Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

The title of the sermon today is from Psalm 139. The title is, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. There is a story, a true story. Maybe Eleanor probably knows this, or Chris. The story of the American Indians. And it was called the rite of passage into manhood. And so when a young, she's shaking her head, yes she does, when a young man became 13 years of age, it was time for his passage into manhood. He had learned to hunt, he had learned to fish, he had learned to provide, he had learned to build, all before the age of 13.

But at 13 it was time for him to become not only a man, but a brave and a warrior. And so one of the things that he must show in that rite of passage is courage and fearlessness. So one of the things that they would do when he became 13, they would take him out into the woods, far away, and they would blindfold the young man. And he would have to sit either on a tree, fallen tree or a rock. And he was to sit there all night long blindfolded with the thoughts, the thought of a bear, thoughts of mountain lions, thoughts of all types of snakes, everything else out into the woods. And he was not to move or remove that blindfold until light came up from the morning sun. Then he was allowed to take it off. And after he had sat there through that long night, hearing all types of sound, if you've ever spent time in the woods and just closed your eyes, when he took off the blindfold, as he looked around, a feeling came over him. Because as he looked right behind him, there was his father. His father was sitting with him all night long. He just did not know it. His father was there to protect him. His father was there to make sure he was okay. Our father is just as involved. Our spiritual father is just as involved. God, our father, he knows us. He sees us. And he cares for us. More than even our human fathers can even attempt. But I like that story because it was supposed to make an impression upon the young warrior's mind that someone like his father would always be there watching out for him. And our father is watching out for us. He cares what we do. He's very active. I love the story, and I will bring that out here, of a young atheist teacher, fresh out of college, that was trying to instruct the students in her fifth grade class. And to make the point, she wrote these words on the board, and most of you can figure that out. And most of the students, when she asked them what it said, said, God is nowhere. God is nowhere, to which a young girl came up front and said, let me write that as it should be. God is now here. It's a viewpoint. It changes when God's in your life. Most of the world today will teach that, does God really exist? I was just reading. Someone sent me about the park they are building, an actual life-size Noah's Ark in Kentucky. It's going to be as much as they can build the same size, everything, at the Ark, and you're going to be able to go through it. And so I read at the bottom of the page where all the comments were, and it was amazing because they were 3 to 1. How stupid it must be for people to believe in an Ark, much less a God. Amazing. It's what our country has turned into, like Andy talked about.

I would like to go now to Psalm 139. And I really must say, to me, this arguably could be the most inspiring and greatest Psalm written in the Bible. I had read it many times, but I never took it apart. I never studied it. I never had it affect me as it does now.

I want to just go through that today and just show how powerful it is and what a powerful example that David was to all of us. And it was his mindset of looking to his father, because he was a flawed man, like all of us.

But he was a man after God's own heart. And since I've been here, I've always tried to stress that it's the heart that matters. It's the heart that counts with God. So I'd like to look at this and like for you to turn Psalm 139. I'll read from the New King James Version, but I'll also pull one or two from the New Living Translation. If you have other translations, you might enjoy reading just the different nuances of the words people use when they translate, because it is very interesting how that's done.

But in the New King James, if you'll, in Psalm 139 and verse 1, very simple line here, verse 1, it says, Oh, Lord, you have searched me and known me. Oh, Lord, you have searched me and known me. It's interesting because in the original Hebrew, the last me is not in there. Okay, when you read the original Hebrew, it says, Oh, Lord, you have searched me and known. No pronoun. The pronoun was added later, which tells you a lot.

Because he said, You have searched me, Father, and known. Known everything about me. Known everything I did. Everything I say. Everything I'm going to do. Because just like so many of you that raised your children, you know those who would struggle with certain things down the road. You knew those young people who would find it easy to work with other young people. You knew those who wouldn't.

God knew us before we were born. Hard as it is to conceive in our minds. He did. I like the New Living Translation says, You have examined my heart and know everything about me. You ever thought about that as we go into the spring holy days as we're examining and searching ourselves? Brethren, isn't it time that we stop searching ourselves and start letting God do the work? And let Him tell us as He searched our heart, let Him start telling us what He's found and how we can become more like Him.

Because He knows us. He knows those inner thoughts. Because He searched our heart. He looks upon the heart. He picked David because he was a man after God's own heart. He picked him over his brother Eliab. He's big and strong. God's looking for heart people. When's the last time you've had a examination of your heart? All of us can do that. It's interesting that the word search in Hebrew meant to dig. It's actually used many times, especially in Job 28.3 as it talks about digging gold and silver.

As He searched. So God is digging. And as the word says, He's digging and searching us. He knows us. I guess that's why what? Matthew 10 verse 30 says, He knows even, not even, all the heads, all the hair on every head, even the lack of hair. As I used to have more in the front, it starts getting thinner.

He knows that. He even knew it before I knew it. Because I didn't want to admit it. Right? I want to admit it's getting thin here. It's getting thin right on top of the mountain of sun. But I was going, no, no, but God knew. Mary and him both knew. But just like the hair on your head, He knows everything about everything about all of us. And that is an amazing Father. Truly amazing Father. You have, Lord, You have searched me and known and known.

And then in verse 2, it says, you know my sitting down and my rising up, you understand my thoughts are far off. So no matter where I'm at, as far off in this world, as far as Matt is from Fernando. He's in Texas. She's here. That's a long way. No matter how far we are from home base, He knows where we're at.

And even, I even look at this scripture and I think because David understood that even when you're a far off from God, and we all get because sin separates us from God, even when we're a far off that way spiritually, He still knows where we are. He's going to kind of pull us back, get us back there. The New Living Translation said, you know my thoughts, even when I'm far away. Verse 3, you comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. The actual word for comprehend there is the word for winnowing.

And we've talked about that many times. It is a process of harvesting and they bring the wheat and they throw the wheat up in the air and the wind would blow the chaff, little stuff away and the good stuff would come down. Winnowing. So I looked at that and said, well, that's the original Hebrew word. You winnow my path and my lying down. See, He clears the path for us.

He knows exactly the path we're going. He knows where we've been. He knows where we're going to go. Because He knows our hearts. You know, God never loses track of us. Never does. He always knows us. Everything about us. That's amazing. Verse 4, for there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O God. O Lord, you know it altogether. New Living says, you know what I'm going to say before I say it. Isn't that amazing? No, not really. Anybody's been married long enough. You can say the words that your mates going to say.

You know what they're thinking. Your kids. You know what Jonathan goes to say? Most of the time. See, God knows. Well, He knows what we're thinking because He knows our hearts. He knows our minds. He knows everything. Isn't that amazing? There's not a word. Not a word on my tongue. So that means He knows what we're going to say, but guess what? He knows what we say. Every single word. He knows what we said yesterday. He knows what we said this morning. Nothing surprises Him. Verse 5, you have hedged me behind and before.

You built a hedge around me. The actual, in the middle there, it actually says, enclosed me. One translation says, God, you are before me. You are behind me. You are on my left. You are on my right. This guy is completely enclosed. He knows he's right there with us. Can you imagine that? That somebody would care that much for you? That's an awesome thought. And it said, you laid your hand upon me. New Living Translation says, you place your hand of blessing on my head. As they used to do, even the fathers would lay their hand upon their oldest child, or whoever it was, to give the blessing.

It says that He encompasses you. He encloses you. He knows where you're at, every single man. And then, above all that, He wants to put His hand and bless you.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, David said. He understood that, and He looked and it's too wonderful. One says it's too great to understand. That God, the God of the universe, God who made all this stuff, He's there all the time. He's all-powerful. He's omniscient. He's all-knowing.

He's omnipresent. He's everywhere. And He is so concerned with us. With us. If He is your God, He's here. If He's not, I'll leave that to you. People wonder why they can't understand God. Verse 7. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

He's everywhere, omnipresent me. Theological terms, saying, God is everywhere all the time. Our minds have a hard time comprehending that. It's hard sometimes for you sitting here to even realize that you're here. Your mind will go off somewhere else, right? But He's everywhere all the time. Makes me think of Matthew 1, verse 23, when Jesus Christ has called Emmanuel, God with us.

Do we get up in the morning and see that He's with us? Do we feel that He's with us when He goes to bed at night? God's with us? This is what David is trying to tell us. He's trying to get us to understand what took Him decades to learn. And He's an old man, as He put this to the chief musician there, to turn into a song. So important, He wanted everybody to learn this. Where can I go from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, grave, you are there. So He's up there. He's down in the ground. Or is it more than that? Is it possible David understood something? I think it is because David understood a lot. One place he was actually called a prophet. Man after God's own heart, he understood. See, I think David knew what God was going to inspire, hundreds of years later, like He'd turn there. 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 16. Most of you know it, I hope. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead, those in the grave, will rise first.

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up in the air together with Him in the clouds. You think David didn't understand what was going to happen to him after he died? He was going to be in the grave? Then he was going to be resurrected, and he knew God would be there. God wasn't going to forget. Oh, wait a minute. Where did we bury David? What happened to him?

Christ, you remember? Because I forget. All these people showed up. Millions, billions of people lived. I forgot where these people are. He said, no, he'll never forget you. He's not going to forget when we ascend and meet Christ in the air and we're changing a moment and twinkling in the eye. God's going to be there. And He knows us, and He's going to see us do that wonderful transformation. Verse 9, if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the seas, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. When you read that, it's part of the Hebrew language.

It's actually talking about the wings, talking like a bird that flies, and it can fly from here to there, and you see it just disappear on the horizon. It may be miles and miles away. It doesn't matter. And you look at the ocean if you go out in the morning, and you see the sun coming up, and you see how far it is out there. David said it doesn't matter because God's there. And if I'm there, He's going to be there.

And for all those people who may take a boat out, and the boat sinks, and you're hanging there seven miles from the shore of Miami, hanging on a piece of wood, guess what? God knows exactly where you're at. When you're in a bad way, a bad trial, God knows where you're at. It says, even your hand shall lead me. When's the last time you ask Him, I don't know what to do, God. You lead Him. Lead me. Lead me to this job. Lead me to my wife.

Lead me to whatever I need to go to, because you're so much smarter than I am. And He says, not just your left hand, your right hand. He keeps me, because most people who's known are right-handed, their stronger arm is their right hand.

It wasn't any of this left stuff. But God, know that He's got us in this hand, this arm. If I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me or cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day and the darkness and the light are both alike to you.

Do you understand that? Actually, Hebrew there in verse 12 says, indeed, the darkness is not dark. The darkness is not dark. Even if it's dark and so black, you cannot see the hand in front of your face, God sees you perfectly. It doesn't matter whether it's dark or light. With God, He can see everything all the time.

It can be dark as dark as dark. Doesn't matter. Is that what we see in Revelation 21, 22? When He said, God, there's no need for the sun to be out there. For the glory of God illuminates it, and the Lamb is His light. Revelation 21, 23. See, we can't see the darkness out in the sky, but where God's throne is, it's so bright, there is no darkness.

There is no night.

Night and day is a human thing made for humans. That's it. When you no longer need to sleep, you're not going to need it. Isn't that amazing? No matter how dark something looks, no matter how dark your life looks for these people who think, who cares about me? I want to tell anyone, even thinking as soon as I just read this thing. Take it apart. And you realize, man, how awesome it is that He knows that I'm here. And I guess somebody that really cares for me. But the problem with the world has got to start right here. Because they're right here. They don't want God involved in their life. They don't want Him telling them what to do. No right, no wrong. They become their own gods.

What's God to say? Oh, no, please, please, please let me in. Please listen to me. You don't want Him? He'll give you exactly what you want. He'll leave you alone. But there's the other side of the coin. There's His, and we're His. We're His. And He's involved, and He keeps His eye on us. Verse 13, For you have formed My inward parts. You have covered Me, or formed Me, in My mother's womb. You have formed Me. You've formed all those inward parts, everything that makes Me being able to breathe. Everything that there is, you've made in Me. Anybody like to run in here? You like to run. I know Andy does. Some people like to run. I like to jog. My knees are bad. You're with all the miracles of being able to run. God allowed us to be able to run long distances. What a miracle it is. You know what happens when a body is in a distance run? When the body begins to overheat, the sweat glands release liquid to cool it. Most of us know that. When it begins to run low on sugar, which is fuel for the muscles, a hormone from the pancreas tells the liver to release stored sugar into the bloodstream. You know something about that, don't you? As the legs and heart need more oxygen, the brain signals the heart to be faster. Blood flow to the internal organs in the upper body is shut down by 80% so that more blood gets to the legs and the heart. Deep breathing brings in more air. Blood vessels in the legs dilate 400% to accommodate the increased flow of blood. All this enables people to run long distances. Just a minor little thing. You form my inward parts. I was just reading, I want to go in one of the magazines, about this new transistor. That's going to be... you can buy one. They've already made so many in California. And one company has it, and it's ten times faster than any computer, the greatest computer out today. It costs $1 billion for this little chip. $1 billion, and companies are lining up buying it. Because it can store ten times the amount of material or information than the greatest computer today. It'll work ten times faster than any of the best or greatest computers today. And you know that chip can't even compare to your mind. That chip can't even compare to the human brain and everything that God formed and made. You have covered me in my mother's womb. Yes, he knew you were there. Even before you actually had a leg or an arm. Knew you as an embryo. And he says, that one's mine. Isn't that great? He says, that one over there is mine. You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise you, for I am what? Fearfully and wonderfully made. David realized he is fearfully and wonderfully made. That fearfully, it's actually the word Yahreh in Hebrew. And actually, another word that they use translated is awesome.

Awesome. It means, all are to be in reverence of. I am awesomely and wonderfully made. Do we realize that? Or do we go, well, no, I've kind of got this little mark right here on my face. I'd like to have a birthmark. Wait a minute. Maybe I need plastic surgery because then I can have everything that I want. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. And he loves every square inch. Every square inch. And he says, I will never leave you nor forsake you. He's always there. But David said, I will praise you. When's the last time you praise God for being more fearfully and wonderfully made? Maybe when you got over sickness, and you go, oh, well, I'm back to normal. I feel good. Thanks, God. Or was it more than that? Thank you for making everything. I have. I am.

He said, Marvelous are your works that my soul knows very well that my that and that my soul knows very well and that my soul knows very well. See, David stopped. He'd gone through enough in his life. You realize that it's a big word that my soul knows very well your works. When's the last time you praise God for all the works that he's done in your life? When's the last time you searched like God and known the last time you searched and known, as verse one said, verse 15, My bones or my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in lowest parts of the earth. New Living Translation said, You watch me being formed in the darkness of the womb. Nobody else could see. Even at times when you were being formed, even the mother didn't know. But he knew. That's wonderfully made. That's someone looking after you. You realize what he's saying? There's no deadbeat to have here. God is the kind of Father any of us could just dream of. A lot of us just don't have a close enough relationship yet. We may have one. He wants closer. He's telling us here. He's watching us all the time, everywhere. How much do we want him in our lives? Verse 16. Your eyes saw my substance yet being unformed. And then he says something that in the Be Part of 16 that I want us to understand because I had to read it four or five times. I just didn't get it. I finally had to go to the Hebrew. Then I went and actually checked what the New Living Translation said. And I realized it was closer to the Hebrew than any of the others. And it says in here, in the New King James, and it says, And in your book they all were written, the day's fashion for me, when as yet they were none of them. And I thought that didn't sound right because I realized so many of the words had been added. So I had to go. I want to read to you what it says here for us. I want you to think on these words. Verse 16 in the Living Translation of 139. You saw me before I was born. Period. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. And I thought, oh, you mean he knew what I was going to do. He knew every second. Where's Fremoral Agency? That's not what it means. Do we get it? Every day of my life was recorded in your book. He's got a book. He's got a book that records every single minute, second day in your life. And it's recorded up there. That's a big book. Right? But that's a big dad, too. That's a big father. He's got every single second that we do something. It's written down. And you know what it says? Every moment was laid out before a single day passed. He's not talking about writing it, and we have no more ages. He's saying, by the end of a day, by the end of a single day, every second, everything you ever did, is written down in that book.

Man, that's an awesome book. He knows every second. He's so concerned that he's writing every second, everything I do. How could that change your life? Man.

Is it any wonder, they say, when a person dies, the spirit returns to God? Does he match that up with that book? And then when your resurrection puts it in there, we know the Holy Spirit returns to him. It says the spirit of man returns to him. He knows every single second. And there's not one of us out of the 50 billion who have ever lived that has the same DNA, same fingerprint. He knows how to separate us.

And he's going to make sure, every one of us, every person who has even rejected him, they're going to get a chance.

Our chance is now. That's what's so special. Our chance is now.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book, and every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. Please don't forget that. That's fearfully and wonderfully made.

Verse 17. How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God? How great is the sum of them? If I should count them... Do you remember these thoughts? Okay. It's one thing to record every single second, every single minute of everything we ever do in our entire life.

But it's another when it says, How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God? How great is the sum of them? If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand.

New Living says, More than the sand of the sea.

See, He not only watches every single second, and He's involved, and writes it down, has it written down what we do, He also said that His thoughts are constantly on us, more than the sand of the sea.

Can you believe that? How many sand? How much sand is in the sea? You ever walk on the beach? This is one beach! We're not talking about the San Jose desert.

This is an eight-ounce cup of sand. It's relative because there's different sized sand.

Eight-ounce cup of sand. Do you know how many grains of sand there are in this eight-ounce thing?

Thankfully, I didn't count them. I was going to let Jonathan count them. You can count all of them? You can count them.

According to, what did they say? 13 people or a thousand hours. Yeah, this much sand.

710,438. And one square foot. One square foot of sand. There is over 27 million.

They're saying a billion, billion, billion. They can't even. It's inconceivable trying to put together a number of sand on this earth. They even say they can't. It's in the quadrillions. Drillions.

Inspired Word of God said, guess what? This is piddly my thoughts to you. My thoughts of you. That's just 700,000. Millions upon billions upon billions of thoughts by our Father about us. I realized I was praying this morning how much I miss my Father and how much He thought about me, and then I realized, that's nothing.

That's something. That's wonders.

That's wonderful. That's awesome.

More than the number than in the sand. See, we're cherry so much, by God, that He thinks of us all the time. Can you comprehend that, brother? He thinks of us all the time? I was gone last week and was hoping my life thought about me once or twice. Okay? Thankfully, she did because I called her. But no, this is where it's at. This is my God. This is how much He thinks of me. He says, when I awake, I am still with you. It's like when you go to sleep, you don't even know what's going on. He's still there watching you, knowing what you're dreaming. That's why it's always good. I try to have it if I'm having a book or a Christian book or a Bible by my bed. So the last thing goes into my head. Hopefully, it helps my dreams a little bit. All my nightmares.

Man, when I awake, I guess sometimes you go to sleep. Is this so tired? Fell asleep the other night on the couch. Woke up. Where did those hours go? I remember God knew every single second. He knew exactly where I was. Verse 19. O that you would slay the wicked, O God.

Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men. For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain. And I had a problem with the next verse, as other people also had. It was brought up to me before. And it says, Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate you? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies.

How do you reconcile it? When Christ said, Love your neighbors, who's my neighbor? Everybody. I think sometimes we miss out because of the translation in Hebrew. Because in Hebrew, the actual word, hate, there is saune, S-A-N-E, it's pronounced saune. And the actual verb means to detest or despise. To detest or despise. But sometimes they just put hate in there.

Do we detest and despise a lot of things? I hope so. Does God detest and despise a lot of things? Yes, He does. Unrighteousness. Cruelty. And the actual word actually means to mean foe or odious. Some of you really don't like. But when they translated it, they just translated it hate. Then verse 23 says, Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxieties. The actual New Living says, Search me, O God, and know my heart. When's the last time we had a heart-to-heart conversation with God about our hearts? When they ask something we want or something's on our heart that's like, Oh, I really need this, God. Can you take care of this?

I got this problem. When's the last time we had a heart-to-heart about our hearts? And ask God to search it and to teach us. Just like we started at the very first of this chapter in verse 1, says, Search me, O Lord. David knew how important it was because if God had not searched his heart, he was headed down a road that was going to lead to eternal destruction.

So you had to remember the sin with Bathsheba? Before it was exposed, it was almost a year, pretty much a year from the time he had the husband killed to the time where Nathan came to him.

The child was born nine months, and then he was a little child. So they know anywhere between nine months and a year. And he didn't turn to God. He had turned away. His heart had gone after things. He took Bathsheba's life. He thought, well, nobody knows. Just a couple of my military men. That's why we have Psalm 51, where God got to show him. And that's the only reason, because of his repentance, God didn't kill him.

Because God would have killed him if he had not repented. He was the light, as it's called. He was the lamp of Israel. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. It's a new living translation. How about your anxious thoughts? You got any? Bet you do. I've had plenty. When you worry about something that you shouldn't have to worry about, you're thinking about something that's up here. You're saying, please, how am I going to get this? How am I going to pay this bill? How am I going to take care of this?

Why don't I confront that person? Says, test me and know my anxious thoughts. He wants God to reveal those things to say, peace. Shalom. Verse 24, and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Lead me to eternal life. Next, verse 23, in New Living, says, point out anything in me that offends you. Mmm. That's a tough one. You're going to have God say, point out to me anything that offends you.

But we need to, brethren. And lead me along the path of everlasting life. Do we want everlasting life? Do we want God to have all these thoughts about us, to know that He's there every second, every minute, and He'll take care of us? I ask that you hopefully can read this again this week, and read it again next week.

I realize just how close you are to the divine, to the power of Almighty God, and how close He is to you. To me, it is the most inspiring of all the Psalms. So I ask you to read it again and again and again, because I've never gotten tired of reading it.

We have a wonderful Father who keeps an eye on us. Just remember, we are so fearfully, awesomely, and wonderfully made. But it's our Father, it's our elder brother, who holds the keys, who will bless us, who will take care of us, who will love us like no other. God is now here. Let's all rejoice. Praise God as we go into the spring holy days that He is with us. And when He is with us, nobody can be against us.