PSALM 139:1-16

[139:1] O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

            [2] You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

                        you discern my thoughts from afar.

            [3] You search out my path and my lying down

                        and are acquainted with all my ways.

            [4] Even before a word is on my tongue,

                        behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

            [5] You hem me in, behind and before,

                        and lay your hand upon me.

            [6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

                        it is high; I cannot attain it.

            [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!

            [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.

            [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.

            [13] For you formed my inward parts;

                        you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

            [14] I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

            Wonderful are your works;

                        my soul knows it very well.

            [15] My frame was not hidden from you,

            when I was being made in secret,

                        intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

            [16] 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.

“I know I’m somebody ‘cause God don’t make no junk.”  Those were the words that appeared on a poster back in the 1970’s.  Do you remember it?  On the poster there was a picture of a little boy along with those words. “I know I’m somebody ‘cause God don’t make no junk”

It’s something to remember when you’re having one of those days.  A blacksmith had one of those days after he bought a horse from the local preacher. After they finished the deal the preacher gave the blacksmith some special instructions.   “Remember,” he said.  “This is a preacher’s horse.  So it doesn’t respond to the usual commands like ‘Whoa’ and ‘giddy-up.’   If you want the horse to stop you have to say ‘Amen’ and if you want the horse to go you have to say ‘Praise the LORD.’   Remember now. ‘Amen’ to stop and ‘Praise the Lord’ to go.  Well, the next day the blacksmith took the horse out for a ride. While they were trotting down a path the horse saw a rattlesnake and bolted.  Before the blacksmith knew it they were racing head on to the edge of a very high cliff.   The blacksmith panicked and yelled “Whoa!” and “Stop!”  Then at the last second he remembered the  preacher’s instructions and hollered “AMEN!!!!”   Immediately, the horse stopped… right at the edge of the cliff.  The blacksmith wiped his brow, let out a sigh of relief…and then said, “Praise the Lord!”

When you have one of those days or you start to get down on yourself remember those words.  “I know I’m somebody ‘cause God don’t make no junk.”   If the grammar in that sentence makes you cringe a little you could turn to the words of the psalmist instead.   The psalmist basically said the same thing only he put it a little more eloquently.   The psalmist wrote these wonderful words of faith:

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

At the heart of the psalm there is the belief that life is precious.  Your life is precious. Even before you were born God already had a relationship with you. The psalmist realizes that and it’s the reason why his words are filled with joy. The psalmist realizes that the God who made him and the God who is everywhere really does love him and doesn’t want to have just a casual relationship with him.

“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.”

The psalmist sums it up with these words: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain it.”  In other words “Your love for me is so wonderful, it’s hard for me to fully comprehend it!”

What was true for the psalmist is also true for you. Because the love is so great God doesn’t want a casual relationship with you.  God doesn’t want a relationship like the one that was described in the letter that was read last week during the Children’s Message.  I won’t read it all again but for those of you who didn’t hear it the letter it was written many years ago by a high school student.  In many ways it’s a typical teenager letter with typical teenager relationships except for one very special twist.  It says in part….

Dear Friend:

How are you?  I just had to send you this letter to tell you how much I love and care about you.  I saw you yesterday as you were walking with your friends.  I waited all day, hoping you would talk to Me also.  As evening drew near, I gave you a sunset to close your day and a cool breeze to rest you, and I waited.  You never came.  Oh yes, it hurt Me, but I still love you because I am your friend…I know how hard it is on this earth, I really know (because I was there), and I want to help you.  My Father wants to help you too.  He's that way, you know.  Just call Me, ask Me, talk to Me.  It is your decision.  I have chosen you, and because of this I will wait...Because I love you.

Your Friend,
Jesus

The God who loved you ever before you were born doesn’t want a casual relationship with you and here’s something else to keep in mind. The more you discover that precious relationship that God has with you the more you will also discover what God’s plan is for you.

Oh yes, make no mistake about it.  God has a plan for you. Each year we remind our graduating seniors that God has a plan for them.  We do that by giving them this gift.  The gift is a travel mugs with these words from the prophet Jeremiah on them:  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

God has a plan for you, too.   Now you may be thinking “I’m too old for a plan.  I’ve already lived my life or most of my life.”  That may be true but God still has a plan for you.

God’s plan might be for your retirement years and what to do with the rest of your life.

God’s plan might be what to do when you find yourself between jobs.

God’s plan might be what to do after you spouse dies or your marriage comes to an unwelcomed end.

Ken Gaub will tell you that God has a plan for you.  Ken Gaub is a minister and motivational speaker who has traveled to 115 countries around the world.  He’s helped countless people rise above the difficulties in their lives by sharing the Good News with them.   He tells this absolutely amazing story.  It’s a story that paints a picture similar to the God that you find in the psalm.  

He begins by asking this question: "Do you believe that God not only loves you, but knows where you are and what you’re doing every minute of the day? I certainly do after an amazing experience I had several years ago.”  It seems he was walking  along a sidewalk in Dayton, Ohio far from his office in Yakima, Washington.  Suddenly he heard a telephone ringing in a nearby phone booth.  He figured it might be an emergency of some kind.  So, he walked over and picked up the receiver.  As soon as he put the receiver to his ear he heard the operator say, “Long distance call for Ken Gaub.”  He thought it was a joke. “Searching for a possible explanation, I wondered if I could possibly be on Candid Camera!”  He told the operator that he just happened to be walking by the phone booth by chance and she couldn’t mean him.  “Well” the operator said, “Is Mr. Gaub there or isn’t he?”  Just then he heard another voice say, “Yes, that’s him, operator.  That’s Ken Gaub.”   The woman then said, “I’m Millie from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. You don’t know me, Mr. Gaub, but I’m desperate.  Please help me.”

As the story unfolds it turns out the woman had been thinking of ending her life.  In a moment of prayer she told God that she really didn’t want to do that and then she remembered seeing Ken Gaub on television.   She thought to herself, “If I could just talk to him.”   It was then that some numbers popped into her head and she wrote them down.  When she looked at them she realized it might be a phone number.  So she dialed the number and yes, Ken Gaub answered.  He then ends the story by writing these words, “Knowing this encounter could only have been arranged by God, I began to counsel the woman. As she told me of her despair and frustration, the presence of the Holy Spirit flooded the phone booth giving me words of wisdom beyond my ability….”

"What were the astronomical odds of this happening? With all the millions of phones and innumerable combinations of numbers, only an all-knowing God could have caused that woman to call that number in that phone booth at that moment in time.”  He then went back to his wife and said, “"Barb, you won’t believe this! God knows where I am!'”

“O LORD…You know when I sit down and when I rise up…

 Even before a word is on my tongue…O LORD, you know it altogether…

 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

January 15, 2012