Psalms 135 - 140

Psalms — Steve Gregg

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Psalms 141, 144 - 150

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Psalms 135 - 140

PsalmsSteve Gregg

In this talk, Steve Gregg discusses Psalms 135-140. He reads through Psalm 135 and emphasizes the Hebrew expression "For mercy endureth forever," which is repeated throughout the psalm. He also notes that these psalms are often sung in times of exile or persecution. Additionally, he touches on the idea of Jehovah's Witnesses elevating the name of God above that of Jesus. Overall, Gregg provides insight and context for these Psalms and their significance in Jewish and Christian tradition.

Transcript

Today we'll turn to Psalm 135 and one thing that we find as we get further along in the psalms is we tend to take more at a time. That is, the psalms seem to fly by more quickly, I think, as we get later in the book and the reason for that is partly because a lot of the latter psalms are short, but also because they contain material that resembles or is even identical to material we've covered before. That just happens to be an unavoidable thing that we run into in the book of Psalms that in the early parts of the psalms we run into certain modes of expression and certain ideas and certain experiences for the first time and have to make comments about them and examine them, but when we come to them again and again and again near the end of the book, it's not as necessary for us to make specific explanations and comments because it's familiar ground and that will be the case for us in those psalms that are before us today, particularly the one that we're looking at right now.

Psalm 135, there is not one verse in this psalm that is completely unique to this psalm. Every single verse is either quoted from another psalm or is quoted or alluded to in some other portion of Scripture, for the most part in the psalm, so that there will be passages of several verses running that resemble something we've already seen in earlier psalms, and you'll find that there's not very much need for us to go over the material again as far as explaining and commenting, just because we've seen it all before, but we will read it again, that is because this is a new arrangement of the material, even though the material is not new to us, the arrangement is new, and we must consider that whoever put this together, it is synonymous, whoever put this particular psalm together did so for a purpose, because the thoughts that he used from other psalms were meaningful when put together as they were. The main theme of this psalm or the unity of this psalm seems to contrast the magnificence and power of God, the true God, with the weakness and the emptiness of idol worship, and so the first part talks about the worship of God, the true God, and how his great greatness and all, and the latter part talks about the idols, to contrast the weakness of those from the true God.

Praise ye the Lord. We find a great number of the latter psalms begin like this, it's hallelujah in the Hebrew, and the last five psalms in particular, Psalm 146 through 150, will each of them begin and end, or at least begin, with that word hallelujah, and therefore they're called the great hallel psalms, the great praise psalms. Hallelujah means praise ye the Lord, and that's what we have at the beginning of this psalm, and we've already had a number of psalms that both began and ended like that.

Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord. Praise him, O ye servants of the Lord.

Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of God, praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.

Not speaking particularly of the man Jacob, who also was named Israel, but speaking of the people that came from him, the nation of Israel. For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. That is probably the theme statement, the topic sentence of the whole song, that God is above, the Lord is above all gods.

Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in the heaven and in earth, in the seas and all the deep places. He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings for the rain.

He bringeth the wind out of his treasuries. Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast? Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants? Who smote great nations and slew mighty kings? Zion or Sihon, the king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan. These two kings, Sion and Og, were kings that were not within Canaan, but on the east side of the Jordan.

You might recall that as the Jews with Moses wandered about the wilderness, that they came around to the east side of the Promised Land, and when they entered with Joshua, they came from the east, crossing the Jordan westward into the Promised Land. On the eastern shore and on the eastern side of the Jordan, just east of Canaan, they encountered certain kings that opposed them, the Amorites and the Moabites particularly, Sion and Og being some of the kings that they encountered and conquered. So that these kings who were conquered by them on the east side were sort of the first fruits of the victory given to them to encourage them for the battles that lay ahead, because they were going to have encountered ten kings in the land of Canaan, and God showed them his power in order to encourage them to go in and fight the other battles by giving victories over them.

So there's mention of his great nations that he smote and mighty kings that he slew, basically by their war efforts. Mentioning Sion, the king of Amorites, Og, the king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan as well. And he gave their land for an inheritance, an inheritance unto Israel, his people.

Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever, and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations. For the Lord will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants. This is an expression, he will repent himself concerning his servants, that we found in Psalm 90, verse 13, which was written by Moses, and it's borrowed from something Moses had said earlier in Deuteronomy, which we saw at the time that we covered Psalm 90, which says God will repent himself.

It doesn't mean that he repents like we repent. We repent because we've done something wrong and have to change our mind about it, we have to turn around and do the opposite thing. When God repents, or as the Bible sometimes uses that expression of him, it doesn't mean that he did something wrong.

It means that he just adopts a new policy, a new course of action. He turns around and does something different than he was doing before. It doesn't mean that there's any kind of an admission of guilt on his part.

And so we find in the story of the flood that as God examined the evilness of society in the days of Noah, it says he repented that he had made man on the earth. It doesn't mean that he had done something evil and needed to repent as though it were sin. Repenting means that he was sorry for it and changed his course and decided instead to wipe them out.

And so frequently we find this kind of language speaking of God, and it might surprise us if we're not alert to what it means that God repented himself. In this case it means that God at times sent judgment upon his people, but he would always turn it around. He would always change his policy and change course by blushing them later, usually because they repented of their sin.

Then we have this familiar passage which we encountered in Psalm 115 verses 4 through 8. The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths that they speak not, eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but they hear not, neither is there any breath in their mouths.

They that make them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusteth in them. Bless the Lord, O house of Israel. Bless the Lord, O house of Aaron.

Bless the Lord, O house of Levi. Ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord. There's those groups again that we encountered in Psalm 115 verses 9 and 10 and 12.

The three groups, actually there's four mentioned here, but three of the four were mentioned together in Psalm 115 and also in I think 117 or 116, no it's 118. It talks about the house of Israel, talks about the house of Aaron, which is the priesthood, talks about the God-fearers, which are the Gentiles who have come to believe in the true God. In this case it adds to the group a reference to the house of Levi, which is not really much different than the house of Aaron.

Both are the groups that are set aside for the service of God. In fact, the house of Aaron was part of the tribe of Levi, so it's not really adding a new thought by saying, bless the Lord, O house of Levi. Bless the Lord out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem.

That is, the God that dwells at Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. So this is truly a Hillel psalm.

It begins and ends with the expression, hallelujah, praise ye the Lord. Now the next psalm is almost humorous, though it's not intended to be humorous, but reading it, it becomes so laborious because every other line, that is the latter part of each verse, is, for his mercy endureth forever. Now we've encountered that expression in quite a few of the psalms, and I pointed out that that was in fact the very thing that was uttered by the tribes when they went before the armies, the singers and the musicians went out before the armies, when Jehoshaphat sent his armies out to battle, not without weapons, but with musical instruments, in 2nd Chronicles chapter 20.

The thing that they sang was this very line, for his mercy endureth forever. Now this psalm repeats that line in every single verse, 26 verses, and this psalm is sometimes called the Great Hillel, or the Great Craves, because it's so magnificent. Now in the Hebrew, the expression, for his mercy endureth forever, is not so many syllables.

Because of how many syllables it is, it really breaks up the thought and seems burdensome in this psalm, but their expression in the Hebrew is much more succinct, much more brief, or more like if we would say, his love has no end. That's a little shorter, about half as many syllables, so that it gives various illustrations, 26 different verses, each of them gives some kind of a statement about the manifestation of his greatness, and after each statement, probably the people would echo this, maybe the priest would give the initial statement, and the people together as a chorus would say, for his love has no end, his mercy endureth forever. The word mercy there is that Hebrew word that means steadfast love, or covenant love, as the Jews would view it.

It's particularly a word that relates to God's faithfulness to his covenant. He made a covenant to love these people, and his love, he sticks to it, it's steadfast, it's immovable, it's unconditional, he continues to love. And so this was almost certainly sung in the way that I mentioned, like a responsive reading, sometimes they're done in churches today, where the pastor will read one line, and then the congregation will read the next.

In fact, I think just to wake us up, we'll actually do it that way. Now I don't know whether we should say, for his mercy endureth forever, which is the way the King James reads, or actually the closer translation, and much more in the spirit of the way it's read in the Hebrew, would be to say, his love has no end, for his love has no end. You see, that doesn't break up the thought so much.

Some of these verses are broken up right in the middle of a sentence, by the explanation, for his mercy endureth forever. I guess we'll just say it the way that it's in the King James. I'll read the first part of each verse, and you guys can, you'll be awake when this is over, we'll say, for his mercy endureth forever.

Might as well do that. And you'll notice that the first three verses, just the things that are said about God, speak of him as just the supreme God above all gods and above all lords, that is, among the realm of gods and things that are worshipped, there is none as great as God. He is the greatest and the highest.

That's what the first three verses are stating. Then verses four through nine speak of his great acts of creation, how he created the heavens, and he created the waters, and made the great lights, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars. Those are the things that are spoken of in verses four through nine.

So we see God described as the creator in verses four through nine. Then in verses ten through sixteen, the things that are said about God speak of his deliverance of the people of Israel out of Egypt. So he's being celebrated as deliverer in these verses, ten through sixteen, as you'll see.

And then in verses seventeen through twenty-two, the description of him is of the one who gives victories to the Jews over their enemies. So he's the great victor over the other nations and over their gods in verses seventeen through twenty-two. And the last verses speak of him as a friend and as a father to us.

And so we see that this psalm all the way through is praising God for various aspects of his character. He is the supreme God above all. He is the creator.

He's the deliverer of his people. He is the victor over all enemies. And he is also our father, which art in heaven, as Jesus told us to address him.

So we're going to see these thoughts running through as we go. And as I said, I'll read the first part, and you read the second part. And you need to do it loudly.

Don't be shy. There's no one here but friends. You'll feel a little silly perhaps at first, but I think you might get right into it.

I'll give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. I'll give thanks unto the God of gods. I'll give thanks to the Lord of lords.

To him who alone doeth great wonders. To him that by wisdom made the heavens. To him that stretched out the earth above the waters.

To him that made the great lights. The sun to rule by day. The moon and the stars to rule by night.

To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn. And brought out Israel from among them. With a strong hand and with stretched out arm.

To him that divided the Red Sea into parts. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it. But overthrew Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea.

To him which led his people through the wilderness. To him which smote great king. And slew famous kings.

Sion the king of the Amorites. And Dog the king of Bashan. And gave their land for an inheritance.

Even inheritance unto Israel his servant. Who remembered us in our lowest state. And hath redeemed us from our enemies.

Who giveth food to all flesh. O give thanks unto the God of heaven. You know when you realize that the word mercy there means the covenant love, the steadfast love of God.

You can see how each of these lines tells it. When we use the word mercy, some of the lines don't seem to be right. When it says how that he smote the firstborn of Egypt for his mercy endureth forever.

Doesn't seem like a very merciful thing for God to do. Or he slew great kings for his mercy endureth forever. It almost sounds like an anomaly.

That it almost sounds like he's not being merciful in those cases. When you realize that saying his covenant love. That is he made a covenant to give Israel the land.

And his covenant love and his faithfulness to his covenant is seen in that he did these things. By doing these things to their enemies and bringing them through the Red Sea and all. So that is of course one of the themes celebrated in so many of the Psalms.

Almost every psalm that goes through any part of the history of the Jews lays heavy stress on the Exodus. Because that of course was such an important part of their history. The birth of their nation.

We'll skip right over Psalm 137 because it was one of the imprecatory psalms that we studied. It is the one that is sung by the exiles when they were taken into Babylon. And they were asked to play music.

Play some Jewish songs for their captors to entertain them. And they said we can't do that here in this foreign country. And then it sort of pronounces a curse upon Babylon.

And a wish for its ultimate overthrow. And that's what that psalm is about. But Psalm 138 then begins another series of psalms by David.

Eight to be exact. These eight are the last of David's contributions to the Psalms. And they are eight in a row that are written by David.

After them we have no more from David. And so we're going to get we're going to hear the last from him in these psalms here. Again a lot of these psalms echo other psalms and won't need very much comment.

Some of them have a rather uniqueness to them. Psalm 139 for instance has many unique elements to it that are not found in the other psalms. But Psalm 138, David writing says, I will praise thee with my whole heart.

Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth. For thou has magnified thy word above all thy name.

In the day when I cried thou answered to me and strengthened it's me with strength in my soul. All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord.

For great is the glory of the Lord. Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. But the proud he knoweth afar off.

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. Thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies. And thy right hand shall save me.

The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth forever. Forsake not the works of thine own hands.

You know as I read this psalm, I'm reminded of the proverb, a full soul loatheth a honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Not because that proverb is exemplified in this psalm at all, but because after going through the whole psalms, it's almost like you're glutted to the point where you can hardly appreciate some of the latter ones because you've had so many. And yet, even some of the ones that, this psalm has so many rich things in it, that we might because of being full, loathe it, even though it is really a sweet thing.

It really has some wonderful verses in it, some wonderful promises, and just we should make sure that our weariness of having gone through a hundred and thirty seven psalms before this one does not allow us to kind of pass over it too quickly or miss the wonderful things it's saying. For instance, at the very beginning, he says that he's going to praise, sing praise unto the Lord before the gods. Now the gods, in some cases in the scripture, refers to the judges of Israel, but that's not the case here, I don't believe.

There's no reason to believe that David was going to stand before the judges and sing praises particularly, but it's more likely that he's referring to the fact that he was often in exile, being chased by either his son or Saul, and that was driven into heathen lands where other gods were worshipped, where he was in the province of other gods, and that the other gods were worshipped rather than the true God. Yet, even in exile, even among the gods of the heathen, he would sing praise to the true God, though he might be the only one doing so, as everyone else is praising the other gods, he would be loyal and sing to the true God in the midst of his condition of being exiled. He says, I will worship toward thy holy temple.

Now remember, David didn't live at the time when there was an actual temple, so this has to refer to the tabernacle in Jerusalem, but it shows also he must have been in exile when he's saying this and wrote this, because instead of worshipping in the temple in Zion, he's necessarily turning in the direction of the temple, just as Daniel, when he was in exile in Babylon, would pray three times a day toward the temple in Jerusalem, westward, I guess it would be, from Babylon. So he here, being in exile, prays toward the temple, because that's where they tended to think of the Lord being associated with Zion and with the Ark of the Covenant there. So he says, and praise thy name for the loving-kindness of thy truth.

Now this last line in verse 2 is very interesting, and I must say that it gives us an impression at the very first of meaning something, but the more we think about it, the more it's perplexing of what it might mean, and I've myself had to consult commentaries to see if I could get any more light on it, and they seem to agree with each other on a particular meaning, which is not necessarily easy to read in there, but the statement is, for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. Now we're tempted to see in this a reference to Christ, the Word. Jesus is the Word made flesh, and this kind of scripture has been very helpful sometimes in dealing with the Jehovah's Witness idea, that the Jehovah's Witnesses don't really elevate Jesus very much, but they elevate what they consider to be the name of God, namely Jehovah.

They make it seem like anyone who really wants to pray to God must use the name Jehovah, and they think that they're the only true believers because they call themselves by the name of Jehovah, as though the name of Jehovah is really the important thing to us. But here it says God has magnified his word even above his name, so we could sort of see if the Holy Spirit wanted to, through David at this point, sort of predict that the Word, which would later be made flesh, namely Jesus, is elevated even above the name of Jehovah. Not meaning that he's elevated above the Father himself, but just that we are to be thinking in terms of Jesus rather than the name Jehovah.

After all, in the New Testament we are told by Peter that there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus. So we're not told that we are to look to the name of Jehovah, but the name of Jesus in this New Testament era. It doesn't mean that God's name is not Jehovah.

It is, the Bible indicates, but the fact of the matter is that he has revealed himself to man in this new covenant time through the Word made flesh, which is Jesus, and his name is what is meant here. Now that is not the view of the commentators on this verse. That's my own impressions I'm giving you right now.

We know that Jesus was given a name that is above every name, and according to Philippians chapter 2, and I believe it was probably around verse 10 that you find that statement, that Jesus was elevated above and given a name above every name so that the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord, indicating that Jesus the Word is elevated above every other name. Even the former names that God used to reveal himself to his people, he's magnified his word above his name. Now that is certainly a meaning we could see in there.

The only problem with it is that David, we must assume, well we don't have to assume, but we would probably usually do assume, David didn't have such a revelation of Jesus being the Word, and therefore in referring to the Word, David would not generally be thinking of Jesus because he knew nothing about Jesus the Word. In fact, John the Apostle seems to be the first one to ever get the revelation that Jesus was the Word. We're in the book of Revelation.

In Revelation chapter 19, John saw Jesus riding on a white horse, and his name, he says, was called the Word of God, and it's my conviction that revelation was written before the book of John. That's my conviction. There seems to be some dispute, and no one can prove one way or the other, but I believe that that fact alone indicates that revelation was written earlier than the book of John, because in the book of Revelation, John describes that he had the revelation that Jesus was called the Word of God, and then when he wrote the Gospel of John, he begins his gospel saying, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God, and later says the Word was made flesh, which probably reflects the revelation he received on the Isle of Patmos about the subject.

At any rate, we get the impression that John's the first person to have had that particular revelation about Christ in the Word, and if David didn't have that revelation, then he must have meant something else when he said this than that. Now, I just want to say that many times the Holy Spirit would mean something that the psalmist himself didn't even know. It says in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verses 10 through 12, 1 Peter 1, 10 through 12, tells us that many times the prophets in the Old Testament were curious about the meaning of their own words, but they were put off by the Lord when he said, this isn't for you, it's for a future generation to understand, and so I believe that the psalmist probably had the same experience.

There were times when the psalmist wrote things that were prophetic of Christ that didn't realize it, and my feeling is that that may be the case in this sense, that the Old Testament Jews knew God by his name, Jehovah. That's the name he gave them, and that's what they called him by, but in the New Testament, God has given them a new revelation above that, above the name that he revealed in the Old Testament. He's given him a new name.

It's the name Jesus, which is the Word made flesh. Now, let's assume, I think it's safe to assume, David probably wasn't thinking along those lines when he wrote this. He may have been.

We can't be sure that he wasn't, but it seems unlikely that he had that kind of a special revelation about Jesus being the Word in a day, a thousand years before John got it. There is another possibility, and this is the view of the commentators on the verse. They believe that the word, Word, should be translated promise, because it is a particular Hebrew word that often refers to a promise.

In Psalm 119, this particular Hebrew word appears a number of times, and sometimes it should be translated promise, and sometimes it should be translated word, because a promise is a word, a word from the Lord. And so this particular Hebrew word could be translated promise, and as far as the name, he's magnified his promise, let's say, above all his name. Sometimes in the Old Testament, the term the name of the Lord refers to all that he has revealed about himself.

Now, for example, let me give you an example of how that's true. Moses said to God, show me your glory, and God says, no man can see my face and live, but I'll tell you what I will do. I'll put you in a crevice of the rock.

I'll hide you in there with my hand. I'll pass by, and I will declare my name unto you, and then I'll remove my hand, and you can look out, and you can see my hindered part. That has a lot of mysterious elements in that particular incident, which, by the way, will come up when we're saying 2nd Corinthians chapter 3. But the interesting thing is God said, I will declare my name to you, and then when he went by, he declared, I'm the Lord, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy, who will not in any wise pardon the guilty, but keepeth covenant unto them that love him for thousands of generations, or whatever.

In other words, declaring his name was really declaring his character, the kind of God he is. His name was like his self-disclosure. It's like when you meet someone, if they give you their name, it's like they're giving you a handle by which you can know them by.

If you met someone, you never got their name, later in talking about them, you might say, well, I don't know his name, but he's like this, you know. But by giving the name, it sort of is a substitute for what he's like. If you're talking to other people who know him, if I say, you know, Todd, I don't have to describe him, because the name Todd brings to your mind all that he is.

I don't have to say there's this guy who, you know, he's about yay tall, and he's balding on top, and he's growing out this blonde beard, and he's always joking around and stuff. You know, I don't have to describe him to you, because you know who he is, and his name carries all that information in it. But if I didn't know his name, and if you didn't know his name, that's the only way I could describe him.

If I was trying to convey information, I'd have to describe what he's like, so that the name of God, when Moses wanted to know, you know, wanted to see his glory, God says, I'll tell you my name. But even though we know Jehovah is the name of God, and often spoken of as the name of God in the Old Testament, yet sometimes the name referred to more than that. Just it represented everything that God is, what he has told us about himself, all his character and all.

In which case, if that's what it meant in this passage, then the commentators feel, and I don't give it to you as from the Holy Spirit, though it may be true, but I'm saying this is seems to be the general consensus of commentators that I've read on this particular passage, which is a difficult one in some respects. They believe that he's saying essentially that he's saying the things that you have promised have actually been far beyond the things that you've revealed about yourself so far, up to this point. That is, the promise that made to David actually far exceeds all that God had previously revealed about himself.

That his character, that his new promise that he's given to David, reveals something more about God than he had ever revealed before, which his name meaning all that had been revealed about him previously. Now, that might seem a bit strained, it might seem a bit twisted. I believe there must be a certain amount of merit to that interpretation or else all the scholars wouldn't agree on it, as they seem to, and they don't appear to be dependent on each other.

They do see the word word, perhaps better being translated promise, and the word name possibly being a substitute for all God is, or all that he has revealed about himself. And if that's the case, then we could put that in there. Although, even if we accept that, it still isn't the most smooth-flowing kind of a thought, you know.

But that may be what David had in mind. Whenever I'm reading the Psalms, especially Psalms that seem to speak to me about Christ, maybe I don't need to, but I'm always curious to know, what was David thinking? Was he thinking about this in reference to Christ, or did he not even know he was talking about Christ? Like when he wrote Psalm 22, the graphic description of the crucifixion and all. Was he just using terms that to him were very poetic and graphically explaining how he was being suffering so much himself, and didn't realize that this was also portraying the future Christ, or actually going through literal crucifixion? I don't know, you know, but it's an interesting thing to consider, because to understand Scripture, it always helps to know something about what the writer was trying to convey.

And then secondly, and maybe more importantly, what was the Holy Spirit trying to convey? In this case, David might have been saying, when he says, Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name, might have been saying that the promises given to David by God exceed everything God has revealed about himself previous to this. But the actual wording, at least as it comes down to us in English, and it's a good representation of the Hebrew, by the way, is, it almost speaks of Jesus, it would seem. Like the word being made flesh, Jesus Christ, is a superior revelation for us than the revelation given through the name of Jehovah in the Old Testament.

Well, we don't need to wrestle with this verse much more than that. I just, I just, I don't know whether this verse would have given you any snags if I hadn't made any comments or not, but to me, I know that when I read it, I want to know what that's talking about. Now that I've finished talking about it, I still don't know, but I have some ideas.

In verse 3, it says, In the day when I cried, thou answered me, and strengthened me with strength in my soul. Now notice, he says, I cried, which suggests that he was in, he had troublesome situations. He was in a trial.

So he cried unto God, and God answered. Well, when you, when you're in a trial and you're crying to God, how do you expect him to answer? You expect him to change the trial. You expect him to change the circumstances.

That's what you're crying to him for, usually. But God answered him, but he didn't answer by changing the trial. He answered by changing David, strengthening him, just like when Paul, because of his thorn in his flesh, cried to God three times that it might be removed.

God says, no, I'll just make you stronger. My grace is sufficient for you in your weakness. My strength is made perfect, and therefore, Paul says, therefore, I glory.

I'm excited about, I rejoice in my infirmity, because when I'm weak, then I'm strong. But it's a similar situation. Paul cried to the Lord to have this trial removed.

The trial wasn't removed, but God promised to make him stronger. And that's what David experienced here. Whatever his trial was, it seems like perhaps he was in exile at this point, and maybe he cried that he could be delivered from Saul or Absalom or whoever it was that was chasing him on this occasion.

And the Lord answered him, but didn't answer him by immediately putting him back in Jerusalem, but answered him by just giving him strength for the present trial. He answered me and strengthened me with strength in my soul. Now, verses 4 and following talk about, it's basically a statement of faith about the future.

And I believe it probably refers to the time when the Lord returns, when Jesus comes back and all knees bow and all tongues confess. In fact, the word praise there in verse 4, all the kings of the earth shall praise thee, the Hebrew word for praise there, is not the regular word for praise. It actually is a word that means confess.

Usually in the Hebrew, it's translated confess. And it says, all the kings of the earth shall confess thee, O Lord. It would mean, of course, that as Philippians 2 tells us, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord.

Ultimately, all those kings who are resistant to him now will someday have to bow down and confess him to be the true king and king of kings, actually, and the Lord of lords. So, all the kings of the earth shall praise thee or confess thee, O Lord, when they hear the words of thy mouth. Now, whether that means the words of judgment that come from his throne on the judgment day, or whether it means even now in this present time, the word, when people are exposed to the word of God, many of them, of course, bow and confess him then.

Ultimately, all kings will confess Christ by hearing words from his mouth. They have a choice at this point. They can confess him in this life in response to his words of the gospel.

When they hear the gospel, they can confess him and obey him and become Christians, as some kings have, though very few. The others who won't do it in this life will in the next life. They will hear his word of condemnation on the day of judgment, and they'll confess that indeed he is Lord.

Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. Now, this would refer particularly to those who respond at this time to the word of the Lord and confess him as their Lord and King. It will bring joy to them, of course, and will sing and worship him.

Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect to the lowly. Now, he's just been talking about kings. They're not the lowly ones of the earth.

It refers to the fact that God makes his appeal to kings. He sends his word to kings and gives them cause to rejoice and to be saved, but he doesn't only apply to the influential of the earth and the rich and the kings and the powerful people of the earth. He also, though God is high himself, so high in fact that the kings of the earth have to confess him as higher than themselves, yet he has respect to the lowly people.

And lowly would always mean the people in the lower echelons of society, the lower-class people, and those who are out of sort, people who are in trouble, not the people who are sitting on their thrones and enjoying themselves in luxury, but those who are like David, not in that situation at this point. Perhaps the reference to the kings would even be a reference to Saul, if David was fleeing from Saul on this occasion, that Saul himself would have to bow someday to God's authority, but the lowly, like David, God had respect to him. But the proud he knoweth so far off.

There are statements to this effect both in the book of James and in 1st Peter concerning God showing, giving grace to the humble, but as it says, resisting the proud. James 4, 6 is one of those places, and in the fifth chapter of 1st Peter also, James 4, 6, and I believe it'd be 1st Peter 5, 6, I think it'd be. So it talks about the Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble, probably based on this kind of a statement in Psalms.

God has respect to the lowly or the humble, but the proud he knows afar off. Now verse 7 resembles a verse from the 23rd Psalm. Remember the verse, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.

That's from Psalm 23, verse 4. Here we have the same author saying, though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me, and I shall stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of thine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. I mentioned in an earlier Psalm that the expression, the right hand of God, thy right hand, his right hand, while there's no place in the New Testament that clearly tells us that such reference is on Christ, yet it's a phenomenon that we'll discover in the prophets and also the Psalms that every time we see the expression the right hand, or God's right hand, if we would substitute the name Jesus in those places, the passages would always make perfect sense. In other words, in Isaiah, for instance, it says that God looked and he was amazed that there was no intercessor, and that there was no one who, there was no Savior, therefore it says his right hand brought salvation for him, which of course would be a picture of Jesus, and there's, that's the kind of usage that we find in the scriptures of the right hand.

The right hand of God is always the Savior, is always the one that's reaching out to save, it would seem, as in this place. He says, thy right hand shall save me. Now David probably wasn't thinking of Jesus particularly, but in the New Testament we are told that Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father, which suggests of course his, in the place of honor, next to God in authority, next to the Father.

And it says, the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. This might remind you of a New Testament statement in Philippians 1.6, Paul said, I'm persuaded of this very thing, that he which began the good work in you shall perform it unto the day of Christ Jesus. That is, God has already laid claim on you, and he is at work in you, as another place in Philippians tells us, I think it's Philippians 2.13, which says, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

I believe you'll find that in Philippians 2.13. God's working in you, and in Philippians 1.6 he says that God will perform that work, the work that is begun in you, he'll perform it until the day of Christ Jesus. Meaning, he doesn't start and quit. God's not a quitter like some people.

He doesn't start something and then just kind of say, well I think I'll do something else now. He started, he's invested quite a bit in you by the way. He paid a heavy price initially for you, by sending Jesus to die for you.

And then he went to the trouble of hounding you all your life to get you to convert, and sending his spirit and all to cause you to see, to open your eyes to the gospel, and to understand, and to be convicted, and to respond. He did all of that, and now, since you've been a Christian, he's been doing a lot of things in your life, which you can testify to yourself. You can see changes that he has either made or tried to make in your life, and if he hasn't quite made them yet, he's still working on it.

But there are times, you know, when we feel like our growth is so slow, and even seems like sometimes we take one step forward and two steps backwards, that it just seems like, wow, you know, I'm never gonna get there. I'm not ever gonna really get there. But no, it's not you that's gonna get you there.

You need, of course, we are laborers together with God. We have to cooperate. If we resist him, it'll be all the slower, and if we resist him ultimately, it'll be, frankly, rebellion, and we'll backslide.

But if we're not resistant, if we really are wanting to cooperate with God, then it is his power, not ours, that's going to perfect that which concerns us. He will perfect that which concerns me. God, just think of all the powers that are at his disposal.

The Psalms so frequently celebrate his power over the winds, and the waves, and the stars, and all those things. Just think of the great power that causes the Sun and the stars to move in their courses in the universe. I mean, these things, which are millions of times larger than the Earth, these bodies, moving in a certain course, how much energy would it take of man's kind of energy, rocket fuel or whatever, to move one of those things, even to budget an inch? There's no way with that.

All the fuel in the Earth couldn't produce enough power to move those things, but God moves them freely. Not one, but all, millions of them. He keeps them in motion, and keeps them from getting out of their courses and all.

God's power is so great, and he has all the powers of nature, and even beyond that, he has all those spiritual powers of the world bridled. And we know that he restricts Satan and the evil spirits. He puts certain limits on them.

He channels everything that's going on in the world. He's sovereign. That's what this word sovereign means.

He controls everything, really. Nothing really can stand up against him and thwart his purposes, ultimately. And that being the case, realize that he can bring all the pressures to bear he ever wants to, to direct your life, and to bring you, to protect you, to bring you to what you should be.

Now, he doesn't just put you into a cement channel where you can't turn right or left, because that's not the way he wants to deal with us. He wants to work with our wills. He wants to allow us to respond by by a free will to him, and so forth, so that there are times when we find that we don't do exactly what we probably feel he would have rather had us do, and we might think, well, God isn't really in control of this situation.

But realize that God's in control of the net result. God allows us freedom to learn our lessons, either easy ways or hard ways. We can respond immediately to his word, learn the easy way.

If we don't respond immediately to his word, then he'll let us go off over here and over there and learn some hard lessons. But he, ultimately, is directing. The steps of a man are ordered of the Lord, the Bible says.

And he's at work in you to will and to do his good pleasures, so that we sort of make our own choices as to whether we're going to take the straight road there, or whether it's going to be a windy road. But God is at work, and will bring about the end result. And that is something in which we need to have hope.

One expert, Christian expert on Christian counseling, who's Jay Adams, and has written many books on Christian counseling, believes that the one thing that people need when they come for counseling is they need to be given hope. Because when people come for counseling, usually it's a last resort. People usually don't, some kinds of people just love to go to counseling, but most people, especially like with marriage problems, they just don't want to go to counseling, because it's embarrassing to lay out your problems and so forth.

So usually when people come to a counselor, it's because they're just about at their wit's end. They've tried everything else. It hasn't worked.

They say, well, maybe we should try counseling. And by the time a person comes to a counselor, very often they are without hope. They've lost hope.

Maybe earlier in the stage of trying to improve themselves and things, they had certain hope. They kind of expected, okay, if I try this, that'll work. Oh, that didn't work.

If I try that, that'll work. That didn't work. Okay, eventually they come to a counselor.

By then they've just about lost all hope. Their counselor is their last hope, or sometimes they go to the counselor because they don't have any other hope. And so what J. Adams stresses very strongly in his book to Christian counselors is that you need to give people hope, because there is hope.

You need to, because people who don't have any hope will not change. If they lose hope, they'll just be in despair. They won't go through the change.

They won't see that what's the use of going through the change? What's the use of making these changes in my life that the counselor says to make sense is not going to work anyway. I mean, I'm just going to, I'm doomed to go down the tubes or whatever. And the fact is, a Christian counselor has strong reason to give hope to the counselor, because God has made certain promises.

The work he's begun in you, he will perform it. David understood, the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me. That is, the things that concern my development and my growth and my destiny, God will perfect those things, bring them to their completion, is what perfect means.

He will bring it to its completion, and that is a grounds for hope. And therefore, we never need to be in despair. And if we ever position a counselor, someone who is in despair, they need to be given this kind of hope.

They need to be given hope because there is hope in God. And so David expresses it. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me.

Thy mercy, O Lord, endures forever. He takes up that refrain from Psalm 136. Thy mercy and thy steadfast love endures forever.

Forsake not the work of thine own hands. That last line is simply a prayer that what the first line of the verse said would be true. The first line of the verse says that Jesus, that God will perfect that which concerns me.

The last line of the verse prays that that will be the case. He has confidence that it's true, but not unless he prays for it. He believes that God will do it, but he still feels he needs to pray and ask God to do it.

Because he knows it's God's will to do it, but he needs to release God to do it by asking, by praying. So don't forsake the work of thine hands, meaning my life. My life is the work of your hands.

Don't abandon your project at this point. Well, how far can we go? Let's go on. Psalm 139 is fairly long, 24 verses, but it has quite a few interesting elements that are rather unique to it.

So that it's not going to be just a retelling of a thing that we've already read. It says, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting, mine uprising.

Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.

Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high.

I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy right hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day.

The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins, or my kidneys, my inner man. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect or unformed. And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.

When I awake, I am still with thee. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men, for they that speak against thee wickedly and thine enemies take thy name in vain.

Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Now this has a lot of verses that may have been familiar to you before, because there are some very quotable verses. In the first six verses, he mainly is talking about God's omniscience, which means God knows everything, right? And so he says, you have searched me and known me.

The word searched actually means to sift through all the parts, and to sort through, and basically to analyze every detail. So that God has known every detail of my life, as he explains later, even when I was being formed in my mother's womb, you knew everything about me. But Lord, you've searched me and you've known me.

Now he expands on that in the following verses, verses two through six, about how much God really does know about me. He knows my down sitting and my uprising. He knows, in other words, when I sit down, when I rise up, God, you're watching every move I make.

Thou understandest my thought afar off. Now this is a hard thing to understand, because that is the part that's hard to understand, is afar off. Because afar off can mean either in space or in time.

It can either be afar off in that he's seeing God is a billion miles away, but still sees my thought. Or it could be meaning my thoughts, that are still distant in time, not yet thought, or thoughts that were thought hundreds of years ago, or whatever. Of course, in his case, there would have been thoughts of his mind thought hundreds of years ago, but thoughts that are far off in time.

It's not clear which is intended, since he makes it very clear in verses seven through twelve that God's not far off, but he's present everywhere. It's likely that a far off means in time. I personally believe that what he's saying here is that God knows our thoughts before we think them.

Thoughts that are yet future for us. They're far from us. We can't reach them, because we haven't gotten to that point in time yet.

But God knows our future thoughts, which is pretty heavy, really, when you dig into that thought. Thou compassest my path in my lying down. That is, you surround every activity of mine.

When I'm walking, when I'm lying down, you're acquainted with all my ways. And then he says, even my words, there's not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. That is, every word I speak, you're keeping track of it.

You're entirely aware of all that I say, all that I do, even all that I think, and all I'm going to think. You have beset me behind and before, probably means that you're aware of my past and my future. And you've laid thine hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. That is, it just goes way beyond me. It's too high.

I can't attain to it. Now, the same author, David, in an earlier psalm, you might remember in Psalm 131, said, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty, neither do I exercise myself in great matters or in things too high for me. Psalm 131, verse 1. I don't exercise myself in great matters or things too high for me.

Now he tells us one thing that's too high for him is God's knowledge. How much God knows. I was once involved in a conflict in our church in Santa Cruz that ended in a church split.

I was on the conservative side and the people that split off were on the other side. And the people who split off were a group of people who styled themselves as intellectuals. They believed that they could intellectually argue away the foreknowledge of God.

They believed that God didn't know the future. They stressed it like this. If God has absolute knowledge of the future, then by necessity the future is determined.

Because if it's not determined, he couldn't know for sure what was going to happen. It would have to be determined. And if it's determined, then we have no choice in the matter.

If our actions are determined, if our future thoughts are already known before we think them, then it's strictly determined. We have no choice in the matter. We can see how that meets an intellectual form of logic.

And therefore, on the basis of that logic, because they argued that man does have free will, they felt like God must not have foreknowledge of the future. Now they said that God does know something's future because there are certain things that he can cause to happen. Therefore he knows, for instance, what day the world's going to end because he's going to bring it to the end.

He knows when he's going to do it. But they said that because man has free will to think his own thoughts and do his own sins or his own righteous acts, because of that freedom that man has, God doesn't know yet what man will do in certain cases. So they were suggesting that God's knowledge of the future was limited, that God knew only the things that he himself could bring to pass.

But those things which man was going to do, individuals were going to do, he didn't know and couldn't know. Now I was on the other side of that discussion. In fact, we actually had a council in the church where that was debated.

And this is one of the scriptures, this one and Psalm 131, was one of the scriptures that I started out my presentation with, because in talking about God's great unlimited knowledge, David maybe does not clearly say that the thoughts that God knows are future thoughts. But to me, the passage, when it's analyzed in verse 2, sounds like he's talking about future thoughts. But even if that were not the case, it's very clear that David is musing on God's superior knowledge and how God seems to know everything.

And then he concludes, this knowledge is too wonderful for me, it's high, I cannot attain to it. In other words, I can't hope to fathom how much God knows. And then in Psalm 131, I pointed out that David said, my heart is not haughty, my eyes are not lofty, I don't exercise myself in great matters or things too high for me.

And the way I saw this was that these people were exercising themselves in things that are too high for them. That God might know the future without necessarily violating man's free will is definitely within the range of possibility with God. Nothing can be called impossible.

We can't limit God in ways that he has not declared himself to be limited. And he has never said that he's limited in his knowledge of the future. And it may be that we can't understand, it might be too high for us to understand how it is that he can know the future without violating our free will, because it would seem like just for him to know the future determines it, which causes us to have no freedom.

But the Bible indicates that we do have a great deal of free will and that God does know the future, including the future choices of men. There are many cases where the future choices of men were well known. Jesus said to Peter, before the cock crows three times, you will deny, I mean twice, you will deny me three times this night.

How did he know that? That was a choice Peter had the right to make, not to make, but Jesus knew he would make the wrong choice three times on that occasion. He knew Judas would betray him. It says that in John chapter 6. Jesus knew from the beginning who it was that would betray him.

In the book of Revelation, which seems to tell future things, it tells many future choices that people will make about how they'll give their allegiance to the beast and so forth. Those kinds of things, obviously God knows what the future is. He knew that Cyrus would let the Jews go, and in Ezekiel, I mean in Isaiah 44 and 45, he describes a man, but 150 years before the man was born, God calls him by name and tells exactly what he'll do.

He knew that Pharaoh would resist letting the people go. He knew how long he would resist, and he finally knew when Pharaoh, he knew exactly when Pharaoh would finally consent. He told Moses at the beginning, I know that Pharaoh will harden his heart and not let you go when you do these things, but when it came to the 10th plague, he says, this will do it.

He will let you go after this. I mean, God definitely indicates that he knows the future choices of men. He knew Judas, he knew Peter, he knew everyone, and therefore, if the Bible reveals that God does know such future things, even though we don't know how he could know them.

I mean, if I have the free will to think any thought I want to tomorrow, then how can God know what I'm going to choose? If he doesn't control me, how can he know? I don't know how he can know, but I don't have to know that. All I know is he said that's true, and those things, his knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's too high.

I can't attain to it, and I don't have to attain to it. I don't have to exercise myself in lofty things or in things too high for me. That's God's problem, not mine.

So I believe it's just a matter of pride on the part of these individuals who are trying to argue against God's foreknowledge, trying to say, well, if we can't understand it, it can't be true. But that, of course, is elevating man's intellect to the level that he thinks his intellect can understand anything that's real, which obviously can't be the case. God said, my ways are higher than your ways, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts, as high as the heaven is above the earth.

So higher my ways above yours, my thoughts above your thoughts. So David realizes here. Now, verses 7 through 12 describe what may appear to be frustration in being unable to escape from God.

Now, he might not have had any interest in escaping from God, really. He might have just been trying to dramatize how God is everywhere, but the choice of figures that he uses indicates that there was a certain, there are at least times when he wishes he could escape God's notice. I mean, here he just said, God, every time I stand up, every time I lie down, wherever I walk, anything I say, anything I think, you already know it.

It almost makes me feel hemmed in. There's times when I'd like to just break loose and run away and do something without you seeing. But where can I go? There's nowhere I can go like that.

He says, whether shall I go from your presence or from your spirit? He says, if I go up to heaven, well, obviously you're there. But if I go down to hell, you're there, too. Now, hell here means Sheol.

In the Hebrew, it's Sheol, which might mean the grave. It means that even if I die, I can't escape you. Because even if I go to the grave, I can't escape you there because you're there, too.

And how true that is, since Jesus died, Jesus went down to the lower parts of the earth that he might fill all things, it says in Ephesians 4. So, Jesus actually has been down in the Sheol himself. But God, what David's saying here is that even in death, there's no escape from you. In verse 9, he says, if I take the wings of the morning, of which he didn't actually have wings like we do today.

He couldn't take an airplane. But in those days, he said, even if I could fly and take the wings of the morning and to the uttermost parts of the sea, which means, of distant Gentile land. Now, David was enlightened because we know that he prayed toward Jerusalem.

And he thought in terms of God dwelling in Jerusalem, you know, about the Ark of the Covenant. And all the Jews tended to think that way. But David realized that a lot of that was just basically a way of thinking.

That that wasn't really where God was confined. He realized that even if he was far from Jerusalem, in the uttermost parts of the sea, in the far distant islands, even there, regardless of whether he wished it or not, God would still be guiding him. God's hand would still be upon him, no matter how far away from Jerusalem he got.

He says in verses 9 and 10. Then he says in verses 11 and 12, you know, you can hide from men when you go into the dark, because men can't see in the dark. So he says, if I would say, well, I'll just wait till nighttime, then God can't see me.

He says, it doesn't make any difference. Light and darkness make no difference to you. Now that, of course, has nothing to do with spiritual light and spiritual darkness.

We know that those things are not the same to God. So he's talking about the power of darkness to conceal things. With men, it makes a great difference, whether it's light or dark.

There's much more crimes committed at night than in the daytime, and for very obvious reasons. Men can get away with things more at night, because other men can't see them as well in the dark. What he's saying is that that distinction does not exist with God.

Even if I say the darkness will conceal me, the middle of the night will be like noonday, as far as God's concerned. He can see darkness and light. It's all the same to him.

He doesn't need light, doesn't need natural light to see. His vision isn't like ours. It's dependent on that.

So he expresses the inescapability of God's presence. We've stressed before that there are times when David talked about how he wanted to come before the presence of the Lord, and yet here he says, how can you get away from it? I mentioned to you in previous occasions that the presence of God is seen two ways in scripture. In one sense, his universal presence, which is being talked about here, he's ubiquitous.

He's in all places at once. But the other sense is his manifest presence, where though he is in all places at once, you don't sense him. You don't necessarily at all times enjoy his presence.

He doesn't manifest his presence at all times in all places. So he has two senses in which he's present. He can be manifestly present in a given meeting of Christians or in a given spot on the globe at a given time, as he was when Jesus was walking the earth or as he was in the tabernacle.

Or we can think in terms of his universal presence, which is equally true. He's everywhere at once. Now verses 13 through 16 are talking about God's knowledge of him, not only his present actions, but knowing everything about him even before he was formed in the womb.

Now this certainly talks about God's foreknowledge, because he's talking about before my members were even formed in the embryo. The word in verse 16, substance, thine eyes did see my substance. The word substance there in the Hebrew actually means the embryo.

So he's talking there about how God, when David was still an embryo in the mother's womb, God already knew what he would look like. He already knew that he'd have not only 10 fingers, but he already knew what the fingerprints would look like. Of course, they tell us now that embryos have fully developed fingerprints at a very early stage, but the point of the matter is that he's saying before any of those things did come into existence on his body, God already knew him.

God already knew all his members, he says in verse 16, were written in your book, which means, of course, God had already written down and taken inventory of all the parts of David's body before any of them came into existence, every detail of his life. In verse 13, where it says, thou has possessed my reins, thou has covered me in the womb, those two verbs are unfortunate translations from the Hebrew. The first one, possessed, would be better translated formed.

The Hebrew word actually means formed. Why in this case it's translated possessed is, I don't know. The word covered would be translated better, knit together, and it's the word that is used to speak of weaving cloth, and the different colors of thread and all being woven together into one cloth.

And so, we should translate that, for thou hast formed my reins, and the reins being the kidneys probably stand for all the inner organs, representing the inner, God formed the organs in his body and knit together me. You knit me together in my mother's womb. You wove all my components together into a unified whole in the womb of my mother.

Now, he says, I'll praise thee, verse 14, because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Now, David had no idea how true that statement is. In his day, of course, there had been nowhere near as much research done, but then in a sense that might have even made it more wonderful.

We can study, for instance, the human eye from the vantage point of people who live in an age of scientific discovery. And we can learn that there are billions of little cones and cylinders that carry the light wave through the optic nerve to our brain and translate it into an image. And we can talk about all the parts of the eye, the cornea, how it protects the eye, and then go through the pupil into the lens, and the lens projects the image upside down on the retina in the back.

And then through scientific research, we've learned all those things. We can say, that's amazing. That's marvelous.

But in a sense, it was not any less wonderful or marvelous in his day. I mean, after all, he knew that something happens. He knew that somehow images go through this little hole and turn into something that he can see somewhere in his head.

And he didn't know how that was. And scientific discovery in modern times has not lessened the marvel and the wonder of it. It's only intensified it, really.

It's only given us, I suppose, more awareness of how detailed we are. Darwin, who of course tried to argue that we evolved without godly direction, without direction from God, he wrote to a friend once and he said, concerning the eyeball, he says, whenever I think of the eye, I shudder. And the reason he said that is because he knew how complex the eye was.

And it just made him shudder to try to figure out how he could explain that evolution. He'd staked his whole reputation on the theory of evolution, but it just kind of gave him the creeps whenever he thought of the eye, because he realized there's no explanation of how that could have evolved. It's too complex.

It speaks too much of a designer. And David, though he didn't know all the things that we know about the eye or about the, let's say, the reproductive system, just think of what you know about sexual reproduction, how it works. Just think of the details of that.

David didn't know all those things. He knew, of course, that reproduction was done through sexual activity. We had no idea about the egg and the sperm and all those things happening.

But he knew that there were marvels about his body. He was fearfully and wonderfully made. And it was breathtaking to him.

And the more we learn, of course, the more that's true. It's even more breathtaking the more we learn about it. Some people feel that belief in God and in miracles in the old days was adapted for people who didn't have scientific knowledge.

People in ancient primitive times, they didn't know the laws of science. Therefore, they explained everything as a miracle or they attribute everything to God or something instead of knowing. But atheists generally say, well, scientific discovery has eliminated the need to believe in God and miracles, because now we can explain everything scientifically.

But that's just not true. We can explain many things scientifically, but it doesn't take away the need for a God. The more we understand the miracles or the more we understand the facts of science, the more we see that it's miraculous.

The more we see that that couldn't have happened. That couldn't have been designed without a designer. It only proves more to us that there is a God.

Science has not managed to eliminate the need to believe in God. But he mentions, of course, that all of his members were written in God's book. That is, they were foreordained to be coming to existence before they were formed in the womb.

Now, this should tell people something who are trying to decide whether an embryo should be human or not, whether an embryo could rightly be aborted without thwarting a human life. This is saying essentially that the embryo, before it was formed at all, every part of it was written in God's book. That is, he'd already written out the order.

He'd appealed for this human being to be delivered. Even before it was manufactured in the womb, the blueprint was already laid out for it. It was already ordered.

If it's aborted, then that's a human life, of course, that God, before it ever was conceived, God ordered that to come to life, to actually be brought to conception at least, and intended for it to be born. But the sins of human beings, of course, didn't change that. They don't change, however, the eternal destiny of that embryo, because God desired for that embryo to be saved.

It's my belief that if a baby is aborted, that it is a living soul, and that it is a saved soul, actually. As awful as abortion is, one consolation is that babies that are aborted, at least I believe their salvation can be considered guaranteed. Whereas babies that are born, it's not always guaranteed that they will grow up to be saved.

But certainly that in no way justifies abortion, but it's some small consolation, as a matter of fact, since we know millions are being aborted. In verses 17 and 18, it's simply saying, God's thoughts, or the facts that he knows about me, your thoughts toward me or unto me, are so numerous and precious that the sum of them is beyond counting. All the things God knows about me, if he could write out every thought that God has about me, everything he knows about me, all the details, how many atoms are in my body, how many molecules, how many proteins, how many amino acids, you know, all the things he knows about me, you could never contain a list of them.

The sum of those thoughts that he has to us are more than can be counted, more in number than the sand. And he says, when I awake, I'm still with thee. It seems a misplaced statement.

It would seem to belong more at the end of verse 12, where he's been talking about God's presence is always there, regardless of where he goes. At any rate, he seems to be saying that even when he sleeps, God watches over him, and when he wakes up, God's presence is already there. Now, verses 19 and 22 might seem a little unpleasant in some respects, because he talks about hating people, and hating with perfect hatred.

Now, what might be even more surprising than him saying that, is at the end of the psalm, he says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there's any wicked way in me. Now, we might think, well, there's obviously a wicked way in him.

He hates people. Jesus said we're supposed to love our enemy. And yet, David didn't say he hated his enemy.

He said he hated God's enemy. This is a very important distinction. I'm not saying that we should learn to hate people, but we do know that one of the psalms we read said, ye that love the Lord, hate evil.

And David is simply vowing to take God's side against evil. We've seen him do this before in Psalm 111. He said, I'm going to not allow any wickedness to dwell with me.

But remember, speaking as a king, he was saying, essentially, he was not going to allow any compromise with evil. Even as a king, he might enjoy some advantage. Certain wicked men are valuable to have on your side, if you're in political office.

But he said he's not going to make any convenient alliances at all with wicked men. He's going to shun them. He hates them, because they hate God.

Not because they're his enemies, but because they're God's enemies. He hates them with a perfect hatred, which must mean there's no selfishness in it all. It's not an impure thing.

It's more like he enters into God's emotions about the thing. The Bible clearly talks about people that God hates. It says that God loved Jacob and hated Esau in Hosea.

It says also, you know, in Malachi, Malachi chapter one, says God loved Jacob and hated Esau. In Proverbs, it says there's six or seven things that God hates. Some of the things that are listed are people.

He that sows discord among brethren. That's a human being that sows discord among brethren. He is one of the things that God hates.

There are people that God hates. Now, in one sense, he hates them. In another sense, he loves them.

He loves them in the sense that he prefers that they be saved. He wishes they'd be saved. He's willing to make every sacrifice for them to be saved.

Nonetheless, they reject his salvation. They spit in his face. They spurn all of his love.

He knows many of them will do that to their death and will never accept his salvation. Therefore, they basically cast his love away from them and therefore earn his hatred. Instead, God is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.

The Bible indicates that God's anger will not be held back forever. He loves men, even enemies of his. As the case of the Apostle Paul is evident, that when he was God's enemy, God still loved him and sought him out and has done so for many great criminals.

But that doesn't mean that there are not people that God has taken a loathful attitude towards because of their wickedness and their totally rebelled permanently against God. I want to read one more psalm. I will not have a great deal to say about it.

It's another one of those psalms of David that he cries out for deliverance from enemies, which, of course, resembles in content and in spirit many of the other psalms of David that we've read. Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man. Preserve me from the violent man, which imagines mischiefs in their heart.

Continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent. Adder's poison is under their lips.

Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked. Preserve me from the violent man, who have purposed to overthrow my going. The proud have hit a snare for me and cord.

They have spread a net by the wayside. They have set gins for me. The word gin is a certain type of trap.

They've set a trap for me. Selah. I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God.

Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord. O God, the Lord, the strength of my salvation. Thou has covered my head in the day of battle, which probably means put a protective covering over him so that he has not been hurt in battle.

Grant, O Lord, I'm sorry, grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked. Further not the wicked device, lest they exalt themselves. Selah.

As for the head of those that can pass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them. Let burning coals fall upon them. Let them be cast into the fire, into deep pits, that they rise not up again.

One of the imprecatory statements of the psalm. Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth. Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.

I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and the right of the poor. Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name. The upright shall dwell in thy presence.

The statements about the upright dwelling in the presence of God reminds us of Psalm 15 and Psalm 24, saying who may ascend, who may stand in the holy hill of the Lord, and it gives the reference to the character traits of those who would qualify to be in continual fellowship with God unbroken. The latter statements, verses 12 and 13, like so many others, are the concluding statements of confidence in God, though the circumstance has not yet changed. He's still crying out for help, yet he utters his complete confidence that God will stand for his right and maintain his cause.

The imprecations he calls, verses 8 through 11, are imprecations that are spoken against the evil. They don't seem to be of the selfish type, although certainly the people that he's calling mischief upon are people who have called mischief upon him, but it's not just out of a sense of personal vengeance that he's asking God to do these things, but basically trying to keep the wicked from exalting themselves, verse 8 says, lest they exalt themselves. And in verse 11, let not an evil speaker be established in the earth, realizing that when the wicked are in authority, which was what was happening, the wicked were trying to take authority, apparently, over him.

He was the king, rightful king. The wicked were in authority, but if the wicked are established in the earth, it'll go badly for the earth and for the cause of God. The kingdom of God will not be seen on the earth and his will will not be done on earth if the wicked are established.

So he's actually calling out for the destruction of the wicked, lest such things would happen. He's concerned about the cause of God more than his own personal vengeance, and that is the case of so many of those imprecatory psalms, probably all of them. Well, we're going to break now and get back into this, and I believe probably finish up this.