Psalm 139 The Wonder of our Multi-faceted God Dennis Mock

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Psalm 139 is a special psalm. It speaks of who God is and who we should be as we reflect
Jesus Christ. The incarnation was about the revelation of the truth about who God really
is. Our eyes can’t stay on the manger, the cross, or the tomb. They must ultimately
return to the God who accomplished all these things. This morning we will identify from
Psalm 139 four things about God’s attributes.

(4 stanzas of 6 verses each)

(1-6) God’s Omniscience is personal, pervasive and without peer.

– The Lord knows us. He has searched us.
– His knowledge of us is all-inclusive.
– We live in a glass house when it comes to God.
– Associated Truths:
○ (Without Peer) No one knows what God knows.
 No one knows us like God knows us.
 We should ask God to show us who we really are.
○ (Personal) God knows us in such a way that he evaluates us at every level.
○ His omniscience overshadows us. It is too wonderful for us to grasp.
 He knows everything past, present and future.
 He knew that we needed a savior. He brought Jesus in the fullness of
time, born of a woman.
– We will raise a question for each attribute:
○ Is it disquieting to us or is it delightful to us?
(7-12) God’s Omnipresence is personal, predictable and without boundary.
– Where can we flee form God? Nowhere where He is not.
– Everywhere is in the presence of God; Heaven, in the grave, in the dark, in the
light.
○ Movements in time, location, geography, speed do not get us out of His
presence.
– It allows him to guide, guard and protect us wherever we are.
– Jonah is an example of how we can never flee from Him successfully.
– Question: Is it comforting to you or is it confining?
(13-18) God’s Omnipotence is personal, preeminent and without limit.
– God simply spoke and things came into being.
– It is referenced in this psalm in regard to creation of individual people.
– We can be assured His purposes will be accomplished and His promises kept!
– The virgin birth and the resurrection were impossible but for God’s omnipotence.
– Nothing is beyond the ability of God to do, assuming it is within His will.
– Perhaps the most startling part of this stanza is the part about our formation in the
womb. It suggests that God’s sovereignty superintends our earthly lives from birth
to death.
○ He has wired us the way we are.
○ He has ordained the exact number of days we will live.
○ From start to finish His power sustains us.
– His power sustains creation at a macro level but also us at a micro level.
○ We are each unique creations of His. We are extraordinarily complex in our
physical and spiritual makeup.
 ○ God exercised his omnipotent power in the creation of each of us personally.
– The sum of His thoughts are so vast the Psalmist can’t get his mind around them.
○ It is precious to the Psalmist that some of those thoughts are towards us
individually.
– If we want to see what God intended us to be like then we should look at His Son.
– Question: Is this idea that God is all-powerful frightening or freeing? Do we
struggle with the fact that He is so powerful we cannot possibly have any effect on
anything related to Him?
○ Yet God invites us to relate to Him personally.
○ Perhaps it should be freeing to us rather than frightening.
○ He is all that we are not.
(18-24) God Omni-righteousness is personal, permeating and without
partiality.
– Notice again v. 1 along with 23 and 24.
– The Psalmist stops and makes a plea to God for Him to deal with the enemies of
the Psalmist because the Psalmists enemies are those who are enemies of God.
– God made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us.
– God’s unsullied righteousness causes wicked men to oppose Him.
○ David calls God to ultimately judge the wicked.
○ God’s righteousness is applied with equal force to David.
○ (23-24) He realizes that it applies to Him without partiality as well.
– Are you willing for God to take a hard look at your life and reveal what He sees? He
already is!
– We have Christ’s righteousness imputed to us but we must live it out. We must
purify our motives.
○ Impure motive is sin.
○ An anxious thought is a lack of faith for one who knows God.
 God can handle anything and everything that concerns us.
 David prays that if any of these things are true of him for God to put
him back on track.
○ Purity is the heart’s desire of the Psalmist.
○ It is possible for us in this life to be righteous enough through the sacrifice of
Christ to be pleasing to God.
– Question: Is God’s Omni-righteousness appalling or appealing to us?
○ Does it challenge us to be like Him?

These are the key attributes of the God who condescended to send His one and only Son
to be born in a manger and to die on a cross for our sins.

Christmas is the time to celebrate the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus but also to
just celebrate God for who He is!

It is delightful that He knows all.

It is comforting that He is present.
It is freeing to know He is in control.
It is appealing to be like Him.