One of Arthur Miller’s books is called Incident at Vichy. A man appears before a Nazi guard. The Nazis have just invaded their town. The man is well educated and well respected. He is from the upper middle class. He shows his credentials to the guards. These include his university degrees and his letters of reference from well-known people. The guard asks him: “Is that everything you have?” The man nods Yes. The guard takes everything—the degrees and the letters of reference—and throws them all in the garbage. (Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, x) Think of all the time and energy and passion that went into those degrees and into the relationships which stood behind those letters of reference. Then to be abruptly taken and thrown into the trash. It's a cruel story. It also invites a question: Who are we if all the external signs of our identity are stripped away? -degrees, trophies, ribbons, awards -letters of reference, -even prized possessions, things that are sentimental… -what if they were all gone? Psalm 139 help us answer that question. It is one of the most personal, poetic and powerful psalms in the Bible. It also teaches us something about our identity and value--a much needed message in a world of anxiety, competing answers, and shifting values. Who are we if all the external signs of our identity are stripped away? By way of categorization, it is a wisdom psalm—imparting God’s wisdom to us. It certainly communicates some important and eternal truths about God’s character and work. But the psalm itself admits that we can barely begin to comprehend the vastness of God’s mind. That in and of itself is a reason to pause, be humble, give thanks, and rest in the caring arms of a perfect and everlasting Father. It speaks about God’s omniscience (his all-knowingness), his omnipotence (all powerful), and omnipresence (meaning he is everywhere present). The psalm is intensely personal as well. It was written approximately 3000 years ago by David, and so it is in the first person with terms like “I,” “me,” and “my.” Other psalms are written like that too, so what makes this different? Perhaps it is the prolonged self-analysis and meditation on God’s piercing and pastoral knowledge and care which make it stand out. We relate to the words; and so it is as if WE are saying these words. Hebrew linguist Robert Alter calls it “one of the most remarkably introspective psalms in the entire canonical collection.” (Psalms, 479). In fact, parts of it sound as if they are being uttered by the mouth of Job, who calls out to God in the midst of his own traumatic trials. Let’s begin. It starts with the subtitle, It is ‘to the choirmaster,’ and a psalm of David. ESV 139 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is high; I cannot attain it. Like other psalms, verse 1 is a kind of theme verse which we will see play out as we go through the psalm. God (The LORD: Yahweh) has searched David. That’s a theme that will continue throughout. At the end (verse 23) David will again ask God to search him. Verse 2 says “you discern my thoughts…” The Hebrew word here for discern carries the sense of winnowing or sifting. Just as water runs through a sifter to filter out dirt or debris, so God sifts our thoughts to examine them. Not only can he do this, but he does it from afar. He’s not confined by geography and space like the rest of us. Bible scholar NT Wright comments: “All our hidden motives and fears are like an open book before him; he knows where they came from, and he understands what they are doing to us and what we are doing with them.” (182) Puritan biblical commentary Matthew Henry: “All our actions are ventilated by the judgment of God… God takes notice of every step we take, every right step and every by-step. He is acquainted with all our ways, intimately acquainted with them; he knows what rule we walk by, what end we walk towards, what company we walk with… Wherever we are we are under the eye and hand of God.” I find it striking that even before a word is on our tongue, God knows it. Every good word—and even every swear word. He knows us so much that he knows what word we are going to utter (or yell) even before we speak (or bellow). In verse 5, we learn that God hems David in (and, by extension, us). Picture a massive snow storm, but one still very fun to play in. Then imagine a parent bundling up a toddler in a snowsuit and scarf. ‘You hem me in behind and before’; an act of care before the door opens to the storm. Here’s another image that might be helpful. You’re a toddler. A loving adult in your life holds your hand to steady your wobbly legs, and with their other hand they open the door to the next room and lead you through. This is a God who is holding, guiding, and leading. This knowledge (verse 6) is too wonderful; it is “high.” We can’t attain it. In other words, it is so amazing that we simply can’t wrap our minds around us. We might be able to figure out the day’s Wordle, or even a Rubiks cube, but not the mind of this jaw-dropping God. 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you. Verse 7 begins with a question: Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?’ These are, of course, rhetorical. The answer is: Nowhere! In the late 1980’s a series of books began to be published. Where’s Waldo? Each page was a detailed scene with hundreds and even thousands of people. The job was to find Waldo, a guy with the same outfit: a toque and a red and white striped shirt. I don’t know how many hours I have spent with my children trying to find Waldo. Does God have trouble finding us? Forget thousands of people, how about billions? The point of this next section is that God has no trouble finding us at all! If we go up to heaven, he is there. Also in Sheol—a term we find in the Old Testament which corresponds to a kind of shadowy underworld for the dead. If we take the wings of the morning (a very poetic expression), or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, God is there. This is a way of saying from east to west. The sun rises in the east, and the sea was to the west of Jerusalem. So no matter which direction you go, he is there. Jonah learned this the hard way. Remember him? God called out to Jonah to preach to Nineveh. We’re only three verses into the book when Jonah flees to Tarshish. If you have one of those maps in the back of your Bible you will know that is the exact opposite direction from Tarshish. I think it was preacher Andy Stanley who once said, “you can run from God, but you can't outrun him.” True enough. We should also note that the Temple in Jerusalem was considered the dwelling place of God. Yes, but these verses make clear he is not confined to the temple. The whole world is his creation. As 103:19 reminds us, his throne is in heaven and his kingdom rules over all. As Reformer John Calvin here says: “God is not confined to heaven, indulging in a state of repose, and indifferent to human concerns… however far off we may be from him, he is never far off from us.” (208) It is “impossible that men by subterfuge should elude the eye of God.” (211) If it becomes dark, that’s not a problem for God. He’s never blindfolded. Nor is he impacted by the hitting of a light switch as we are. Even the darkness is not dark to him. In fact, it’s as bright as the day. Continuing. 13 For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you. Yes, God knit us together in our mother’s womb. At this point I want to say a word about an issues which is, for some, controversial. Abortion. This is one of the verses which people look to when arguing that we should not abort children. By way of context let me say that I’m writing this from Canada where abortion is fully legal. You can legally abort a baby up to the very moment of birth. So there are no legal protections for unborn babies in Canada. Are we alone in that? No we’re not. Here are the other countries we stand beside: China, Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea. Wow. This is a big subject but if you want to learn more you can visit my website at MatthewRuttan.com and search for the post titled “When does human life begin?” Here I’ll simply point out that this is one text which is rightly reference to point to the fact that we are created by God and that God is in active relationship with us as humans in the womb. Further, in Jeremiah 1:5 we learn that God knew the prophet in the womb. From the cross Jesus quoted Psalm 22. In that psalm it says “from my mother’s womb you have been my God.” In Luke 1 in the New Testament we read about a conversation between Elizabeth and Mary (Jesus’ mother). The baby in Elizabeth’s womb (who will turn out to be John the Baptist) leaps. The baby is active in the womb (no surprise there), but is called a baby. The original Greek word used here is brephos, translated as “baby” or “infant.” That same word is used six other times in the New Testament to describe a human child outside the womb, including two verses announcing the birth of the newborn baby Jesus in Bethlehem. I’ll stop there, but suffice it to say that in the Bible babies in the womb are humans. Therefore we need to respect them as such. Verse 13 also talks about God forming our “inward parts.” Literally the word is kidneys, which were sometimes viewed in the ancient world as the centre of one’s emotions and moral character. So the phrase “inward parts” really reflects the intent. Verse 14 is perhaps the most famous from the psalm. “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” In the Hebrew language there is some ambiguity as to what is happening here. The ESV footnote to this verse provides an alternate translation: “for I am fearfully set apart.” Robert Alter puts it like this: “for awesomely I am set apart.” The point is this. Since the all-knowing God has made us very internationally and very purposefully, we very valuable and very different. We are valued because we are made on purpose and for a purpose, and in the image of our Creator (Genesis 1:27). We are different because we are set apart; this is biblical language for our unique calling as God’s people. We are holy. This is true whether you have it all together or not. Well, it’s true that none of us have it truly all together; we all have our own flaws, shortcomings, invisible scars and disastrous sins. Even still we are fearfully and wonderfully made; or, fearfully set apart. I once shared an object lesson with some of our young people at church. I took a ten dollar bill and asked them how much it was worth. $10, obviously. Yes. Then I crumpled it up. How much is it worth now? Um, still $10. Exactly. We may feel crumpled up. We may feel as if we’ve been tossed in the mud and stepped on. But that doesn’t change the fact that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. A $10 bill in Canada has the image of Viola Desmond. You and I have the image of our skillful Creator and Saviour. In elementary school my grandma made me a T-shirt. It boldly declared “I know I’m somebody ‘cuz God don’t make no junk.” Yes, I even wore it to school. Am I a sinner? Yes. Am I imperfect? Yes. But I am also made in the image of our skillful Creator and Saviour. And so are you. Verse 15 goes on to speak of being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. This is poetic language about the womb. Verse 16 speak about our days being written in God’s book. (lit: scroll); is this the scroll (or book) of life from Psalm 69:28 and Rev. 20 and 21? Probably. Again, this is amazing. God knows the day we are born and the day we will die. I was born on February 28, 1977. God knew that even before I was a twinkle in my parent’s eye. In fact, he knows what day I will die. Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps fifty years from now. I don’t know, but he does. To me, and I think to all of us, this should give increasing confidence and comfort in the sovereign care of God. Perhaps you have had a loved one die. You wondered if you could have done anything to prolong their life. The way I see it, that was the day they were to die, but this means or that. It was, as they say, “their time.” Their days, all 33,465 of them. 19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
    O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
    your enemies take your name in vain.[b]
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
    I count them my enemies. Verse 19 marks a shift in the tone of the psalm. When people use psalm 139 in public, perhaps at a funeral or at some other time, this is the section that is often included. “Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!” The name for God here in Hebrew is “Eloah,” common in the book of Job. Now, why is this included? Perhaps David had been engaged in military conflict, or perhaps he was the subject of some personal attacks. Perhaps he said or did things he regretted and he had a spirit of repentance in the presence of God. Maybe David wondered if he could get away from the all-seeing and all-knowing God but couldn’t. He knew that in his heart and mind he needed to be pure before God. If so, perhaps these verses were his way of saying, ‘I can’t do anything about the wicked people in my life, Lord, can you take care of it!?’ Either way, David is asking God to deal with wickedness and injustice. And so he should. And so he will. People might think that they’re getting away with things, but not in the end. David is here being honest and he asks God to deal with people who spill blood, who speak against God with malicious intent, who take God’s name in vain, who hate him, and who rise up against him. Since God’s people grow in how they detest sin, Matthew Henry here says: “Sin is hated and sinners are lamented by all that fear God.” I should note here that because God is the one who, in the end, brings justice to the wicked, God’s people are relieved of the temptation to do so themselves. If I don’t believe in God and I see wicked people getting away with things, perhaps I think to myself, ‘They’re going to get away with it; I had better do something if justice is every going to be preserved.’ But I do in fact believe in God. Since he will bring justice in the end, I know that no one will ever truly get away wick wickedness; therefore, that relieves me of an deep impulse to take things into my own hands. Miroslav Volf says that it is the lack of believe in a God of vengeance that “secretly nourishes violence.” (cf. Keller, The Reason for God, 77). So yes, David hates the wicked. And he asks God to handle it, so he doesn’t have to. Then the final two verses: 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
    Try me and know my thoughts![c]
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting![d] The psalm began with a statement about how God searched David. Here at the end, he again asks him to do this. Know his heart! Try me and know my thoughts (or cares). The NIV says “anxious thoughts.” If you think you have a broken bone the doctor takes an x-ray. God has a soul x-ray. What’s truly inside of me? Is there anything within me which is “grievous”? (verse 24). That’s anything inside of us which is the source of ungodly grief. Lord, what within me is not consistent with your word? Lord, what within me is not consistent with your will? Lord, what within me is not consistent with your love? Lord, what within me is not consistent with your plan for me? The phrase could also be translated like this. See if there is anything idolatrous in me. Am I putting anything before you? Are my priorities mixed up? Am I putting my self first and you second? Am I putting my family first and you second? Am I putting my reputation first and you second? Am I putting my job first and you second? The final line is a line of contrast and correction. Correct me in those ways and point me in the way everlasting. This is the way of the righteous about which we learned in Psalm 1. But it’s more than that too; not only is it going through life in a way which honours God, but it is a way which, in him, continues beyond death into eternity. Professor James L Mays says: “The way everlasting is the existence that is not shaken or brought to an end as the way of the wicked will be.” (429) Further, Matthew Henry: “The way of godliness is an everlasting way; it is everlastingly true and good, pleasing to God and profitable to us, and will end in everlasting life. It is the way of antiquity (so some), the good old way. (2.) All the saints desire to be kept and led in this way, that they may not miss it, turn out of it, nor tire in it.” This “way everlasting” reminds me about one of my favourite verses from Jeremiah—chapter 6, verse 16: “Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. We end our close look at the text there. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Our question: Who are we if all the external signs of our identity are stripped away? Two responses, rooted in psalm as whole, specifically verses 13-15. Both presume that our fundamental identity: children of God. Flowing from that: 1/ You are made on purpose and for a purpose: -on purpose: All of this stands in contrast to the idea that we humans are made by chance—that we are here randomly and without ultimate design or purpose. Historian Carl L. Becker said that humans must be looked at as “little more than a chance deposit on the surface of the world, carelessly thrown up between two ice ages by the same forces that rust iron and ripen corn.” Wow, how depressing! The well-known physician Lewis Thomas said: “I cannot make peace with the randomness doctrine: I cannot abide the notion of purposeless and blind chance in nature.” (cf Tim Keller, Making Sense of God, 220) Well said. Me neither. You are made on purpose and for a purpose. Some people think they were ‘born at the wrong time’ or that they ‘should have been born in the 16th century’. But no, you were born for now! -for a purpose: v.24: lead me in the ‘way everlasting.’ Explain. 2/ Your value is received, not achieved So much in our society tells us that our value is achieved: -money?, -accomplishments, degrees, followers, views, house/family, job “impressive” – so easy for us to secretly buy into that -achieve: personal morality, a life without mistakes -wrong. Nothing changes Psalm 139:14. Fearfully and wonderfully made! No matter! -sometimes told that in our society, but we know differently based on what has been revealed to us in the Scriptures. Do you need help or a reminder to keep these realities at the forefront of your thinking? If so, perhaps you need to say something to yourself when you look in the mirror. “Image of God.” Perhaps it sounds cheesy. But if you are struggling, perhaps it’s just what you need. Confront untruth with truth. Perhaps you could also repeat this phrase as you go about your daily tasks: “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Because you are. I once heard about a sweater in a closet. It wasn’t worn very often. It was tattered. But it wasn’t thrown out. Why not? Because on a label it say “Made by mom.” That sweater was made with love for someone she loved. That is why it had value. Because of it’s Maker and because of the love with which it was made. So it is with you.