BOLD Week 7:PSALM 139
f/t/i @achuckallen
I’ve had times – often – when deep down, when it’s quiet and everybody else is in bed, or when I’m driving and don’t have to pay much attention, I start thinking about where my life is headed, what I’ve done or haven’t done – Haven’t you?
Do you ever pause and add up what your life amounts to and – well – come up short?
Or maybe you just feel like a hamster in a cage, turning the big wheel. Life is a treadmill of the same-old, same-old at times. You’re working hard, but it doesn’t feel like you’re getting anywhere. You feel under-appreciated, overlooked, under-paid, or even unnecessary.
It seems to me that most folks that take the time to reflect on their lives struggle with these incomplete feelings and dead end thoughts. If we take stock of our life and say, “What difference does my life make? Does anybody really know or care about me?”, then you’re in the right place today.
God has a word for you today in Psalm 139. God gives us reason to live BOLD LIVES! He wants to show us a different picture of your life – a life filled with BOLD and deeply personal direction. He wants to give us a view from the top, to help us see the meaning of our life from His perspective. You’ve heard the phrase “seeing the end from the beginning”? This is God’s word for seeing your future through your today.So, here are 4 truths from God, that should ENBOLDEN/ YOU!
God knows you
In the opening 6 verses of Psalm 139, there are 8 different Hebrew words that tell you that God knows your story intimately: “O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, LORD. You have encircled me; You have placed Your hand on me. This behind and before, and lay Your hand upon me. This extraordinary knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it.”
Each of these words conveys a different layer of God’s knowledge of you. Together, they picture God tracking even our most mundane activities, studying us even when we think we’re alone. He has penetrated past our best foot forward. He knows precisely what we will say or do next.
So God knows your heart, your fears, your thoughts, motives, dreams, and frustrations. He knows your past, present and your future. He understands you. He notices what’s going on around you, to you, inside you. He gets you. In fact, God has you pegged better than you do
Chuck – that’s just a bit creepy – Here’s the good news – God knows you, but more importantly – He loves you still. When David says that God has laid His hand upon him, he’s referring to an OT practice of bestowing a blessing on someone.
A wise father would place his hands on his children and speak words into their lives about who they are and will be, what their place in the family meant, and what their future will be. This was one of the most important acts that happened in Hebrew families.
In the same way, God, your Heavenly Father who knows you bestows blessing on you, born out of love, that marks your place in His family and what your future is all about.
In God’s family, nobodies are non-existent. When you sit at His table – you’re a BIG DEAL! God Knows You, and…God longs to bless you!
A Hebrew father would convey a blessing on his children. And it was a big, big deal. It’s still a big deal in Jewish families, where a father, a father & mother or mother lays their hands on their child and conveys 5 HUGE blessings on the child
1) Meaningful Touch Meaningful touch communicates love and personal acceptance.
2) Spoken Words – Our children need to hear why we believe in them and what we value.
3) Word Pictures of High Value A blessing gives words of affirmation to your child.
4) Picturing a Special Future Kids need hope that the future holds a place for them.
5) A Commitment to Seeing the Blessing Fulfilled This means you are declaring your intention and willingness to do whatever it takes to fulfill this blessing for your child. You promise to be there to guide, support, coach, and do whatever it takes to help your child achieve a worthy future.
This is the blessing God wants you to receive from Him – He knows you and wants you to be a part of His family – to be adopted into His home, and held in the palm of His hand. God Knows You, and is preparing us, loving us and cheering for us to BOLDLY claim His blessing – to jump into His plan to change the world and BOLDLY press on toward His purposes! God knows you ands…
God pursues you
When David affirmed God’s thorough knowledge of himself, he concluded in verse 6 that this is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to [reach] it.” What he meant is, “I just can’t deal with this. It’s too overwhelming. It’s out of my reach!.” MIND=BLOWN!
David’s first instinct is the same as ours – How can I escape? Where can I hide? If He knows all that, He knows I’m a hypocrite, He’s heard my lies, He saw what I did last week.” In verses 7-12, he says: “Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I live on the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will hold on to me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will become night,’ even the darkness is not dark to You. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to You.”
David is saying – there is absolutely no place that God cannot and will not find me!
That’s what David is saying in verse 10 when he says, “If I could ride the sun’s rays and fly at blinding speeds to some remote place or bury myself under miles of ocean, even there, writes David, Your hand will lead me (that’s guidance); Your right hand will hold on to me (that’s security).
You know what this means, right? You are wanted by God. Over and over in the Bible, we see this affirmed. We are called God’s beloved, chosen, dearly loved children. We are told that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. When you feel the crushing weight of loneliness and wonder if you would be missed if you were gone, remember this. God is pursuing YOU!
Mary Ann Bird wrote that when she was growing up, she knew she was different. “And I hated it,” she said. “I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I looked to others: a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth, and garbled speech. “When schoolmates asked, ‘What happened to your lip?’ I’d tell them I’d fallen and cut it on a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have suffered an accident than to be born different.
There was, however, a teacher in the 2nd grade all the kids loved – Mrs. Leonard. She was happy – a sparkling lady. Annually we had a hearing test. … Mrs. Leonard gave the test to everyone in the class, and finally it was my turn. I knew from past years that as we stood against the door and covered one ear, the teacher sitting at her desk would whisper something, and we would have to repeat it back – things like “The sky is blue” or “Do you have new shoes?” I waited there for those words that God must have put into her mouth, those seven words that changed my life. Mrs. Leonard said, in her whisper,
“I wish you were my little girl.”
GOD loves you. And He pledges to us that now that we belong to Him because of faith in Jesus, we will never be separated again. God knows you and wants you.
3. God Himself made you
Read verses 13-16 with me: “For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless – ”
It was God who knit you together in your mother’s womb, a picture of the intricate attention to detail of a seamstress as she creates a garment one thread at a time.The phrase in verse 13 where David writes, “I have been remarkably and wonderfully made.” God made you, He threw away the mold. You are totally unique,fashioned with awe-inspiring skill by the Divine right down to your thumbprint. God created the wonderful YOU! Watch this: the human brain processes information even faster than the most powerful computer in the universe! Scientists estimate that the brain carries out 10 quadrillion operations a second – 10 times faster than a computer the size of a hockey rink! God has done some pretty cool knitting, wouldn’t you say?
You are His treasured creation, made in His likeness. God knows you. He wants you. He made you, and…
God has plans just for you
Check out verse 16-18: all [my] days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began. God, how difficult Your thoughts are for me [to comprehend] ; how vast their sum it!
David says that the script for your life was already written by God, that the Lord has carefully mapped the details that will fill your days, ordaining what will and will not happen. The Hebrew word the Holy Spirit that David uses here indicates that God has created each day of our life, every circumstance, establishing boundaries, and fashioning opportunities for His glory and our good.
But God doesn’t just set the plan in motion and look the other way. God’s thoughts are on you constantly. He greets you each morning with fresh mercy and new opportunities, ready to go through the hours with you. He loves your company. And He has specific plans that you alone can fulfill. So Go Out Every Morning with the knowledge and understanding that You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you…Monday morning will be here and you can CRUSH IT! You are Known, Loved, Wanted, Created and Equipped by The Creator of the Universe to Live BOLDLY – Go Live Like a Child of The King – BOLD living sees every day as another day as another opportunity to make a difference, and see God use you in amazing ways! Go Boldly!
God knows you. He pursues you. He made you with a purpose, and is ready to live out those plans with you each day. Will you allow yourself to hear His still, small voice? “I am so glad you are my child. Take my hand. Let’s run this race together.” Go Kill It!
So, what is it that you need to conquer? Go at it BOLDLY! God is FOR YOU!!!
This is a $100 bill. If I offered it to you, you would take it. But what if I ball it up and throw it on the ground – would you still want it? What if they stepped on it, kicked it, and even spit on it? Could you still go to the store and spend it? Yes. This bill has value because of what it is, not because of how it looks, where it’s been, or what it’s been used for. A crisp, clean $100 bill is worth the same amount as an ugly, older, more used one. You may feel like you’ve been stepped on, beat up, or kicked around. You may feel dirty, unworthy, or useless. Just know this – you matter to God.
Maybe your parents have said words that ring in your ears to this day; or they didn’t say the words you were longing to hear! Maybe your spouse has rejected you, verbally, emotionally, or physically. Don’t let what another human does define you. Don’t draw conclusions about yourself based on them. Look higher – You matter to God so much He sent His Son for you. You belong, you are cherished, you are His – forever!