Here's a personal question for you. Do you really believe that the God of the universe knows you and every anxious thought that keeps you awake at night? Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl guides us on a life-changing exploration of Psalm 139. In our age of isolation and fear, when headlines scream danger and we're weakened by doubt, we desperately need confidence that God is on our side. This ancient psalm delivers it big time.
You're not alone. You're not forgotten. You're held in his arms. Chuck titled today's message, Our Greatest Reassurance. The prophet writes, Fear not, for I am with you.
Don't be dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you.
Get this. with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41, 10. My hand is on you. You're not alone.
As my child. You're never alone. My wife has gone through spinal surgery. And it's been lengthy. and very painful.
The surgeon literally rebuilt her spine. Incision from the front. That took three and a half hours. incision at the back. another almost six hours.
I was with her through every bit of this, day and night. Through the days at ICU at the hospital and two full weeks in rehab and now at home. sleeping near her, right there to help. In the middle of the night, I don't know about you, but your mind can play tricks on you. If you ever have moments of fear, they'll usually come when it's dark.
When the sun goes down. And the lights are out. And in my case, you may hear the groaning of the one you love. And you can easily feel I'm in this alone. Are we going to make this?
Is this going to come out okay? I don't know how many times I've been reassured with the thought. That His hand is on me. His hand is on her. It's a reassurance.
I'm here. With me there is no day or night. There is no light or dark. I'm right here. You know what?
I had been preparing this. message today and That verse stood out. It's like he reached out of this vast Dark sky. And put his hand on me and said, I'm here. I know what I'm doing.
You're in my care. You may live alone and you may go through feelings like that often. It's an unusual feeling for me. Because my life is filled with the joy of a home and loving wife and kids. who usually like us.
Not not always, but usually. Three out of four like us and and we're That brings a lot of comfort, but you may not have a. Family. You may live alone. You may often be in a dark room.
in the middle of the night. when fear could take over. He knows you're lying down and He's put the boundaries around you right where he wants them. And then he reaches out and puts his hand. On you.
I love the words of the prophet. Can a woman forget her nursing child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes. She may forget. But I will not forget you.
I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. Your ways are continually before me. Not love that. Take a moment and look at your hand right now, okay? Look at the palm of your hand.
I know you're familiar with it. Don't you wish you'd taken better care of yourself? Look at all those wrinkles. You know what? You're very familiar.
I'm asking you to look at something very familiar. Our ways are that familiar to God. Every path. Every turn. Every decision.
Every struggle. Everything. He is aware of. That's called his omniscience. He knows you.
Seasons come and go. Years pass. Age stacks up. People change. Times go from peaceful to warlike.
treacherous to tranquil. He's there. His hand is on us. Thank you, David. for telling us this.
For putting it in your song. In fact, he says it's too high, I can't attain to it. Ah. I can't either. You can't imagine.
He keeps up with all of us. Knows exactly what he's doing. And equally important is exactly what we're doing. Blows my mind. What reassurance?
The sacred song of David goes on in seven through twelve. by addressing his. wonderful presence. Everywhere. Look at this.
Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? Those are rhetorical questions asked to make you think. Where can you go that he isn't? And he goes into several possibilities.
These are conditional answers: if, if, if, if, Look at them. If I ascend all the way to heaven. You're there. If I make my bed in the grave, You're there. And I love the next phrase.
If I take the wings of the dawn. I like to think that that's a reference to the Speed of light.
Soon as the sun tips the horizon, Flashes of light. come across this earth. Traveling 186,000. miles a second. Light travels.
And in that Flash of light, if I could travel that speed. Look at it. And ultimately, dwell in the remotest part of the sea. Today bid the sea would be the Mediterranean. We know now the seas are all about us.
great oceans on either side of our nation. Other oceans as well. If I go to the remotest. Part of the sea. The most distant, remote.
island that isn't even inhabited. And I am there. Even there, he adds in verse 10. Here it is again, your hand. will lead me and your right hand.
will lay hold of me. How about when I doubt that? Look at the next verse. If I say, surely the darkness will overwhelm me. It's going to hide me from him.
It's going to overshadow. His presence in my life. No, he says the night around me is as bright as day. See the end of verse 12: darkness and light. are both the same.
To you. I don't know if you followed this, but he has gone to extremes. Height, heaven, depth, the grave. Width and breadth as we go across. The seas to a remote island.
Darkness and light, day and night, these verses span the extremes. And at no place At Eli. place. Are we removed? From our God.
The darkest cave The highest place we can go in space. The deepest part of the ocean. miles down there. wherever we may be. He's deeper still.
Remember the words of Betsy? in the hiding place Corey Tenboom remembered them And would repeat them in her years following the Holocaust. There is no pit so deep but that he is not. Deeper still.
Some of you need to remember that. Because you feel Distant. maybe even abandoned. removed, forgotten. These verses 7 through 12 say You can be reassured.
He knows everything about you. Remember the verse of Hebrews 4:12? The word of God is alive and active and sharper than a two-edged sword? able to pierce between the soul and spirit, between the joints and the marrow, and it is a discerner, it is a critic of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. That's verse twelve.
You know what verse 13 says? Look at this verse. There is no creature hidden from his sight. Keep reading. All things are open and laid bare.
to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Look at that. Isn't that great? Isn't it funny when you were a kid?
Something was happening and you got scared, you pull the covers up over you. As if that's going to take away the danger. We do that as adults in a number of different ways. We cover up when we're in the wrong. and act as though nobody's going to know.
Oh Listen to me. There's nothing he doesn't know. There's no moment where You hear in heaven. Ooh. Look at that.
Gabriel, come here. Look at this. None of that. He knows it all. He knows right now your very thought.
Your deepest fear. Your most frequent anxiety. Your worry list, he's already been aware of that before you made it. There is no creature hidden. From his sight.
You know the good thing about it? His hand is with me. His right hand holds me. He isn't looking at me and shaming me. He's looking at me and loving me.
caring about me. And the same for you. When did his interest in us get started?
Well, I'm glad you asked. Look at verse 13. Stanza number three. Hang on. Because you won't read this in Planned Parenthood.
You won't hear about this. from the media today. You formed my inward parts. You, God, not Mother Nature. By the way, she's not in existence.
There is no Mother nature. Only God. You, God, and none other are formed by inward parts. The word means kidneys, it means the visceral organs. You put together the stuff that made me who I am.
And go further, you wove me in my mother's womb. It's the idea of plaiting and weaving together into a beautiful tapestry. You did that when I was still in embryonic fetal state. You were right there, right there in the womb. This is before there was ever a probe of a woman's womb.
This is before any of that has taken place. The solemnist writes, I Give thanks for you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. Look at verse 15.
Here's the skeleton. The word frame means bony substance. Muskeleton. The structure of my body, my skeleton. Was not hidden from you when I was made in secret.
Tell me that isn't a living soul in the womb of the mother. God is at work in a living being. And he's putting together, skillfully working this wonderful embryo, this fetus.
So that He sees our unformed substance. And in his book, it was all written: the days ordained for me when there was not yet one of them. You go, I don't get it.
Well, nobody gets it. It's beyond our ability, even the writer himself. Says, How precious are your thoughts to me, O God? How vast is the sum of them? If I were to count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I'm still with you. What's the comfort of this? God made you just like you are.
So quit trying to be somebody else. He gave you that face. We look at it all the time. It's okay. You're made by God.
There's no other like you. Even among Identical twins may look alike, they're not alike. They're different. God doesn't do cloning. He makes individuals.
He makes some of us creative and others of us. to be engineers. I don't mean it the wrong way, but you know. Kind of phlegmatic type.
Some of us are all over the map. Others are artistic. Others have Ability in sports. I mean The big thing now is catching a football with one hand. One hand.
I work hard to get hands and feet to grab one. The kids get it with one hand. He's gifted. How? God.
Made him. Why am I yelling? God made him like that. Yeah, now you may have a kid that doesn't like football. Relax.
Don't try to make him like football. Can you imagine Liberace as a linebacker? I mean, honestly. This is not made for that. Your kid may be made to play piano.
Your kid may be six feet four. Seventh grade, a girl. You know what your girl needs to know? Psalm 139. Nobody has it in for her.
God made her tall. God may have made you short. God. God does this. He's engaged in this.
This is before Botox. Relax. Let it be. When you rely on the great doctrines of the Word of God to guide your life and you start thinking biblically and theologically, it is amazing what it will do to your fears. You will sleep better.
You will dream deeper. You will think beyond the standard, shallow, superficial level. You will begin to see his handiwork and You'll say with the psalmist, verse seventeen, how precious. Are your thoughts? to me, O God.
How vast is the sum of them. Huh. I went pretty fast past verse 16, but I want to just return for a moment. All the days were ordained for me when there was not one of them. Yeah.
You're thinking, I don't get that. Nobody gets that. It's beyond us. Donald Barnhouse used to hold open forum when he was preaching in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. And uh Sunday night service, he'd have just a microphone.
He would answer questions. That kids would ask. The place would be packed mainly with college kids, and the balcony, they love to shout out the questions. And one quick kid says, Dr. Boynhouse, I understand that the...
The Hebrews We're in the wilderness four years and Their shoes never wore out and their clothes never got tattered. How could that be? More house goes. God The kid goes, Oh, now I get it.
Now I understand. Lornhouse said, No, you don't, son. Nobody gets it. You don't have to get it. to believe it.
Okay? You don't have to get it when you plug in your Toaster. Just Plug that sucker in. And the toast gets brown. I don't know.
How? Don't try to explain to me afterwards. I don't want to know. I won't get it. Oh, there's protons and unitons and neurotons and autons.
Please, just plug in that sucker. And enjoy the toast. Would you just take this psalm? And let it comfort you. Would you relax about not being able to explain it all?
And would you be willing to pray the same prayer as the end of it? Search me, O God. Since you know me. Investigate my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there be any. hurtful way in me. The Hebrew says, any way of pain. See, if there's anything in me that grieves you, That breaks your heart. Reveal that to me.
I want to come to terms with it. Because I want to be led in the way. Everlasting. Do that for me this Christmas season. Do that for me as the new year turns.
becomes a a reality as the old year leaves. Free me from a worry world. anxieties over what I should or should not have done. filled with regret, don't waste your time. God is at work.
And now he says to you, there is a way of righteousness that you're to walk in. And the last part of the Psalm says, lead me there. May you be led there. throughout this season of the year. May you find satisfaction in God's handiwork.
and be grateful. For the way He has Put you together. and given you your own unique personality. Style. How great is that?
We believe it with our children, but we have trouble believing it about ourselves. Seasons come and seasons go. Times change. But the greatest of reassurances is that God. knows us is with us.
has made us And protects us. Rest in that. Rest in that. Please bow your heads with me. We rest in you, our shield.
and our defender. We lean hard on you, some days harder than others. We acknowledge that Without you. We can get nothing eternal accomplished.
So quiet our spirit. Remind us. that you're constantly at it. That you neither slumber nor sleep. You don't even nap.
You are ever aware. Calm our fears. Quiet our hearts. Reassure us. And you and you alone.
Our God. In the name of Jesus. In the name of the of Jesus. We pray. Everyone said.
Amen. Teaching from Psalm 139 and other relevant passages, Chuck Swindahl titled today's message, Our Greatest Reassurance. Stay with us because we've set aside several minutes to hear a closing comment from Chuck. To hear Chuck's complete sermon again, just download the Insight mobile app from your favorite app store, and then click on the tab that says Full Sermons. Insight for Living is made possible by people just like you who rely on Chuck's teaching as a guiding light every day.
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