An Address to Young People: Psalm 139
Table of Contents
An Address to Young People - Psalm 139: Part 2
Psa. 139PSA 139
Part 2
Turning to Colossians we get a word of warning along the same line,
“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." Col. 2:8.
Now, mind you, this was written to Christians, to Believers, and it is a solemn warning that we can be spoiled in our thinking, spoiled through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, and not after Christ. There are many schools of opinion today- many religious schools, and they have all sorts of fine-spun theories hung together according to the judgments of men, but they are not after Christ. Dear young folks, that is all you need to know. Are they after Christ, or after the world? Don't be deceived by the fact that they are specious, plausible, enticing—don't let that get you off your guard. Do they agree with what you hear here in the meeting? Are they in line with what you are taught in the Bible School? Are they after the truth of God as you get it in the Word of God? If it is, you can trust it; if not, you cannot trust it. Once I saw a man getting change for a purchase he had made in a store. He threw the coin given to him down on the counter and listened to the ring. It had the right ring and he took it.
Test these things, dear young people. We need to test them for our minds can be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. It is easy to have our thinking spoiled by the philosophy of men. It is a dangerous thing; it is something to leave alone.
“After the rudiments of the world, not after Christ.”
You are safe when you are reading this blessed Book; when you have the Word of God in your hands. You can trust yourself in the reading meeting; and you can be thankful to be there for the Lord is there, and you will do well to listen to what you hear from those whom God provides to give out the Word of God, but beware of listening to a voice that is not the voice of the Spirit of God. It is dangerous and none of us know where we will land if we give heed to that which is not after Christ.
Verse 3: That is a broad term, "acquainted with all my ways." That is not only, you see, when you are in the meeting; it is all through the week, "acquainted with all my ways." That is far reaching; that is inclusive. That is how you act in the home, how you act in the office, in the school. That takes in all your acts. The Lord is acquainted with all your ways. He is searching us here. Well, do our ways stand the test? Do they stand that searching? Are they worldly?
What about your ways, young people? What about your companions and associates? Will they stand the test of the searching we are passing through here? "O," you say, "the Brethren don't know anything about them." Ah, but the Lord does; He knows all about them.
"Thou art acquainted with all my ways.”
Perhaps you are going on with some kind of reading, the kind you slip under your pillow when you hear someone coming. Father and mother don't know about it, but the Lord knows all about it. To what are you listening on the radio?
“Well," you say, "when mother and father are not around I do turn on those programs once in awhile and listen to them. They think I am listening to the sermons.
But God knows, and He is not mocked, and we reap the fruit of this kind of thing. Pay day will come, and soon enough, too. How much happier to have it all out before Him.
I am going to anticipate a little here: Go to the end of this Psalm. In the first verse He says, "God hast searched me" and in the 21St verse he says,
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts." Here he is saying,
“Lord, I am glad you did search me, I needed searching, and I want you to search me because I don't dare trust myself. Before I know it something will filter in, Satan will get an advantage somewhere. Keep up the searching, Lord.”
We will never graduate from the searching process. We can go home from the meetings here and still be in need of searching.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart and try me.”
If we did that, perhaps we would find some of the things in our lives which we don't think are very serious. Things which we consider just a trifle. But submit it to the searching process and see.
Men can do wonderful things now days with the powerful instruments they have. They can magnify things a hundred thousand times. We used to think that to magnify a thing a hundred times was wonderful, but now they have an instrument which can magnify a hundred thousand times. We can actually see these things called viruses that cause such damage; they can kill off a million people inside a few months. So with spiritual matters, we need God's magnifying glass so we can see how deadly they really are.
Go back to the first section of this Psalm.
“For there is not a word in my tongue" (verse 4) "but O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether.”
O, how intimate is the searching in this Psalm. We see the Lord has His hands on us here; He is turning us inside out.
Well, we have heard about the path (verse 3), the downsitting and the uprising (vs. 2), and our ways (vs. 3).
Now there is not a word in my tongue, but the Lord knowest it altogether. He knows about the words we speak. There is not an idle word which we speak, but that we will have to give an account of to Him. The world can pick up whatever comes along, but I believe that you and I weaken our spiritual power when we deliberately take over expressions of the world. One is sometimes a bit shocked to hear young saints, even those who are breaking bread at the Lord's Table, utter some of these slang expressions that have taken possession of the young today. It is just a white-washed type of profanity, and to hear saints using these expressions is painful. But what about the Lord? What does He think of it?
Verse 5. "Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me.”
See what a position he is in. The Lord is behind him, and before him, and the Lord's hand is over him. That is where everyone of us is, and the soul that is going on with God would have it so. We do not want to have it any other way. We do not want to get in a position where we will use a lot of words we ought not, and think a lot of thoughts we ought not to be thinking—saying and thinking that which is not honoring to the Lord.
“Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me." But should one say, "I would like to get away, and not be so near"? Young people feel like that sometimes. But what success will you have?
“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 are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand 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." (Verses 7-12).
Yes, some think they can do things at night, in the darkness, and it will not be found out. Even Christians think this sometimes. Dear young soul, it is found out before you do it, "Thou understandest my thought afar off ” (vs. 2). Before you ever committed the act, before you ever thought the thought, the Lord knew about it. You have not deceived Him. There is no getting away from Him. That darkness you think is your friend, will never cover you from exposure- remember that there is no darkness to Him. He sees just the same in the night as in the middle of the day. You can't get away from Him. If you know Him and love Him you will not want to get away from Him. You will be glad you can't get away from Him.
“Lo, I am with you always.”
If that is the attitude of the soul, you will delight in His presence. There is no such companionship as that. Nothing so noble and lovely in the world as a soul going on with God; with the blessed Lord, as his companion. One has known and watched those among the young at different places and what a joy to the soul to see them going on with God.
“Godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." 1 Tim. 4:8.
You will never be deceived if you go on with God. He will take care of you down here, and stand by you, and when you are through down here, you have sent something on ahead over there for you. Companionship with Christ pays in this life and in the next.
So going on down in our Psalm, in the last section, he takes his place with the friends of God, and against the enemies of God. Where do you take your place? With God's people? Are you on God's side? In Psa. 119 he says,
“I am a companion of all them that fear Thy name." Psa. 119:63.
That is better than any club you can join. Vastly better than the Kiwanis, Lions, Rotary, or all of them put together. No better companionship can be found than that of the people of God against the enemies of God.
“Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good." Rom. 12:9.
“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." (Verses 23, 24).
If there is any wicked way take care of it, and cleanse me, Lord, and lead me in the way of righteousness. Do you want that? You can have it. Take these last two verses with you, and live them out day by day, and they will bear fruit in your life to His glory.
An Address to Young People - Psalm 139: Part 1
PSA 139 I think we might properly call this the "Searching Psalm", for you will notice it starts,
“O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me" and it ends,
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.”
That is, God is as it were, just reaching right inside and turning us inside out. God is going inside here. Now man does not do much of that. The whole world around us is running on the principle of what man sees on the outside. It is a world of extremes. Man is satisfied to have it so, but God isn't. God desires truth in the inward parts. The outside means very little to Him. Our Lord Jesus when He was here pointed out some people who were very proud of their exterior, but oh, what He said of them!
“They are like whited sepulchers, but inside they are full of dead men's bones.”
What a contrast between a nice whitewashed exterior, and those corrupting bones on the inside. Our Lord wants reality. So the Psalmist begins here, verse 1,
“Thou hast searched me, and known me.”
I wonder if you have had this experience? Have you been searched? Have you been in God's presence? The one who wrote this Psalm was a man who had been in the presence of God. He had felt that awful searching power, that which reveals everything that lies hidden. Have you ever been through that?
If you and I are going to have the companionship of our blessed Lord in heaven, we will have to pass through the experience of God's searching power turned right in on our soul, and have Him see what is there.
“Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me.”
If it were not for Christ, that would be a terrible thing. If you and I had to have that divine searchlight turned on us, that reveals every secret thing, and brings it out into the white light of His presence, if we had to pass through that experience and had not Christ, it would be nothing but despair. It would be a terrible thing to be searched and have no refuge; to be exposed, and brought into the light, and have no answer to it. But, thank God, in Christ that is all taken care of, and that is how the Psalmist here can say,
“Search me, and know me." Otherwise it would be unmitigated terror to your soul.
There is coming a time when men are going to stand before that Presence; those who know nothing about the merits of the work of Christ, and so awful is going to be that experience that they are going to cry to the mountains and rocks to fall on them, and hide them from the face of His presence. They cannot bear that searching; that gaze from which nothing is hidden. What an awful thing when men would rather be buried between tons of rock and mountain, than stand before the presence of God. But that is what we would all feel if it were not for Christ.
This Psalm divides itself naturally into 4 groups.
The first 6 verses, second 6, third 6, and the last 6. The first brings before us the omniscience of God. The all-knowing wisdom and intelligence.
The second division we might call His omnipresence. Nowhere can we go to get away from Him.
The third is his Omnipotence. That power which was in creation. The One who made the heavens, the One who formed us—Omnipotent.
The last section is the reaction of the Psalmist to all this knowledge. The reaction in his soul to God's omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. See how intimate that knowledge is in the first section-verse 2:
“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.”
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." Psa. 1:1.
There is someone sitting down here, but he is in bad company. The Lord knows all about it, too. Sitting down, but in bad company. Our Psalm says,
“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising.”
Young folks, where do you like to sit down? What kind of companions do you choose? Remember the Lord knows all about you. What kind of folks do you like to chat with? Where do you feel most at home? With the enemies of our Lord, or with those who love Him? You can come to the meeting and be very pious, but what about those other times when you are not in the meeting, when you are just where you want to be without the knowledge of your brethren? What kind of companions do you enjoy? It is a wholesome thing for the soul to know,
“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.”
God knows what we think about, and we are responsible for our thought-life. We are responsible for that part of our thought-life that is the fruit of our will. Your thought-life will have more to do with your spiritual development, your spiritual character, more power in forming it than your very acts. The thought-life is the basis of your whole character, and it is a dangerous thing for any of us to allow, to encourage, or to cherish wrong thoughts.
The Lord knows all about our thoughts. He doesn't judge us just by the words that fall from our lips, He knows what we think about, every imagination of the heart is known to Him.
“Casting down reasonings, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor. 10:5.
That sounds strenuous, doesn't it? That is God's recipe for wholesome thinking. It is the only standard. Christ must be the standard of our thinking as well as our acting.
(To be continued)