We're going to listen to the reading in a few minutes' time, but before then, let me start.
In 2015, the computer gamer and gaming creator, Marcus Pearson, commonly known as Notch, he
was the creator of the computer game Minecraft.
If you've got teenage kids and sons, you probably know about Minecraft.
He sold his company to Microsoft for $2.5 billion, and he owned 70% of the company.
He earned $1.7 billion in that transaction.
One of the first things he did was he outbid Jay-Z and Beyonce on an offer they'd put in
a house in Beverly Hills, just because he could.
But anyway, a couple of months later, he is sitting in Ibiza.
Ibiza's an island of Spain, a real kind of party island.
He's sitting in Ibiza, and he sends out a couple of tweets.
This is when Twitter was still called Twitter.
And the tweets go as follow.
548, the problem with getting everything is that you run out of reasons to keep trying.
550, hanging out in Ibiza with a bunch of friends, partying with famous people.
Well, Marcus Person is not the first person, and certainly not the last person, to experience
the irony of being surrounded by people all around you, people having a good time, partying,
having fun, and yet feeling this weird sensation of being alone and isolated, feeling alone in
the midst of all these people.
And again and again, we hear the reality.
It feels ironic that some of the most lonely people in our world are those that are not
without anybody around them, but those that are surrounded by others around them.
And of course, the digital age in which we live has only exasperated us, right?
MIT professor of social studies, Sherry Turkle, she wrote a book, an amazing book, in 2011.
So it's a little dated now, called Alone Together.
And she writes how the digital age has only exasperated us.
The fact that we are surrounded by people and voices, and yet we feel more and more alone.
Listen to what she says.
She says,
Technology has become the architect of our relationships.
We fall prey to the illusion of companionship, gathering thousands of friends online, and yet
confusing tweets and wall posts or Instagram posts with authentic communication.
We have the illusion of companionship without real friendship.
We turn to technology to help us feel connected in ways that we can comfortably control,
but we are not so much in control and not so comfortable.
Sherry Turkle's touched on something quite amazing there, that in order to have real relationships,
relationships that actually impact you and change you, you've somehow got to relinquish control.
You've got to somehow step out of your comfort zone.
And yet we find it so difficult to do this.
We live in a city in which we are alone together.
And I think Hong Kong, actually, we struggle with this even more than maybe other major cities.
And one of the reasons for that is because, one, we work so hard.
We work such long hours.
If you're working 50, 60, 70 hours a week, it's really hard to find the time to build deep relationships,
to get people to know people and to open up yourself so that other people can know you.
But I think the other reason is, in Hong Kong, we are experts at saving face.
Right?
We're experts at playing the game and knowing how to put our best foot forward,
of looking like our world is all fine when we can easily crumble inside.
In the words of Sherry Turkle, we are alone together.
I wonder if you resonate with this.
Friends, do you ever feel alone, isolated, neglected?
Do you ever feel overlooked or marginalized?
Do you sometimes feel forgotten?
Do you ever feel like nobody cares or nobody really knows you?
This summer, we're going through the book of Psalms.
And today is the last Psalm that we're looking at.
And the book of Psalms was the prayer book of ancient Israel.
It was the book that they used to help them in their prayers, but it was also a book of theology.
In the ancient world, not many people could read or write.
Almost nobody had access to their own personal scriptures like we do today.
And so the book of Psalms were these songs that David and many others wrote that helped them pray to God,
but also taught them about the character of God, the nature of God.
And we've looked at all these Psalms over the summer.
And today we come to our final one, Psalm 139, which we sang about earlier.
And this Psalm is going to tell us that those who know God are the most secure, loved people on all the planet.
And it shows us how the kindness of God changes us deeply inside.
And so on that note, can I invite Reza up to come and do our reading this morning?
And just one note, while Reza comes up, you can come on up.
That last song we sang this morning is taken from Psalm 139.
And it's the first time I think it's ever been played and sung publicly ever because Phoebe wrote that song.
And so Phoebe, great to have one of your songs that you wrote this morning.
It's a great song.
Well done for doing that.
And well done for being brave enough to put it out there for us to sing it.
I know that takes a lot of courage.
That was a great song to sing this morning.
So let's listen to God's word as we read Psalm 139 together.
Good morning, church.
Our scripture reading for today is in the book of Psalm 139.
To the choir master, a psalm of David.
Starting in verse 1.
Oh, 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, oh, Lord, you know it all together.
You hand 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, where 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 furfully 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.
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.
O that you will slay the wicked, O God!
O man of blood, depart from me!
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 not love 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.
And see if there be any grievous way in me.
And lead me in the way everlasting.
This is the Word of God.
Great, thank you, Riza.
Let me just pray for us as we come to us.
Father, we want to hear you speak to us from your Word.
We want to know what you have to say to us.
As we say each week, God,
we're not interested in the thoughts or the opinions of man.
We get plenty of those out there on our phones every day.
God, we want to hear your Word.
We want to hear what you have to say.
God, won't you open up the eyes of our hearts
and unblock our ears to hear you speaking to us.
God, we pray that Psalm 139 will come alive to us today.
We pray this in your great name.
Amen.
Okay, if you've got your Bible or the bulletin open,
keep it open.
We're going to look at this and look at the Scripture quite a lot.
So I want to encourage you to have it open in front of you.
This Psalm is made up of 24 verses,
and it breaks up into four sections of six verses each.
So it's quite a straightforward breakdown.
The first three sections,
verse 1 to 6, 7 to 12, 13 to 18,
are quite similar.
It's the same idea that David is giving from different angles.
And then the last section is quite different,
or we see David's response.
In the first three sections,
we see how God knows us and cares for us.
In the last section,
we see how God's love changes us.
So let's dive in and take a look at it.
Look at the first section with me,
1 to 6.
I'll read it again.
It says,
Oh 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.
You are acquainted with all of my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, oh Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in behind and before.
You lay your hand on me.
And such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It is high.
I cannot attain it.
One of the things that should strike you straight away
when you read these verses
is how many times it talks about the word known
or describes being known.
Lord, you've searched me.
You know me.
You discern my thoughts.
You are intimately acquainted with all of my ways.
Every word, every thought,
every desire in my heart.
God, you know it.
You understand me.
You get me.
David is basking the fact that
every aspect of his life
is known to the God that he's come to worship
and praise.
God knows him and understands him.
God, there's nothing about my life
which is outside of your understanding
or getting, your feeling.
Look at verse two.
He says,
you know when I sit down
and when I rise up.
I don't know if you've ever had this
where you're looking for somebody
maybe at home or in the office
and you go to every room in the office
and you're calling them
and you can't find them
and you turn to somebody and say,
has anybody seen John around here?
God never has that thought.
That thought never crosses his mind.
He never says,
has anybody seen Henry?
He knows every aspect of our lives.
He says,
you understand my thoughts from afar.
Verse four,
even before a word,
even before a sigh,
even before a cry of joy,
even before a cry of frustration
is on my tongue,
you know about it, Lord.
In other words, God,
you know me and understand me
better than I even know myself.
God, you're intimately acquainted
with all of my ways,
all of my thoughts,
all of my hopes,
all of my dreams,
all of my longings,
all of my fears,
my anxieties,
the things that I worry about,
my elderly parents,
that medical report
that I'm expecting this week,
my job insecurity.
God, you know about each one of them.
You're intimately acquainted with them.
You know them perfectly.
David acknowledges that this is sometimes hard to comprehend.
It's hard to understand how can God know everything about our lives.
He says,
such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It's too high.
I cannot attain it.
God,
and yet he knows the certainty of it.
God, you know me.
You know me better than I know me.
You know me perfectly.
Friends,
do you,
like so many in our city,
ever feel alone,
unknown,
isolated,
forgotten,
overlooked?
Do you ever wonder whether anybody knows what's going on in your heart,
whether anybody cares?
David reminds us that the God of the Bible,
the God that we've come to worship and praise this morning,
is not just,
he's omniscient and he's sovereign,
but not just in a general or cosmic sense.
It's true that God knows everything about the universe,
things that we haven't even discovered yet,
things about how black holes were formed
and what's on the other side of them
and what the universe is going to look like,
a hundred billion years from now
and what's beyond even the furthest expanses
that we've been able to discover in the universe,
beyond our furthest telescopes.
God knows all of that,
but he's saying it's not just that God is omniscient in that sense,
he's omniscient about every minute,
intimate detail of our lives.
Your cosmic,
powerful God knows and understands
our inner life,
our thoughts,
our fears,
our hopes,
our feelings.
More than just know it,
he understands it.
Look at the second section,
verse 7 to 12.
It's not only that God is all-knowing,
David delights in the fact that God is all-present everywhere.
He says,
where shall I go from your spirit?
Where shall I flee from your presence?
If I were to ascend to heaven,
highest heavens,
God,
you would be there.
If I make my bed in Sheol,
in the grave,
in hell,
God,
you would be there.
If I take the wings of the morning
or dwell on the uttermost parts of the sea.
Just remember,
in the ancient days,
people didn't know the world was round,
they thought it was flat.
If you sail too far,
you're going to fall off the cliffs of the sea,
and who knows what's beyond the abyss.
David says,
even if I were to do that
and go beyond the end of the abyss,
God,
I don't know what's beyond there,
but I know that you will be there.
Even there,
your hand will lead me.
Your right hand shall take hold of me.
Now,
Psalm 139
obviously comes
two Psalms after Psalm 137.
Okay?
You don't need to be a rocket scientist.
Work that out.
Psalm 137
is one of the most difficult Psalms in the Bible
because it's written at a time
when God's people
had been taken out of Israel into Babylon.
And the Babylonians were a ruthless nation.
They came and attacked Israel.
They slaughtered thousands of people
and they dragged the rest of them
into exile in Babylon.
And Psalm 137
is this heartfelt lament
as the people agonize
over being stuck in Babylon.
Well,
Psalm 139 tells us
that even the most God-forsaken place
on the planet,
a place like Babylon,
a place like war-torn Ukraine,
even that it's actually not God-forsaken
for God is with us
in the midst of those places.
Even the most immoral,
corrupt place you can imagine,
God is there with His people.
But that's actually not really
David's concern here,
is it?
David isn't so concerned
about the physical geography
of the place
where the God is there.
He's more concerned
with the metaphysics.
He's concerned about
where can I go in my heart?
Where can I go psychologically,
emotionally?
God,
will you be there
if I go to the darkest night
of the soul?
In the deepest despair,
God,
will you be there
or will you abandon me?
Look at verse 11.
He says,
surely the darkness
will not cover me
and the light about me
be as night.
Even the,
sorry,
if I say surely
the darkness
will cover me
and the light
be as night,
even the darkness
is not dark to you.
The night is as bright
as the day
for darkness
is as light
with you.
David says,
even when wickedness
and despair
and suffering
surround you,
when you're overcome
with grief,
you're overwhelmed
with anxiety,
God is not forgotten.
God is not abandoned.
God is not given up
with you.
He's there with you.
He's there already.
Verse 12,
darkness and light
are alike to you.
The dark night
of the soul
is not a place
where God
has abandoned you
but a place
where you discover
and find God
in a whole new way.
God has gone before you
and He's there with you.
Verse 10,
even there your hand
will lead me,
your right hand
lays hold of me.
I don't know
if you've ever experienced this
but the picture there is
if you're walking
in complete darkness,
maybe you're hiking somewhere
and you come
into some complete darkness,
there's no moon,
it's pitch black at night
and you're stumbling,
you don't know
where you're going
but there's somebody
who does know the way
and they take hold
of your hand
or maybe you're walking
down a dark alleyway
and there's no light
and you're petrified
but there's somebody
who knows what's going on,
they take hold of your hand
and they lead you
and guide you.
He says,
your hand will lead me there.
It's not just that God
is vaguely omnipresent.
If you set your heart
and He'll lead you
and guide you
and sustain you
through every season of life.
David goes on,
look at the third section here,
verse 13 onwards.
David here describes
the fact that every aspect
of His being
is intimately known
and designed by God.
Look at verse 13.
It says,
you formed me God
in my inward parts,
you knitted me together
in my mother's womb.
It's amazing to think
that even before
our mothers knew
that they were pregnant
with us,
when they were completely
oblivious and had no idea,
God was there forming
and knitting cells together,
multiplying and forming,
so that the first embryonic form
of you was being formed.
God knew about it.
Verse 14,
I praise you,
I'm fearfully
and wonderfully made.
My frame is 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,
even when as yet
there were none of them.
David's point here
is that His existence
is the result
of God's deliberate
and intentional will.
David reminds us
there's no such thing
as an accidental baby.
There's no such thing
as an unwanted baby.
Each one of us,
designed,
brought together by God.
When I was growing up,
we had a family friend
that was a musician
and he had just recorded
an album in the studio
and he was living with us
for a couple of months
before he moved overseas.
And so,
he's staying in our home
and the first delivery
of his new album,
his CDs,
arrived at our house.
They'd just been cut
and labeled
and packaged
and they arrived at our house.
And so,
he opens the box
and he takes out
the first of his new album.
And he puts it in the CD player
in our living room
and he puts it on
for us to listen.
And as we're listening
to the songs,
he's describing
each of the bits of details.
He's saying,
listen, listen, listen.
There's got to be
this bass riff now.
Wait.
And then you hear it, right?
Or he says,
hey, do you hear that sound
behind the chorus?
The reason we put that in
is because we wanted people
to hear this part.
In each song,
he's describing
the minute detail
and the little intricacies
of the song
that most people
will be completely oblivious to.
Why?
Because he's the creator.
He's the artist.
He knows every minute detail
of every song
and why it's there
and what the purpose is
and what it contributes
to the song.
David's point here
is that God knows
every minute detail
of his people.
He knows us physically.
He knows us emotionally.
He knows our hearts.
He knows what's going on.
Nothing about us
is an accident.
Before you were born,
before conception
had taken place,
before the first
tiniest cell
had multiplied,
God had designed
your life
and planned you
and who you'd be.
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 were none of them.
Friends,
if you are in Christ,
God's care for you
and God's love for you
is not like the love
that we have
for other people
because we've gotten
to know them
and we've discovered
something wonderful
about them,
something lovely
about them.
God's love
and care for us
is what brought you
into being
in the first place.
God initiates
our existence.
God doesn't complete
our existence.
As we've said many times
before,
God's love for us
is not based on something
that he's discovered
about us
but something that's found
in his heart,
not something
that's found in us.
And so again,
I ask you the question,
do you ever feel
neglected,
alone,
unknown,
uncared for?
Do you ever feel
misunderstood
that nobody gets you?
Friends,
you see what God
is saying here?
The sovereign God
of all creation,
the one who brought
galaxies and universes
into being,
who designed
the solar system,
knows and understands
every care
and every detail
of your life
and he's watching
over you.
He knows the cares
of your heart.
He knows the agonies
of your heart.
He knows what keeps
you up at night.
He's carrying,
sustaining and guiding
you.
And look at verse 17.
Verse 17 is unusual.
He says,
how precious to me
are your thoughts,
O God.
One commentator says,
what David means here
is how precious
are your thoughts,
O God,
about me.
He says,
God,
when I think of the way
that you carry me
on your heart,
it blows my mind.
How vast is the sum
of them?
God,
it's not just a fleeting
thought you have.
God,
you think about me,
you carry me
on your heart
continuously.
If I were to count
all your thoughts,
there would be more
than the sand.
I'm awake
and I'm still with you.
He says,
God,
it's like a dream.
I can't imagine
this as possible.
I wake up
and it's still true.
You care about me.
You know about me.
Every detail
of my life.
Psalm 139
tells us
the sovereign God
is sovereignly involved
and cares about
every intimate detail
of our life.
Now,
God's word
always has a purpose.
The purpose
for God's word
is not just
to fill our minds
with information
so that we say,
okay,
that's good.
God's word
is always meant
to change us.
It's meant to impact us
and to influence us.
So how is God's
good word
of Psalm 139
meant to impact us?
Well,
one of the ways
that we should not
respond to it
is by God's grace
should not make us
more self-centered
and self-absorbed.
Okay?
Remember Augustine,
the great theologian
from the 4th century,
he said,
one of the problems
with humanity
is our sinful nature
makes us curved
in on ourselves.
We always look at life
through a me lens.
We always tend to think
about how life
through the lens
of my own life
and myself.
And that's the problem
with the current narrative
in our world.
Our world tells us
just to satisfy yourself,
pursue your own happiness,
find meaning in yourself.
But the problem is,
it's just encouraging us
to become more and more
introspective
and self-absorbed.
And the problem is,
we never become free
from ourselves.
But God's grace
is different.
God's good kindness
to us
doesn't exasperate
the problem
and make us
more self-absorbed.
It should lead us
to God
and open us up
to become more God-aware
and to free us
from our self-absorption.
God's grace
and kindness
are different
to the modern
self-help books.
God's grace
and kindness
is not meant
to reinforce
our self-obsession,
but to free us
from it.
One of the things
that God's grace does
is to deliver us
from ourselves
and help us
to love and treasure
God more.
And that's what we see here.
God's amazing kindness
and tenderness
and sovereign goodness
to David
doesn't pander him
so that David wallows
in self-absorption,
thinking,
look how wonderful I am.
Even God thinks I'm amazing.
That's not the point.
It actually turns David
outward
from being absorbed
about himself
to now being
astounded by God.
God's sovereign care
draws David
into God.
And so look at
verse 19 to 22
with me.
He says,
Oh, that you would
slay the wicked,
O God.
You men of blood,
depart from me.
Then he talks back to God.
God,
they speak against you
with malicious intent.
Your enemies
take your name
in vain.
God,
do I not hate
those who hate you,
O Lord?
Do I not loathe
those who rise up
against you?
I hate them
with a complete hatred.
I count them
my enemies.
Now,
it's a different
tone here,
right?
The first 18 verses
are like amazing.
God,
you know me,
you care about me,
you're so tender
and wonderful.
And then you get
to verse 19,
you're like,
huh?
I've got a confession.
This week when I was
preparing for this,
I was using an old
Bible of mine,
one that I got
in university.
And the first 18 verses
are underlined
and highlighted
and there's notes
in the margin.
It's like amazing.
And verses 19 to 22
are conspicuously bare.
Obviously,
I didn't like them
so much
when I had that Bible
for the first 10 years.
What's going on here?
The Bible is full
of this actually.
And if you think about it,
it makes sense.
Friends,
do we not all
rise up
and defend
and protect
that which we love?
If you love something
or you love somebody
and then somebody else
comes and offends
or denigrates
or insults
what you love,
how do you feel about it?
Don't you take offense?
Doesn't it rile you?
We don't just keep calm
and carry on, right?
Passion and anger
can be an expression
of selfishness
if the things
that we get angry about
are when things
don't go our own way.
But they can also
be an expression
of love.
The thing that you get
passionate and angry about
shows what you love
the most, right?
If somebody offends
or abuses
or insults your wife
or your sister
or your child,
what do you do?
You don't just
stoically carry on.
No, even the most
timid person
becomes a lion.
They get riled.
They get angry about that
and rightly so.
Right?
Because the enemies
of those that you love
in a way
become your enemies.
You don't just lie down
and take it lying down.
You stand up.
In Psalm 69
David says something similar.
He says,
zeal or passion
for your house
consumes me, O Lord.
And the insults
of those that have
fallen on you
fall on me.
David says,
God, when people
insult you
and blaspheme
your name,
I take it personally.
I get riled
and get angry
about it
because I love you,
God,
and I hate
seeing people
treating you
like that.
And that's what
David,
that's what's going
on here.
David expresses
this outrage,
this anger
at those who
call themselves
followers of God
but then blaspheme
his name,
murder others,
kill others,
and act unjustly.
He says,
God,
your enemies
take your name
in vain.
Therefore,
I count them
as my enemies.
I get angry
about it.
Friends,
how do you know
that you love God
and that God's grace
has changed your life?
One of the ways
you know
is that you love
what God loves
and you hate
what God hates.
You see that?
The immensity
of God's sovereign
grace and care,
God's sovereign
awesomeness
and his amazing
grace for us
is meant to so
draw us
into him
that now
it changes
our lives
and now
we start
to love
what God
loves
and we hate
what God
hates
and our lives
start to get
orientated
around God
except that's
not the only
thing that
God's grace
does.
God's grace
draws us
into him
so that we
center our lives
around him
but it does
something else
as well.
You see,
God's grace
to David
has caused
him to hate
the evil
and the wickedness
that he sees
in the world.
He sees
this injustice
and he says
God,
there's something
wrong about this.
He sees
corruption in the church
and he says
God,
it should not
be like that.
But the problem
is one of the
things the gospel
tells us
is that the
problem with the
world is not
just out there,
is it?
It's also in here.
In the words of
G.K. Chesterton,
what's wrong
with the world?
I am.
You see,
the wickedness
and the problem
and the hypocrisy
and the brokenness
of the world
is not just
on Wall Street
or,
you know,
Peter Street
or the big banks
or institutions
or politics
or the education.
It's actually
in my heart.
It's my self-absorption.
It's my self-righteousness.
It's my bigotry.
It's my selfishness.
And so look at
what David,
what God's grace
does to David here.
It doesn't just
cause David
to hate the wickedness
out there,
but the wickedness
within.
In other words,
God's grace
doesn't just
make you passionate,
it also makes you humble.
And so look at
how David ends
this psalm
in response
to God's amazing
kindness and care.
Verse 23,
Search me,
O God.
Know my heart.
Try me
and know my thoughts.
God,
even my most private
and intimate thoughts,
I'm opening them up to you.
God,
if there is any
grievous way in me,
literally any
idle, loving way in me,
O God,
come and change me.
Lead me back
to your path,
the way of everlasting life.
Let me ask you a question.
What do you do
when you feel
insecure,
when you feel
threatened,
when you feel
unsure about
how somebody's
going to
treat you?
Typically,
we close up,
right?
We close down.
We don't share
too much information.
We make sure
that we're not
too vulnerable
with those
that we feel
insecure about.
But what do you do
when you feel
100% safe
with somebody?
What do you do
when you feel
100% secure
with somebody?
When you know
that somebody's
only ever got
your best interest
at heart?
When you know
that what you share
with them
is going to be
kept 100%
in confidence?
They're not going
to share it
with anyone
or use it
against you.
What do you do?
You open yourself up.
You're willing
to be vulnerable
with them.
You let them
into the most
intimate and secret
places of your heart,
right?
Friends,
the story of the Bible
is that the sovereign God
who made the galaxies
and the cosmos
and everything about us,
the God who knows
every single thing
about you,
the best about you
and the worst about you,
the one who knows you
even better than you
know yourself.
Do you know what he did
with that information?
He went to the cross
and he took the fall
for you
and that changes us
because now we can
live for him
but now we can also
be secure enough
to open our lives
up to him.
Friends,
the God of the Bible,
the one who knows you
is the safest being
in the whole universe
and because he knows
everything there is
to know about you
and he won't shame you
and he won't belittle you
and he won't mock you
but rather he treats you
with unbelievable kindness,
that doesn't lead us
to become more self-absorbed
or more self-focused
or closed up,
it leads us to say,
God,
my life is in your hands.
Come and have your way.
Friends,
Christ's immense grace
and love and care for you
gives you such
an immense security
it should lead us to say,
okay God,
I know that with you
I'm in safe hands.
You're not gonna ride of me,
you're not gonna take
advantage of me.
Here's my life,
have my way.
God,
come and have your way.
Search me,
oh God.
If you see anything
in my life
that grieves you,
come and change my life.
Change the trajectory,
change the path
that I'm on.
God,
lead me to your path,
the path of everlasting life.
Friends,
do you know God like this?
Have you opened yourself
up to him?
Friends,
do you ever feel alone
and misunderstood,
overlooked?
Do you sometimes feel
that nobody cares about you?
Nobody knows you?
Do you sometimes worry
if the anxieties
in your heart
you carry them alone?
That nobody understands
what you're going through?
Do you find it difficult
to be vulnerable
and real,
to let people in?
Friends,
there is a God,
the one who knows you
better than you know yourself,
who loves you more
than you love yourself.
And he's already
paved the way
for you to open yourself up,
to let him in,
that he can lead you
the way
of everlasting life.
Let's pray together.
Oh,
Heavenly Father,
thank you for this
amazing psalm,
God.
It's a psalm
that is very famous.
We sing about it,
we talk about it,
we discuss it
throughout the ages.
But God,
when we stop
to think about it,
it is such good news.
That God,
you know us
and you care for us.
God,
thank you for the good news
of your sovereign omniscience
and yet your intimate care.
God,
thank you for the good news
that though you know us
inside and out,
what you chose to do with that
was the most astounding thing.
You went to the cross for us
and you died for us
to carry our shame,
to carry our guilt,
to carry the things
in our lives,
God,
that nobody knows about
and that we've sworn
we'll never tell anybody about.
You know them
and you carried it
to the cross.
God,
I pray that this morning,
Lord,
that your sovereign grace
and your
perfect
knowledge of us
will lead us,
God,
to open up our lives
and to trust our lives
to you.
To not have to make life
work on our own terms,
but to come
and to trust you.
God,
that you know this morning,
if you have utiliser
help,
in this Toomer song,
that you are also
a free gem
to use the auth generated
and then you can
take a closer look
and see if you have
it might be the
one that's going to place
a whole place
because
you can show
a baby
and the ahora
have to�
it may be the
whoever
to bring it
and use