Psalm 139

We like our personal space. We like to keep a distance. There’s a certain amount of comfort in the area between us and others. Physically, we like the 18 inches that keep us from being too close. Maybe this is why people tend to sit in the back of church, because it’s nice to keep a little space between us and the pulpit. Physically, we like the space.

Emotionally, we keep people at a distance. People ask, "How are you doing?" And we say, "Fine. Fine….Fine." Not that we’re without our struggles, but there’s no need to let those deep, dark ones out there. We’ll talk about the normal struggles, the worries that are safe to talk about. The other ones, the scary ones, we keep others far away from them.

And we keep God at a distance. God being close, God being presence, God with us is supposed to be comforting. It’s supposed to be what gets us through the day. It’s why we celebrate Christmas, so that Immanuel, God could be with us.

So why does it sometimes seem more comforting to keep God at a distance? Why is it more frightening to think that God is here, right now, next to you, above you, below you, watching you, listening to the thoughts that are flying through your heads when you’re supposed to be listening to the sermon? Why is it more comforting to think of God up in heaven, at a safe distance?

And we cover up this comfort with holy talk. God is holy. God is transcendent. God’s ways are not our ways. God is over all. Our Father is in heaven, which means He’s not so much here. There’s a comfort in a distant God. There’s comfort in keeping God at arm’s length.

This is not the life that God has in mind for His people. When Immanuel, God with us, came, He really wanted to be with us. He didn’t come to be kept at arm’s length. This is not the life that Jesus gives to us, His body. This is a life filled with fear that God will get too close. We disconnect ourselves from the very source of strength that we need, and we end up filled with guilt and shame. This is not what God had in mind. The life that God wants to give us, the life that Jesus purchased with His death on the cross is a life of confidence before the throne of God. It’s the certainty that we have been and are being made clean, clean, pure, holy.

The writer of psalm 139 is very confident as he writes. Verse 1:

There’s no preparation for this, we just jump right in. The Lord knows you. He has searched into all the nooks and crannies, in to all the little habits you have, the tendencies, the quirks, the rituals, and He knows you. He knows the brand of toothpaste, He knows which side of the bed you get out of. He knows. Verse 2:

In His majesty, while He is our Father in heaven, He knows. He knows us. He knows every thought. He can read our body language. He knows why our one eyebrow goes up at certain times, why we cross our arms over our chests, why we tend to avoid eye contact. He knows. He knows.

Which might seem like a bad thing. Again, we might be more comfortable with Him at a distance. But actually, it’s better that He knows. Verse 5:

There’s a certain amount of relief here in verse 5. There’s a fence that protects, there’s a border that guards us, and that’s kind of nice. If you’ve ever been driving in the mountains on one of those curvy roads where the shoulder drops off hundreds of feet into a canyon, it’s really nice to have that guardrail there, just in case. It’s nice to have the fence hemming us in.

The presence of the Lord is not a annoyance. It’s an assurance. When a child is in the middle of a crowd, like at the fair, or a football game, they know they’re okay as long as their holding their mom’s hand, as long as their dad has his hand on their should. They know they’re going in the right direction, they know no one can snatch them, they know they can’t get lost.

This is the comfort of having the Lord present at all times. His hand is on us, and He’s not letting go. Verse 8:

The Lord is present wherever we geographically go, up to the heavens, down to the depths. But verse 8 is more than just up in the sky and down into caves. We’re talking about death here. If we go to stand before the judgment seat of God in heaven, like we talked about this morning, you’re there. But it’s okay. There’s nothing to fear. The presence of God is a comfort.

If we make our bed in the depths. This is talking about death. The word "depths" here is the Hebrew word "Sheol". And for the Israelites, this was a very bad word. This is the place where people who have died live. Ordinarily this would be a very scary place. It was imagined to be a deep, dark place. "Hades" is the Greek word that describes the same thing.

And yet, there God is. We’re 23 Sundays out from Easter, and it is Easter that allows us to say verse 8. If we go down to the depths, if we go to Sheol, if we die, you are there. If we are buried, you are there. This is why the funerals in this church are not days of despair, they are celebrations. Because a saint went to be where Jesus is. For someone who ignores Jesus, Sheol is it. That’s it. The coffin, the bed in the depths, that’s the end. Not for us. The coffin is the way to where God is. The grave is the door to Jesus.

And yet, we are always with God. Or rather, God is always with us. After talking about the end of our earthly life, we go back to the beginning, and we find that God was there already then. Verse 13:

God is watching. He’s watching right now. He will be watching. And He was there watching at the first second of your life. And not only watching. Knitting. Forming. Creating with those all-powerful hands. Your life was not a mistake. No life is a mistake. This is why many people are against abortion, even in the case of rape or incest, because the baby is knit by God. Verse 14:

If you want proof that God is near, if you want proof that God is involved with your life, you have to look no further than your own body. You have no further to look than the end of your nose. Did you know that scientists don’t know why we smell. They know how we smell, the parts that cause us to smell. They’re just not sure how they work, what it is in the air, in perfume, in the steam of a pot roast, or the aroma of a chicken coop, that causes us to smell. God did that, and we don’t understand that. You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Knowing this doesn’t just create wonder in us, it also gives us assurance. If God knitted us together, if He fearfully and wonderfully made us, what do you think He did all that for? To walk away? Shove us out to sea and wish us good luck? If God was present at the beginning our mother’s womb, as the cells split, and split again, and fingers were formed, and hair grew, and colors of eyes were determined, where do you think He’ll be for the future? Verse 16:

God knitted together your skin and eyes and heart and liver and kidneys and colon and lungs. Now, when we have cataract surgery, or dialysis, or cancer of the colon or lungs or prostate, do we think that God is far away? Do we think He’s watching from a distance, and not involved?

Of course not. He made us with a plan in mind. A plan for careers, a plan for marriage or singlehood, a plan for lungs and colons and hips and knees. He thought this all through as He knit you together, which is why we thank Him, in verse 17:

Remember? God knows you. He thinks about you. It’s great getting a card from a friend, telling you "I was just thinking of you." This is God, thinking about you. Thinking about how you’re doing, but of course He already knows. Thinking about what’s going to happen throughout the day, but of course He already has that planned. Thinking about your retirement plan, but of course He’s already provided for that. You’re in His thoughts. Your name comes to mind. When you crawl into bed, He’s aware of you. When your eyes slide open in the morning, there He is. Verse 18:

To have God close is a wonderful thing. He doesn’t need to be distant.

And then, all of a sudden, there’s a switch in the psalm. The wonder, the joy, the security turns to, there’s no other word for it, hatred. Verse 19:

This does not seem very nice, does it? Have you ever prayed a prayer like this, that God would kill people? It’s a hard verse to take, and in a couple of weeks, in the morning services, we’re going to look at a few of these kinds of psalms, psalms that call down fire and brimstone on the heads of our enemies.

But right now, in a way, this kind of makes sense. For 18 verses, we’ve been enjoying the presence of the Lord. We’ve found that we didn’t need to keep Him at a distance, that it was wonderful, precious to have Him close. Now, we start to notice others who don’t love our Lord like we do, who don’t love His presence like we’ve learned to love. It would be one thing if they would learn to love God, like we have. There’s plenty of room, in the presence of God. But these are people who have rejected God, want nothing to do with Him, and nothing to do with anything He says. And that is just repulsive, after having enjoyed the glory of God. It’s revolting. Verse 20:

Jesus said to love our enemies, and at the same time, there is an hatred for anyone who hates God. There’s a sense where the more wonder we have towards God, the less tolerant we are of sin, and the more tolerant we are of sin, the less amazed we are with God. Now, our hatred of those who hate God isn’t expressed in violence, or even in anger and loud demonstrations. Our hatred of hatred of God leads us to witness, to show them the wonder of God, so that they would stop hating God, just like us. A healthy hatred of the hatred of God comes from the joy of having God near, presence, involved with our lives.

So, then, we end with a request. We began the psalm with the awareness that the Lord is near, that He has searched us, that He knows us. We may have been uncomfortable at first, but it’s been a great joy to have Him knowing our sitting and rising, our entering this world, and our leaving. So we end with a request that we continue more of the same. Lord, you’ve search me. Lord, you’ve known me. Keep on doing that. Verse 23:

If we want to continue in the joy and security, the wonder and awe of being the presence of God, then we need to keep praying this prayer. Pray this prayer everyday. When He’s there when your eyes open, pray this prayer. Pray it again at noon, and again at supper. We need God to scrutinize every part of us, every movement of an eye, every flash of a thought, every word spoken under our breath, and make sure there is nothing separating us. We hate anything that separates us from God, remember? We hate anything that moves Him to a distance, keeps Him at arms length. So we want God to identify and eradicate anything that comes between us. We want God near. We need Him close by.

And He is. He’s here, right now, and you’re on His mind. He had planned this day for you from the moment He started knitting you together. And He has tomorrow planned to, and every day after that, whether we make our bed in our house, or in the depths. He is there, holding, protecting, guarding.

God is here. God is near. Get used to it. Enjoy it. Relax in it. Crave it. Live in the presence of God.