Psalms 139

Psalms 139:7

God Everywhere Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?—Psalms 139:7.Boys and girls, in the midst of a crowd of school companions does it not sometimes dawn upon you that you are really alone all the time, and that nobody, not even your particular chum, knows much about you? You are all by yourself.A feeling such as that gave us this Hundred and Thirty-ninth Psalm. It is one of the grandest of all the psalms. When the psalmist wrote it he felt he was all by himself. For the time being the world and its concerns had gone entirely out of his mind. He felt that he was alone and face to face with God. As he thought he wrote, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit. Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?”Was he afraid, do you think?

No, he felt very solemn: for he realized, as he had never realized before, that God knew every thought that was in his mind. God could look him through and through; there was no escape anywhere from His presence. And yet he felt very glad too, for the idea that God was everywhere was a comforting one. It meant that God was caring for him, and that God noticed when he tried to do what was right.One can understand why some boys and girls are afraid to be alone with God. It may be that they have been doing something they knew to be wrong, and all their lives they have heard God spoken of as Someone from whom they could not hide. “Thou God seest me,” was one of the first texts they learned.There is a well-known story of a poor girl who went to steal apples in a loft. On the wall of it there hung the portrait of some long-forgotten ancestor of the house.

When she crept along the garret floor the eyes of that old portrait followed her until, in her fear, she went and tore them out.Why should we be afraid of having God’s eye upon us? If we want to do what is right it ought rather to help us.

In one of his novels Lord Beaconsfield tells of an old tutor who, having completed the education of a young heir of a noble house, took him, before parting from him, to the picture gallery of the castle. Then, having told his pupil of the virtues that had distinguished all his line, he implored him to acquit himself as a worthy son of such worthy sires.Again, there was at one time in Brighton a very saintly minister called Frederick Robertson. A certain shopkeeper there had a portrait of him hung in his back shop. And whenever he was tempted to do a mean thing he went and looked for an instant at the photograph and then the mean thing became impossible“Please, Miss, will you let me have home that little picture for a week?” a young boy belonging to a mission class said to his teacher, who had been talking seriously to him. It was a little picture she prized, but she took it from its nail on her sitting-room wall when he added, “It will keep me straight when I look at it.” Boys and girls, it was a picture of the Good Shepherd going after the poor single lost sheep upon the mountains.For although God sees you always, and keeps watching you, it is in love that He does it. If He seems hard at times, it is because He knows what giving way to sin will mean for you.

A good mother can have a searching eye when she thinks any of her children want to deceive her. God has in Him something of the mother; His love for you is unchanging.

Even when you would fain get away from Him, He follows you. It is .as if He would say, “I can never give you up.”Think of the ever-present God, then, as one who loves you and wants you to do what is right. To try to escape from Him, even when you have done wrong, is to flee from the best Friend you have.

Psalms 139:12

Darkness And Light The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.— Psalms 139:12.I wonder how many boys and girls here are afraid of the dark? I’m not going to ask those who are afraid to hold up their hands, because I expect it is a thing they would rather not confess to, but I’m going to tell you a secret. I’m going to tell it to you in a big whisper because I don’t want the grown-ups to hear, so I hope you are listening very hard. Quite a lot of grown-up people are afraid of the dark too!I wonder why it is that people are afraid of the dark? I think it is because they can’t see, and so their imagination fills the darkness with all sorts of bogies. There is nothing in the dark itself that can hurt us.

If you go into a dark room at night it is just the same room as it was in the daytime.Now the words of our text tell us that darkness and light are both alike to God, and I think that verse ought to help us when we feel afraid of the dark.1. Will you remember first that God sends the darkness as well as the light.

It is His gift and so it must be good. God knows that the thirsty flowers need refreshing, and so He sends the darkness with its gift of dew. God knows that birds and beasts and little children and weary men and women need refreshing, and so He sends the darkness with its gift of sleep.For every weary sparrow there’s a cosy nest,For every furry brother there’s a place of rest,’Tis God our Father knows them and He gives the best.For all His little children there’s a darktime deep,When tired eyes are closing as the shadows creep,’Tis God our Father loves us, and He gives us sleep.(Florence Hoatson.)And God knows that if darkness hides some things, it reveals others, and He sends the darkness so that we may see the glory of the stars.Yes, God sends the darkness as well as the light, and He always gives the best.2. God is in the darkness as well as in the light. The writer of this psalm was a man who loved God, and he was glad to think that he could never get away from God’s presence. No matter where he went, God’s hand was always there holding him up, and so he felt quite safe.

No matter how black the night, God could see him just as well as in the daylight. He was always watching over him and caring for him.Now I think this should help us when we are afraid of the dark.

God loves us, and He will never let anything really hurt or harm us, for He is watching all the time.When Robert Louis Stevenson was a little boy he was terribly afraid of the dark. One afternoon he was left alone in a room to play, and by mistake he locked himself in and then was unable to unlock the door again. Evening fell, and with it came all his terror of the darkness, ofAll the wicked shadows coming, tramp, tramp, tramp,With the black night overhead.Then he heard his father’s voice on the other side of the door. He spoke to his little son and told him stories and all sorts of interesting things. And Louis forgot the darkness and forgot his fears until a locksmith arrived to open the door.Now God our Father is always near. And if we listen to His voice we need fear no darkness, for He loves us and will let nothing hurt us.3.

There is another kind of darkness that God sometimes sends. We call it trouble, and sometimes when it comes we are frightened and cry out.

But remember that God sends trouble as well as joy, and so it must be good, because He loves us and sends nothing but the best. He sends it to us so that we may become sweet and brave, that we may grow fit for His kingdom above.And God is in the darkness of trouble too, as well as in the light of joy. Sometimes the darkness seems so black and deep that we cannot see His face; but He is there all the time. His hand is holding us and leading us, and when He is near nothing can really harm us.

Psalms 139:23-24

Searching The Cellars Search me, O God, and know my heart . . . and see if there be any way of wickedness in me.—Psalms 139:23-24.As you all know, there are a great many formalities connected with the opening of Parliament. I wonder if you know of the special one of which I heard the other day. It has to do with the month of November, and sounds like a bit out of one of your fairytale books.When a new Parliament is about to assemble, an officer and a troop of the Yeomen of the Guard go with lanterns and search the cellars underneath, and when they report that all is well, business proceeds. A strange old procession it must be—the Yeomen of the Guard with their scarlet tunics and quaint hats, their lanterns flashing searchlights into the dark corners. Tramp, tramp, tramp, we can imagine them passing through the cellars.How the custom began is quite an old story. More than three hundred years ago, a plot was formed to destroy the House of Lords, the King, and his Parliament.

One man who had a great deal to do with it and at last became the leader in carrying it out, was called Guy Fawkes. Under the House of Lords was a great vault which Fawkes and his friends discovered was to let.

They managed to obtain possession of it under the pretext of storing wood. Instead of doing that, however, they got a great many barrels of gunpowder, placed stones and bars of iron on the top of them, and then covered the whole with billets of wood. I do not need to tell you that Guy Fawkes and his confederates were caught and condemned to death. The 5th of November, the day on which they had planned to carry out their wicked designs, was henceforth ordered to be kept as a day of thanksgiving, and to this day English children are reminded of the story by seeing bonfires and fireworks —perhaps also the effigy of Fawkes burned at some street corner. It is a good thing if the children do not get their own clothes and fingers burned as well.I daresay you will wonder what connection there could be between this story of Guy Fawkes and our text. Well, boys and girls, those old cellars at Westminster are, in a manner, like your heart.

God meant the heart of a boy or a girl to be a beautiful place— more beautiful than the Houses of Parliament. He made it that He might dwell in it Himself.

He reigns there now, and holds council with you, telling what is right and what is wrong. But there are cellars and dark corners where evil is plotted against God and against His Son Jesus Christ. Often this evil is suggested with words as pleasant and as affable as Guy Fawkes used when he went with his firewood story. He did not go and say, “Let me the cellars that I may blow up the House.” Neither do you hear a voice within you saying, “Tell a lie.” Untruth appears dressed as worldly wisdom. “If you want to get something out of a certain boy who is in the class with you, work upon his weak points, he will yield.” Again the voice of evil suggests: “You have a right to your own things,” and you act towards a little brother very selfishly. Or you read a story you ought not to read, and try to make yourself believe that you are seeking knowledge.Your mother knew about the cellars and the evil that lurks in their strange dark corners when she taught you to say your prayers. Prayer is needed.

What seem to you but little sins are in reality as dangerous as gunpowder. Unless you seek them out, one day you may yield to some sudden temptation and the house in which Jesus Christ was to dwell will fall in ruins.Let us get the lanterns and search everywhere.

These lanterns may be your mother’s words, or the words of Jesus Christ, or God’s voice in your heart. Don’t be afraid to use them when you are by yourself.A Roman tribune had a house that in many places lay exposed to the eyes of the neighborhood. A man came and offered for a sum of money so to alter it as to remove that inconvenience. “I will give you a sum of money,” was the answer, “if you can make my house conspicuous in every room of it, that all the city may see after what manner I live.” That was the right spirit.It is impossible for us to search our own hearts thoroughly. One morning we think the evil is gone; we make up our minds we shall never be selfish or untruthful again; but temptations reappear in a new and more subtle form.God will help us. Many a time you have heard that no one ever truly prayed to Him in vain. Ask God, then, to help you to search out the evil in your heart. Pray this old-fashioned prayer:“Search me, O God, and see if there be any way of wickedness in me.”