Transparent Worship – Part 1
Psalms 139 (1-6)
September 11, 2022
Tonight we approach another fan favorite of all the Psalms.
It is one of the most frequently quoted because it walks directly into the heavenlies and contemplates the transcendent glories of God.
Ultimately it is a Psalm in which David contemplates
The realities of worshiping a God who knows his heart.
I called this sermon “Transparent Worship”
In a sense that is a little redundant because all worship is transparent.
At least it is transparent to God.
When we come together for corporate worship it is possible if not easy to fool man in regard to the condition of our heart.
• You can watch a person lift their hands…
• You can see a person close their eyes…
• You can hear a person sing at the top of their lungs…
And by all accounts to us it may appear that
They are genuinely and truly worshiping God with all their heart.
AND THEY MAY BE, BUT YOU AND I WILL NEVER KNOW.
BUT GOD KNOWS
Jeremiah 17:10 “I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.”
1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well He told her that God seeks those who will worship Him in “Spirit and in truth”
God alone knows if that is occurring or not.
Jesus saw right through the Pharisees.
• Jesus said they “honor Me with their lips but their hearts are far from Me”
• Jesus said they “clean the outside of the cup and of the dish but inside are full of robbery and self-indulgence”
GOD KNOWS.
And this is the truth that David contemplates tonight in the 139th Psalm.
And not only does David contemplate the glory of who God is,
But he also applies these realities to his own behaviors
That it might forever change his worship before God.
Tonight we hope to do both as well.
• We gaze upon the transcendence of God and we marvel at the wonder of who He is.
• Then we apply these truths to the way in which we live before Him and let it transform our worship and very lives as well.
Psalms 139 should change our lives.
We’ll break it down into 3 main points tonight.
#1 THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE TRANSCENDENCE OF GOD
Psalms 139:1-18
This is the part of the Psalm that really grabs us
And lifts us into the heavenlies
To behold the very transcendent glory of God.
In fact, even though we may pour over the words there is a sense in which TOTAL COMPREHENSION of this Psalm is IMPOSSIBLE.
Even David says in verse 6, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.”
And I love this about God.
• I love that there is a very distant gap between what I can know and what God
does know.
• I love that He is above me in every possible way.
• I love that He is beyond comprehension.
And I love that even though I cannot fully grasp it all,
That God has seen fit to reveal at least a part of who He is to us.
THESE TRUTHS HERE ARE BEYOND COMPARE.
The things that are said of Him here can be said of no other would-be god.
God is unique here.
God is set-apart here.
And if you will but take a glimpse of God here,
It cannot help but transform the way you live your life
And the way you worship.
18 verses is a lot, so let’s break these down a little further.
Let’s talk about the OMNISCIENCE OF GOD
(1-6) “O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.”
Now, for the sake of our understanding of this Psalm as a whole
You need to circle or underline that first line of verse 1.
“O LORD, You have searched me and known me.”
And that is important because by the time David is finished
With this Psalm he will have circled back here.
Look down to verse 23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart;”
So it begins with a declaration that God has known him
And it ends with a request that God would search him even more.
THERE ARE A COUPLE OF REASONS FOR THIS.
1) DECLARATION
And one sense you have David here declaring and almost defending his genuine worship before God.
Look at verse 21, “Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD?”
That is a question David poses to God.
• God, you know everything about me, you know my heart.
• Can’t you see my devotion to You?
Now, that is what David believes about himself.
• David believes that in his heart he is truly and solely devoted to God.
• David believes about himself that he truly loves God and truly hates the wicked.
But it doesn’t end there.
It ends with a request to be searched out even more.
And that is the second reason we see for this Psalm.
2) SUBMISSION
David is appealing to God to see if his assessment of his life is accurate.
David yields all judgment of himself even to God.
Do you understand that you don’t know your own heart?
When I was in seminary before I was ever called to pastor a church one of the professors sought to give us a little practical wisdom for the day when we might go and interview with a church.
He said, “When you go and speak to a pastor search committee and you ask them about their church, you need to understand that you are not dealing with 1 church, you are dealing with 3.
They are:
• The church they think they are.
• The church they wish they were.
• The church they really are.
Now that’s true of people too.
In your own life there is:
• The person you think you are.
• The person you wish you were.
• And the person you really are.
You may know the first 2, but only God knows the 3rd.
So David is forced to yield up even what he thinks about himself
To the true knowledge of God.
WE CALL THAT HUMILITY.
You are what God says you are.
In a world where everyone thinks they reserve the right to declare their own heart, we understand that the Bible says you don’t even know your own heart.
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?”
David yields to that.
Remember Paul?
1 Corinthians 4:4 “For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.”
You need to see that theme which permeates this Psalm.
• In one sense David is declaring his heart to God.
• In another sense David is asking God to reveal his heart to him.
And this is how we come before God in worship.
• We come with boldness certainly to declare our praise to God.
• And yet at the same time we come with humility for we know any encounter
with God is sure to expose and change us.
There is a real submission and humility here from David.
It all begins with
DAVID CONTEMPLATING THE OMNISCIENE OF GOD
(omniscience of course is that God is all-knowing)
David does NOT give a detailed theology of God’s omniscience.
David gives a personal testimony of God’s omniscience.
David limits his evidence simply to what God knows about him.
Surely God knows far more than this, but this alone is remarkable.
(2) “You know when I sit down and when I rise up;”
You can underline the phrases:
“You know” – “You understand” – “You scrutinize” – “Intimately acquainted” – “You know it all.”
The point here is of God’s knowledge.
And David says that God is aware of
Even the most mundane and insignificant aspects of his life.
We might marvel if God know about the high points of our day.
• God knew about that moment when you witnessed today.
• God knew about your Bible study
• God knew about your prayer
We might expect God to be caught up on all the high points of our life,
But David says that God knows even the minutest details.
“You know when I sit down and when I rise up;”
Matthew 10:29 “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.”
God knows everything about your life.
And NOT JUST the outwardly observable things.
“You understand my thought from afar.”
• God knows what you are thinking.
• God knows why you are thinking it.
• God knows the motive behind it all.
He doesn’t just know your thoughts or read your mind,
He “understands” them.
It’s not that God is just chronicling your life
Like some sort of cosmic accountant or like a stat keeper at a baseball game.
• Rory sat down 27 times today.
• He walked 723 steps.
• He preached for 57 minutes.
That brings his sitting to walking average up to .235
And his preaching average to 52 minutes.
You are not a stat to God.
David says, (3) “You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.”
God “scrutinizes” what you are doing.
He examines it, He watches it, He understands it.
His understanding of what you do and why you do it is said to be
“intimately acquainted.”
In this life you might say that no one knows you better than your close family.
Your parent or your spouse; those with whom you’ve been most intimate.
God knows you better than them.
In fact, God knows you better than you know you.
(4) “Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all.”
God knows what you’re going to say
Even before you know what you’re going to say.
David says, (5) “You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid your hand upon me.”
In other words, You are before me and after me.
And David says, “And laid your hand upon me.”
The implication there is that of judgment.
Look down at verse 10 “Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.”
God knows EVERYTHING
WHAT KIND OF KNOWLEDGE IS THAT?
It is Incomprehensible Knowledge.
To which David says, (6) “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.”
That is mind blowing to David.
It is incomprehensible.
We often speak of Satan being an accuser of the brethren.
• He loves to tattle on you to God.
But the reality is that he doesn’t have to
For God has always known everything about you.
• He knows what you do and why you do it.
• He knows what you’ve said and why you said it.
• He knows what you’re thinking and why you thought it.
“You know it all”
STOP AND PONDER THAT FOR A MOMENT.
God is watching and understanding and scrutinizing
And intimately acquainted with everything about you.
Hebrews 4:13 “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
He sees
He knows
And let’s just carry out THE RAMIFICATIONS of such a truth.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN IN YOUR LIFE?
Well we can certainly start with the most obvious and terrifying negative.
GOD KNOWS ALL YOUR SIN
Do we not remember the Ananias and Sapphira account?
• They gave the money but lied about what they gave.
• And God knew it.
• And God struck them dead for lying.
Do you remember the story of Gehazi in the Old Testament? (the servant of Elisha)
• When Naaman the leper came to Israel was cleansed
• And Gehazi followed him to collect payment:
2 Kings 5:25-27 “But he went in and stood before his master. And Elisha said to him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant went nowhere.” Then he said to him, “Did not my heart go with you, when the man turned from his chariot to meet you? Is it a time to receive money and to receive clothes and olive groves and vineyards and sheep and oxen and male and female servants? “Therefore, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.” So he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.”
Do you remember that secret sin of David?
• When he had an affair with Bathsheba
• And then had her husband sent to the front lines to die to cover it up:
2 Samuel 12:9-12 “‘Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. ‘Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ “Thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. ‘Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.’”
How about the elders of Israel in the days of Ezekiel?
• Who were secretly worshiping pagan gods and thought no one knew it.
Ezekiel 8:7-12 “Then He brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. He said to me, “Son of man, now dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall, and behold, an entrance. And He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations that they are committing here.” So I entered and looked, and behold, every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around. Standing in front of them were seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each man with his censer in his hand and the fragrance of the cloud of incense rising. Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark, each man in the room of his carved images? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’”
Or should we talk about Achan and how he took the spoil from Jericho and buried it in his tent, but God exposed him?
Should we talk about how Sarah laughed to herself when God told her she would bear a son and God exposed her?
Do you remember when Jesus declared the paralytic forgiven?
Matthew 9:3-4 “And some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts?”
Or how about when the Pharisees scoffed at Jesus’ preaching about money?
Luke 16:14-15 “Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and were scoffing at Him. And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.”
ARE YOU STARTING TO GRASP THE IDEA HERE?
GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU.
There are many things which are deceptive about
Our current age of technology and video and pictures and such.
But one of the biggest deceptions that we see in our culture
Is this PERCEIVED ANONYMITY of people.
People think they can get alone on their phone
And it gives them the illusion of secrecy and privacy.
And it is anything but!
Everything is public now, and it always has been to God.
He knows everything you’ve done, thought, and said.
HE WITNESSED IT ALL.
There were two tribes
• That wanted to take their land on the wilderness side of the Jordan
• And they promised after they settled their land that they would go and help the other tribes secure their land.
• Moses warned them against breaking their promise:
Numbers 32:23 “But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.”
WHAT A STATEMENT!
Listen, God knows everything and that means that
He knows about every single one of your sins.
You aren’t fooling Him.
It is remarkable that He loves us still.
But it is also IMPERATIVE that
You repent of your sin for He already knows.
Someone hit one of the posts in front of Carrie’s salon this week and kept going.
We watched the security camera footage and saw the truck and printed out a picture of the truck hitting the post from the footage.
We found out whose truck it was and went by their house and said, “Hey, you hit the post in front of our building.” He kind of paused a second and then I handed him the paper with the picture of his truck hitting the post. He said, “I admit it.”
Well yeah, I mean, you kind of have to admit it.
So do you with your sin.
God’s got you dead to rights.
He knows, and it is nothing but the patience and kindness of God
That has caused Him to allow you time to repent.
Romans 2:4-6 “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:”
So when you think about the implications of God’s omniscience
First think about it in regard to your sin.
ALL YOUR SIN IS KNOWN.
But there’s more to contemplate.
ALL YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS KNOWN TOO
And this is remarkable since we have a God
Who has promised to reward us for all our righteous deeds.
Do you remember Jesus’ teaching on the Sermon on the Mount?
• In Matthew 6 He confronted the hypocrites for their giving and prayer and fasting
• And how they did it all to receive glory from men.
But Jesus said:
Matthew 6:3-4 “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
Matthew 6:6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
Matthew 6:17-18 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
The emphasis there of course is that God “sees what is done in secret”
Or do you remember when Jesus talked to the disciples about going out into the world to share the gospel?
Matthew 10:42 “And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”
THAT IS GOOD NEWS ISN’T IT!
God knows everything about you,
But it’s not like he’s some spy waiting in the bushes
Just trying to catch you in some evil deed.
No, God is just as eager to reward you for your obedience.
When you know that God is watching everything you do,
It is so much easier to serve Him in secret.
When you know that God is intimately acquainted with all your ways,
It is so much easier to not worry how you are perceived by men.
GOD SEES IT, GOD KNOWS IT.
Listen to Paul:
Romans 1:9 “For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you,”
2 Corinthians 1:23 “But I call God as witness to my soul, that to spare you I did not come again to Corinth.”
Philippians 1:8 “For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”
1 Thessalonians 2:5 “For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness”
What is Paul saying there?
• You don’t know how devoted I am to you, but God does.
• You don’t know how much I pray for you, but God does.
• You don’t know my motives for serving you, but God does.
AND Just as God is aware of our sinful MOTIVES,
He is always aware of our righteous ones.
Listen to Jesus when He called Nicodemus:
John 1:46-48 “Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
There was no fooling Jesus.
• He knew Judas was a devil
• And He knew Nathanael was trustworthy
• And He would reward them both.
God knows all your sin,
And God knows all your righteousness too.
A SINNER should not think he will escape UNDETECTED
A RIGHTEOUS man should not worry that he will go UNREWARDED.
GOD KNOWS.
But that’s not all we think about when we think about His omniscience.
Because God knows all things about our life, HE IS HELP IN TROUBLE
Do you remember Hagar?
• She was the mistress of Sarah and the mother of Ishmael.
• When she was treated roughly by Sarah she fled and found herself in the wilderness.
• God came to her and promised her that her son would also be a great nation.
Genesis 16:13-14 “Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.”
“Beer-lahai-roi” means “God sees”
You are never in danger…
You are never in trouble…
You are never in a predicament…
That God doesn’t see and know exactly what is going on.
You are never outside of His gaze or His knowledge.
You never go outside of His observation zone.
HE KNOWS IT ALL.
One more encouraging thing about His omniscience.
AS IT RELATES TO SANCTIFICATION
God knows about sin that you don’t even know about.
God knows about offenses in you that are not apparent to you.
We are prone to give ourselves a pass.
We are prone to justify ourselves.
And if it were left up to us we would never be fully sanctified
For would stop well short of the mark
Convinced that we had finally arrived.
But God sees things about our selves that we don’t see.
God sees sin that we haven’t even contemplated.
And sure this can be a cause for fear of judgment,
But it is also a cause for hope of sanctification.
Have you ever gone to the doctor with a negative symptom but have been frustrated because the doctor doesn’t know why you are suffering in such a way?
They can run tests and MRI’s and Cat scans and procedures that end in “oscopy” and do blood tests and sorts of other things and still they can’t find it.
It’s kind of hopeless isn’t it?
You know there is something wrong but you don’t know how to attack it
Because no one can tell you what it is.
BUT GOD KNOWS.
And He can fix it.
Do you remember Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well?
John 4:16-18 “He said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.”
And alter after offering her living water do you remember what she did?
John 4:28-29 “So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”
Yes there was a confrontation of sin, but she wasn’t upset about it.
She finally found a man who knew her sin and could help her with it.
Your Sanctifier knows what needs to be fixed.
• He is intimately acquainted with all your ways.
• He is well-aware of your sin and how to remove it.
• He knows it all.
He was at your beginning, He will be at your end.
His hand is already upon you.
He knows the smallest details and He knows the deepest motives.
He knows things about you that you don’t even know about yourself.
• Do you know how many hairs are on your head?
• Do you know the day of your death?
• God does.
So do you understand now when we talk about “Transparent Worship”?
He knows…
Be honest before Him.
Be honest with Him.
He has already searched you.
He has already known you.
But in spite of that He has loved you.
• We know that because He has yet to destroy you.
• We know that because He sent His Son to save you.
Be true and honest with Him.
We’ll stop here for tonight
And pick back up next week with this wonderful Psalm.
This week you can simply contemplate that
God knows all that there is to know about you
And you should respond accordingly.
