God Who Is With Me Knowing My God Series, Part 2 Psalm 139:7-12

RECAP & OVERVIEW OF PSALM 139: “KNOWING MY GOD” THREE PHASES of one’s relationship with God:  PHASE 1: Fitting God into me Prosperity faith Me God Focus on meeting my needs/plans.  PHASE 2: Fitting me into God Legalistic faith Me God Focus on meeting God’s requirements.  PHASE 3: Communing between God and me Relationally personal faith. Me God Focus on growing an intimate relationship with God.

RECAP & OVERVIEW OF PSALM 139: “KNOWING MY GOD” Psalm 139 is about FAITH.  It is NOT an objective list of God’s attributes.  Rather, it is a personal confession of David on his experiential knowledge of God.  Knowing My God Series is a study on Psalm 139—the four confessions of David’s faith about God: vs.1-6Part 1: God Who Knows Me vs.7-12Part 2: God Who Is with Me vs.13-18Part 3: God Who Made Me vs.19-24Part 4: God Who Guides Me

RECAP & OVERVIEW OF PSALM 139: “KNOWING MY GOD” Psalm 139 is about FAITH.  It is NOT an objective list of God’s attributes.  Rather, it is a personal confession of David on his experiential knowledge of God.  Knowing My God Series is a study on Psalm 139—the four confessions of David’s faith about God: vs.1-6Part 1: God Who Knows Me vs.7-12Part 2: God Who Is with Me [TODAY] vs.13-18Part 3: God Who Made Me vs.19-24Part 4: God Who Guides Me

DAVID’S CONFESSION: “GOD, YOU ARE ALWAYS WITH ME” 1)NEGATIVELY: David confesses, “I can’t run away from God.” 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night," 12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. (vs.7-8,11-12)

DAVID’S CONFESSION: GOD, YOU ARE ALWAYS WITH ME 1)NEGATIVELY: David confesses, “I can’t run away from God.”  David realized that he cannot flee from God: [1] the highest & lowest place or [2] darkness cannot hide him from God’s presence.  We must also realize this: if we really believe that we are in God’s presence all wherever we go, we will stop running away from God and think twice before we sin. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. Jona 1:3 “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" Genesis 39:9b

DAVID’S CONFESSION: GOD, YOU ARE ALWAYS WITH ME 2)POSITIVELY: David confesses, “God, You are always there for me.” 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. (vs.9-10)

DAVID’S CONFESSION: GOD, YOU ARE ALWAYS WITH ME 2)POSITIVELY: David confesses, “God, You are always there for me.”  David has experienced this firsthand—God’s guiding presence and present help in dire circumstances as well as in good times.  Living by faith means that we carry this awareness of God’s assuring presence with us wherever we go. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4

DAVID’S CONFESSION: GOD, YOU ARE ALWAYS WITH ME 3)ULTIMATELY: David confesses: “I live in the reality of God’s presence with me.” You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalm 23:6

DAVID’S CONFESSION: GOD, YOU ARE ALWAYS WITH ME 3)ULTIMATELY: David confesses: “I live in the reality of God’s presence with me.”  This is the type of relationship David had with God; by faith, he longed to live in the presence of God each moment, having learned its benefits.  Our faith must also lead us to this ULTIMATE RESOLVE: to walk with God and to live by faith in the presence of God 24/7 as a way of life!

Sometimes I considered myself before Him as a poor criminal at the feet of his judge. At other times I beheld Him in my heart as my Father, as my God. I worshipped Him the oftenest I could, keeping my mind in His holy presence and recalling it as often as I found it wandered from Him. I made this my business not only at the appointed times of prayer but all the time; every hour, every minute, even in the height of my work. I drove from my mind everything that interrupted my thoughts of God. Brother Lawrence (1690)

TWO KEYS TO LIVING IN THE REALITY OF GOD’S PRESENCE WITH US KEY #1: God’s presence becomes a personal reality through SCRIPTURE. 6 In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. 7 Then I said, "Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: 8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." Psalm 40:6-8

TWO KEYS TO LIVING IN THE REALITY OF GOD’S PRESENCE WITH US KEY #1: God’s presence becomes a personal reality through SCRIPTURE.  David’s communing with God was not from his own thoughts—it was the revealed thoughts of God on which he engaged his mind and heart.  We are also to view Scripture not only as the highest authority but also as the most precious tool God gave us to get to know HIM personally.

TWO KEYS TO LIVING IN THE REALITY OF GOD’S PRESENCE WITH US KEY #2: God’s presence becomes a personal reality through PRAYER. 1 Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning. 2 Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. 3 O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. Psalm 5:1-3

TWO KEYS TO LIVING IN THE REALITY OF GOD’S PRESENCE WITH US KEY #2: God’s presence becomes a personal reality through PRAYER.  To David, prayer was much more than a religious practice—it was his airway to breathe as a way of life in his walk with God.  We are to also view and utilize prayer this way—to practice the presence of God as our way to trust and commune with our holy-yet-personal God without ceasing.

Experiential Communion with God I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished... Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditation on it, so that in this way my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that, by means of the Word of God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experiential communion with the Lord... How different it is when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one without such spiritual preparation. - George Müller

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR OUR EVERYDAY LIFE 1.Stop RUNNING AWAY from God.  Remember God’s love and mercy for you and turn to God.  Run to God who loves you and patiently waits for you! 2.Commit to LIVING IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD each day.  Walk with God wherever you are, whatever you do.  Bring back this thought to your mind over and over: “God is with me right here, right now!” 3.Make THE WORD AND PRAYER your path of life as you walk with God.  Plan a daily rhythm and train yourself in the Word & prayer.  Commune with God personally through the Word & prayer.