All right, brethren, Psalm 139. Now, the heading says this is
to the chief musician of Psalm of David. But like Psalms we've
seen so many times, this is prophetical. It's preeminently the Lord Jesus
praying to the Father. but it's so of his people as
well. But there's some things in this
psalm that can only be said of our Lord Jesus. We know that
he's speaking here of the body that was prepared for him in
the womb, down in verse 13. He said, thou has covered me
in my mother's womb. I will praise thee for I'm fearfully
and wonderfully made. We know that applies to our Savior.
And he speaks of All God's elect being the members of His body,
down in verse 16, He said, And in thy book all my members were
written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there
was none of them. And then none but our Lord could
say this in verse 21 and 22. None could say this with a perfect
heart. Verse 21, Do not I hate them,
O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieve with those
that rise up against thee. I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. And
that is, everything our Savior does is perfect, and that's perfect
hatred. No sin involved in that, that's
just righteous, perfect hatred. But due to Christ being our acceptance
with God, this is true of us too. say the things here that
are spoken in this psalm. We can pray this. So we're gonna
hear Christ speak and we're gonna hear David speak. We'll hear
Christ speak, we'll hear what we can say too. Our subject is
knowledge too wonderful. Knowledge too wonderful. I got
that from verse six where he says, such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It's high, I cannot attain unto
it. And what we're gonna see here
in these six verses, we're just gonna take verses one through
six. God the Father's knowledge of our Savior was our Savior's
comfort when He walked this earth, serving the Father. I try to
remind you of this all the time, that He's God, but when He took
flesh, He depended upon the Father just like you or me would. He trusted the Father. and served
him as the perfect believer in place of his people. He's the
one perfect servant of God, perfect, perfect servant. But he trusted
the father and the father's knowledge of him, knowing the father knew
him, knew all about him and everything about his way, his thoughts,
that was his comfort. He knew his father was continually
looking up on him and was there to fulfill all the promises he
had made to him. God is omniscient. He's all-knowing. He knows all. And he knew all
concerning Christ when he walked this earth. And that's true of
his people. The Lord knows everything about
us. All our thoughts, our ways, everything
about us. And that's comfort to us as well.
I want to show you three things here in these six verses. how
that God knows our thoughts, and we'll see how that God knows
our ways, and then we'll see how that this brings us to be
amazed and to worship the Lord, to truly bow and worship the
Lord. Now, first of all here, the Lord
knows all the thoughts of his people. All the thoughts of his
people, the Lord knows. He says here in verse one, O
Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting
and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. The Lord knows all. He's all-knowing. He knows all things about everybody
and everything and every creature. He's all-knowing. Romans 11.33,
Paul said, Oh, the depth, oh, the depth of the riches, both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his
judgments and his ways past finding out. We cannot find out his way. His judgments are unsearchable. He said in Isaiah 40, verse 28,
has thou not known, has thou not heard that the everlasting
God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth
not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his
understanding. no searching of his understanding.
Now you take spiritually dead sinners. Spiritually dead sinners
are terrified by that thought, that God knows them and knows
all their thoughts, knows everything about them. That terrifies a
carnal man, an unregenerate man. And so to soothe their conscience,
they try to act like it doesn't terrify them. They try to act
like Well, they question God's knowledge and God's wisdom. Psalm
73, 11, they say, how does God know? And is there knowledge
in the Most High? 1 Samuel 2, 3 says, talk no more
so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogance come out of
your mouth, for the Lord's a God of knowledge, and by Him actions
are weighed. You know, men can fool men. by
their outward works, because all a man can see is the outward.
And men can fool men. But God weighs the action by
the thought. You know, that's what I mean
when I've said to you, it's the motive. Motive is everything.
By Him, actions are weighed. How are they weighed? By the
thoughts and intents of the heart. What was the thought and intent
behind the action? What's the motive? And that's
how God judges. And our Lord, the Savior, our
Lord Jesus, he knows the thoughts and intents of the heart. He
knew the thoughts and intents of men's heart. He is the perfect
man who served God, but he's also God when he was in that
body, walking this earth. And he knew men's thoughts. Remember
the one time the scribes and Pharisees were angry, and the
scripture says, it says in their In their hearts, they were just
thinking it. They were saying, this man blasphemeth. They were thinking it. And it
says, and Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, wherefore think
ye evil in your hearts? He knows our thoughts. This is
why, brethren, no man, not even somebody, when he's created a
new heart, he gives you a holy heart. Born of incorruptible
seed, he cannot be corrupted without sin. There's a new spirit
without sin. But our flesh is nothing but
sin. So not even a believer wants to try to come to God in the
law because to have one sinful thought is to break the whole
law of God. And God knows all the thoughts
of men. So we must have Christ. There's no way we can come to
God Holy, righteous God, there's no way we can come to Him without
Christ, being in Christ, accepted solely on what, who Christ is
and what He did. That's the only way we can be
accepted of God. And we want, you know, it's not
only that we want to be accepted of God, but it's more than that.
When you know the Savior, you want to know more of Him. You, You're just so grateful and so
thankful and you love Him and you want to know more of Him. God knows all men, but we saw
in the last Psalm, look there, Psalm 138 and verse 6. At the end it says, the proud
he knoweth afar off. He knows all men, He knows the
proud, but He knows them in a whole different way than He knows His
people. He doesn't know the proud reprobate
like he knows his elect. He knows his elect in a particular
special way. But you remember what the Lord
said, when men come to him boasting, when the proud come to him in
the Day of Judgment boasting that we preached in your name,
we did many wonderful works, all these things. He said, I
will say to them, I never knew you. I never knew you. He knows their sin, he knows
all men's sin, but he knows the proud of far off. But in the
way he knows his people, he doesn't know all men that way. He knows
his people in a very particular, special way. We're gonna see
that. We're gonna see that. In this Psalm, our Lord is speaking,
and this is the comfort he had as a man, knowing God the Father
knew everything about Him and was continually looking to Him
and continually protecting Him and for Him. This was His comfort. Verse 1, O Lord, Thou hast searched
me and known me. Thou hast searched me and known
me. Now, it's not like God has to search somebody like a police
officer has to search somebody. He just knows. He knows. It means there's nothing unknown
to Him. There's nothing unknown to God. And our Savior, what
did the Lord see? Our Savior knew everything, God
knew everything about our Savior. What'd He see? He saw perfection. He saw a man whose thoughts,
every thought, always, every moment of his life, his whole
life, pleased the Father. Pleased the Father. That's how
righteous God is, and that's how holy we must be. Just ask
yourself this. Have you ever had just one thought
that didn't please the Father? Just one thought. We have to
have every thought, every imagination of the thoughts of our hearts
must be absolutely perfect, righteous, holy, always. or God can't receive
us. And that's what he saw in our
Savior. Perfection. Perfection. Now,
he knows every person's heart, but this was personal to our
Savior. And it's personal to you and
me. He says in verse 1, O Lord, thou hast searched me. You've
known me. Now, if Christ is all your salvation,
and you have no other hope but Him. You can say that. You can
say, Lord, you've searched me. You know me. You know me. He said, verse two, thou knowest
my down-sitting when I'm weary. What all is included in down-sitting?
It includes so many things. When you're weary, when you're
cast down, you're weary. Our Savior was a real man. He
was a real man. And he was touched with all the
feeling of our infirmities. And he grew weary. But when he was weary, remember
in Gethsemane, God sent an angel and strengthened him. And strengthened
him. And now our Savior's risen. He
knows our infirmities. He knows our weakness. He knows
our thoughts. When other men may look at you and you put on
a good face and they don't think you're weary and they don't think
you're troubled, but he knows, he knows. He knows when you're
weary, he knows when you're downcast, and he knows how to comfort and
strengthen us when we're weary. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities and he's able to succor, to comfort, to strengthen
them that are weak and weary. He suffered down sitting when
he was betrayed by his own friend Judas. Betrayal is a painful
thing. And he suffered betrayal from
Judas. And then all the brethren left
him. When he went to the cross, all the brethren left him. And
he said, he said, the hour cometh, yea is now come that you shall
be scattered, every man to his own and shall leave me alone.
And yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. That's
what we're talking about in this psalm. That's the thought right
there. You know me. You're with me. You're eyes upon me and you know
my thoughts. You know my needs. You know my
down sitting. When you've been betrayed or
you've been deserted by a close, dear friend or loved one, the
Lord knows. He knows that. And He knows your
thoughts. He knows every thought that goes
through your heart when you're downcast. You take somebody that
is left alone and nobody's with you, but the Lord is with his
people. You're not alone. The Lord is always with his people. He's always with his people.
His thoughts are never treacherous. They're never false. They're
always true. And he is the friend that sticks
closer than a brother. He said this of the father when
he walked his earth. Now we say this of him, Lord,
you know me, you know my down sitting. You know, another thing
that you can take into this under this heading of down sitting
is when you actually sit down to eat and we thank God for our
food. He knows, he knows our thoughts. He knows the heart. You know,
if that was the only commandment we had was to be to thank God
for your food. That was the only commandment
in the Bible, thank God for your food, be thankful. We couldn't
come to God based on our thankfulness and
being righteous and holy and our thanksgiving to God. We couldn't. We just couldn't. We can't put
confidence in that, but our Savior was a perfect, perfect, He gave
thanks to the Father in perfection. And the Lord knew his heart.
Their hearts were one. He knew the thoughts of our Savior. You know, when you are thankful,
why are you thankful? When you're thankful to God for
anything, why are you thankful? Where did that thankful heart
come from? Where did that thought of being
thankful, where did it come from? It came from the Lord. The Lord
gave you What does Scripture say? All good and every good
and perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights. Well, every
one of them do. And if you have a thought that's
good toward God and you want to thank Him, He first gave that
to you. We don't first give Him anything.
He first gave that to you. And He knows the heart. He knows the thought that is
truly thankful. And he keeps renewing our hearts
to be thankful. We become, I don't know the word exactly,
but we become complacent. And the Lord keeps renewing you
to remember he chose you. That's something that he renews
in your heart so strongly sometimes and you realize What a blessing
of God's grace that he chose his people before the world was
made, but he makes it so real to you. He chose me. And Christ,
when he went to that cross and laid down his life, just like
that priest had the names of the 12 tribes of Israel on his
breastplate, he had the names of each individual elect child
on his heart. He knows. He knows and He renews
this in our hearts so that we're thankful and our thoughts are
toward Him. He keeps your thought toward
Him. Keeps you giving thanks. He'll take that bread on your
table and tell me if you do this, you see that bread, that food
on your table and you think, does it not remind you that He's
the bread for your soul? And you think, just like this
bread's gonna nourish my body, My Savior is the life of my soul. He is the life. He's the life. And the Lord will use something
like the bread on your table to renew that thanksgiving and
you have a thankful, thoughtful thoughts toward him. When you
sit down, study his word. That's down sitting. You sit
down, you're gonna study his word. Our Lord knows when you're
studying that word and you're reading, And the thought comes
to your heart, I don't know what that means. He knows that. He
knows your thoughts. And if you have a heart to pray
to him and say, Lord, would you give me some light? I need light. I don't have light. I need to
know. I don't understand. Will you
give me light? He put the thought in your heart to ask him for
light, and then he gives you light. He knows our thoughts. He says here, thou knowest mine
uprising. Thou knowest my uprising. Whenever
you get up to start your day in the morning, he knows it.
He knows, he knows, he sees you, he knows you, he knows your thoughts. If they're not on him, any sinful
thought we have, anything that's not good and is not toward him,
that's all of our sin nature. We got that from Adam, that's
all of us. It comes from our sinful flesh,
that's all it can produce is sin. But any good thoughts, he
put it there. And he knows when you get up
in the morning and he turns your thoughts towards him. How come
is it you get up, you got your day planned, you sat down the
night before, you planned everything out and you got your day time
full, you got all these things to do and you get up, try to
hit the ground running How come it is that just out of the blue
you have a thought about the Lord and you start thinking on
Him? Where'd that come from? Came from Him. He's gonna keep
His people thinking on Him. What about if we become fearful
during our day? What about when we're going through
the day and something makes us very fearful? He knows and He
turns you to Christ the refuge It makes you know. He knows,
he knows what you, he knows your fearful thought. Maybe our uprising
is we've become too proud. Maybe, maybe it's uprising as
in we're too puffed up. He knows that too. And he knows
just exactly how to humble us and keep us in the sea in our
need of him and knowing how much we need him. He says there in
verse two, Thou understandest my thought afar off. You ever stand out there and
just look at the stars and just think how far away the stars
are? And really, you know, now, with all the telescopes and things,
now we realize those stars really aren't that far away from us
in comparison to the universe. but they're still way away from
us. Well, he's so much farther away
from us than even the stars are above us, far away from us, but
distance doesn't have any bearing on the Lord knowing us. You know,
my thoughts are far off. Our risen Savior, he's as near
to his people right now as when he walked this earth side by
side with his apostles. He is that near to his people.
He's as near to his people right now, to you sitting here now,
as if he was standing right here. He's near, he's with us, and
he knows everything about us. Distance has no bearing on it.
And this is something right here that really, really blessed my
heart. This word of far off, it means time as well as distance. And it doesn't only mean distance,
it means time, too. In other places, it's translated
of old, the same word, of old, from eternity. He knew. He knew. He understood our thoughts
afar off. He knew we'd fallen at him because
it was all according to his purpose. He chose his son to be the savior
before we fell because he knew what we would do. He knew. He didn't look on us and see
that we'd believe him and know we'd believe him because we wouldn't.
That's why he predestinated us to the adoption of children.
But he knew we'd reject him. He knew we'd go from him after
we failed. He knew our thoughts toward him would be corrupt due
to pride. Listen, Psalm 10, four, let's
look over there. Psalm 10, look at verse four. He knew this about us right here.
He knew we would not seek him. due to our sin nature. Psalm
10, verse 4, the wicked, through the pride of his countenance,
will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. Has that ever been you? Have
you ever been the wicked? God's people say what Paul said,
when I would do good now, as a sanctified, holy child of God,
by God's grace, when I would do good, evil is present with
me. Our Lord said, if you be an evil,
know how to give good gifts to your children. He's talking to
believers. That's how we are in our flesh.
And he knew we wouldn't. He knew 1 Corinthians 2.14. It says, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
Our Lord knew that from eternity, before he created anything. Now
far off, he knew us. And so far off, of old, from
before creating this world, Ephesians 1 says, he predestinated each
of his elect to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself. He adopted us to himself, predestinated
the time when he'd send the gospel and Christ would come and he'd
send the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
That's all the purpose, he knew of old. Afar off, he knew our
thoughts. Look at Jeremiah 31, three. We
quote this all the time, but I want you to see it in this
context. Jeremiah 31, verse three. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me. Do you see the margin? Do you
have a marginal index in your Bible? It says from afar. just like our son, from afar.
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee again. I will build thee, and thou shalt
be built, O virgin of Israel. Thou shalt again be adorned with
thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make
merry. That's what the Lord prompted.
Turn now to Isaiah 25. I want you to see this, Isaiah
25. when He reveals to you that His
thoughts have been toward you from eternity. Afar off, from
before the creation of the world, His thoughts were toward His
elect, toward His Son, and all His elect in His Son. And from
afar, from of old. And He makes you see this, that's
gonna make you praise Him and Him only. Watch this, Isaiah
25, verse one. O Lord, Thou art my God, I will
exalt thee, I will praise thy name, for thou hast done wonderful
things. Thy counsels of old are faithfulness
and truth. Thy counsels afar off of old,
from before the creation of the world, are faithfulness and truth. Now see the word wonderful right
there? I will praise thy name, for thou hast done wonderful
things. Thy counsels of old are far off
for faithfulness and truth. Go back with me to our text,
Psalm 139. Psalm 139, look here in verse six. He's saying the exact same thing
you just read in Isaiah 25.1, it's being amazed. He said, such
knowledge, he said, He said, such knowledge is too
wonderful for me. It's high, I cannot attain unto
it. That's when you see and you really
understand by His grace that He has had these same thoughts
toward His Son and these same thoughts toward you from eternity. A fall off of old. That's what
makes you just hit your face in amazement and wonder and say,
oh Lord, That word wonderful is extraordinary. It means things
that you can't compare anything to it. That's what salvation
is and all the works that God works for his people. I'm trying
to show you false religion uses this psalm to guilt people and
to make them terrified. God knows now. He knows what
you're doing in the dark. He knows, you know, and they
want to terrify God's people. Well, God does know everything.
And it ought to be terrifying for a man that does not trust
God and believe on Christ. But that's not what's being said
in this psalm. The purpose of this psalm, God's
thoughts toward us shall prevail. Whatever he's thought toward
his people, that's what's going to prevail. His thoughts toward
his people. He knows our thoughts, and when
our sinful thoughts of unbelief cast us down, He knows that,
and He turns us back to Him, and He renews us. This is a thing
to rejoice in, that He knows you. And He knows His people. He knows exactly what we need,
when we need it, and He knows how to meet the need. Look over
at Jeremiah 29, just real quick, Jeremiah 29. Look at what it
says here. Jeremiah 29, 11. I know the thoughts that I think
toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to
give you an expected end. That's the Lord's thoughts toward
his people from eternity. Now listen, here's the second
thing. The Lord knows our ways. And
this is something else that I think will be a blessing to you. It
sure did comfort my heart. Look at this verse three. Thou
compassest my path and my lying down and are acquainted with
all my ways. Again, if you have a marginal
reference, that word compasses, it means to winnow, to fan, just
like they would take a fan, they would take a threshing floor,
and it bounced, and they'd put the crops on there, the wheat
or the corn or whatever, and somebody would bounce that threshing
floor, and those crops would start bouncing up and down, and
the chaff is lighter than the corn. And so it would start to
separate, and they would have a winnowing fan that would be
blowing, and that wind from that winnowing fan would blow the
chaff away. And so all that was left was
the corn, what they wanted. Well, the Lord winnows our path. He fans our path to separate
the right way, the good way, from the bad way. Separate you
from the wrong way to the right way. Separate you and keep you
separated under Him. That's what He's doing in all
our path as we go through this world. That's what He's doing. And you know, our Lord experienced
this too. You know how many times they
sought to kill our Lord? They wanted to take him and throw
him off the cliff. They wanted several times. And
scripture says, it says, they sought to take him, but no man
laid hands on him because his hour was not yet come. We find
in Luke on one occasion, he passed through the midst of them and
went his way and they couldn't touch him. They're all around
him. Sometimes they just didn't even
see him. And he just passed through their way. In John 10, he escaped
out of their hand. So many times that happened. That happens to me and you too,
brethren. The Lord is, he's winnowing our
path and making the way clear for his people and turning you
from danger and turning danger from you. He says, thou compasseth
my path, you protect me, you preserve me. Well, Christ's fan's
in his hand now and he's doing that for each one that he redeemed.
He bought us with his blood, he justified us. He's not gonna
lose one. and He's gonna keep our path,
keep us in the path. He said, and you know my lying
down? Our Lord, remember how He was asleep in that ship when
the storm was raging? Why was He asleep? He knew who
was ruling the storm. His Father had Him protected
all about, all around. You surround me when I lay down,
I'm protected by my Savior when I sleep, that's what you can
say. I'm protected by my Savior. I can lay down and sleep at peace
because He's all about me. That word acquainted means to
be intimately acquainted with, and He's intimately acquainted
with all the ways of His people. Our Father sanctified us in eternity,
choosing us in Christ. Christ perfected us forever,
sanctified us, perfected us by His will, performing the will
of God, and He keeps you sanctified to Him. and will not let anything
separate you from Him. Whether you're lying down, asleep,
unconscious of what's going on around you, or whether you're
in the path, actively walking, He's going to keep you separated
to Him, winnowing our path, winnowing our path. He does chasten us
if we need it, but the chastisement of our peace was on Christ, and
with His stripes we're healed. So it's not the fierce indignation
of His wrath It's the loving, correcting hand of a father that
loves his child. Father that loves his child.
And he knows every word before you speak it. Verse 4. There's
not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all
together, even before you speak it. He said, it shall come to
pass before they call, I'll answer, and while they're yet speaking,
I'll hear. Verse 5. Thou hast beset me behind and
before, and laid thy hand upon me. We're gonna see this in Isaiah
52 soon. You shall not go out with haste,
nor go by flight, for the Lord will go before you, and the God
of Israel will be your reward. That means he's behind and he's
in front, and his hand's upon you. That's safety. That's safety. You see, this psalm's not meant
to scare God's people. We're to comfort God's people.
And this is a word of comfort. And what does this knowledge
do? It makes you fall down amazed and worship him. He said in verse
six, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it's high, I cannot attain
unto it. Look at Psalm 144. Psalm 144,
one. Blessed be the Lord, my strength. I love these titles he gives
to the Lord. Blessed be the Lord my strength,
which teacheth my hands to war, my fingers to fight, my goodness
and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer, my shield,
and he in whom I trust, who subdueth my people under me. Lord, what
is man that thou takest knowledge of him, or the son of man that
thou makest account of him? Don't you just stand amazed that
God thinks on you? The God of heaven and earth. And listen, He is so all-knowing
that He thinks on you just as personally and as all-knowing
as He does in each one of His people, He does the same way.
Nobody's ever not in the center of His thoughts. None of his
people, they're never outside of the center of his thought.
And his hands upon you, he's before you and behind you. Now
look down at verse 17. How precious, how rare and valuable
also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. If I should count them,
they're more in number than the sand. When I wake, I'm still
with you. That's where he brings you. Go with me one place, Malachi
3. Malachi 3. whenever, it's amazing that he thinks on
us, that's amazing. But here's what's also amazing,
is that all his thoughts toward us, as we just saw, they're all
thoughts of peace, they're thoughts to give his people the end that
he determined before the world was made, to bring you home,
to be with him forever, perfect, holy, all in Christ and by Christ,
And here's his thoughts towards you, Malachi 3.17. This is what
he says of all his people. They shall be mine, saith the
Lord of hosts. And that day when I make up my
jewels, I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that
serveth him. That's his thoughts toward his
people. You remember when Paul said,
he said, brethren, whatsoever things are true, honest, pure,
lovely, Good report, he said, think on those things. Next time,
next time, and I need to, ooh, I need to remember this. When
your thoughts are racing with every worthless thought there
is, and you got all these things that's causing you to be anxious
and you're just troubled, think, stop, sit down, and read this
Psalm, and think about the very fact that God's thoughts are
toward you. and just stop and settle down
and look at this Psalm and read it and read it, really read it
as it being so of you. Just read those first three verses.
Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my
down city and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. That's something good to think
on, that Lord is thinking on me, he knows everything about
me, and he's before me, behind me, got his hand up on me, he's
gonna do what, he's gonna give me that expected end. That'll
settle our hearts, and that'll settle our minds. I pray the
Lord will bless that. Brother Adam.