Sermon: Our Infinite, Intimate God

Our Infinite, Intimate God
Psalm 139
March 29, 2020

Loneliness is a common affliction.  While living in an increasingly connected world, many feel increasingly disconnected relationally.  As one secular writer noted a few years ago, “…if you’re an average American, you’re not nearly as connected to the people around you as your parents or grandparents were…You don’t vote as regularly.  You don’t join clubs as much.  You don’t entertain at home as often.  Chances are, you spend more time each week watching Friends than making them.”

And it’s likely that this sense of disconnection is even greater today than it has ever been, because of the Coronavirus.  We not only “feel” alone, but we are alone — and the government wants us that way for a significant amount of time.  We are created for fellowship and relationship, and we are recreated as believers into the body of Christ for even greater fellowship.  And this social distancing requirement is attacking the heart of what we are as people and what we are as believers.  Now, we feel alone, and we are alone.  And that likely has made many question whether they are not only alone in their houses, but whether they are also alone in the universe, separated from God.  Has He also abandoned us?

To answer that question, I want to turn this morning to a psalm that I hope will be familiar to you — Psalm 139.  One commentator has called this psalm one of the most beautiful and profound hymns in the psalms.  And he also suggests that it might be one of the most intimate psalms.  He says this psalm uses a profound theology of God “to form a powerful message for those who trust in the sovereign LORD God — it is applied theology, and so always relevant.”  In this psalm we are plumbing the depths of God’s character, and also finding that His character is an immense provision of His personal care of us.  He is a grand and transcendent God, beyond our comprehension; but He is also a loving and personal God, intimately acquainted with us and caring for our burdens and needs.

The truth that God is all-knowing, ever-present, and all-powerful should be a rich encouragement to us; sometimes it seems (as it did to David partway thru this psalm) to be a damper on our desires.  His omni- attributes are only a hindrance to us because we have failed to understand their significance and purpose.

Let the character of God stimulate your loyalty to God and your trust of God.

This psalm reveals three aspects of God’s character and then provides one set of responses:

1. Three Truths of God’s Omniscience (vv. 1-6)

• God’s knowledge includes everything we do (vv. 1-3)
• God knowledge includes everything we say (v. 4)
• God’s knowledge is overwhelming (vv. 5-6)

2. Three Truths of God’s Omnipresence (vv. 7-12)

• No place can separate us from God’s omnipresence (vv. 7-8)
• No distance can separate us from God’s omnipresence (vv. 9-10)
• No time can separate us from God’s omnipresence (vv. 11-12)

3. Two Truths of God’s Omnipotence (vv. 13-18)

• God’s power is over man’s creation (vv. 13-15)
• God’s power is over man’s duration (v. 16-18)

4. Three Responses to God’s Omni- Attributes (vv. 17-24)

• Meditate on God’s Character (vv. 17-18)
• Trust God will be just (vv. 19-22)
• Seek God’s righteous examination (vv. 23-24)

Download the rest of this sermon on Psalm 139.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by tomorrow.