were in the Red Sea and the waters began to cover them and they knew they were in the presence of the just God. But all such attempts of man to escape the presence of God are futile.
There are two basic reasons why. First of all, God is omnipresent. The answer to the questions David asks: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit; whither shall I flee from thy presence?” Nowhere. David says that very clearly in verse 8: “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” God is even beyond the universe as we know it. That was verse 8. God is in the universe as we know it: “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me” (vv. 9, 10).
Then the second reason why all attempts to escape the justice and the presence of God are futile is because God is not a creature. That is the very reason He can be omnipresent. But because God is not a creature, His sight is not affected by creaturely things. Darkness is a creature. Darkness, therefore, hinders creatures. But darkness does not hinder its Creator from seeing and knowing all things.
Behind both of these reasons (that God is omnipresent and that He is Creator and above creaturely things) are some glorious truths about God. On the one hand, He is transcendent, that is, He is infinitely exalted above all creation and not bound by it. This is true of Jehovah God. We are not speaking, of course, of any god that we might imagine. We are not speaking of general truth about all gods. There is but one God and He is Jehovah. And this God Jehovah is infinitely exalted above all things. That is His transcendence. But that He is transcendent does not mean that He has no care or concern for His creation. For, at the same time that He is transcendent, He is also immanent, that is, present in every part of creation. These two truths about Jehovah are clearly taught in Acts 17:24, 27, ff.: “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” There Paul is telling the people of Athens that God is transcendent. He made the world, He is Lord of heaven and earth, He does not dwell in a temple made with hands, He is above all things. But that does not mean that He is unknowable. For at the same time Paul tells the people of Athens, “That he be not far from every one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being.” He is present in all parts of creation, so that the child of God knows that our strength and our life and our existence depend on Him.
Because God is not a creature,
His sight is not affected by creaturely things.
That is how David sets forth now the doctrine of God’s omnipresence as a reason for how Jehovah might know all things. What effect does knowledge of this omnipresence of God have on you? In the first place, it ought to be that every child of God, yea every man, fears God. If God is present throughout all creation in His being and in His power, then there is nothing that we will ever do that will escape His sight — no sin that we commit anywhere that will escape His knowledge. We cannot commit crimes in darkness and think that God will not see, for darkness does not hinder God from seeing us. Yet man does that, does he not? Darkness is the time when much crime is committed. Many sins are committed. Darkness is the time when the policemen cannot see as well, and the criminals know that. But a man who understands that Jehovah is omnipresent and not bound by the creature darkness will fear God and live in obedience to His law.
But the child of God, specifically the believer, confesses also that this omnipresence of God is a presence with His people in His grace. David said in verse 7 of Psalm 139, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” David speaks here, not of the mere presence of God, but of the Spirit. Now we remember that God is present with His people by His Holy Spirit. Only the believer, then, can truly experience and understand the omnipresence of God, can truly confess it, because he realizes that the omnipresence of God is not only a presence of His being and of His justice, but also of His grace and of His love.
If God is present throughout all creation
in His being and in His power,
then there is nothing that we will ever do
that will escape His sight.
To show that He is very really present with His people in His grace and in His love, God sent Jesus Christ His Son to the death of the cross. But first He sent Him into our own flesh — Jehovah present with His people.
The child of God, then, who confesses the omnipresence of God in grace and in love is comforted. Verse 10 shows that David experiences that comfort: “Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” Are you ever scared in different circumstances of life — afraid of darkness, afraid of creatures that you might face, afraid because of circumstances in which you find yourself? Children are often scared of darkness, scared of strange things. The child of God who knows the omnipresence of God says, “Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” Because Jehovah is omnipresent He is always here to guide us, and not only to guide us, but also to hold us up by His powerful, loving hand. Can you confess that to be true of you in your circumstances of life?
Furthermore, the child of God is warned by his understanding of the omnipresence of God. If Jehovah is everywhere present and knows all things, let us not walk in sin. But what if the child of God does walk in sin? Even there, Jehovah sees. Even there Jehovah will turn His child from sin, perhaps afflict him with chastisements for sin, but Jehovah will not fail to impress upon His child that Jehovah knows and sees the sins His children commit.
What else can we say now about the effect that the knowledge of God’s omnipresence has on the child of God? We can say this also: Surely it will give us a reason to praise and adore God! There is no other God beside Jehovah. Do you know of another being of whom it can be said, “Even there shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me”? Do you know of another being of whom it can be said that He is in heaven and in hell, that He is as far west as one can go and that He can see in the darkness? This is true of Jehovah God alone. Because Jehovah is omnipresent and knows all things, His people need not be afraid. They need not be afraid of what men can do to them, need not be afraid of what sin and Satan might do to them. They need not be afraid of what any creature might do to them. Jehovah is with them in His love.
Because Jehovah is omnipresent and knows all things, His people need not be afraid.
Do you make that your confession? Or are you, perhaps, going to be so bold yet as to deny that this Jehovah is the only God and that this Jehovah does know all things? Are you, perhaps, going to say, “That was David’s understanding of Jehovah but it is not mine”? Then I say to you: Be careful. David wrote not just as a man setting forth his own ideas, but as a child of God who knew from his own experiences the truths of which he wrote. And he wrote them by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
Therefore, to deny this is to deny the Word of God. And God knows when men deny Him. Give God the glory. Glorify Him as the God who is the only sovereign God, all-knowing because He is everywhere present.
Chapter 3: His Eternal Knowledge of His People
We have seen so far in examining Psalm 139 that David is praising God for being the all-knowing God. That was the attribute of God’s omniscience — that Jehovah knows all things. How can it be that He knows all things? Because He is God. He is not bound by time, He is not bound by space. And David gives that as a reason in verses 7-12 when he speaks of Jehovah’s omnipresence — that Jehovah is present everywhere.
Having spoken, then, of the doctrine of God’s omniscience and of His omnipresence, David now speaks of God’s omnipotence — that Jehovah is all-powerful and able to do whatever He wants.
But again, David makes this confession of the omnipotence of God from a very personal viewpoint and from an angle that we often forget about — the wonder of God giving conception in the womb. David does not speak of Jehovah’s omnipotence from something that we can clearly see — from the viewpoint of a storm in nature, a tornado or a hailstorm. David does not speak of it from the viewpoint of Jehovah’s governing of all of history in outward ways. David speaks of the omnipotence of Jehovah from the viewpoint of a hidden work of God — the wonder of giving conception in the womb.
Man might think that he is able to control the conception of a child. He can prevent it, if he wants. And he can use medical means to cause it, if he wants. But man is really wrong in thinking that. Jehovah alone gives conception.
So David comes now to the doctrine of God’s omnipotence — His all-powerfulness — in order to demonstrate that Jehovah is the all-knowing God. There in the womb where man cannot see and where man does not know exactly what is happening, Jehovah is working, and He knows what He is doing.
Of this David speaks, then, in Psalms 139:13-16. Please read these verses.
It is the omnipotence of God that David speaks of. The omnipotence of God is God’s ability to do whatever He pleases. I added that phrase “whatever he pleases” intentionally. There are some who say, “If God is able to do everything, can He lie?” The answer is, “Of course not! God is a holy God.” There are some who ask, “If God can do whatever He pleases, can He make something black and white at the same time?” The answer is: “Absolutely not.” Not because God is limited in His power, but because He does not please to do such. But what God is pleased to do, He can do.
The psalmist teaches us this in Psalm 115:3, “But our God,” he says, referring to Jehovah the God of Israel as opposed to any other idol God, “is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” And the apostle Paul, by inspiration, teaches the church of Ephesus that God is able to do exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).
The child of God makes this confession: “Our God Jehovah is omnipotent.” Making that confession, we weep when we hear some deny the power of God. To deny that the miracles recorded in Scripture were done by God in a wonderful way but were instead natural events that can be explained scientifically; to speak of God being able, perhaps, to create the world out of nothing but not actually creating the world that way, rather enabling the world to evolve; to speak of God being able if He wanted, perhaps, to save every man or to save His people irresistibly but not actually doing so because He wants man to have a role and a say in his salvation — none of that is true. It denies the omnipotence of Jehovah. God is sovereign and all-powerful. He has determined what He wants to accomplish and He will accomplish it by Himself. That is the doctrine of God’s omnipotence.
In His creation of the world; in the miracles that He performed; in the chief of miracles — sending Jesus Christ His only begotten Son into our flesh by the virgin birth; in the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ; and also in the miracle of the working of the Holy Spirit in your heart and mine renewing and regenerating us — in all these, Jehovah God is all-powerful and sovereign. The prophet Isaiah says to the people of God in chapter 59:1, “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save.”
As David contemplates this unlimited power of God he does so from the viewpoint of the forming of a child in the womb of a mother. We know something about that wonderful work. We know that an egg is fertilized. When fertilized, it grows and divides into several cells, which redivide so that eventually, out of one fertilized cell, organs develop — brain, heart, lungs; limbs develop — arms and legs; bones, tendons, muscles, and skin develop, until, at the day of the birth of the child, one cell has become millions. And they are often perfectly formed into the shape of a child.
Did David really know how a child develops? By inspiration and revelation of God, he knew something of it. He speaks of it in our text. “Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb,” he says in verse 13. He is speaking of the skin and the flesh that has covered his internal organs. He has spoken of those inward organs also in verse 13: “For thou hast possessed my reins.” The “reins” are the kidneys. He uses the term in this text to refer to all the internal organs of his body. He knows what his body is made of.
But is it true that David knows only of what his body is made from the viewpoint of that body as it has been born? Does he know what Jehovah did in the womb? David speaks also of that. In verse 16 he says, “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect.” His substance — he is speaking of the early, unformed mass of cells that are the beginning of the development of a child. That word substance in verse 16 is a different word from the word substance in verse 15, which refers to the bone structure of the person. David speaks as though he knows something of the anatomy of a human and something also of the development of a human being. Thinking on all of that, he says: “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Why should praise be given to Jehovah for this development of a child? The answer is, because Jehovah is the One who causes that development. David says that. “Marvellous are thy works; … thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb… thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect.” There is no thought in David’s head about man being able to give conception or development. The praise goes to God.
That Jehovah is omnipotent in the creating and developing of a new life in the womb of a mother proves that Jehovah knows His people from all eternity. For what is true generally of the development of every human being is true specifically now of the development of the child of God. God knows His people in Christ, not just at the moment of their conception, but before. He knew us from all eternity in His counsel. David indicates that in verse 16, “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” Even before we were conceived, God knew us. We were in His book. That book is the book of the decree of God. Included in that decree, first of all, is everything that happens in time and history. We call that the decree of God’s providence. So the time of the conception of His people, the time of the birth of the people of God, the purpose of the birth of the people of God — all is decreed by God. This is part of His eternal knowledge of His people.
God knows His people in Christ,
not just at the moment of their conception,
but before.
But that knowledge of God of His people from all eternity is not only a knowledge of the bare facts — when we would be born, when we die, and what purpose we would serve in this earthly life — but it is also a knowledge of us in love for us in Christ. For that book of which David speaks, the decree of God, is not merely the decree of God’s providence, His having determined everything that happens in time and history, but also the decree of His predestination, His having determined who would be born and who would be saved and who would be not saved. Yes, although David does not speak of it in this text, he does later in the psalm indicate that there are some who will not be saved. He speaks in verse 19, “Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God.” Not every man will be saved. And Jehovah knew this from all eternity.
So David speaks of the place that the children of God have in the body of Christ. As David speaks of the wonder of the development of the child of God in the womb of his mother, we can say that he thinks also of another body — a body of which our earthly body is a picture — the body of Jesus Christ and the development of that body. As much as God knew each member of our body from all eternity, how much more does He know each member of the body of Jesus Christ from all eternity. Which members were needed to make that body complete, when should those members be born, how should they develop, what about their earthly conception and development was necessary in order to serve their place in the body of Christ — God knows all this from all eternity.
Jehovah is an all-knowing God!
What effect does the knowledge of Jehovah being all-knowing have on you and on me? On David it had this effect: he sang the praises of God. “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Let us praise Him also. Whenever we think of any of the works of God in time and history, they must lead us to praise Him. So also when we think of the work of the development of a child. When we think of the wonder of the human body, think of this: the human body is made up of many different systems — the nervous system, the endocrine system, cardio-vascular, respiratory, muscular/skeletal, reproductive, digestive, and immune systems. Yet all of these different systems work together for the good of one body. In each different system there are many organs working — the heart or the lungs, the stomach and the intestines. Yet, though many different organs, each contributes a necessary part to the well-being of the whole body. Each organ contains cells — not just a few cells or a million cells — but trillions of cells. Yet each cell is important to the right functioning of the body. Each cell contains DNA — strands of DNA — containing enough information that could fill fifteen hundred pages in a human book. Yet, down to the minutest details Jehovah has determined the development and the makeup of the human body. Of course we will praise Him! “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
Whenever we think of any of the works of God
in time and history,
they must lead us to praise Him.
Once again, the creation of the church induces the believers and children of God to praise God. God, from all eternity, having determined who would be saved in Jesus Christ has determined that they would be saved into a body. One person plays this role in the body, another plays that. One has strong faith, another has knowledge, another has wisdom. We cannot see so easily right now how that will be true of the church of Jesus Christ. We can begin to see it in the individual congregations of believers as they love each other and work for each other’s good. But in heaven we will see that perfectly God, from all eternity, has determined the body of Christ and brought it to its realization.
And this is a reason to praise God!
Because God is sovereign, because God is all-knowing, because God is all-powerful, we must say also that God is worthy of our praise because in doing all that He does He makes no mistakes. Sometimes we might think, as we contemplate the development of the human body, that He does make mistakes. Not every child is born perfectly formed. Some children are born with birth defects that cause them to die relatively soon or which afflict them for their entire life. Has God made a mistake? Can Jehovah God ever make a mistake? Jehovah, the all-knowing God, the One who accomplishes all that He purposes to do in Jesus Christ — is it even conceivable or possible that He should make a mistake? Not Jehovah God. He is wise, and His works are best.
We will see that again in heaven when we see the body of Jesus Christ perfectly realized. God has made no mistakes in the realizing of that body. Every member there in heaven will serve God exactly as He has determined. And for that reason, sometimes born to believing parents are children not completely formed, humanly speaking. Did God make a mistake? No! Jehovah, who fearfully and wonderfully makes all His people in such a way that they give Him praise, knows also how to make special children to the glory of His name and for the realizing of His church.
Do not speak against this work of Jehovah. Do not speak against His power. Rather, praise Him for it. “Marvellous are thy works.” David sings of this. The works of God in creation induce us to praise Him because they show us that there is none greater and none wiser than Jehovah God.
Jehovah knows also how to make special children
to the glory of His name
and for the realizing of His church.
Having contemplated now both the development of the body of Jesus Christ and the development of a human body, we can give God the praise for every child of God that He makes. But even more, the child of God can say with absolute confidence: “Thou God knowest me better than I know myself.” And a child of God who is not content with himself or with some aspect of his life can say with absolute confidence, “This is the will of God in this circumstance of life or with this defect of human body. I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Amen.
Chapter 4: Precious Thoughts
David’s meditations on God to this point have regarded God Himself: the omniscience of God, or His all-knowingness; the omnipresence of God, His being everywhere present; and the omnipotence of God, His being all-powerful. David has praised God for these things and contemplated them also in relation to himself, the creature, and the child of God. David has come to and expressed his confidence in the fact that God knows him from all eternity; that he cannot escape the presence of God; and that God knows him thoroughly.
Having thought on these things, David now expresses in the psalm that he meditates on God often and desires to know God truly. So, having thought of God’s knowledge of David, David now expresses his love for God. What is it on which David meditates? And how often does he meditate on these things? And how deeply? We read in Psalm 139:17-18 : “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.”
What is it on which David meditates? He thinks of God: “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God,” he says. When David speaks of God’s thoughts he does not mean David’s thoughts about God but God’s thoughts. That is clear enough from the text. It is not David’s thoughts which are so precious unto David. It is not David’s thoughts which are so numerous, not even David’s thoughts about God. But it is Jehovah God’s thoughts of which David speaks — the thoughts that God has in His mind, the ideas in the mind of God — are precious to David and more in number than the sand by the seashore.
We speak of these thoughts as being the counsel of God. The counsel of God is His eternal good pleasure according to which He has determined all that would occur in time. Scripture uses different words to speak of that counsel. There is the word “counsel” — the purpose of God. There is the word “decree,” referring to the fact that God determined or even spoke these things. There is the term “good pleasure,” which Scripture uses to refer to the counsel of God. That term “good pleasure” refers to the fact that God determined that in which He delights. There is the word “the will of God,” His desires. The word “thoughts” is not used elsewhere in Scripture, to my knowledge, to refer to the counsel of God. But it does indicate that this counsel and these decrees of God are Jehovah’s personal decrees, a matter of His mind and of His will, that they are close and precious to Him. Just as your thoughts and mine are most close and precious to us.
Regardless of what term we use, though, we are speaking here of what is in the mind of Jehovah. In general that is, first of all, His will to save His people in Jesus Christ. Secondly, His will to reject others to punishment on account of their sins. And, thirdly, His will to use everything that happens in time and in history to accomplish the purpose of salvation and of punishing the wicked to the glory of His name.
What characterizes these thoughts of Jehovah? They are, in the first place, eternal. God is never without His decrees. Secondly, they are immutable, that is, they do not change. What God has decreed He will carry out. They are, thirdly, sovereign. No one of us or any other creature helped God determine what He should do and what He should think. And none of us helped God carry out what He has determined to do. God does this alone. They are also all-comprehensive. There is no event that happens in time or history that God has not decreed or thought.
That all these things characterize the counsel or thoughts of God is clear from Isaiah 46:10-11. There Isaiah says that God declares “the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” Jehovah there expresses that what He has from ancient times, from all eternity, determined to do He will surely carry out.
These are the thoughts of which David speaks now. And on these thoughts of Jehovah David meditates. Now somebody objects: You cannot meditate on the counsel of God. The counsel of God is secret. And somebody points us, perhaps, to Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” There Moses tells the people of Israel that they need not worry about anything that God has not revealed to them. But what they must do is give themselves over to obeying the law of God, for that God has revealed. So, someone might say, “We cannot meditate on the thoughts of God. We do not know them. And to meditate on them is pointless.”
There is, of course, some truth to that. It is true to this extent: any thoughts of God, any aspects of His decrees that have not been revealed or made known to us, we cannot and ought not busy ourselves with. David, therefore, meditates on the thoughts of God, those aspects of the counsel and decree of God, that God has revealed.
One way in which God makes those thoughts known is in creation and in history. The child of God can meditate on the work of God in creating the universe and in sustaining the universe. The child of God can meditate on the work of God in history, governing everything that happens, and see that everything that has happened to this point is the unfolding of the counsel of God.
But to the believing child of God, there is more than simply the making known of God in history and in creation. The child of God also knows the thoughts of God, for they are revealed in Scripture. In Scripture God makes known His purpose for all of history and how He will realize it. The child of God, reading and studying Scripture, can understand why God sends storms and earthquakes and wars. The child of God, reading Scripture, understands this thought of God that His purpose in all of creation is to create another creation in which His people will dwell with Him to all eternity.
The child God, as he opens up Scripture, comes to understand the thoughts of God with regard to the wicked. Why does God let the wicked continue in their wickedness? Why does not God judge them and punish them more quickly? Or why does not God turn them from their sins to the glory of His name? If the child of God does not understand the answer to that, he might quickly think that God loves the wicked more than He loves the righteous, for the wicked seem to be able to go on in their sins with impunity.
The child of God can meditate on the work of God
in creating the universe
and in sustaining the universe.
But there are reasons why God allows the wicked to do that. And Scripture makes those reasons known. He prepares the wicked through their sins for the day of destruction. As the child of God opens up Scripture he learns the reasons why God sends chastisement and afflictions upon His people. If we did not know those reasons, we might think, perhaps, God does not really love us. For He sends us hardships in life.
But as the child of God reads Scripture, the thoughts of God regarding afflictions are revealed. God uses our afflictions to prepare us for the salvation we have in heaven. As the child of God reads Scripture, he learns of this fundamental and all-governing thought of God, that everything that happens serves the salvation of the church in Jesus Christ for the glory of His name.
Of all of these thoughts David speaks.
How did he know them? He did not have the complete revelation of God in Scripture, of course. But he had the beginning of that revelation. He had the law of God. He had the Scriptures of the Old Testament. He had the prophets who had lived before him. He contemplates what he has of the revelation of God, and on that he meditates.
So should you, and so should I. Meditate on the things of God. Do you do that often? And, as you do that, what is your confession about them?
David confesses about those thoughts that they are precious (v. 17). To me, how precious! The word “precious” means highly valued. David was a rich man. He was the king of Israel. Therefore he had many earthly possessions that were, from an earthly viewpoint, very precious. But he indicates here in this text that even more precious than earthly things are the thoughts he has of God.
Is that true of you? Are there possessions that you have in your life that you value more highly than the knowledge of Jehovah God? We must come to understand just what about that knowledge of God is so precious, so that we can leave behind the thoughts of our possessions and strive for this knowledge of God.
Are there possessions that you have in your life
that you value more highly
than the knowledge of Jehovah God?
First of all, David regarded these thoughts of God as precious because they regarded God Himself — “how precious are thy thoughts to me, O God.” Here we have a testimony of David’s love for God. The servant who loves his master wants to know his master more, wants to know what he thinks. And the more the servant knows what his master thinks, the better he can serve him. So David would know what God thinks.
Do we not desire to know our loved ones more? Do we not ask them, “What are you thinking?” David shows his love for God by thinking on the thoughts of God. And these thoughts are precious because they are God’s thoughts.
Secondly, these thoughts are precious to David because they include David himself. David, as a man, is an insignificant and small and sinful creature. That is true of every man. That is true of every child of God. It is not our opinion about ourselves. We think that we are important. We think that mankind governs history. We think that mankind has discovered many things, that the world cannot exist apart from mankind. But if we compare ourselves to God, we see that we are sinful and small. Does God view us that way? No, in fact, He views His children in Jesus Christ as most significant. Though we are sinful and small, He loves us and He cares for us. The psalmist exclaims in Psalm 8:4, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” Truly, when we contemplate some of the creatures of God such as the moon, the stars, and the sun, much larger than we, more prominent than we, why is it that God should take care of and think of us? But in God’s thoughts, He has man and the salvation of mankind as His chief goal in all that happens in time and history. That is, the salvation of man to the glory of God’s name is the chief goal of God.
Is it not a marvelous thing when a chief executive officer of a corporation does not think only of the higher people in the hierarchy of the company, does not associate only with those of prestige, but thinks of the lowest employee and will take time to seek the good of the newest employee in the corporation? So God thinks of David. That makes the thoughts of God precious to David.
Thirdly, these thoughts are precious, then, because they are thoughts of our own salvation, thoughts of how God is preparing each of His children in Jesus Christ to come to heaven and dwell with God there to all eternity.
Do you understand that these are the thoughts of God, that this is why the thoughts of God are precious? Do you see Scripture, the Word of God in which He reveals Himself, to be precious? Do you consider the works of God in history to be precious? Do you love to see God reveal Himself and do you love to meditate on that revelation?
So deeply does David think of the thoughts of God that he gives most attention and care to them. David meditates on God.
How deeply does he meditate on God and how often? So deeply and so often that David knows how great the sum of those thoughts is. He speaks of that also in verses 17 and 18: “How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.” Now, if you have ever gone to a beach, you know how numerous the grains of sand are. You do not know exactly the number of grains of sand, but that they are very numerous you know. Have you ever tried counting the grains of sand by the beach? It is an impossible task. But God knows not merely the fact that there are billions and billions of grains of sand in the world, He knows how many there are. We do not. And yet when David speaks of the thoughts of God, the thoughts of God in His decrees, he says, “If I should count them they are more in number than the sand.” Truly the counsel of God is infinite, as God Himself is.
David meditates on this counsel of God so deeply that, as he says, “When I awake, I am still with thee.” His point is not to say that when he awakes from the sleep of death he will be with God, in the presence of God. His point is this: As he contemplates about God and loses himself sometimes in his meditations on God and then comes back to his consciousness, he realizes that still he is in the presence of God and in the counsel of God and that he is still thinking of the wonderful things of God. Or, we can say, that when he falls asleep on his bed at night having meditated on God and he awakes in the morning, he has found new reasons to meditate on God again. He realizes this because he has meditated on God so deeply and intensely.
How great is the love of God for us! Do you meditate on that?
We need encouragement in our life to meditate on God the way David did. Our text gives us this encouragement. It gives it because it speaks of the pleasure of the child of God in meditating on the things of God. David is speaking of a pleasurable experience. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! Do you think that meditating on the revelation and things of God is so precious? By nature we do not. We do not take the time to meditate on God. We have a busy earthly life. When we finally have time to sit down and relax, we do not want to meditate on spiritual things because that can be hard work. And, finally, when we do sit down to meditate on spiritual things and the Scriptures of God, we might fall asleep or easily become distracted.
All of this indicates that to our nature it is not a pleasurable thing to meditate on the counsel of God. But we have to fight against that nature. We have to be encouraged to meditate on the counsel and the revelation of God by knowing that this is for the child of God a pleasurable thing to do. It is not only David in this psalm who indicates that. But the psalmist in other places expresses his great love for God: sweeter than honey in his mouth is the law of God. He meditates on the law of God day and night.
How can that become true for you and for me? There is really no easy answer. To meditate on spiritual things is an exercise. To grow physically in strength takes exercise. Exercise takes time and it takes hard work. That is true, also, of our meditations on God. The way to do it is by prayer and Bible study — prayer and Bible study alone, prayer and Bible study with your family, prayer and Bible study with your friends.
To meditate on spiritual things is an exercise.
But all of this takes time. Do you have that time? Will you find that time? And, maybe better yet, we can ask, Do you love God as much as David does? For that, ultimately, is what it takes in order to find time and pleasure in meditating on God. If we love God, we will spend time with Him. Even when we are not focused on Him in specific reading of Scripture and in prayer with eyes shut and hands folded, we can think of Him throughout the day — as we ride down the road, as we take a walk, as we work. There are many occasions throughout the day in which we can meditate on His greatness.
What is so great about Jehovah? He is the all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere-present God who has determined everything that happens in time and history from all eternity.
Do you know that of Him? Do you meditate on these virtues of His? Do you love Him as the all-knowing God?
Chapter 5: Our Hatred of His Enemies
Please read in the Word of God Psalms 139:19-22. This passage requires us to face some hard questions. Is David sinning as he writes these words, or is he setting forth some truth which the child of God must follow in his own life?
Not surprisingly, many say today that David is sinning. He expressly says he hates men, whereas Scripture makes clear, we are told, that hatred is wrong, that we must tolerate others, that we must forgive others, and that we must follow Jesus’ example of love.
The problem with that is, in the first place, that David writes by inspiration. God, by His Spirit, governs David as he writes these words. In the second place, David writes as though he knows that God will be pleased with him for manifesting this hatred. He goes on to say, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” He knows, as he speaks to God of his hatred of Jehovah’s enemies, that God is pleased with him in this. Thirdly, Scripture tells us that even Jehovah does hate. Though He is a God of love, that does not mean that He does not hate. “I loved Jacob,” He says in Malachi 1:2. Then, in verse 3, “I hated Esau.” Any who might say that hatred of Esau was merely a lesser love than He had for Jacob must reckon with the words that follow: “And laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” Such was the hatred of Jehovah that He destroyed Esau.
The child of God must, therefore, understand that there is expressed in these words of David regarding his hatred of the enemies of Jehovah, a tuth that we must emulate. Of course, we must understand clearly just what this hatred is and what it is not. We must understand very clearly in what way we may or do show a hatred that pleases Jehovah and in what way we may not. Our basic explanation of the text is going to be this: David, in expressing his hatred of Jehovah’s enemies, shows his love for Jehovah Himself. Love for Jehovah: this is the keeping of the law. One must hate not his enemies, but Jehovah’s enemies. He shows his hatred not by killing them but by not associating with them. And in stating his hatred of Jehovah’s enemies, David shows how devoted he is to the cause of God.
As we go through the message today, we will notice four key points that, when understood properly, will help us know what it is to hate the enemies of Jehovah.
First, we must ask what was this hatred? David makes clear that he hated the enemies of Jehovah. Here is key-point number one. David is clear on this. He refers in verses 19-21 to “the wicked,” “ye bloody men,” “them … that hate thee,” “those that rise up against thee.” David is not speaking of his hatred of his own personal enemies. There is the command of Jesus: Love your enemies. David did that. He loved king Saul who was his enemy and tried to kill him. He loved a man named Shimei who cursed him. In both of these David showed his love by not killing them, or even harming them. David does not say that he hates his own enemies. He hates, rather, the enemies of Jehovah. And, while sometimes these might be one and the same person, we hate such a one not because he is our enemy, but rather because he is Jehovah’s enemy.
That hatred of David for the enemies of Jehovah was a genuine, heartfelt hatred. Do not I hate them, am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? David expresses in these words his continual activity of hatred. This is not a one-time act from which he turns later, but it is a continual activity in his life. That this hatred is genuine and heartfelt is also clear from the word “perfect.” “I hate them with perfect hatred.” This hatred involves the whole man and reaches a certain goal: the goal of manifesting that hatred by separation.
That leads us to ask, then, how is this hatred manifested? Key-point number two today is that this hatred is not manifested by killing or harming these enemies. David’s words here give no justification for what are called today hate crimes or an attitude of heart that desires the destruction of any other human being. Whatever is the idea of hating the enemies of Jehovah, it does not include killing, torturing, or harming those whom we do not like. The Christian must be aware of this also. In the news from time to time, we hear of Christians killing abortionists, or killing homosexuals, as though that is the way to show their love for God. There is no justification of that idea in this text, for David does not speak of hating them by killing or harming them.
It is true that David does speak of the day of their destruction. “Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God.” David does believe that the day will come when God will destroy them — not just the earthly destruction of earthly death, but David has in mind also the eternal, everlasting destruction of hell. Not everybody likes to hear that God destroys men in hell. How can a loving God destroy? The question forgets that God requires love and faith from men, and He hates those who do not love Him and believe in Him. So much does He hate the failure to love and believe in Him that He sent Jesus Christ to bear our punishment, the punishment of the sins of all the people of God; for if our punishment was not borne, we also would be destroyed in hell. But those who do not believe in God and in Jesus Christ, and who will not obey, must be punished. David speaks of that day of their destruction as something they justly deserve. But in speaking of that day he makes no mention of hastening that day, that is, he does nothing to indicate that he will try to bring that day to pass more quickly. He simply looks for the day when God destroys them Himself. And he speaks of that day as a certainty.
How then is the hatred of David manifested? Key-point number three today is that this hatred is manifested by living the antithesis. “Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men,” he says in verse 19. What is the antithesis? It is the separation that God has created between men and men — that is, between those men, on the one hand, who are saved in Jesus Christ, chosen to salvation from all eternity, given the grace of the Holy Spirit, and one day brought to heaven, and, on the other hand, those men who do not love Christ, who will not obey God, who go about life flagrantly defying Him, and who will be brought to hell as their just destruction. The antithesis is the separation between those two. And David says now that he will live that antithesis. “Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. I will have nothing to do with you.”
To say of one person, “I will not be your friend,” is an aspect of hatred — not the kind of hatred that is wrong, not the kind of hatred that is going to lead us to kill or to harm. It is simply a fact, and it is often forgotten today, that one way in which we show hatred is by refusing to be another person’s friend.
Jesus commands us to love our enemies. And by that, He means seek their good. If you see them lying alongside the road and in need of help, help them. If you see that harm has come upon them, show mercy to them. But does Jesus’ command to love our enemies mean that we must be friends with them, that we must have fellowship with them? That is not what Jesus means. That becomes clear from the Word of God in our text. The hatred of which David speaks is the kind of hatred that separates us from these wicked people. Not that we will live separate geographically. We are in the same world as the ungodly. We work alongside of them. We go to the stores alongside of them. But we are not their friends. We might speak to the ungodly, calling them to repentance. But we do not join with them in recreation and fellowship with them. Such is the antithetical life of the child of God. It is that that David has in mind when he says, “I hate them, I will have no friendships with them.”
Understanding then what that hatred of David for the enemies of Jehovah is, and seeing that it is not the kind of hatred so many would speak of immediately today, we can ask the question next: Is David justified for this hatred of the enemies of Jehovah? David does make an attempt to justify his hatred. He justifies it on the basis of their wickedness. He says in verse 19 that they are wicked: “Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God.” They are corrupt. They have committed crimes worthy of death. Having said that generally, David goes on to give specific instances of wickedness. He calls them “bloody men.” Bloody men, of course, are murderers. This does not necessarily mean that these men have committed the outward act of murder. Perhaps David has in mind the hatred that they show in desiring the removal or the murder of another human being. We read in 1st John 3:15 , “Whosoever hateth his brother (and that hatred is not merely the form of separating from one’s fellowship but desiring one’s destruction) is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”
The hatred of which David speaks
is the kind of hatred that separates us
from these wicked people.
Not only are these men bloody, but they are also blasphemers. They “speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.” David refers to the kind of men who show their hatred of God and of Jesus Christ and of Scripture as the revelation of God and of the church as the people of God by rising up against God Himself. “Am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?” These are the kind of people who spread the lie, who hate the truth of Jesus Christ, and who do everything in their power to destroy the faith of God’s people.
Because they show their utter contempt of Jehovah, David says that he is justified in hating them. We can understand that justification when we realize that David was at war with these enemies of Jehovah because they were at war with God. They are the enemies, the warriors against Jehovah. In war there is no tolerance. In war there is no trying to be nice to the enemy. You may not do that in war because it will mean your death. Anyone who has been in a war must surely understand this. In war, hatred of one’s enemy is justified. So David justifies his hatred of the enemies of Jehovah. This is a matter of his devotion to his God and a matter of his life.
There we have, in the first place then, the justification of this hatred of the enemies of God. It must be on the basis of this justification that a child of God who truly loves God is ready to say that, with anyone who is at war with Jehovah, he will have no fellowship lest, in the process, he be cast out of Jehovah’s fellowship and friendship. That is how David also justifies his hatred of the enemies of God. He justifies it on the basis of the covenant of God. What is the covenant? It is that bond of friendship and fellowship which God unconditionally and sovereignly makes with His people. David does not use the word “covenant” in our text, but he does use the covenantal name of God, the name Jehovah. “Do not I hate them, O Jehovah, that hate thee?”
The covenant implies love and fellowship and a desire to be pleasing to God. One who is in that covenant necessarily hates those who are not. And here we come to key-point number four: Hatred is not always the opposite of love, but can be a manifestation of love. Let me explain that. It is certainly true that I cannot love and hate the same person. That is not possible. But I can hate one person in my love for another person. A married man loves his wife. Because he loves his wife and delights in covenant fellowship with her, he will have nothing to do with other women. That does not mean that he is going to go out and kill other women. But there is a sense in which he hates other women. If another woman comes to him seeking his love, he tells her, “Depart from me, get away from me,” just as David says to the ungodly people in our text. And that kind of attitude toward another woman shows love for the man’s wife. That is David’s justification now for hating the enemies of God. David is part of the bride of Jehovah and of Jesus Christ, part of the church. All who hate his God, he has no fellowship with.
Notice that, having explained the justification for this hatred, David tells Jehovah of it. “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?” The questions are rhetorical — that is, David does not expect an answer. He is not asking because he does not know the answer. Rather, he asks them to make a point. The point is, “Indeed, I hate them, O Lord. Indeed, I am grieved with those that rise up against Thee.” He expresses that point in verse 22, “I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.”
Why does David take the trouble to tell Jehovah this? The answer is, to show how great his love for God is. He does not speak hypocritically when he speaks to God of the enemies of Jehovah, for he knows this truth about Him, namely, that Jehovah knows all things, as Psalm 139 has taught us repeatedly. Because Jehovah knows all things, He knows David’s heart. “Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? Thou Lord knowest. And Thou dost know that this is the evidence of my love for Thee.”
Hatred is not always the opposite of love,
but can be a manifestation of love.
It is important, then, that the child of God follow David’s example. In our love for Jehovah God, we must have no fellowship, no friendship, with those who hate Jehovah. We may desire their repentance and their salvation. But we may not act as though they and we are alike. There is something fundamentally different about us — so different that it must of necessity affect our outlook on life, the things we do, the people with whom we associate. That difference is: one hates Jehovah the only true God; the other loves Him.
Do you tell Jehovah in prayer that you love Him? Then do you ever try to demonstrate to Him in prayer how great and how sincere your love for Him is? The way that David demonstrates that love and that sincerity we are to follow — by keeping ourselves from those who hate and oppose Jehovah God and His cause.
Chapter 6: Our Prayer for Diving Examination
We come now to the end of our examination of Psalm 139. Having examined the psalm, we can say what a beautiful psalm it is. In this psalm David exalted Jehovah as the only God, the God who knew and does know all things, the God who is everywhere present, and the God who is all powerful.
It is a beautiful psalm because in it David sets forth reasons why the child of God can be comforted knowing Jehovah. That Jehovah knows us from all eternity is a comfort to us. That Jehovah determined everything that happens in time and in history comforts us. We are also comforted by knowing that Jehovah is near to us in all things.
Now David ends this psalm with a prayer. In ending with a prayer he shows his faith and trust in this God. What is David’s reaction, then, to the fact that Jehovah is the all-knowing, everywhere-present, all-powerful God? Does he try yet to escape the presence of Jehovah? Does he deny this God? Does he hate Him? No, rather, he makes a prayer: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23, 24). The psalm began on the same note: “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.” Now the psalm ends with a prayer: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.”
It is a beautiful prayer. Yet its answer could be very painful to us. What if God did this very thing to you? What if He made known to you the sinfulness of your heart; made known to you the sin that you were harboring in your thoughts? The answer to this prayer could hurt our pride and our ego. But it is an important prayer in order that we may experience the salvation of God.
The prayer consists of a petition for God to search his inward parts. David mentions specifically his heart and his thoughts. In limiting the prayer to a search of the inward parts, David shows that he is conscious that he is living a godly, obedient life outwardly. He does not ask God to search his acts or his words, because David is confident that these are pleasing to God by grace. But David is conscious at the same time that, though his actions and his words are pleasing to God, his heart and his thoughts might not be. David means that they might not be, while David himself is not aware of that. If his thoughts and his heart are not pleasing to God, and if David is not aware of that, he prays here that God bring that to his attention.
David prays regarding his heart and thoughts because he realizes that if in his heart or thoughts there is envy or jealousy or any sinful hatred or any other sin, eventually these will bear fruit in his actions. As is the heart of man, so is his life. If in the heart there is sin, that sin will bear fruit in one’s actions. David, knowing that his actions are pleasing to God, desires to continue to live as though he is pleasing to God. In order that he might do that, he prays: “Search my heart; know my heart; try me and know my thoughts.”
This prayer shows that David is free of hypocrisy. David is different from the wicked. He has made that clear in the previous verses — he hates the enemies of Jehovah. But that does not mean that he thinks he is free from all sin. He knows his sinful nature and prays that God search him out.
There are three verbs which constitute the main petition of the prayer: search, try, and know. We mentioned what that word “search” meant in our first sermon on this psalm. It means “to look, to investigate, thoroughly and intensely.” Then we used the example of the archeologist who, as he sifts through a patch of ground, sees and carefully examines many artifacts. So does God see. The prayer is that God might see our heart — see everything that is in it, not just taking a cursory glance, but by looking carefully and sifting through what He finds in our heart, in our thoughts, in our purposes, and in our goals.
David desires that God, having searched his heart, will try his thoughts — that is, test them, prove them, see if they are worthwhile or not. As the archeologist searches an area of ground, he finds much that is not worthwhile. So he must continually make a judgment — is this worth keeping or not? Or we can use the example of metal. When gold ore or silver ore is mined from the earth, it is put through a test — a test of fire. The metal is tested so that the impurities are removed from it and what remains is pure. That is what David prays for God to do here: Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts — that is, after performing that intense, thorough search, evaluate whether what is in my heart is good or bad.
Then David says, “Know me.” Does this mean that God does not already know David? No. Really, this is David’s way of asking God that God will bring to David’s attention the results of His search in order that David might be aware of how God sees him.
Is this your desire? Would you make this your prayer — to know the secret sins of your heart and that God show how far you fall from perfection?
Having made that main petition, David goes on to pray another petition: “And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Really, this is the goal of what he has prayed for when he prayed for searching, trying, and the knowledge of God. He desires as the goal of this search of God that God lead him in the way everlasting. For David is aware of the fact that there are two directions one might go in life, two directions that lead in very opposite ways and end at very opposite destinations. There is, on the one hand, the way of wickedness. It ends in sorrow. Its wages are death. To go down that way is to exist apart from God. There is, on the other hand, the way of everlasting life, the way of fellowship with God, the way that Jesus Christ points us to and makes possible for us to walk in, and actually guides us in, for He is Himself the way, the truth, and the life. David prays, “Lead me in that way.” It is as though David expresses to God that he is aware that he cannot walk in that way of himself, that he does not have the grace and the strength to do it, but that he desires to walk in it. To that end he needs the guidance of Jehovah. This is a prayer for spiritual preservation.
God gave the law, and in giving the law He also gives to His people the knowledge of Jehovah God. In that law we must walk. That knowledge of Jehovah we must hold precious and love. But is it possible for you and for me to continue walking in that law, to continue in our faith? David’s prayer expresses that the answer to this question must be No. At any moment, should God take His grace from us, we could no longer walk in obedience to His law or love Him and believe in Him. We would fall from grace if God did not continue to give grace. So this is a prayer for perseverance and preservation.
Is it your prayer? Is it your desire to be most pleasing to God, to be as pleasing to God as you could possibly be in this life? And is it your prayer to be pleasing to God throughout your life, until you are brought to heaven?
The question, what motivates this prayer of David, is an important question. A prayer might be prayed very beautifully. It might contain petitions that are very meaningful. But if it is not prayed with a proper motivation, knowing God and knowing the need for that which we pray, it is still not a proper and a pleasing prayer.
So it is important, when we pray, to know, in the first place, to whom we pray. And secondly, it is important to know why we pray to Him.
David prays to God, the all-knowing God. That is the God the psalm set forth — the God of the covenant, the God who loves His people in Jesus Christ. It is Jehovah. To that God David prays. David prays also in the consciousness of his need. He needs this grace of God. And it is this consciousness that motivates the prayer of David. For David desires to live to the glory of God. He desires to do this in gratitude for the salvation God has given.
You and I also, understanding that we are saved from sin in Jesus Christ, ought to desire to live to the glory of God. But in order to glorify God, we must obey His law. And in order that we obey His law, we must keep free from sin.
David desires, furthermore, to enjoy the fellowship of God. To enjoy God’s fellowship and to be conscious that one is pleasing in God’s sight requires us to obey. That is not true because obedience earns our place in the fellowship of God. Jesus Christ alone earned that place in God’s family and in God’s house. But God has no fellowship with sinners. David made that clear in verse 19 of the psalm, “Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.” Because God has no fellowship with sinners, that is, with sinners the guilt of whose sin God sees, or with sinners who have not repented of their sin, even the child of God who persists in sin will not experience the fellowship of God.
So David, understanding that, prays: “Lead me in the way everlasting.” And, “see if there be any wicked way in me” — that is, any wicked way, not only which would bring me to hell and destruction if not repented of, but any wicked way which already now in my life would keep me from enjoying the fellowship of Jehovah God.
David understands that there is only one way to enjoy the fellowship of God, and that is to walk the way everlasting. There are many wicked ways, not only one, that lead to hell. But they are different in that one way has this idea of God, and another way promotes that idea of God or that view of the law of God. There are many wicked ways. David’s prayer is that God keep him from each and every one of them (“see if there be any wicked way in me”). But there is one way everlasting. “Lead me in the way everlasting.” That is the way of faith in Christ and godliness — the only way to enjoy the fellowship of God.
This motivated the prayer of David. He wanted that fellowship with God. He knew his need for it.
Further, what motivated this prayer of David is that he knew the power of sin still abiding in him. He avoids two errors in this psalm — on the one hand, the error of thinking that he has attained to perfection, and on the other hand, the error of thinking that, because he is a child of God, sin has no more power in him. He knows that Satan still works in him. He knows that he has a sinful nature and will have that sinful nature till his death. And he desires grace to avoid such sin.
Are you so conscious of your sinfulness, and are you so eager to live in a way that pleases God, that you would do that at the expense of your reputation or your money or your health or your life? David will live that way. So he is motivated to pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Will God answer that prayer? There is no question about it. For His child He certainly will. What makes His answer certain is the fact that the God who is addressed is the God of power and of might, the God who sees the inward parts. The psalm has spoken of that. He is the God who is an all-knowing God and, therefore, will hear and answer the prayer of His children wherever they are. He is the God who provided Jesus Christ as the One to take our sins away. Therefore, for the sake of Christ, He will hear and answer the prayer of His people. That God will answer this prayer is certain.
Of what will that answer consist? That answer will consist of giving His child all the more the Holy Spirit to work in their hearts and to enable them to see their sins. To that end God will use His law. It is the law and the Word of God that are the standard for godly living. As we read and examine that law and study the Word of God, we will see more and more that we are sinners. We will see the sins that we have been harboring in us for some time. We will see the lust that has arisen in our own hearts, the jealousy which we do have hidden in our hearts. And, at the same time, we will see all the more that any excuse for these sins is empty. Man does quickly find excuses for his sin. He tries to justify his sin in many ways. Part of the answer of God to this prayer of David is that there is no excuse for sin. Sin is sin and God hates it.
In answer to this prayer, God will cause us, by the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts, to love the law of God more and more, hating sin, desiring to flee from sin, to fight sin, and to obey God in every respect. Furthermore, in answer to this prayer, God will work in us, by the Holy Spirit, a greater longing for heaven, where we shall be perfect and where there will be no more need of searching.
How will God answer this prayer? In your experience, and in your consciousness, and in mine, how will God do it? Generally, God will do it by bringing us to the consciousness of our sins and by working faith in us and repentance. That is, as we said already, by the law and the Word of God we will see our sins more and more. God will make us sorry for those sins. But how might God answer this prayer if we persist in praying, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, persist in disobeying His law and continue to justify the sins we are committing in our heart? There are times when God answers this prayer by leading us through very painful trials and afflictions and even by leading us into temptation, by causing us to fall hard into sin, by causing us, in a hard way and by experience, to see that we forgot to watch, forgot to guard against sin. In such ways also God will answer this prayer for the child of God who has not learned to hate his sin.
Why will God answer this prayer? In grace, first of all, because Jesus Christ took our sin away and earned for us the right to heaven. How thankful we can be for the gift of Christ. Therefore, secondly, God will answer this prayer in His love for us in Christ. For God desires fellowship with us. It is that desire of God for fellowship with us that motivated Him to send Christ into our flesh and to the death of the cross, to obtain for us righteousness and eternal life. And it is that desire of God for fellowship with us that is evidenced when the Spirit works in our hearts a longing for fellowship with Him.
Do you desire that grace of God? Do you want to be pleasing to Him? Then make this prayer your prayer: “Jehovah, the all-knowing God, Thou who dost know my heart and my thoughts; reveal to me if I have done anything contrary to Thy law. I desire to obey that law, but I know the power of sin to disobey. If there is such sin in me, root it out, lead me to Christ, and cause me to enjoy the blessedness of salvation now and forever. ”
Amen.
