Lecture to accompany Essentials: Week 1: Who is God?
Transcript:
I have a confession: I have been reading Psalm 139 upside down, and it made me realize I’ve been studying God’s character that way, too. I realized that in studying the attributes of God, I was using the lens of who He is to gaze adoringly and idolatrously at myself. I was beholding God the Father for how he makes me feel, not for who he is, and I have been treating the theology of God as a consumer rather than a student. The student says, “I am comforted because God is good.” The consumer says, “God is good because I am comforted.”
God IS the giver of every good and perfect gift, as James tells us. Psalm 23 assures us that “he makes us lie down in green pastures” and “my cup overflows”, but those blessings proceed from the Good Shepherd, who leads us “for his name’s sake”. When life is not peaceful, green pastures, is the Shepherd still good? When my cup isn’t overflowing, does God still provide?
This inverted way of handling the truth of God’s perfect goodness as a consumer is reinforced by our self-centered culture, and even some of our worship music. This worldview may suffice when the pastures are green and our cups are cups are full, but wise women and men of God build their houses upon the rock of his truth; “and [when] the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house…it did not fall because it had been founded on the Rock” (Matthew 7:25). Let’s flip Psalm 139 rightside up and see what we can learn from David as students of the character of God.
(An important Bible study tool is reading through the whole text at least once before you start to study it, so I will do that now)
PSALM 139
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.[b]
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts![c]
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting![d]
LORD OF INFINITE KNOWING
In verses 1-6, David ponders God’s omniscience, his infinite knowing of all things. If we pull out our skills from English class, we see that “God” is the subject of these statements, not David, not you, not me. The repeated ideas of searching, knowing, discerning, understanding, all my ways, altogether (ESV) magnify for us God’s knowledge. “From far away” in verse 2 and “before it happens” in verse 4 show us that it is unconditional (ESV). We lose touch with friends who move away and can’t know things before they happen, but God’s knowledge is not dependent on time or distance. God’s awareness and understanding is also complete: it is of our sitting and standing (v. 2, CSB), travelling and resting (v. 3, CSB); nothing is left out. I have always read these verses with the emphasis on me being known and watched and hemmed in behind and before. Basking in being adored for the sake of being adored is idolatry of self. But David, after processing all of this, pauses and says, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it” (v. 6). He doesn’t savor how special it makes him feel, instead he wonders that the Lord of infinite knowing cannot be fully known.
LORD OF INFINITE PRESENCE
Verses 7-10 describe God’s infinite presence. Romans 8:38-39 says that nothing can separate us from the love of God, and Psalm 139:7 says that not even we can separate ourselves from his presence or Spirit, not because we are irresistible, but because God is already there. Various versions translate verses 8-9 differently, but the general idea is the same: whether in heaven or in life; in Sheol, death, hell, or the grave; east or west, on land or sea or even beyond the bounds of the known world, God is there. And as verse 10 says, he is not just there, but he goes before us, leading us in his authority and wisdom, and behind us, holding us in his power and protection. The God of infinite presence is also specifically present; he is both near and everywhere, behind and before, leading and holding us.
AUTHOR OF CREATION
Psalm 139:11-16 worship God as the Author of Creation. The imagery of darkness and light in verses 11 and 12 reminds us of the first day of creation in Genesis 1 when God, in his sovereignty, created light from nothing and separated it from the darkness. God is self-sufficient and has no needs, even for illumination, for “even the darkness is not dark to him” (v. 11). Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 4 paint scenes of God’s glory in the throne room of heaven, with images of lightning, fire, shining, torches, brightness, sparkling, gleaming, and continuous flashes of fire. In Luke 2, when the shepherds were watching their flocks the night Jesus was born, the glory of the Lord appeared and shone around them. Light, fire, and lightning are like rocks crying out, created things reflecting the glory of God.
Verses 13-16 move us to day 6 of creation, when the Author of Creation said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Fire and lightning may reflect the glory of God, but we were made in the image of God himself, and he is a fearful and wonderful creator. I am a created being, knowable, measurable, formable, breakable. Rather than responding to David’s Psalm with increased love for myself, the only reaction should be praise for the remarkable and wondrous Author of Creation (CSB).
REALITY OF EVIL
After acknowledging the Lord’s infinite knowing, infinite presence, and authorship of creation, David pivots. The tone of the Psalm changes as he notes the reality of the “wicked…men of blood” around him (Psalm 139:19). Evil was near, but so was God. He was hemmed in, behind and before, as he remembered in verse 5. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and Pharaoh and his army were chasing him, the pillar of cloud and angel of God who had been going before them to lead them moved behind them to stand between the host of Israel and the host of Egypt (Exodus 14). And in Psalm 139:10, David acknowledges God doing the same thing for him, reflecting that “even there”, with malicious enemies at hand, God was leading and holding, before and behind.
CONCLUSION
David opens this Psalm by acknowledging that God has infinitely searched and known him and that God is infinitely before and behind him. Though his present reality was not free of the presence of evil men who wished him harm, the crescendo of his reflections is the declaration and commitment: “I will praise you” (v. 14, CSB). David closes by humbly, submissively inviting the Lord of infinite knowing and presence to continue knowing and searching him, convicting and leading him, behind and before, in the way everlasting. God’s works are wonderful, I know that full well: May the fullness of my finite knowledge be of God’s goodness forever, amen.
Kathryn Entrekin 