(If you want to study more on this topic, start at the beginning of this series on prayer and the Psalms and follow the links to each successive post. Or check out the index for this entire series of posts.)
My excitement for this series is increased this week because I just got home from Orlando, Florida after a great weekend with the teenagers from the South Bumby Church of Christ. We spent four hours on Saturday talking about prayer from the psalms. I know I was built up and I hope they were too.
Last week we saw God is creator. However, the psalmists took it even further than just a general statement about creation. God is not only the creator in general. He is very specifically my creator.
Psalm 139 drives this home better than any other passage.
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.
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.Psalm 139:13-16
If God is creator of the universe, He is sovereign ruler of the universe. If He is creator of me, He is the sovereign ruler of me. The psalmist recognized that this creation gives God intimate knowledge of 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.Psalm 139:2-6
As we expect an inventor to know the ins and outs of the work of his hands, God knows us intimately. He knows how we tick. He knows how we think. He knows how we respond. He knows what we will say before we say it. The psalmist is left in awe. “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.” Notice, the psalmist doesn’t get bogged down trying to figure out how that works. He doesn’t get bogged down trying to figure out if he even needs to speak this psalm because God already knows. He is just in awe of God’s knowledge and he expresses it.
Perhaps the greatest point we should get from this psalm however is not that God knows the thoughts of the psalmists, but that the psalmist, seeing God as his creator, wants to know the thoughts of God.
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.Psalm 139:17-18
The psalmist also realizes this means God is my judge.
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try my and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the everlasting way!Psalm 139:23-24
At first, this statement brings up some fear in me. I’m not sure I’m ready to tell God search me that thoroughly. I’m not sure if I’m ready for God to look in every crack and crevice of my heart to find if there is any grievous way in me. I already know I’m still growing. I know there are struggles and problems. The psalmist seems to be saying he knows he is pure. However, at second glance, I think there is something other than acknowledging God’s judgment and the psalmist believing he measures up. Instead, he ends the thought with, “…lead me in the way everlasting!” Is it possible the psalmist is not saying, “Look at me God. Judge me God. I measure up”? Is it possible he is saying, “God look at me. Know me. Find everything that is wrong and fix it by leading me in your way”? I’m tending toward that second idea. After all, we’ve heard the first kind of statement before. But that was from a Pharisee and Jesus said that man was not justified. Perhaps God’s knowing us is not as frightening as it seems at first. Yes, He is judge. But He is not waiting to cast us into hell. He wants to search our hearts and show us the right way.
We must acknowledge God is our creator. He knows us. He knows how we work. He knows what is in our heart. Therefore, He can help us. Let us surrender to Him. Let us open every closet. Let us expose every buried skeleton. Let us shed the light in every chasm. We are only as sick as our darkest secrets. Let us let God’s light shine on them all so He can lead us away from our grievous way and onto in His everlasting way.
[…] week we learned that to the Psalmists, God was not just the creator in general, but God is my creator. This week we look at what I believe is one of the most shocking points of learning to pray like […]