God’s Promised Presence
CLASS 4 ISSUES
Study Scripture: Psalm 139: 1 –12
Background Scripture:Psalm 23
Lesson 13 November 23, 2024
Key Verse
Lord, You have searched me and known me.
Psalm 139:1
INTRODUCTION
What would having someone with personal unlimited power and ability and a massive army of unbeatable soldiers with him mean for your feeling of security, well-being and safety?
Can you want a better life that than supplied by such a Being?
Or is it too difficult for you to accept in your heart and mind this position you have, even if you might constantly say you believe this?
Why is it so hard to accept the truths that come along with your status when you are a child of God?
Are you so vulnerable to the lies Satan continually flood you with?
Why is that so?
Is it time for you to seriously examine yourself, and really “believe” what you keep saying you “believe”?
Our Lesson Study brings us face to face with a Study of God Himself which features some of the attributes of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
This knowledge of the attributes featured in this Psalm gives us insights which are essential for our spiritual growth and for successful Christian life.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 lays the foundation for our understanding of the reality of our life and existence. It reads thus”
“Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom. And let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches;
But let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things”, declares the Lord.
In the Book of Job we see the warning in 11:7,
“Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty”?
In fact, Job and his friends well knew the fact that God is incomprehensible, which means that finite man cannot know everything there is to know about an infinite Being.
Later on by the closing Chapters of the book of Job we see that Job finally faced God and admitted what he well knew.
But they did know the fact that God could be known to a limited degree and well enough that trust in God could grow and keep on growing in a personal relationship with Him.
Studying the doctrine of the knowledge possessed by God will have the greatest of impact on the life of the believer, and in John 17:3 Jesus Himself stressed this fact.
Jesus would here focus on what is the longing of all men and so He stated:
“And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”.
Note therefore that Jesus teaches that man is put on earth by design, and are unique and have a purpose.
We therefore are studying about what God is like. His perfections teach us about the nature of God. He manifests Himself and in so doing those activities we learn about His nature and His essence.
At the very basis of His being is God’s self-existence which means He exists from Himself and not from any cause. He exists by His own Being for that is His nature. This is a profound mystery to the human mind and therefore the name given to Israel simply states,”I am that I am”.
This revelation of the divine nature must bring comfort and stability to the heart of the believer, for the believer knows that God exists independently of all things and that He is always there for the creatures and the world He created and for His people.
The Scripture therefore speak of the nature of God which does not mean that for God there is endless time with Him having no beginning and having no end. It means for Him there is no past, present, or future for He lives in eternity and not n time, and so is not subject to time.
Passages like Deuteronomy 33:27, Isaiah 40:28, and 57:15 make this abundantly clear.
But sadly, there are false views of God. We will list some of the major ones:
- There are Atheists which openly as Psalm 14:1 states, openly and proudly and emphatically denies the existence of God. He might claim to have examined all the facts which prove God’s existence but absolutely denies their validity. Or another type of atheist might doubts the existence of God when he looks at how God runs the world and the people in it, saying God is not omnipotent, wise, merciful, just or righteous. Or another atheistic person might as Titus 1:16 state, these profess to know God, but because of their disobedience and worthless behavior, act as in reality God does not exist.
- There is Agnosticism where persons do not deny the existence of God but hold there is not sufficient rational or empirical proof that God exists or if He did, He cannot be known either by feelings inside a person, tradition, the things in nature, or by revelation.
- Another approach is that of Materialism which teaches everything can be explained by observable physical causes. These techniques developed by our understanding make us understand what is happening around us. There are no spiritual causes.
- There is polytheism which teaches there are many gods. This is found with very few exceptions in all the major world religions. These gods are built to resemble the emotions and qualities of men with all the sexual activities, the displays of power, the competition, the ambitions, the violence and every evil causes you can imagine.
- Then there are those who believe God is in everything. This is called pantheism. Everything is God. One writer comments that “this confuses God with nature, matter with Spirit, and the creation with the Creator. Also pantheism must not be confused with the omnipresence of God. The Bible teaches that God is everywhere, but not in everything. God as Creator is independent of, distinct and separate from the creation”.
- Then there are Deists who will teach that there is a God who is Creator, infinite, and holy, but He made the world and put things in motion, does not sustain it but let events roll on by way of evolution of in any other way. Scripture and the supernatural are rejected. God is not providentially running the world and carrying it to a divine objective..
It is critically important for us to understand that our Study thus has us looking at a man in a personal relationship with God who thinks about who he is and about his relationship with God.
This gives the answer to any identity crisis you might have had and currently are having for the psalmist asks the pivotal question,
- “How well does God know me” (Verse 1). And then comes the answer, and then the response
- God, you understand me in my conscious life, my subconscious life, and the unbidden thoughts which spring up in my mind
- God, you are aware of my habits and my choices
- God, you understand every word in my mind even before I speak them,
- God, you are active in my past, my present, and my future,
- God, you are near to me, and I cannot escape from your presence.
- God, you made me and so you know how you set me up. You know more about me than I know about myself.
- You God are most incredible.
If no destiny can separate me from the fact of God, is that a fearful thought for you, given the fact that you feel guilty very often, and feel like crawling under the bed to hide. Or is it good news for you?
One writer calls on us to think carefully about who you really are. He says:
“Psalm 139 combines praise of, appeals to, and wisdom, meditation on this God who knows all and who encompasses all. The psalmist admits to God in effect, “You know where I live”, which is to say, God can get at me as God wills and there is no place to hide.
Normally, for us, the “I know where you live” line is seen as a threat, and that certainty can be the case with God as well.
Can that possibly be good news?
The psalmist obviously hopes that it is but only because…. he can draw this intensely personal plea into the whole story of Israel with God.
This is precisely not the Athenians “unknown god” (Acts 17:23) –or any other generic deity, from whom we would almost certainly want to keep our address and phone numbers unlisted.
Can you trust an unknown God”?
What are you thinking about yourself? Are you unnecessarily making life difficult for yourself?
Can we therefore knowing this have an identity crisis and keep asking ourselves, “Who am I”?
The Biblical view of God is of a Being who listens to the millions of prayers prayed each hour of the day and night in every language or non-language conceivable.
So, how important is the often seen religious piety? Is our feigned hypocrisy ever worthwhile?
You are warned therefore in this Study not to play the role of the hypocrite.
You and all of us are to stop breaking the commandments of God and treating them as things we can break and bend to suit our personal interests in life.
You have common sense. Do not allow any person, no matter who they are and your relationship with them to have you do anything that violates the commandments of God!
Remember simply that the greatness of God touches all your life.
THE TEXT
Verse 1. The psalmist states that Yahweh has searched (Hebrew hagar) him and knows him (Hebrew yada). The linguists explain that word ‘to know’ means God has known him relationally– experientially.
The word “searched” means literally to ‘dig”.
God therefore knows the psalmist for He designed him and created him from scratch. God therefore know him through and through, with no gaps in His knowledge.
Verse 2. God is more efficient and able than the moderncameras, telephone snooping, software systems, and face recognition systems that watch us daily. God’s surveillance is thorough for He knows more about our sitting down and our getting up than we can imagine. Every movement we make, minute after minute and hour after hour is known by Him.
He knows even more than that for He is never far from us and so He knows our thoughts in our ongoings. He knows what you think about and how you reason. Even the thoughts that come into your mind without invitation from you are not a secret from God.
Verse 3. The Hebrew word zarah means God had scrutinized and measured analytically, in a less emotional way than the hagar meaning of searching. He knows the psalmist inside out. God knows him intimately.
Verse 4. The psalmist now focuses on how God looks at him in detail. God knows the thoughts of his mind, how he expresses himself in his words. No matter what his language is, God knows it completely.No matter how his words are mixed up, and how he stumbles, and forgets what he wants to say, nothing beats God’s understanding his thoughts, his words, and his intentions.
We are assured that we do not always know what to pray for, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with “groanings”, or in a language and intensity that cannot be uttered. Then, the mind of the Father and the mind of the Spirit work together to make our way clear.
Verse 5. God not only knows him completely, but now the psalmist says God has hemmed him in using a word which normally is used to describe a “besieging”. He is surrounded and trapped and he cannot escape God for besides that God has His hand on him.
What a wonderful revelation!
The psalmist knows God is not his enemy and will never destroy him. Instead, God puts boundaries around him, for God’s hand is on him.
He is engraved on the palm of God’s hand.
At this stage you must remember how desperately you need this God. The world might tell you that you are small and insignificant and you live on a small and insignificant planet, but God tells you He, your Creator, and the Creator of all things, has His hand on you.
Verse 6. Accordingly, the psalmist declares this knowledge is too marvellous, too wonderful for him. He cannot attain to the depths of Yahweh’s understanding of who and what he is.
He sees himself dimly. But Yahweh sees him clearly.
Verses 7-9. Some of us like to think sometimes, and maybe say sometimes, we wish God would not be so close to us. It is embarrassing.
We do not like to think God is watching us, and every move we make.
We prefer to do some wrong things sometimes and we want God then to look the other way.
But remember that if you are a child of God, God will never look the other way at whatever wrongs you are doing.
So the psalmist who finds God’s presence comforting and not threatening warns and it is best to leave what he says in his own words, for we cannot say his words cannot be understood:
“Where can I go from your Spirit?
Or where could I flee from your presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!
If I take the wings of the dawn,
and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Even there your hand will lead me,
and your right hand will hold me”.
Going to the wings of the dawn or to the uttermost parts of the sea really mean going as quickly as one can to the most distant places will make you find Yahweh is right there beside you.
If you go to heaven you will find the incredible fullness of God’s love, glory, compassion, and warmth.
If you go the Sheol or Hell, you will find yourself where there is none of God’s love, and only His wrath, you will find God rules all of this universe, even the dark side of it. There is ultimate misery in Sheol for God’s love will not be there.
Verses 10-12. No matter where he goes he knows the hand of God, the hand of all power and might, will be there to lead him. God’s right hand will hold him.
One writer explains to us that the image of light and darkness stand for good and evil, order and chaos, security and danger, joy and sorrow, truth and untruth, life and death, salvation and condemnation.
Darkness is dangerous and frightening.
But with God’s presence with him there is no night, no darkness.
The light of God’s presence removes the darkness
CONCLUSION
So look closely at yourself. God’s thoughts of you are vast and they are precious.
The great God stand with you./ He touches all your life.
So know that God knows everything about you.
Yet despite that He has called you to Himself and redeemed you.
You know yourself so we can only ask you to do what is right.
We therefore plead with you to come closer to God. Do not hate the truth.
The psalmist concludes that the presence of God means everything good for you. And he concludes this Psalm with the best advice you can ever receive.
This is needed for some will look at themselves and know they are taking awful chances with the effort of God to have compassion on them.
God knows how vulnerable we are, and how we often try to fool ourselves into doing what God does not like.
So the psalmist tells us how to live on the right side of God:
“Search me, God, and know my heart,
Try me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way”.