In Isaiah 55:9, the Lord God says, “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
There is something marvelous, mysterious, and wondrous about God’s everlasting way.
Today, we are in Psalm 139, which was written by David, under inspiration the of God’s Holy Spirit, in part to describe the wondrous and everlasting ways of God.
Yet, David not only describes the wonders of God’s ways, he also wants to understand God’s ways more and live in God’s ways more. In fact, at the very end, David says, “ . . . lead me in the everlasting way.”
The title of today’s sermon is “God’s Everlasting Way.”
Well, let’s learn more about God’s everlasting way, and let’s be moved by God’s everlasting way.
Join me now in prayer as we seek to learn more about God’s everlasting way.
(prayer)
As we journey through Psalm 139, we’re going to see four characteristics or behaviors from God’s everlasting way.
I love that we are ending on this psalm because it is sort of a summary of all the greatness of God we’ve spoken about over the summer.
So, let’s see these four characteristics or behaviors from God’s everlasting way.
First, . . .
I. God’s wondrous knowledge.
There’s a fancy word we use to describe the fact that God is all-knowing. That word is omniscient.
Omniscient = all-knowing.
God knows everything about everything.
God has wondrous knowledge.
Listen to what David says in verses 1-6 of this Psalm:
1 Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up;
you understand my thoughts from far away.
3 You observe my travels and my rest;
you are aware of all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue,
you know all about it, Lord.
5 You have encircled me;
you have placed your hand on me.
6 This wondrous knowledge is beyond me.
It is lofty; I am unable to reach it.
David begins by saying that the Lord knows him very well.
The Lord has looked into David’s life. David says that God has searched him.
Church, we must recognize that God knows everything, including knowing everything about us and everything we’ve done.
God has wondrous knowledge.
David then describes these various situations when God knew him:
David said God knows him both when he sits down and when he stands up.
David said God can understand his thoughts from far away. God doesn’t merely see what we are doing; He knows what we are thinking.
God sees David both when he is traveling and when he is resting. Whether he is still or moving, God observes him and his ways.
In case David is leaving anything out, he says at the end of verse 3, “ . . . you are aware of all my ways.”
David even says that God knows what David is about to say before he even says it.
Sometimes, we think we can know what someone thinks before they say, particularly our family members, but God can really do it, and He’s correct 100% of the time.
Sometimes, we don’t even know what we’re going to say before we say it. We just spew out some words.
However, God is all-knowing, even to the point of knowing our thoughts.
Indeed, we saw this wondrous knowledge on display in the life of Jesus. Long after David wrote Psalm 139, this was said about Jesus in Luke 5:22: But perceiving their thoughts, Jesus replied to them, “Why are you thinking this in your hearts?”
David then says in verse 5 that God has encircled him.
This may seem like an intimidating or negative descriptor at first, as if David is trapped by God, but notice that David says, “ . . . you have placed your hand on me.”
In the context of the entire verse, we get this picture of God surrounding David and comforting him with His hand upon him.
Finally, David says in verse 6, “This wondrous knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it.”
God is so impressively knowledgeable and wise that His ways are beyond David, and He is unable to reach God’s knowledge.
God is wondrously knowledgable.
Second, we see . . .
II. God’s wide presence.
There’s another fancy word to describe the fact that God is ever-present. That is to say, He can be in any and every place at any time.
Omnipresent = ever-present or all-present.
To say that God is omnipresent means that He is in all places, at all times, and is involved in the business of His creation.
Listen to what David says in verses 7-12:
7 Where can I go to escape your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits,
10 even there your hand will lead me;
your right hand will hold on to me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me,
and the light around me will be night”—
12 even the darkness is not dark to you.
The night shines like the day;
darkness and light are alike to you.
David is acknowledging the truth that the presence of God is everywhere.
He says in verse 7, “Where can I flee from your presence?”
The fact that God is ever-present should both warn us and warm us.
When we are walking in sin, God sees our sin and knows what we are doing.
Yet, when we are hurting or despairing, God sees our pain and can comfort us.
We learn in verse 8 that God is in heaven, and He also has authority over Sheol, or the place of the dead.
God is to the far reaches of the east and the far reaches of the west.
In verses 11 and 12, we learn that when darkness seems to be all around us, it’s not dark at all to God. He can see right through the darkness. To Him, the night is like the day.
God has a very wide presence. His Spirit is all around us and around the earth.
There is nowhere that we can escape Him and there is nowhere that is too far for Him to touch us with His loving hand.
God’s everlasting way includes His wide presence in this world.
Next, we learn of . . .
III. God’s whole involvement.
God is actively involved in this world and in our lives.
God is not an uninvolved God who simply sets the world in motion, then steps back to let it run itself. No! God is active and involved in our the world and our lives.
God is wholly involved.
Listen to what David said in verses 13-18:
13 For it was you who created my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise you
because I have been remarkably and wondrously made.
Your works are wondrous,
and I know this very well.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was made in secret,
when I was formed in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw me when I was formless;
all my days were written in your book and planned
before a single one of them began.
17 God, how precious your thoughts are to me;
how vast their sum is!
18 If I counted them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand;
when I wake up, I am still with you.
From the very beginning that David’s life was conceived, when he was in his mother’s womb, God was involved.
Church, this is one of many reasons why babies have tremendous value from the very moment that they are conceived.
This is why we who are followers of Jesus should do all that we can to protect these precious little ones.
God is wholly involved in their lives from the very beginning. He is knitting them together in their mother’s womb. He is creating their inward parts.
He has remarkably and wondrously made them.
He knows all about them.
David uses poetic language to say that God knows this mysterious process that we cannot even fully comprehend.
David says in verse 15, “My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth.”
Obviously, David doesn’t think we are trolls or something when he said he was formed in the earth.
Rather, he is saying that there is a deep mystery to the formation and development of a human child, but it is no mystery to God because He is actively involved in the whole process.
God created the process, God created the mystery, God created the child, and God created the miracle of life, which is remarkable and wondrous.
In verse 16, David points out that God sees us when we are formless, and not only does God see us then, but He sees all the days of our lives.
David says, “ . . . all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.”
David doesn’t say that he planned his days. After all, David is speaking about when he was formless.
No! God is the one planning David’s days. God is wholly involved!
David then praises God’s ways in verses 17 and 18.
He says that God’s thoughts are precious to him.
He says he cannot count all the ways of God.
Then, he praises God because when he wakes he is still with God.
David is in awe and wonder that God is wholly involved.
Finally, we see . . .
IV. God’s welcomed judgment.
Look at verses 19-24:
19 God, if only you would kill the wicked—
you bloodthirsty men, stay away from me—
20 who invoke you deceitfully.
Your enemies swear by you falsely.
21 Lord, don’t I hate those who hate you,
and detest those who rebel against you?
22 I hate them with extreme hatred;
I consider them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my concerns.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me;
lead me in the everlasting way.
These verses talk a lot about David’s hate for the enemies of God. David wants God to pour out judgment on sin and sinners.
Hate, in this sense, means that David wants nothing to do with the sin or sinners. He is so in love with God that he is totally against that which is against God.
David wants God to kill and judge sinners, which God will eventually do.
Notice what else David does. David not only welcomes God to judge sinners, David welcomes God’s judgment of himself.
David asks God in verses 23 and 24 to . . .
“Search me”
“Know my heart”
“Test me”
“Know my concerns”
and, “See if there is any offensive ways in me”
David is boldly asking the Lord to look within his life to see if he has sin.
That is a bold prayer, but it is nevertheless a prayer that we should all pray in our own lives.
We should want to be close to the Lord, and we should want to be sinless before the Lord.
Then, David asks God to lead him in the everlasting way.
David not only wants to be pure before the Lord, he wants the Lord to direct him in the everlasting way.
David wants God’s everlasting way in his life. Indeed, we need the way of God.
You know, the Bible has a lot to say about ways.
Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.”
Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
We don’t need to go our way, we need to go the way of God. We need to find that way in Jesus. We need God’s everlasting way.
That leads to our Bottom Line:
Bottom Line: The Lord is wondrously involved in all aspects of our lives.
Listen, church: God is not far away, He is near. He is involved. He sees us, He knows us, He created us, and He cares for us.
May we love and discover all that we can about His everlasting way, realizing that God is wondrous and majestic. As David said in verse 6: “This wondrous knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it.”
Challenge yourself this week in the following two ways:
Weekly Challenge #1 – Memorize Romans 11:33.
David wasn’t the only one to say something about the majestic and wondrous ways of God.
The apostle Paul said in Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways!”
God is wondrous. In our pursuit of His everlasting way, we will not discover everything, but we will discover a God who loves us and has a great plan for our lives.
That is wonderful news; news that we shouldn’t keep to ourselves, which leads to our second weekly challenge.
Weekly Challenge #2 – Tell someone how wondrous the Lord is.
Don’t keep this marvelous news to yourself! Tell someone about our glorious God!
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
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