Psalm 139:11–12

0:00 Good evening, church. We will be in Psalm 139, verses 11 and 12 this evening. So it is the theme of many different childs, fairy tales, or even just little plots within stories. You can think from things like Harry Potter and the Time Turner, I think I've got that right, the superhero, the flash, but this idea that you can't be in one place or more than one place at any given time as a normal human, right? You've got to find a way to make that happen in these stories. We know that as humans, we simply can't be in more than one place at any given time. It'd be super useful.

0:43 It'd be very convenient. I think my family's found that out this spring. We've got kids running in 45 different directions. One night, I think we literally had three games or two games in a rehearsal and I was here at the church and Cindy was left with the kids. So yes, it would be useful if we could be in more than one place at a time. Maybe for you that would mean more work or you could get more study done or you could just do more things. We wish we could do that, but we know that's not possible. So have you ever thought about what God's presence everywhere at the same time means for you? Well, that's what we're going to consider this evening together in these next few minutes. So Psalm 139, and I'll be just right in the two verses here. Greg was kind and gracious and gave me two verses instead of one, and so we'll be in those two verses this evening, starting in verse 11. This is King David. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as

1:43 light with you. The main point I want us to consider for the next few minutes is this. God is present everywhere. Find comfort in that, or it will serve as judgment against you. So God is present everywhere. Find comfort in that, or it will serve as judgment against you. And we'll look at that in two different points, the comfort of God's presence and the judgment of God's presence.

2:13 So point number one, the comfort of God's presence. Psalm 139 was written by David, and it's an incredible piece of poetry devoted to showing us some of God's perfections. We read a good chunk of it this morning as a scripture reading in the middle of the service. It's talking about God being omniscient, his ability to know all things, and how he's omnipresent, that he's everywhere at the same time. But David doesn't just simply define those things for us, or even why they have certain implications for us. He's very theological, yes, of course, but working through the psalm, reading through that psalm, and thinking about God's attributes in it is a little bit more like enjoying a really, really good and grand feast rather than just reading the recipe about the feast, right?

2:55 It's something to be tasted and enjoyed. And the structure of this psalm is just super straightforward. It's God knows everything, God is present everywhere, and so his enemies are going to be put to destruction in the end. And then David kind of wraps it all up by asking God to search him and reveal any wicked way in his own heart. So he's very much extolling these perfections of God's knowledge and his ability to be everywhere. And right in the middle of this psalm are our verses for this evening, verses 11 and 12. And these verses come at the end of a smaller section detailing how God is present everywhere, right? He's everywhere. So David says he can't go up, he can't go to the heavens, or he can't go down to Sheol or he can't go to the east or the west and God is not there he's everywhere and now here in these verses he goes even a step further he's saying okay well what about darkness what about darkness maybe God is everywhere one can physically be and kind of physically see but what if we add in this element of darkness think this is this is certainly a time before

4:00 lights like this, right? So think the middle of the night. What happens then? Surely if you can't be seen, then God is not there, right? Well, that whole train of thought is just super silly, right? It's like little kids trying to run away from their parents. You've seen it after the services, how this becomes like a little battleground up here with all these kids. Imagine if one of these little three-year-old toddlers takes off running from his dad. His dad's not thinking, uh-oh, will I catch him? Of course not, right? It's, okay, I'm going to go like walk over and grab him by his head and bring him back over here, right? Or I remember as a kid once telling my dad, you can't see me because I can't see you, right? I mean, it's just, it's absurd. It's what kids do, right? They pretend those things are true. Well, that's a little bit like what David is saying here, surely if the darkness covers me, then God can't see me. Then God's not there.

5:00 Well, David says, look, just because I can't see, no, that's not actually the case. That's not a problem for God. And it's not because God has really good vision, right? He doesn't have x-ray night vision. It's because the night becomes as bright as the day for him. Look, there are no limitations. There are no limitations for God and where he can be and what he can know. Creation alone doesn't stop him. It doesn't prevent him. He stands over and rules over creation in a way that allows him to know all things and allows him to be everywhere in it. So how should this bring us comfort? If that's the point, if we're saying this brings us comfort, how should this bring us comfort? If God is present everywhere, if we can't find a place to go to get away from him, if even that darkness is not enough to keep him from finding us, from seeing us, from being with us.

5:52 What does that mean? Well, I hope that for you as a Christian, that reality brings great joy and great comfort. Your God, the one who loves you and has acted to save you in his son Jesus, now by his spirit is with you at all times. But in what particular ways should that encourage us? Well, let me offer three different ways this evening that I think this reality should comfort us. So number one, in loneliness. By definition, God's presence with us everywhere means we are never truly alone.

6:32 So if loneliness, that feeling that all of us at one time or another, maybe this is you even right now, means that we're feeling separated from others and we're distant from others, we're not in close relationship with others. we feel alone. Well, God's presence should be a huge source of comfort. You may be alone physically. You may be alone and not have another person by your side in this moment or in this season or at that event, but you're not left without God. He will never leave you. Look, human relationships truly are a wonderful gift from the Lord, and they're so vital to so many different things that bring us physical health and spiritual health. They're great good gifts from the Lord, but remember those relationships are not a substitute for, they're not an enhancement of God's presence in your life. Brothers and sisters, it's fine to pray that God would give you good relationships here in this church even, but don't fail to see that he's already given you his very presence in your life in the midst of that longing for deeper relationships. That's number one. Number

7:38 two, the second way that this should bring us comfort, is in the mundane. In the mundane. Look, one of the things you learn as more and more stages just kind of pass by you in life is just how mundane life can be, right? There are certain dreams and aspirations that you have as a younger person that most of us come to understand at one point or another, they'll just never actually happen for us. Instead, you get up, you go to work, you pay the bills, you maybe exercise that day, try to be faithful to serve the Lord and his people, all the while seeking to love the Lord and love your family, love your friends. It's not really that complicated, and it can actually be very, very mundane. I'm afraid that for many of us, especially given how young our church is, That thought is horrifying, right?

8:35 I don't want to grow up to be like that, right? There's middle-aged Brandon complaining about how mundane life is, right? That's probably a horrifying thought to you. After all, we're several generations in now of children and teenagers being told, you're going to go change the world. Maybe so. Maybe some of you will. That'd be great. Honestly, that'd be great. But for most of us, we're just going to lead normal lives. and we need to be reminded that God is present with us in those moments too. Friends, whatever you do with your days, whether you spend your days chasing after little ones or running a business or for many of you studying for future vocations or doing the most typical, normal, boring, mundane thing you could ever imagine, the Lord is with you. Just as darkness couldn't conceal David from God, so too, that routine, however normal and mundane it is,

9:36 it's not enough to keep the Lord at bay from you. That's why Paul can say later on, after all, that whatever we do, we do it all for the glory of God. It's because God is with us in those things too. Yes, even your boring routine. The third thing, the third way this should bring comfort is in trials. This one should probably be the most obvious reason for why God's presence with us at all times should be and could be a comfort and yet I think it's the one that we most often need to be reminded of and I'll just cut right to it if we know that God's presence is always with us if we have that knowledge if we're we hear that all the time from this pulpit and from good books why do we forget that in times of trial right why isn't that just an automatic comfort for us if we know that why does it not affect us here? Well, I think it's because we operate as though God should keep us from all sorts of pain and discomfort and trials. We tend to functionally believe that God is like

10:39 a little good luck charm, that if I have him, then he's going to keep those things away from me. And if, when, then, trouble comes, our world goes into a tailspin because of that. Look, brothers, sisters, our problem in trials is not that God has left us, and that's why we're experiencing hardship. No, our problem is that in the midst of hardship, we take our eyes off of him who's always been with us, and then we fix them on ourselves. And then we ask, where is God in all of this?

11:14 Brothers and sisters, he's right there with you. He's right there with you this evening in whatever trial you are in. We've heard of severe hardships that some of us are facing tonight and probably a dozen others that some of you didn't even mention. There are hardships to go around in this room. I know it. Brothers, sisters, every single one of you, the Lord is with you in those hardships. You must simply take your eyes off of the hardship and put them back on your Savior. God's presence brings comfort but that's not all it brings so point number two the judgment of God's presence so the the point of this passage is to teach us that God knows all things and that he's everywhere that's what Psalm 139 is about in many ways and he doesn't need a created thing like light here in verses 11 and 12 to see to know all things he doesn't need that he created it he doesn't need its help to know all things. Well, that's unlike anything that you and I experience, right? We don't

12:20 know all things, and this is especially true when it comes to our sin and the sin of others. So we know others don't have perfect knowledge, right? And they can't be everywhere, so we're tempted to try and hide our sin from brothers and sisters around us. Look, that game has been going on from the beginning, right? From the very beginning. That's what our ancestors did, Adam and Eve, of trying to hide their sin but do we think the same way toward God are we ashamed of our sin before others but then act as though our sins are somehow hidden from God's sight as well look here's the deal we have to understand the craziness of saying that God is present with us everywhere the one who spoke the universe into existence the one who who speaks now and gives eternal life the one who has all power in those all things, the one who is completely holy and without sin, that God is present everywhere. What does that mean for us as people, as less than God, as

13:24 sinners? Well, surely that's part of what David means in this psalm, God. Even if I wanted to get away from you, right, because I realized I shouldn't be near you, I can't get away from you. If you can start to see the logic of that, if you can start to see that unfold, you'd be right to wonder if it's a good thing for you that God is present everywhere. In fact, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that God cannot finally be in the presence of sin. His holiness consumes impurity.

13:55 So that means that he will judge and he will destroy sinners because of their sin against him. So it must mean that God's presence is also judgment for some. Friends, it does not have to be that way for you. If you are not a Christian in here tonight, it does not have to be finally that way for you. That's the predicament now because of your sin. But because of the gospel, that can be changed. Friends, Jesus lived, he died, he was raised so that you might believe in him and so that you might have a new life and a new heart if you put your faith in him if you trust in him then God's presence for you isn't one of judgment it's one of comfort it's one of love it's one of life friends if that's you tonight you need to turn to Jesus and trust him but for Christians I think what this passage shows us is that there is no there's just no real honest way for us to

14:57 view that God is present with us everywhere other than to just be in awe and to see it as something truly amazing, to see it as a precious treasure. God will always be with us wherever we are. Brothers and sisters, find comfort in the presence of God with you this evening. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that by your spirit you are present with us, that you've not left us to struggle and to suffer on our own you've not even left us to the joys of this life on our own you are there in all of it oh god tonight we pray that you would comfort those who are hurting and weak we pray that you would strengthen those who are trying to struggle through certain circumstances in life we pray that you would remind those who have attempted to run through circumstances on their own apart from you and push them back to the goodness and the glory of the gospel of Jesus God, we pray that for all of us, you would cause us to see how wonderful it is that you

15:58 are present with us everywhere. We pray this in the name of our Savior, Jesus. Amen.