Embracing God's Unconditional Love and Protection

So, I'm the last of four, and Johnny shared about a leaderboard a few weeks ago, so I'm holding on to the verse in Matthew 20:16, hoping that it is going to apply this morning, that the first shall become last and the last will become first. Just saying, Daniel, thankfully the kingdom of God doesn't work in such a way, and we all receive the same wonderful grace from God.

So, let's look together at the Word of God. Father, we ask that you will open our hearts and minds this morning to hear your message from the passage before us today. Amen.

Late Diane last week, I have chosen a Psalm for us to look at today. And as she has shared a bit of background around the Psalms, I don't feel I need to do that. But suffice to say that the Psalms were often written as an expression of feelings to God, whether this was a lament or a pouring out of grief, or whether it was to praise.

Today's Psalm helps us understand more about God, who He is, His sovereignty, and how He knows you so well. Are you able to cast your mind back and think about how people got to know you and how you got to know other people? And for some of you, like me, it may have been a very long time ago when we got to know our best friend or husband or wife or any other person we know well, or maybe even our lovely Minister that we have.

It's usually because you have spent time in their presence, and through conversation, you learn more about them. The closer you are to someone, the more you understand them. And the same goes for a relationship with God.

The Psalm we read this morning is attributed to David, a person who knows God already. When Daniel spoke a few weeks ago, he was saying Isaiah had a personal relationship with God, denoted by the word "my." In this passage today, we can also see this personal relationship from David's description as he meditates on the character of God, reflecting on how God has guided him throughout his life.

He explores God's wisdom, His overall knowledge, and His overall presence. And this is a prayer for us to acknowledge that God knows us and is with us as He was with David. And the only way we can know God's will is by getting to know Him and through drawing near to Him, that His guidance becomes evident. We need to seek God through prayer, searching the scriptures, listening to the Holy Spirit, and seeking godly wisdom.

When David writes, "You have searched me and known me," he is aware that God knows him. The word "search" means to find something by looking carefully and thoroughly. The Jewish people use this word for digging deep into a mine, exploring a land, investigating a legal case. It doesn't mean superficial. God has an intimate understanding of the psalmist. He knows him perfectly and completely, as He knows us, far beyond our knowledge of ourselves.

Sometimes we don't let people get to know us completely. It may be because we're afraid they will discover something about us that they won't like, or we may put on a front to show others what they want us to be like, but we are not being real. People see the outside, but God sees the heart. And He isn't satisfied with just knowing our name. He wants to know who you really are and take care of you. God knows us completely, and His greatest gift is to allow us to know Him and be in a right relationship with Him.

God's love is shown throughout this psalm and how deeply He cares for us in every action. "You know when I sit and when I rise, in every undertaking, you know my going out and my lying down. In every thought, word, and motive, before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, Lord."

It's not just that God knows everything; He knows you and is in everything with you. And He's everywhere with you. He knows you so well. God knows what we are thinking. "You understand my thoughts from far off." He knows our plans and aspirations, our successes and failures, our ups and downs. He literally knows everything about us, even the number of hairs on our heads, which I won't go any further into. But yet, He still accepts us and loves us.

God is omniscient; He is all-knowing. There is nothing hidden from Him. We may think that our thoughts are the most private part of our life, but they cannot be hidden from God, not even the intent behind our words. Several verses in the Old Testament highlight this, and we read in Chronicles 28:9, "For the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought."

And again in Jeremiah 17:10, we read, "I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind." And in the New Testament, we can read in John 2:25, "He did not need any testimony about mankind, for He knew what was in each person."

The psalmist responds to the fact that God knows him so well, and ours, too, should be a positive response that God is interested in everything we do and see through every situation and every trial, protecting, guiding, and loving. He knows us and loves us completely. Isn't that exciting and reassuring for you?

And Proverbs 15:3, we read, "The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good." Often, it seems that God has let evil run rampant in the world. And sometimes, we may wonder if He even notices it. But God sees everything clearly, both the evil actions and the evil intentions lying behind them. He is not an indifferent observer. He cares and is active in our world.

Sometimes, we may feel His work is unseen and unfelt, but we shouldn't give up. Because one day, He will wipe out evil. He promised salvation to all when He died on the cross. All our sins are forgiven. I love that line of the chorus. "When I stand in glory, I will see His face there. I'll serve my King forever in that holy place." I can't wait. But I will have to.

But in some ways, I don't have to wait. God promises His presence with us now. He is with us in our sitting and our rising, our going out and our lying down. When I first read this verse 5, and it said, "You hem me in," I thought it meant we were restricted. But as we look deeper into it, it suggests it puts protective limits around the psalmist's actions. This is for us, too, used as a mechanism to keep us from stepping outside of His protection.

When you think about how we care for children and strap them in a car seat or in a high chair, it's for their protection. Or give them boundaries. Is there a way to touch a hot kettle? It's for their protection. And likewise here, God is using this to give us the confidence in His care for us.

I don't know how many of you remember the Ready Brek advert. Now, I know some younger people won't. But when I was a lot younger, a lot younger, I always thought that that's what Christians had around them, this Ready Brek glow of God's protection. It doesn't mean that we're not susceptible to problems or worries or evil or disaster. But with this protection of God, our life is in His hands. And it's not the hands of oppression, but the hands of grace.

We are His. The term "You laid your hand upon me" is regularly applied to God's wondrous acts or miracles. The laying on of hands is a means of passing on a blessing from one to another. The use of the word "hand" in Hebrew is associated with strength and authority and power. So here, the psalmist is receiving this blessing from God to give him strength, authority, and power to guide him in his life.

And we can experience that same power through the prayers and laying on of hands by others to strengthen us, especially if we have a particular need. And we can also be used by God to bless others in this way. In this verse, it also speaks of God's loving and gentle hand pressing David along the path of His choosing.

David's understanding was that God knew him better than he knew himself. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. Charles Spurgeon states that, "I cannot grasp it, I can hardly endure to think of it. The theme overwhelms me. I'm amazed and astounded at it. Such knowledge not only surpasses my comprehension, but even my imagination."

It's almost impossible for us to understand the concept. But we just need to accept that God knows us better than anyone else and better than we know ourselves. He knows us so well.

The next section of the psalm appears to be rhetorical questions from David. "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" And the answer is that there is nowhere the psalmist can go that is beyond God's view. God's presence is everywhere throughout this creation. There is no hiding from God.

But at the same time, if we turn that around, no matter where we go or what we do or what happens to us, we can never be far from God's comforting presence or lost to His love for us. Again, we read in Romans 8:35-39, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

David then goes on to express two vertical extremes of God's divine presence. God is in heaven, but He is also in the depths. He uses the poetic expression, "from east to west" and (I hope I've got that right) "the wings of the dawn to the uttermost parts of the sea."

Have you ever watched the sunrise? And we're very fortunate here in Aberdeen, or even Montrose, to take advantage of that beauty. And if you've ever visited the west coast and watched the sunset, maybe not in the same day unless you have plenty of time in a very fast car, but it's amazing to watch the day unfold and the night to come and the beauty that's in that.

The next time you have that opportunity, think of this psalm and appreciate God's presence through this beauty. We have the reassurance that God is present and also the knowledge that God will lead us. It is not that God will merely see us wherever we are but will guide and support us as well.

If we look at verse 10, it says, "Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." And in Psalm 73, it says, "Yet I am always with You; You hold me by Your right hand. You guide me with your counsel."

God's inescapable supervision is highlighted here, not unlike verse 5. But even in the darkness, who are we to be chosen, loved, and redeemed, especially when we don't deserve it? Who are we when we consider the greatness of our creator? That we are made in His image and that we are His children, that we belong to Him from birth to death?

God continually has us in His grip, and in His presence, we can enjoy His love and fulfill His purposes. Our identity, our security, and future are rooted in the God who loves us and died for us. You are known by the Creator of the universe, who calls you His child, knows you by name, and loves you unconditionally. He knows you so well.

Amen. Let's continue to worship God as we sing "Lord of Creation."