[0:00] And before we sing again, just a wee word to the young people, although there's no Sunday school today, there's a few of the young folk in. And I'm sure that, like me, there are times that you wish that time could stand still.
[0:19] You wish that the moment you're in, that that moment could stay forever. Or that it would stay for a long, long time because it's so good.
[0:32] There have been times where I've said that, where I've just, something has been so good, I've actually said, things can't get better than this.
[0:44] I think we've all been at times like that, where just the moment is so special, it is so good. And I'm sure we can all think of our own life and those of our family.
[0:57] And I remember, Marie, she's not here, so that's why I'll talk about her. I remember when she was young, she was really keen on horses. And I remember the first time she ever went horse riding.
[1:10] And what I remember most, yes, there was just the sheer joy, but it's when she came back and she was sitting on a horse and there was, her face was saying, don't tell me that I have to come off this.
[1:28] I want this to stay forever. Now that's just a slight, a little example of it. But just her face said everything, I do not believe this is coming to an end.
[1:41] And I think we're like that so often. There's so many great times. Sometimes it's the very opposite. Sometimes we're in really difficult times, sad times, and we're saying, oh, I wish I could get out of here.
[1:53] I wish time would move on. I just want to get to the next place. But very often we want things just to stay.
[2:05] I used to, when I was younger, I used to do a lot of hill walking and even rock climbing when I was sort of late teens and into very early 20s.
[2:17] And I remember often when we would go to the top of a mountain and stopping there. And sometimes, there was usually two or three of you, and somebody would say, well, we better be going.
[2:29] And I remember quite often, I just loved, particularly if it was a nice day, I just loved being on the top of a hill or of a mountain. Because the world is different from there. And sometimes one would say, oh, we better head.
[2:42] And I always used to say, oh, just can we stay a little longer? Well, in the Bible we read of Jesus taking three people up a mountain. Peter, James, and John.
[2:53] And they went to the top of the mountain, and Jesus began to pray. And as he prayed, something amazing happened. He began to change. His clothes and his face began to shine as bright as the sun.
[3:07] And there was a sense of the presence and the power of God. And then an amazing thing happened that Elijah and Moses appeared.
[3:19] They started talking with Jesus in the mountain. And Peter was saying, whoa, this. Peter was just thought, this is the most amazing moment I have ever had.
[3:31] And he wanted to stay up there. And he said to Jesus, I want to make three tents appear. Well, let's stay one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.
[3:43] And Peter is really saying, it can't get better than this. And he just wanted to stay there and wanted Jesus to stay there. But you know what would have happened?
[3:54] Imagine if Peter had had his wish and that they had all stayed up in the mountain. And then God the Father said to Jesus, he said, right, you've been in the world now for a while.
[4:05] I'm just going to take you straight back to heaven. Do you know, we wouldn't be meeting here today. We wouldn't have the gospel. We wouldn't have salvation. Because Jesus had to go to the cross.
[4:16] He had to come down from the mountain. He had to go into a dark place and a difficult place for us. So we've got to remember that however good things are, we can't stay there.
[4:31] But you know, when you become a Christian, when you come to faith in Jesus, or when you come to know that you're a Christian, sometimes it's so new, so wonderful.
[4:44] It's not the same for everybody. Everybody doesn't have exactly the same. Everybody doesn't just go through everything exactly the same. But when you come to see and to understand and believe, there are times you say, I just, boy, I would like things to stop here.
[5:00] But they can't. You're on a journey. But you know what? There's going to come a day. That's what the Bible teaches us. When we trust in Jesus, Jesus is going to take us to be with himself.
[5:14] And we are going to go with him to heaven. And you know what I said, sometimes you say, it can't get better than this. Well, that's going to be true of heaven.
[5:26] Every moment. All the time. You know how sometimes we say, lost in a moment. That moment is just so amazing.
[5:37] We're kind of, oh, we're kind of stuck there. It's so wonderful. Well, I don't mean that we'll be stuck in heaven. We will be enjoying. We'll be moving. We'll be just, it'll be different to here.
[5:49] But we'll be involved with one another. All these things. But it's going to be so wonderful. That's what the Bible tells us. Forever with Jesus. And we'll be saying it can't get better than this.
[6:03] But it'll be like that. Always. Always. That's the gospel. You know, some people, I'm going to finish here. Some people say, you know, there's no good news today. I can't think of any better news than that.
[6:16] Of telling people that there is this in Jesus. We're going to sing now in Psalm. And it's from the Scottish Psalter, Psalm 24. And we're going to sing verses 4 to 10.
[6:28] Psalm 24. No. Sorry. It's Psalm 25, verses 4 to 10. Scottish Psalter.
[6:40] And the tune is Selma. First version of the Psalm.
[6:52] Verses 4 to 10. 1. 1. 2. 3. 3. 4. 4. 5. 5. 5.
[7:03] 5. 5. 6. 6. 7. 7. 5. 6. 7.
[7:16] 7. 8. 8. 8. 10. It's on page 231. Psalm 25. 4 to 10.
[7:28] Show me thy ways, O Lord. Show me thy ways, O Lord, Thy paths so discern me, And to the rich be in my truth, There in my teacher be.
[8:03] For thou art called the cross, To the salvation's end, Thou might uphold thee all the day, Expecting to attend.
[8:32] Thy tender mercy soar, Thy pray thee to remember, Our loving kindnesses for thee, Have thee now full forever.
[9:04] Thy sins and faults of you, To the Lord forget, After thy mercy take on thee, And for thy goodness grace.
[9:34] For the law of Christ The God of Christ The weak in judgment he will guide and take his path to know.
[10:06] The hope that's all the Lord are true and mercy sure.
[10:21] To those that do it's covenant thee and testimonies true.
[10:41] Let's turn to the book of Psalms. Read there in Psalm 139. The book of Psalms, Psalm 139.
[11:17]
[12:47] In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
[13:03] If I would count them, they are more than the sun. I awake and I am still with you. O that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me!
[13:16] They speak against you with malicious intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
[13:31] 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.
[13:43] And see if there be any grievous way in me. And lead me in the way everlasting. Amen, and may God bless to us this reading of his own holy word.
[13:55] We're going to sing again, and it's from Sing Psalm, Psalm 147. We're going to sing verses 128, and the tune is Creditan. Sing Psalm, Psalm 147.
[14:05] Amen. It's on page 192. Amen. I praise the Lord how good it is to sing him songs of praise.
[14:21] How pleasant to give thanks to him for all his gracious ways. The Lord builds up Jerusalem, and he it is alone, who reaches out to Israel to bring the exiles home.
[14:34] He heals his people's broken hearts, restores the bruised and lame. He sets the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord, and great in power.
[14:47] His wisdom is profound. The Lord sustains the meek, but casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thankfulness. With joy his praise proclaim.
[14:58] And with the music of the harp give glory to his name. He clothes the vast expanse of heaven. The sky with clouds he fills. He makes the rain refresh the earth, and grass grow on the hills.
[15:13] So on Psalm 147, 1-8, the tune is Creditan. O praise the Lord. O praise the Lord, how good it is to sing him songs of praise.
[15:36] And blessed and to give thanks to him for all his gracious ways.
[15:50] The Lord builds up Jerusalem, and he it is alone.
[16:03] Who reaches up to Israel to bring the exiles home.
[16:18] He heals his people's broken hearts, restores the bruised and lame.
[16:32] He sets the number of the stars, and calls them each by name.
[16:47] Great is our Lord, and great in power. His wisdom is profound.
[17:01] The Lord sustains the weak, the cross, the wicked to the ground.
[17:16] Sing to the Lord with handfulness. With joy his grace proclaim.
[17:30] And with the music of the harp, give glory to his name.
[17:46] He closed the vast expanse of air, the sky with clouds he fills.
[18:01] He made the rain refresh the air, and castro on the hills.
[18:20] Let's turn again to Psalm 139. I want this morning just to look at this psalm for a little. As we know, this is really quite a majestic psalm.
[18:42] And it brings us to see in a very powerful way something of the sovereign power and majesty and glory and the authority of God.
[18:55] And as you read this psalm, it has a humbling impact. I can never, ever read this psalm without becoming aware of how small and insignificant I am in comparison to the greatness and the glory and the majesty of God.
[19:13] Sometimes we can think more of ourselves than we should. But when we come face to face with God as he is revealed in writing like this, it's a great reminder to us really of who he is and of who we are.
[19:30] Now supposing you and I were going to try and devise, or to try in some way to describe somebody. Supposing we had somebody in our thinking.
[19:44] Somebody who is really wonderful and great. Somebody who is a kind of a supreme being. And we were trying to describe that person to somebody. We could never come up with something like this.
[19:58] Because when you read this, we find that this really brings us to agree with David. When David had to say, as he began to think upon God.
[20:09] And remember that as David is writing here, that he is spirit-led. That the Holy Spirit is leading him. So that really God is revealing something of himself to us through David.
[20:25] So there is, although it's David's language and David's words, yet it is spirit-breathed. And so there is a revelation given to us by God of himself through what David has written.
[20:39] And it's really, that's what makes it just so remarkable, so wonderful. But you know, one of the things that strikes you as you see just the majesty and the glory and the wonder of God is how personal as well.
[20:58] This psalm is so personal. That this great, authoritative, powerful God who is in everything and is everywhere and in control of everything is also the God who is actively involved in our lives.
[21:19] And that's one of the wonderful things because, you know, like today we have CCTV cameras really everywhere and there is so much surveillance goes on.
[21:30] And in many ways there is little privacy today. And however it is here compared to some states and some places where secret police are in operation and where every move of people is monitored.
[21:50] And there are spy networks and secret police at work. And of course they are trying to glean all they can about people and information about people, not for the patient's good but in order to pursue them.
[22:06] Well that's not how God is dealing. God is actively involved with us, knowing everything about us. But it is not in order to harm us but to help us.
[22:19] And that's one of the things that this psalm brings out. That the Lord is personally interested in us. And the first section of the psalm really highlights the God who knows all.
[22:33] And that first section that's one of the things that really stands out. That here is the God who knows all. And as we say, God is actively involved in us, watching over everything that we are, everything that we do, everywhere we go.
[22:50] He is involved in all these things. And as we say, he's not out there to harm us but to help us. It's like at the very beginning in the garden. Remember when Adam and Eve sinned.
[23:02] God became involved with them. Not to harm them but to help them. But when God came, remember they ran away. And God called after them.
[23:14] Not to harm them but to help them. That's what God is still doing. That's what God is still doing with us and he's challenging us. And he's saying to us, look, I want to help you.
[23:27] And you know an awful lot of people close their ears to that. And they're really saying, God, I don't want your help. There's a lot of people today and the last thing that they want to know about is about God.
[23:38] They don't want to hear his word. Don't want to hear his voice. Don't want to know anything about him. There's a lot of people if they had their way, they would push everything to do with the Christian faith out of society.
[23:52] Well, you know, there have been times where God has delivered people and countries and states over really to themselves.
[24:04] And you think of Pol Pot and Cambodia and Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany and places where evil was allowed to triumph for a while.
[24:20] And our history book shows us how absolutely fearful that is. And yet people say it's hell on earth. Well, it's not.
[24:31] It resembles in many ways because God is being pushed further and further and further away. But it's still not hell. Hell is a place where there is the absence of all mercy and all grace and love.
[24:48] And even in this world, although sometimes it is so dark and so fearful that it resembles because the fires of hell burn in people. Yet it's still not hell.
[25:00] And I cannot think of anything worse than people being handed over that God says, right, I'm handing you over to yourselves.
[25:12] You want rid of me? Right, I will move away. I will leave you. I cannot think of a society worse than that. And that is what people are pushing for.
[25:24] There are many people, and that is our whole aim, is to remove every semblance of the Christian faith out of society. Let us pray that that will never happen.
[25:36] And that the fear of God will remain. So here we have God showing how he is involved, how he is involved with us. And that he has total wisdom.
[25:49] The word we use for that is omniscience, where he knows everything. That's what he knows everything about us. The A to Z of our life, it's all known.
[26:00] The stoppings and startings in our life. The ups and downs. The good times, the bad times. God knows it all. There's nothing hidden from his eyes. You know, there's sometimes I've heard people try and excuse God, as it were, when something awful happens.
[26:19] I've heard people say, and I know they mean it with the best will in the world, when something, I heard, I think it was at the time of the tsunami. And of course, you and I, we can't get our heads around that.
[26:31] Our hearts hurt. We don't have answers. The only answer that we can have is that it's a fallen world, that sin has caused all that.
[26:42] That's not how it was originally made. Because we're told in Romans that the whole creation groans. That's why there are earthquakes. That's why there are tsunamis.
[26:53] That's why there are volcanic eruptions. That is why there is so much natural destruction. Because the creation groans. It's as a result of the fall.
[27:05] Because sin brought chaos into this world. That was not God's original intention for the world. That is not how he made the world to begin with.
[27:16] The fall affected everything. Not just the human race. But the whole of creation. So that's the only place where we can take people and say, that is, this what you see is the result of a broken creation.
[27:35] But the fact is, God knows everything. And even when these things happen, nothing takes God by surprise. At an international level, or a national level, or at our own personal level.
[27:49] There's never anything that happened in your life or in my life, where the Lord says, oh well I never knew that about him. I didn't know he was that kind of person, or that she was that kind of person.
[28:00] He knows absolutely everything about us. He knows us in a way that we don't know ourselves. Our knowledge of one another, in fact, is limited.
[28:12] Now I know probably the closest, the closest that people will ever come to know one another is in marriage. And the longer a couple are together, very often you'll find the one will say of the other, I know their next move.
[28:29] Occasionally they're wrong, but they can read, begin to read one another like a book. Because as the Bible says, the two become one. And so there's this instinctive knowledge of one another.
[28:42] But even there, that knowledge is still limited. The knowledge that we have of one another. Because you know, this is, see this is not, in many ways, what we are, even with ourselves, what we are with one another, isn't the real us.
[29:00] Because we're covering up. That's part of the legacy of sin. Remember, we looked at this before in Genesis 3. When God made Adam and Eve in this world, he made them perfect.
[29:16] There was no sin. Remember when sin entered into the world. There was a, do you know, remember what the first awareness of it was?
[29:26] They, they were, they became ashamed. Ashamed of what? Ashamed of their nakedness. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the nakedness.
[29:37] God said over their nakedness, very good. But when sin entered in, it altered everything. So they had to try and cover up. But it wasn't just a desire to cover up nakedness.
[29:51] It was to cover up one another. So that we try and, who we present before one another, isn't the complete us. Because, there is, in our heart.
[30:07] You know, the Bible says, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And that's why so much of life is spent trying to cover up, to conceal.
[30:18] Because, we don't want to know, we don't want people to see us warts and all. Because our life is full of warts. That's sin. And that's what happened in the garden.
[30:31] There was this, where shame came in, and embarrassment, and guilt, and everything. That's what sin did straight away. And that's, where we are today.
[30:43] But do you know what's going to happen? Heaven is going to be the river. Heaven, is going to be Eden restored. Where there will be no shame, there will be no guilt, there will be no sin, there will be no embarrassment.
[30:55] And we will know one another, as we are known by God. There will be a complete transparency. Where there will be a purity, as it was in the garden.
[31:08] Where knowledge will be complete. You know, it's going to be, I don't think any of us, because we're used to where we're at, none of us can understand how it was before the fall.
[31:21] I don't think any two people could ever have had the greatest fall. It talks about the fall. To go from where they were, Adam and Eve, plunged into what this world became.
[31:36] from a world of innocence, and delight, and joy, where there wasn't one blemish, or blot, anywhere, in the relationship, with one another, and with the creation.
[31:50] And then, bang, it all goes. Now, we've, we're used to this world, that we're in. And that's how glory will be so wonderful, where we'll be taken back, into God's perfect world for us.
[32:08] But that's where we will, our knowledge then, will become so, so wonderful, so complete, as it were. And then, we find that David says, you hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
[32:23] Now, some people think that David is complaining here, that he feels suffocated. You know, some people can suffocate. They can be so, invasive, and intrusive, and they can't give you, you don't, they don't give you any space at all.
[32:37] Well, that's not what David is saying. He's not complaining here, because this word, where he feels, hem, where it says hemmed in, can also, have the idea, of, that, of somebody, encircling me, with your protection.
[32:56] That's what it also means, that you're hemming me, and you're enclosing me. You're keeping me safe. And that's what, David is really saying here.
[33:08] Everywhere I am, Lord, you're encircling me. You're keeping me, all the time. And then from verse 7, David highlights, God's presence with him. The first section is really, highlighting God's knowledge of him.
[33:21] And now he's highlighting, God's presence with him, his omnipresence. And that the Lord is, is everywhere with us. And you see, David is really saying here, there's nowhere that I can go, Lord.
[33:36] But you are there with me. And see, David, he looks at the different places. Supposing I go up into space. Supposing I ascend to heaven, Lord, you're there.
[33:47] Remember the first Russian cosmonauts, when they went to space. And they said, you know, there's no sign of God up here. That's, that's what they said.
[34:00] Oh, well, God is there. God was there before them. God, it is God's space. It is God who made it all. And so David is saying, supposing I go up there, Lord, you are there.
[34:13] Supposing I make my bed and shoal in the grave, you are there. Isn't that true? That's what we, what we, as our shorter catechism puts, in summing up scripture, the souls of believers are at their death, made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory, and their bodies, being still united to Christ, to rest in the grave to the resurrection.
[34:34] So if you go up into space, the Lord is there. Even in the grave, the Lord is there. If you're down in the depths, like Jonah was, in the belly of the great fish, the Lord is there.
[34:47] It doesn't matter where you go in this universe. High, low, the Lord is there as well. So David is so aware there, and he's considering speed, distance.
[35:03] Look what he said. If I take the wings of the morning, going as fast as possible, to the furthest away place, you're still there. The language is quite beautiful, isn't it?
[35:15] If I take you the morning wings, and I dwell in the utmost parts of sea, if I go as fast as is possible, as far away as possible, Lord, you're still there.
[35:29] And that's why every so often, we should really stop and say, such knowledge is too strange for me, too high to understand. Doesn't matter what we think of, our minds, doesn't matter how far we stretch our minds, we cannot reach fully to grasp and understand the greatness and the glory and the majesty of God.
[35:54] And then we find here that David is saying, even there, this is what I love, if I go as far away as possible, as quickly as possible, even there, your hand shall lead me.
[36:10] You know, when we go to a strange place, somewhere where we've never been before, supposing you go somewhere, and there's a degree of uncertainty, maybe a little element of fear, and you're saying to yourself, where do I go?
[36:25] What do I do here? David, that happened to David on so many occasions, and David is saying, ah, even there, Lord, your hand shall lead me. I'm in a strange place, I know you're with me.
[36:38] There are strange people all around me, I don't mean strange in that sense, but people I don't know anything about them, even there, Lord, you're with me. I'm facing a culture, I have nothing, no awareness of, even there, Lord, you're with me.
[36:52] Remember, there were times David ended up in with the Philistines, in with the enemies. He was aware of the Lord's hand leading him there. It doesn't matter where we go in this world, the Lord is there.
[37:06] I cannot find anything more comforting, more liberating, more wonderful than that. It doesn't matter where we are, that the Lord, your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall uphold me.
[37:19] God's arm, that hand that is so strong, that hand that will never be prized open, that hand of love and welcome. And so the Lord upholds.
[37:30] And then David goes on to say, if I say surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be as night, even the darkness is not dark to you. A lot of people do their worst in the dark.
[37:45] People who are evil, people who want to do as much harm as possible. That's when they're most likely to work, because the dark covers. But the dark cannot cover from God.
[37:59] The dark is as night, the day is as night, the night is as day. It's all one. The Lord sees everything, everything that goes on, which means that no enemy can be lurking there, hidden away, that God's not seeing.
[38:13] He's seeing everybody, he's seeing everything. And his hand is still protecting, his hand is still leading. And then David, it's just as to say, he's so aware of God everywhere with him.
[38:27] It's like, remember how the Lord said to Jacob as he went away from home, these great words, behold, I am with you in all places, wherever you go.
[38:41] Cannot have better than that. I am with you in all places, wherever you go. And then David, having looked at God's knowledge and looked at God's wisdom, now turns to look at God's power.
[38:56] Now there are many ways that David could have looked at this, looking at the power of God. And you and I can think of it in many different ways. But David has been dealing with God in a personal, or God's personal dealings with him.
[39:10] He's been looking at God's personal dealings with regard to God's knowledge. God's personal dealings with regard to his wisdom. And now he's coming to look at God's personal dealings with him with regard to his power.
[39:25] And that's why David, he focuses in on himself in relation to his being formed. And as we say, he could have picked many things, but this is something else.
[39:38] That's, you know, I use the expression, it's just blowing my mind. This is just, whoa, this is too much for me. And David goes down that road and he begins to think of himself.
[39:50] He begins to think even of God's knowledge of him before ever he was. I'm sure we all try and think that sometimes. But David is here from these verses and he's looking at, and he's saying, for you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
[40:09] It was God who, in the first place, set man and woman together, be fruitful and multiply. He set the whole order of life, of nature as we know it, into existence.
[40:24] That is why the whole evolutionist teaching, this whole idea that we came from some primeval blob, or we just arrived as a matter of accident, some explosion in the world and everything just followed on bit by bit.
[40:43] How mad is that? Satan has waged war against the glory of God by trying to bring this awful teaching into being.
[40:56] what a slight against our creator God, the God who made this vast world, this whole universe, who instilled into the whole makeup, the laws of gravity and all the different things and the seasons and nature and brought it all working in amazing harmony.
[41:17] Yes, there are, as we say, the whole creation is groaning. But it's all his handiwork. We are fearfully and wonderfully made. If we were to just look at the complexity and the marvel of the human mind, the human body of every bit of us, all made by God, what an insult, what a sin against the glory, the majesty of God, whereas creation tries to make out there is no creator and worships and bows down to worship the created rather than the creator.
[41:56] Is there a much greater sin? And yet so many people embrace it. Because why? They don't want God. Because the moment we accept God, we accept that we are responsible people, we accept this degree of accountability before our maker, and so it's much easier.
[42:21] For an easy life, let's push this out so that we are masters of our own destiny. We made our own world. Well, David is saying, he's bringing us back to look at God's power in light of himself, of who he is and where he is.
[42:40] And again, David is just, it's like he's blown away and he's saying, my whole life is written in your book. And you know, when I read this, I just find it so liberating.
[42:51] 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.
[43:02] In other words, David is saying, all the days of my life, they've all been measured out, they're in your book, even before I came into being. And you know, I love that because you can say the same as me, I am who I am because of God's decree.
[43:21] You know, sometimes you say to yourself, I wish I was someone else. No, you mustn't. You are who you are. And you may say to yourself, I'm so limited, I don't have this ability and I don't have that.
[43:34] That's the way God made you. We're all different. Some are great musicians, some are great artists, some are great doctors, pilots. God has given people different attitudes, different aptitudes, different abilities to be who we are for his glory in this world.
[43:53] That's why you're not me and I'm not you. We're all different and God has decreed it. That doesn't mean that we don't have a duty to try and develop ourselves and fulfill potentials that are given to us and all these things.
[44:07] These things sit in comfortably with us. But we are who we are because God decreed it. That's what David is saying. Again, it's blowing his mind but how liberating that is.
[44:20] You know, when you take God out of the equation, it changes life. When God is centered there at the very heart, it makes life so different.
[44:32] That is where there is freedom, where there is liberty. And so David is here lost in the greatness and in the glory of God. And then there's a change. A lot of people find this strange how David all of a sudden, verse 7, he's saying, Oh, how precious to me are your thoughts, O God.
[44:50] How vast is the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake and I'm still with you. And then he goes bang. And he says, Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God.
[45:01] Oh, men of blood, depart from me. What's happening here? Well, I think it's very simple. That David has been so caught up with the greatness and the majesty and the glory and the authority and the dominion of God that all of a sudden he is aware of those who are so opposed to God.
[45:23] And he can't take, he's just filled with righteous anger. There's a righteous indignation. How dare they? How dare they oppose you? How dare do they try and lead people away from you?
[45:37] I think basically that's where David is. David is God's representative. We've got to remember in this world, David has been appointed by God as king in this world.
[45:49] And David is reflecting something of, remember, he's a man after God's own heart. And we've got to remember that although God is a God of love, he's also a God of justice and of righteousness and a God of judgment.
[46:05] And David is displaying something of this because there's going to come a day where God was going to judge us all. And I would hate to be somebody who has spent my life giving all the energies and all the abilities that God has given to lead people away from God.
[46:30] Imagine having to face God at the end of the day and say, you know, Lord, you give me great intellect because on that day there'll be a full acknowledgement of God. You gave me my mind, my reason, the abilities.
[46:44] And I used them all to try and take you down from your throne and to try and prove to people you did not exist. I can't think of much worship.
[46:57] But that is, unless God has mercy, that is why we have to pray and we bring the whole Christian, that is the judgmental part, but we have to bring as Christ would do, where Christ has come to seek and to save those who are lost.
[47:13] And there are today, we've got to remember that atheists and agnostics are lost, but we've got to pray for them. And that, I mean, there are many, many, many people, hundreds, thousands of people who once didn't believe in God, who have turned to believe in God.
[47:31] Some of the great writers who were skeptics, were turned by God to become prolific writers, displaying his glory, writing for his glory.
[47:43] So we've always got to pray that that will be the case. But I think that's where we've got to try and understand where David is coming from here. The righteous indignation against those who are opposed to God.
[47:58] And then David sums it all up at the very end. And he says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. And you know, that's what we want to do. Lord, put the light into my heart.
[48:12] Penetrate that light right into my heart. Help me to discover. You know how we said, we don't really know ourselves. Lord, shine the light in so I'll get to know myself a bit better.
[48:25] And if there are evil ways, and yes, there are, lead me in the way that's right. Deliver me, Lord, from these things. Lead me in the right way.
[48:37] And you know, as we come to the end of the year and reflect over all the different ways, I think it helps us even, particularly if you've gone through difficult and hard times, is to realize, even although there's things we don't understand, that you are still in God's hand.
[48:55] And that he is still ruling over everything. And even if you haven't and you cannot understand the pain that you've had to go through, that God will help you to understand that he is with you and that he will lead you into a way where you will be able to accept where you are and to be able to accept his authority and rule and dominion and control over everything.
[49:23] a life lived with God is the greatest blessing that we could ever know. Let us pray. Oh Lord, our gracious God, we give thanks for what you have revealed of yourself to us in the most personal and intimate way possible, where we have seen something of just how involved you are with us.
[49:46] and yet, like the psalmist, we have to say such knowledge is too high for me to attain to. It's way beyond where my mind can stretch to.
[49:58] Oh Lord, our God, we pray then to bless each one of us with gospel blessings. May we hear what God the Lord will speak. Open our hearts and our minds to receive your truth and have mercy upon us for giving us all our sin.
[50:13] In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Let us conclude singing in this psalm from the Scottish Psalter and we're going to sing verses 1 to 6. The tune is St. Andrew.
[50:26] Psalm 139 and it's on page 432. O Lord, thou hast me searched and known. Thou knowest my sitting down and rising up.
[50:39] Yea, all my thoughts are far to thee are known. My footsteps and my lying down thou compassest always. Thou also most entirely art acquaint with all my ways.
[50:52] For in my tongue before I speak not any word can be but altogether low, O Lord, it is well known to thee. Behind before thou hast beset and laid on me thine hands such knowledge is too strange for me, too high to understand.
[51:08] The tune is St. Andrew. O Lord, thou hast me searched and known. O Lord, thou hast me searched and known.
[51:24] Thou knowest my sitting down and rising up and rising up hear all my thoughts apart to thee are known.
[51:48] my first steps and my lying down thou compassest always.
[52:05] thou alone found and thou thirsts thou hastied They did Seni In my tongue before I speak, Not any word can be, But all to ever, O Lord, It is well known to be.
[52:59] Behind before the cross be set, And lay on me in thy hand, Such knowledge is too strange for me, Too high to understand.
[53:35] Amen. May the grace, mercy, and peace of God, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Rest and abide upon each one of you now And forevermore. Amen.
[53:47] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[53:59] Amen. Amen. Amen.