Psalm 139 He Who Searches Hearts

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A Testimony of Conversion and the Comfort of Psalm 139

Good morning, everybody. So been doing a little reflecting the last couple of weeks because I turned 40 years old. Actually 40 years old in Christ. So it was 40 years ago this month in April of 1978 that Jesus reached down and rescued me.

And it was a result of seeing my best friend set free from drug and alcohol addiction. And I was trapped right there with my friend, John. I was 20 years old at that time and my life was so empty and so dark.

And this ray of God's light shot down into my world through my best friend becoming a new creation in Jesus. And it was, the only thing you could say about it was is that it was a genuine miracle of God because he was so transformed and changed.

No rehab and he, in all human respects, he should have had to have gone through something like that but he was set free and that's when I knew Jesus was true. And I asked him to come into my life and he began to change me and set me free.

And I learned quickly what a treasure his book is and that this is the primary way that God speaks to us through his holy word. And I discovered a book in the Bible called the Psalms and to this day, it's one of my favorite books.

Every day I read a different Psalm. So this morning I was in Psalm 78. I'm excited that I get to teach on one of my very favorite Psalms, which is Psalm 139. And this Psalm has blessed me in some amazing ways.

Prayer, Doubt, and the Question of Whether God Hears Us

So when I started to pray to God in 1978, that was a weird experience. Sometimes I felt like I was talking to myself. I felt strange. It wasn't part of my life. And I often wondered, is God listening to me?

Does he care? I mean, there's a lot of people on this earth, people more important than me. Why would he listen to me? And I thought of God in this way. I thought of him sitting way up in the heavens on a throne.

Not a bad picture of thinking of God on a throne. We find that in the word of God. But I thought he was kind of way up there and then he was looking down on us and that maybe he's hearing me. And then I would listen to people pray.

And sometimes it didn't really sound like they were talking to God, if you know what I mean. It sounded like they were talking to the other people in the room. And so this mystery of prayer, this mystery of connecting with God.

And because I love the Psalms and I started reading through them, I came to Psalm 139. And this Psalm has transformed my understanding of prayer. And the reality, is God listening? Does he know what I'm saying?

I was told, hey, you can pray in your heart. You don't have to pray out loud. And I thought, hmm, how will God hear that if I don't say it out loud, right? And I would try to pray in my heart, you know, in places where maybe it wasn't appropriate to pray out loud.

And it just seemed like it wasn't real. Until I learned the truth of Psalm 139. So I'm excited to be able to walk through some of the verses in this Psalm, starting this morning and then finishing it next Sunday.

So I wanna start just by reading the Psalm together. So if you would turn in your Bible or on your phone, or we're in Psalm 139, there's Bibles under the seats also. And if you need a Bible this morning, we'd love for you to have a copy of God's word.

You can keep the Bible if you don't have one, okay? So Psalm 139, I'm gonna read all of the verses. And then we're gonna break down verses one through six this morning for our teaching time. It says, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down, when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my line down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know it all together.

You hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it. Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me.

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 light with you. For you form my inward parts.

You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them, the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, oh God. How vast is the sum of them.

If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake and I am still with you. Oh, that you would slay the wicked, oh God. Oh, men of blood, depart from me. They speak against you with malicious intent.

Your enemies take your name in vain. Do not I hate those who hate you, oh Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies. Search me, oh God, and know my heart.

Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Does the Father know your struggles? Does he know your frustrations? Does he know your heartaches?

Does he know that you get weary of the same routine day after day? Do you long to connect with him in a deeper way and yet you feel like you're not making any progress? Do you feel like nobody understands?

All of us have heartaches that we're dealing with in our families and then we look at what's going on in our world and we wonder where is our world going? And if you're anything like me, I become very burdened with that and it becomes heavy upon my shoulders.

The weight of my responsibilities of being in ministry and family and just being human on this earth, right? If you're anything like me, you struggle a lot. But what we're gonna look at today is how near our beautiful Heavenly Father is to us that he is fully aware of you inside and out, that he understands you like no one else, and he loves you point blank just the way you are.

But he loves you so much that he doesn't wanna leave you just the way you are. He wants to bring healing and transformation to us. He wants us to go deeper in our walk and our relationship with him. And he's longing to speak into our lives.

He's longing for us to connect with him in a deeper, more meaningful way in prayer. Instead of what I have often prayed, just empty, hollow prayers, he wants real conversation. One thing I've learned is to be totally honest with my Father because he knows my struggles like no other.

And he sees it all, he knows it all, so I talk to him about it all. And we're gonna just see, is he hearing you when you pray? Is he? I'm excited about looking at that together. I'm gonna pray, and then we'll spend some time in worship together.

Father, just thank you for this beautiful sunny day, and it brings us hope that warm weather is coming. And just thank you for bringing us through the winter, and that spring is here, and soon new life will be exploding out everywhere.

And just thank you that you are the God of new life, you are the God of creation, you are the God of new beginnings, you are merciful, you love us, like more than any parent could ever love their child.

And I thank you so much for that, and Father, I know that many of us long to connect with you in a deeper way, Father, and when we can't see you with the human eye, we struggle with that. Father, just praying and wondering if you're hearing us, if that answer's going to come, or Father, how can we get closer to you?

And I just pray that you would speak to us about these things this morning. And I pray now as we worship together that we would just hear the words of these songs, and that we would sing them to you in praise.

Just thank you for your great faithfulness, for seeing us through another week, and that we can gather together as a family this morning, and Lord, you know how much we need you, how much we need to be encouraged in you today, and I pray that would happen.

We ask these things in Jesus' holy name.

Amen.

Bill Smith’s Ministry and the Setting for the Message

If I have not met you yet, I hope to. And I've been loving meeting new people every week, it seems like. And I know that I don't know everybody here this morning. Just to tell you briefly a little bit about myself before we dive into Psalm 139.

Born and raised in Kalamazoo, born in 1957. It was a good year. As I shared earlier, I came to Christ at the age of 20. I was in the heating trade, fixing furnaces for 10 years, and all the time trying to be a light to our customers, and got involved in jail ministry, with Forgotten Man Ministries up at the Kalamazoo County Jail, and that was instrumental in leading me to coming on staff at Kalamazoo Youth for Christ.

I've been a full-time missionary at Kalamazoo Youth for Christ for 31 years now. Recast is one of my supporting churches, my home church, and one of my supporting churches, so I thank you all for your support for our ministry.

I have the privilege of heading up what we call Juvenile Justice Ministry, and so my outreach is to young people who have found themselves in trouble and brought into the juvenile justice system. And so this morning, before I came here, I was at the juvenile home, where we do chapel every Sunday morning.

I had some of my co-leaders at Lakeside Academy this morning also doing chapel service there. And so we get to bring the good news of Jesus to some really struggling, hurting teenagers who have found themselves in trouble with the law, locked up, and wondering if life is worth living, and we get to come and tell them that the King of kings and the Lord of lords, he loves you, and he sacrificed his life for you so that you could become his child.

And this last month, we've been sharing the crucifixion and resurrection story with young people. My ministry areas are the Juvenile Home, Lakeside Academy. I'm up on Oakland. There's 120 young people up there from all over the United States who found themselves in a detention center needing more help than that facility could provide, and they go to Lakeside.

They live there six months to up to two years, and we get to, every week, bring them the word of God and the good news of God's love. We gave an invitation just a couple chapel services ago at our Lakeside service.

We do separate service for boys, and for the girls, they keep them separated up there on that campus, and so I have a team of women who do the girls' chapel, and I lead the young men. And we gave an invitation.

We had 50 boys in chapel that night. It was awesome. We were all crammed together, and we gave an invitation. If you're ready to receive Jesus into your life, just stand up, and about 15 guys stood up, and we prayed together with them, asking the Lord into their lives, and some of these young men just, you know, have grown up in the streets and gang life and seen lots of violence, and now they can begin to experience healing and transformation through the amazing love of Jesus and his healing power.

And I'm so glad for the Savior, and I know you are, too. I'm so glad that he hears us, and I hope, you know, if I went around and did a survey, do you believe God hears you when you pray? Of course we know the right answer is yes, right?

Okay, but do we really pray? Like, he is just, like, right there with us, focusing on us, my child, I'm here for you.

How can I help you? Let me speak into your life.

And we may say this prayer because we know we should, and we want our family protected, and we need God to take care of us, but is it a genuine relationship, a connection, like you would talk to a parent who you were very close to, or a loved one, or a friend?

And the good news is is that we can talk to him like that. So open up your Bibles again to Psalm 139, and we're gonna kinda explore verses one through six this week, and then we're going to tackle more of the psalm next week.

Two separate messages, and there is so much in this psalm that you could literally spend weeks teaching through this. And I know that from studying it, I probably got blessed a lot more than you will this morning, but I hope you get a blessing because as I've studied this out for the last three weeks, as I've tried to find increments of time to study this and write down some thoughts, it has just really encouraged me and blessed me in my connection with God.

The Searcher of Hearts: God’s Name and His Intimate Knowledge

In verse six, we find this statement. Well, let's just read verses one through six again. It says, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it. Verse six, after God gives David this revelation, David the prophet, David is overwhelmed by the truth here and it's like he's saying, Lord, this just seems too good to be true.

That you see me, that you hear me, that you know my every thought. God, I cannot grasp this reality. I don't understand it. And as we read further in the revelation of Psalm 139, God goes on to explain how he can have that complete knowledge and attention upon each one of us.

And David says, this is just too wonderful. This is some good news that God hears me when I pray. That he knows me, he knows my struggles. I'm an open book to him. I've entitled this message, He Who Searches the Hearts.

And when you look at verse one, we find who this searcher of hearts is. Look at verse one, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. Who is the searcher of hearts? Here we see the word Lord, all capital letters.

Anytime you see that in the ESV and some other translations, it means that this is the Old Testament name of God, sometimes pronounced Jehovah, sometimes pronounced Yahweh. We're not even sure exactly how to say it properly because Israel who was entrusted with the Old Testament scriptures, they felt unworthy to say the name of God.

And then when they would come to the sacred name of God, they would say Lord, Adonai, because they felt unworthy to say the sacred name of God. It's four Hebrew letters without any vowels. And so we're kind of guessing how it might be pronounced.

It seems like a lot of scholars are leaning toward Yahweh. And I'm sure you've heard that before. Jehovah has been around for a while. But the Hebrew word, it means the self-existent, eternal one, the one who is.

In Exodus, at the burning bush, God said, I am who I am. That's what this name means. God is saying, I am who I am. I love studying the names of God and the titles and attributes of God. And this book is just full of them.

And we learn something. It's like turning a diamond and looking at the different facets. As we explore these different names and titles of God, we see more and more of his beauty and his glory and who he truly is.

And I have, anytime I see a book on the names of God, I'm gonna get that book just because it's my favorite thing to study. And in one of the books, I have Every Name of God in the Bible by Larry Richards.

He says this of the name Yahweh. He says, God is not merely self-existent. As Yahweh, he is present with his people. In essence, the name revealed God as the one who is always present with his people.

I like that, the God who is always present with his people. The immediate literary context of the revelation of God's name as Yahweh then leads us to understand and to translate that name as the one who is always present.

When you see that word in the Old Testament in all capital letters, know that that is Yahweh, the I am, the one who is always present with his people. And look at what it says in verse one that God is up to.

What is he interested in? Says, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. He's interested in us. He's searching us. This word searched in the Hebrew is kokar, kind of a fun word, kokar. I just had to say it.

It means to examine intimately. Like not a casual look, but you're like really checking this out. That's what it means.

Does he know me?

Does he know you? Does he know your name? If you're five, six, seven years old, does he know you? Does he take notice of you? The word says that he has searched you and he knows you. Now you say, well, you know, this is David.

He was the king of Israel. Of course God was interested in David, but look at who he is really talking about. Jump down to verse 13 with me. Now I'm the youngest of five kids and my mom and dad told me that I was an accident.

I said, oh, thanks mom and dad. And they laughed when they said it, but they meant it. They said, we didn't plan you. My mom had two little boys tearing around the house. She had twin little girls, two year olds, and now all of a sudden she finds out she's pregnant for me.

She told me I sat down on the bed and cried. I'm like, gee, thanks mom. You really know how to make me feel good. And they laughed and they said, you're an accident. And I believed it because I did not know the truth of God's word.

I work with lots of young people who think they're accidents because their own dad doesn't even want them. And I show them this scripture here. Look at verse 13. For you form my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book they were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me when as yet there was none of them. This is talking about every human baby that's formed in the womb.

This is talking about all 7 .6 billion of us approximately on this planet that God blessed you in your mother's womb. It says that he knit you together and that you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

You are a unique, special creation of God and he cares about you. He cares about us. He is our maker. He is our sustainer. He is giving you the breath that you are breathing right now and he loves you regardless of how your heart is to him and he ultimately proved that at the cross.

He knows us inside and out. He knew us before we were born. He brought us forth and he has sustained us and in verse 16 it says he knows how many days we have on this earth and he knows what each day holds already before they already come because he is the all-knowing one as we're gonna find out as we study through this scripture.

He says, I have searched you out in verse one and remember that this means to examine intimately. He knows my struggles. I'm not hiding anything from him. He sees it all and he's the one who can help and transform us.

He says, you have searched me and known me and this word known here in the Hebrew is yata and it means to know by seeing and seeking out and again, it's a word that means to know intimately and when you look at some of the places that this word is used, you will find that it is a very intimate knowledge.

Again, have you ever wondered if God hears you.

When you pray?

If you ever wondered that, just raise your hand. Raise it up high. Okay, look around everybody. We're not alone in this, okay? The scripture teaches us not only does he hear you but he's searching deep within you.

He's seeing you and he knows your state of being. He knows if you're discouraged, if you're depressed. He knows if you're struggling. He knows our needs and he is waiting to help meet those needs. He's understanding everything about us and when we pray, he knows why we're praying what we're praying.

He fully understands it. This can be comforting or it can be scary. Sometimes when I teach this scripture to some of the young people I look with, you can just see the look on their faces like, are you telling me he always sees what I'm doing?

And he always knows what I'm thinking? Yeah? That can be uncomfortable, right? I'm glad we're not mind readers, right? You think there's a lot of violence and fighting on this earth now, just imagine if we could read each other's thoughts, right?

Okay, that would not be good, all right? But God knows our thoughts. I want you to see a name for God in Romans chapter eight, turn there with me, Romans chapter eight, verse 26. Romans 8, 26 and 27. So this is Romans chapter eight, it's written to believers, children of God.

And he says of us children, verse 26, likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought. Ah, sometimes maybe it's okay just to be quiet before God and say, Holy Spirit, help me to pray.

But the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Notice what he is called in verse 27. He who searches hearts, the heart searcher. This word searched in the Greek here means to investigate, to look at all the details, to have full understanding of what's going on.

And he is the searcher of hearts. Well, he probably only is just searching out certain people's hearts. Not true, all right? You knew the answer to that anyway, but I'm gonna show you, okay? Turn to 1 Chronicles chapter 28, verse nine.

We're gonna go back into the Old Testament. So David, King David is speaking to his son Solomon, and this is where we're gonna pick it up in chapter 28. 1 Chronicles chapter 28, verse nine. And you, Solomon, my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought.

The Lord searches all hearts. That Hebrew word for all is the word kol, and it means every single one, all hearts, every human heart. He knows our hearts this morning. Whether you're a believer or not, he knows our hearts.

It's interesting because these words in the Hebrew, I like to look them up in my Strong's Concordance, and there are a number of different Hebrew words for searched, and this is a different word than Psalm 139, and this means to diligently inquire and to make inquisition, to search out.

So they're all similar, but it comes from a root word that means to tread or frequent, to follow for pursuit or search. So it's the idea of a well-traveled path, a place where someone often comes. I don't know why, but when I read that definition, it made me think of Facebook.

Now, I'm not a big Facebook fan, but once in a while, I'll look at it because I wanna see what some of our friends are up to. And so when you think about following someone on Facebook, what are you doing?

Now, when I look at Cheryl's Facebook account, because I'm old school, I don't even do that, but we know the same people, some of you people. And you look through, but who do you really stop on? Those that you really care about, right?

You're checking out their posts, you're interested, you wanna see their pictures. So I like Facebook because my grandkids pop up in Facebook, and I get to see some pictures that maybe I wouldn't see otherwise on Facebook.

Why do we do this? Because we're interested in them, we're following them. But this goes so much deeper that God is, he's diligently inquiring in us, what is going on, my child? You're hurrying from there here to there, give me time, just sit down with me.

Let's talk, let's have a conversation. He is intimately aware of us and our state of being at every moment of every day. Notice in Chronicles, it says the Lord searches all hearts, every single heart, he knows our hearts inside and out.

Not only does he know our hearts, it says, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. This word understand is the Hebrew word being, and it means to separate mentally, to understand, to discern and to perceive.

It's the idea of a complete understanding, I get it. God understands, he knows the human condition. He understands our struggles. It makes me think of Corinthians 13, that there's no temptation that we struggle with that is not common to man.

And God knows these struggles. I can talk to God like I would talk to no one else about my inner struggles. He says he understands every plan and thought. He knows why we're thinking what we're thinking and he knows where that thought's going.

He understands our plans, whether they're good or not. He knows our hopes, our dreams, and we can talk to him about them. He knows every thought that we think, good or bad. He understands them. Look at one more on this, 1 Kings chapter eight.

1 Kings chapter eight, verse 39. It says, then here in heaven, this is talking about people repenting and turning back to him. People who have gone after idols and really lost their way. And it's talking about people turning back to him in repentance.

It says, then here in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know according to all his ways. For you, you only know the hearts of all the children of mankind.

There it is, right there. No question, no doubt, it says that he knows. Look at it. For you, you only know the hearts of all the children of mankind. So he knows right where we're at today. And he cares, that's why he's searching us out.

Because he loves you so much. It's like a parent who really loves their child. They're interested in what's going on in their child's life, right?

Yeah.

Hebrews 4 .13 says this, and no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Every creature, every living thing is before his eyes because he is the all-seeing, the all-knowing one.

Turn back now with me to Psalm 139, and you're definitely gonna want to keep a bookmarker in there, or your finger, because we're gonna kind of be flipping back and forth. He said in verse one, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me.

And I love this quote, it's from Bible readings in the Psalms, and it says this. What ineffable comfort there is in the thought that our hearts, closed to all else, are open to him, because as he can detect a secret source of our disease, he can cure it.

And as he can read our secret sorrow, he can apply the healing balm, because he knows. He's the one that can heal that broken heart. I love the treasury of David, beautiful commentary on the Psalms. Charles Spurgeon, called the Prince of Preachers, he said this of Psalm 139, verse one, he said, the true God, Jehovah, understands us and is most intimately acquainted with our persons, nature, and character.

How well it is for us to know the God who knows us. Yes, he knows you, and he longs for you to know him. The king of the universe, the God of all creation says, come, my child, I wanna meet with you, I wanna speak into your life.

I wanna help you with that burden that you're carrying. I care about you, I love you. I ask you, I keep asking you this question. Have you ever wondered if God hears you?

Wonder no more.

This is the word of God.

This is truth, he hears you. Look at verse two, what else does he know about us? You know when I sit down and when I rise up, and discern my thoughts from afar. This says that he sees every move that you make.

Wow, think about that one for a minute. He knows when I sit down in my green chair in the morning with my cup of coffee, and I'm opening up my Bible, he knows I'm gonna start with my psalm of the day.

And I say, Father, please speak to me.

I need you so much. I need you so much.

And then I let him speak to me, and I talk back to him. See, he knows I'm coming to that quiet place to meet him. Maybe he's saying to you this morning, well, why won't you give me time? I wanna meet with you, I know your heart, I know your struggle, I love you, I wanna help you with it, but you're not giving me time.

What else does he know according to this? Verse two, you discern my thoughts from afar. Well, we've been seeing that, right? He knows our thoughts, he knows what we're thinking. When I read this, it made me think of the words of Jesus from Matthew 10, 29, and 31.

I'll just read them for you. Jesus said, hey, look at the sparrows. They're all over the place. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

They're cheap.

And not one of them will fall to the ground.

Apart from your Father.

Your heavenly Father is fully aware of a sparrow landing and flying and looking for food. But then he says, but even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.

Jesus is saying, your heavenly Father is fully aware of you. He knows how many hairs you have on your head. Some of us have more than others, but he knows. Job asked this question, really important question, and it's found in Job 31 .4.

He asked this question. He said, does not he see my ways and number all my steps? It's 14 steps from my office in my basement to the first floor. I count them. Sometimes I go up and down, up and down.

Cheryl's like, what are you doing? I'm getting a little exercise, you know? Come up to get some water. Does he not see my ways and number all my steps? I love the way the Bible answers its own questions.

Okay, if you're reading and you're confused about something in the Word, just stay in the Word and God will show you. He'll make it clear to you what the answer is. In Job 34 .21, it says, for his eyes are on the ways of man and he sees all his steps.

Yes, he sees every move. That's how fully aware that he is of us. He sees the good, the bad, and the ugly, unfortunately. He sees it all. He knows it all. It says, you discern my thoughts. This word thought, it can mean a single thought, but it also means what that thought is leading to or where it's going.

What the idea is behind the thought. He knows, this is saying that he knows every thought that we think. Isn't that crazy? Seriously, I mean, I've known this revelation for a while, but for like the last three weeks as I've been studying this out, it's helped my thinking.

Like, wait a minute, what am I thinking? And I'll turn my thoughts back to him because he's fully aware, he's fully present. He lives within us as children of God. We're temples of the Holy Spirit, the Word says.

Well, this is good news, it really is because I can pray without even raising my voice. There are times where it's not probably a good idea to pray out loud. Oh, Father, calm me down right now because I'm about to get really mad at my wife and you just said that out loud and she's like, what?

No.

In your heart, Father, calm me down. Not that Cheryl has ever liked that at all because I'm super blessed. She never ever makes me angry. Well, maybe a couple of times, but not very often. It's pretty rare.

I better get off of that subject right away because that is not going anywhere. Good. I love my wife. We've been married 36 years, how about that? He discerns our thoughts, he fully understands them. He hears them, he sees them.

Remember Chronicles 28, nine, it said this, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and every thought.

Every thought.

Wow, that is mind-boggling.

Like he knows.

I can talk to him in my heart. I can talk to him anywhere, anytime. Man, that person gets on my bumper. Oh, no, don't you touch that brake, okay? Don't you give him a dirty look. You hear that little voice?