Wonderfully Made

Turn with me to Psalm a hundred and 39.

We're starting a very short series on psalm 139 and it's exactly what the kids in the Sunday school are learning as well. So right across the church, we're learning the the the the the same verses. And so that's gonna be really good. You can talk to your children about this. So Psalm 139, Psalms are sort of in the middle of the Bible, but we also have it coming up on screen.

You search me, lord, and you know me. You know when I sit, when I rise, You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways before a word is on my tongue. You lord.

Know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, Even there, your hand will guide me. Your right hand will uphold me fast. If I say, surely the darkness will hide me and the light become dark around me, Even the darkness will not be dark to you.

The night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you. For you created me, created my inmost being, You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body All the days ordained for me were written in your book before 1 of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts god? How vast is the sum of them? Where I'd account them.

They'd be outnumbered. They would outnumber the grain of sand. Then I wake. I I am still with you. If only you god would slay the wicked away from me, you who are bloodthirsty, they speak of you with evil intent.

Your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those that hate you, lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them. I count them. My enemies.

Search me god. Know my heart. Test me, know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any offense, offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. So reads god's precious word. Tommy's gonna open that up to us.

Thank you, Pete. And, good morning, everybody. My name is Tom. I'm 1 of the pastors here at the church. And, as Pete said, we're beginning this new series over the next 4 weeks, we're gonna be looking together at this treasured Psalm, Psalm 139.

And, again, if you have got children in the youth group or the Sunday school, they too are gonna be studying this Psalm over the course of the next 4 weeks, so do take the opportunity to speak with them about what they've been what they've been learning as well. And as we come to this, let's pray together. Heavenly father, we thank you that you are the lord of all, the creator of the heavens and the earth We thank you that you know every 1 of your creatures, you know all that you have made, and you know us perfectly, that not only our words, but the thoughts and the attitudes of our hearts are all laid bare before you. You are the great god who knows us. And we pray that as we think about that together this morning, that you would help us to rejoice that as your people, we are known by the god of heaven, and we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Oh, men. Oh, men. Well, this morning, we're just going to begin by, walking through these first 6 verses. So do make sure you can see those first 6 verses. And, we're going to take some time to think about what David, King David is saying here in these first 6 verses, both about the lord and about himself.

And what we're going to try to do over the course of the next few minutes together is to build up a kind of key take home sentence. So we're gonna work through these verses to build up a key sentence, which hopefully summarizes and applies all that we would have seen together this morning. And the first part of that sentence or the first heading this morning if you're taking notes is this. The lord, that's capital l o r d, the lord knows everything. The lord knows everything.

Just have a look at the repetition of the very first word of disarm. You have searched me. And you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts.

You discern my going out. You are familiar with my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely. You hem me in behind them before. You lay your hand upon me and such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

I count that 10, use or yours. Those first 6 verses 10, use or yours, you. He's talking about the lord. And that's clear in verse 1, isn't it? If you ask the question, who is the person behind all of these us?

Well, you can see there in verse 1, you have searched me lord. That's the person behind the 10 us and yours. It's the lord. It's the capital l o r d. And so King David here is not writing a Psalm or talking about a general god out there or many gods or that his god is 1 of the gods, and he's not describing a deist view of god where he might have created everything in the beginning and had some kind of plan for the world, but he's not 1 who reveals himself and 1 that we can actually.

No. He's not talking about a god like that. He is talking about the covenant god of Israel, capital l o r d, yahweh. That's who he's talking about. He's using the personal name.

He's drawing our mind and attention to the 1 who for generations had bound himself in covenant with his people, 1 who had revealed himself to them and invited them to a life of trust and obedience and promise keeping and promise depending. That's who he's talking about. The god of his history, the relational god. And so for David straight away, we're gonna see that this psalm isn't just theology. It's not just theology.

He's not saying there is a god somewhere who knows everything. He's talking about the god, as we've sung this morning, who holds him in his hands. He's talking about a kind of lived out experience of God, not just the doctrine that god knows everything, but god knows me. He knows me. He knows me in relationship.

That's who he's talking about. Who is it that knows everything? It is the lord. Second part of this sentence. The lord knows everything about his king.

So the first bit was the lord knows everything. Secondly, the lord knows everything about his king. Now, we've just noticed the use and now have a look down at verses 1 to 6 again and count the me's, my's, and eyes. K? You have searched me, lord, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out, my lying down, familiar with my ways, my tongue. You hear me in behind him before. You lay your hand on me such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

There's 10 use and yours. I reckon there's 13 me, mys and eyes. K? 13 me, mys and eyes in 6 verses. Now as we're gonna see in just a moment, The wonderful thing about this Psalm is that every single child of God in this room today can can revel in the truths of this Psalm and can rejoice in them and can say these words.

But in the first case, we have to understand it is about King David. See, the notice right at the beginning of the song before we get into it, it says for the director of music of David a psalm. And so what we mustn't do when we come to this psalm or really any of the psalms is to just draw a straight line between the psalm and ourselves and just cut the author out altogether. Because in the first case, the writer, the Holy Spirit wants us to know that this was of David about David, and he himself wrote this of his experience of the lord, and that ultimately, this Psalm will be true about the greatest king of god's people of all, which is the Messiah king, the lord Jesus Christ. So this Psalm first of all, before it's about us, is about David and it is sung by Christ.

Christ is the 1 who says this song. And when you look into the new testament, you discover that he did use language like that we've just read in verse 1 to 6. So it's not on the screen. I'm afraid, but here's Matthew 11 27. The lord Jesus said all things have been committed to me by my father.

No 1 knows the son except the father, and here it is. No 1 knows the father except the son. And those to whom the son chooses to reveal him. He said something similar in john 10 verse 14. I am the good shepherd.

I know my sheep and my sheep know me. Just as, here it is, the father knows me. And I know the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. So now talking is the lord Jesus Christ, the great king in David's line. And according to his own words, who is he?

He is 1 that is known. In all the moments of his life, when he was lonely on a mountain top, praying just him and his father, or when he was surrounded by the great multitude who came to hear him. When he was being persecuted by his enemies or celebrated by the crowds when he was with few and when he was with many at the beginning of his life in the womb to the desolation and darkness of the cross even there in god forsakenness, he was still the eternal son laying down his life a fragrant offering to God. He was in all of his days and in all moments of his life, the lord Jesus Christ could sing these words as 1 who was known. He was known by the father.

But brothers and sisters, if that king is your savior today, then you are known as he is known because you are in him and therefore that really does make this song your song to quote Elton John you can tell everybody that this is your song. This is your song. And so we see the lord knows everything, part 1 of the sentence. The lord knows everything about his king, part 2 of the sentence. Part 3 of the sentence, the lord knows everything about his king and his people.

The lord knows everything about his king and his people. 1 frustration in our human relationships and I'm not gonna tell you anything you don't know here. But 1 frustration in our relationships is that sometimes the people that we work with, the people that we live with, those in our families just don't seem to get us. They don't seem to be able to understand us. Even though we're so clear with them, they just don't seem to get us.

It's why we have that very famous old phrase, men are from Mars and women are from Venus. The point is, look, we've gotta come together, but we're worlds of we just can't understand each other. We don't know what the climate is like over there. We don't know what the pit we just can't know each other. Or which of us as a teenager growing up didn't at some point say to our parents.

You just don't know me. You don't understand. You don't know what it's like, do you? You came into this life as a 50 year old. Didn't you?

You don't know what it's like. You've never walked in my how can you know me? Or which parent in a moment of frustration has not said to their children? If only you knew what I had to get done today, If you just knew what I've gotta do, me and your mum, we we got a lot. If you knew that, you wouldn't be talking and grumbling and whining and sulking in the way that you are, if only you knew me.

And so it's interesting, isn't it? 1 of the things that prevents human relationships being as good as they could be is because we struggle to know each other properly. But notice in this psalm that god doesn't suffer from any of those limitation as the creator of both men and women, he knows men and women as the saviour of both sons and daughters he knows sons and daughters. As the creator and the sustainer of teenagers, he knows teenagers. He was 1 once upon a time.

As the creator and life giver for little children, he knows little children, and he invites them to come to him. And so we often have to say in our relationships, You just you you don't understand me. Nobody seems to understand me and the response is well yeah because I'm a creature and that makes me hugely limited. I am hugely I can't know you. Perfectly.

But if we belong to the lord Jesus Christ, whoever we are, whatever our personalities are like and our histories have been. He knows us. He knows us. The lord knows everything about his king and about his people. Fourth part of the sentence.

The lord knows everything about his king and his people. He knows everything. And this is where we need to spend a little bit of time because as you can see, the knowledge that the lord has of his king and of his people is really comprehensive, isn't it? Verse 2, when I sit and when I rise, In other words, the lord knows me even in the very tiny little decisions of life that I make all the time. He knows when I sit down and have a sandwich.

He knows when I pull into a petrol station in order to get a coffee. He knows when I leave my chair at work to go to the water cooler and he knows when I return and when I sit down. He knows where I'm gonna be, He knows me when I'm sat in traffic. He he knows me. When I sit and when I rise, just very ordinary, little rhythms of everyday life, he knows those.

He knows those. He sees those. Verse 2, you perceive my thoughts from afar. I don't know if you've seen any of the the inside out films. The inside out films.

First 1 came out few years ago. Now, and the second 1 was just released this summer gone. And they're really, really good. I watched the second 1 yesterday. And, the whole idea of these films is that you've got this girl Riley, her name's Riley, And, she's living her life growing up as a girl in America.

She's a very typical teenage girl in many ways, and, gets into sport and gets into school. And then in film number 2, the puberty button goes and it just explodes. Her whole life explodes and it's and you're you're following this girl. And 1 of the unique things about this film is that as a viewer, you don't just get to see the outside of Riley's life, you get let into the inside of her life. You get to see the inner workings of her mind and how her emotions work and how she thinks and why she thinks the way she does.

And so in the film, you've got this out side Riley, which everybody can see, but inside is this wonderful, messy world of thought and emotion, which nobody except us, the viewer can see. So the viewer is in a unique place. Because they can see the outside Riley and they can see the inside Riley which is why the film is called inside out because in the film, the inside comes out. You you you get to see it. It's fascinating.

But what makes it so interesting I think to think through in terms of our relationships is that of course we never get that kind of access into somebody else's inner life. And so that's why we have to say to them. What are you thinking at the moment? What are you thinking? Penny for your thoughts.

You know, what are your what are your thoughts on this? We have to ask questions like that because we understand that in our relationships, there is a dialogue that we can hear, and there is a dialogue going on in there, which remains a mystery to me. I can't see your thoughts and you're in a life. I can only go on the basis of the outer dialogue. But notice what David says, even from afar, you perceive my thoughts.

You don't just hear my outer dialogue. You know everything that is going on in my mind and my heart and my emotions. The word perceived there can be translated to fan out. And so you might imagine a deck of cards that you get out of the packet and lay on top of a table. And with the palm of your hand, you just fan you just fan out the cards like that across the table.

Our thoughts David says are like that to the lord. They are fanned out on a table before him. He sees every 1. He knows them from afar. But also verse 3, he says you discern my going out and my lying down.

My going out and my lying down. In his book, entitled Psalms for You, Christopher Ash, who's a a a British, Bible commentator and trainer of Bible teaches, He sees here that the going out is really talking about the public life of King David and the lying down is referring to his private life. His going out is what he does in public his lying down is what he does in private. So for instance, David going out into public was the David that everybody would see. You know, the David that his, his mighty men would see.

The David that the politicians who he held court with would see. The David who would encounter him as the temple as he came up to worship. All of his going out his public life, but he's lying down with the things that King David would do in the quiet of his own heart or in the privacy of his own chamber. Public and private. And if you know the story of King David, particularly the story of his adulterous relationship with bathsheba, you know that there wasn't for him, always a consistency between his going out public life and his lying down private life.

In his going out, he was a very good general who was trying to look after Eurya bathsheba's husband. 1 of his most loyal servants. He in his going out and his arrangements, he was trying to look like a good general. But in his lying down, in the privacy of his own heart, he was trying to get himself out of a very messy situation. There wasn't always a consistency between his private and his public.

Well, thankfully, the lord Jesus Christ never suffered from such a problem. He always in his going out and in his lying down in his public and his private was concerned with the glory of god whichever way you cut him, he was about the glory of his father all the way down. And so David is saying here that in our public life, our lying down, and in our our private life rather lying down in our public life are going out, we are we are known, which is definitely a sobering thought, isn't it? But on the positive side, and this in the end is a worship psalm, That makes pretending really, really silly, doesn't it? Pretending to be something that we're not in our going out is really silly when the lord knows everything about us in public and in private.

Verse 3, you are familiar with all of my ways. If you've been in a relationship for any length of time, whether that be a a friendship, that you've got a really close friend or a brother or sister that you have or or a spouse anyone that you just know really well, you will know that 1 of the things that begins to happen over time is that you become very very familiar with that person. In fact, you start to know instinctively how they will react to certain things, what they will feel about certain films, what they would respond if someone said this to them. You you begin to be familiar with all of their ways. So much so that when you're scrolling through Netflix in the evening looking for a film, you already know instinctively which ones she or he is not gonna like.

K? And then the battle becomes how do I convince them that they will like it? So I can watch it anyway, which is what I want. It's not what I do. Of course, I always lay down my own choices.

But that's how it becomes, isn't it? Yeah. You you become familiar. You you you get familiar with them. You know what they're gonna say.

You read a book and then you give it to them and they you know how they're gonna feel about it. You get familiar with their ways. That's what he's saying. You lord are familiar with their ways. And even though that is true in close human relationships, It is still possible to be surprised, isn't it?

You think you are familiar with their ways, but then something happens and you realize maybe not. So for instance, you might try and buy your spouse clothes on their birthday. And this is not a personal story. It is actually. You tried to buy clothes on the birthday, and you you go to the shop and you get the opinions of other women who know her well.

And you said, do you think she would like this? Yes. I do think she would like that. You go to the shop and you browse through the uh-uh the clothes and you cross check what you're seeing against what already exists in her wardrobe and you're saying, yes, she does already own things like this and patterns of that nature. I think she'll like this.

And you're familiar with her ways and then you buy it and present it to her. And then within 24 hours, it's back at the shop, you know, as you take it back. And you realize in that moment, maybe I was not as familiar with her ways as I thought I was. Right? But here's the thing with the lord, our ways never take him by surprise.

He knows all of our ways. He knows our frailty and he knows our weaknesses and he knows the situations in which we're likely to fail and fall. He knows our ways, but positively, he also knows our gift He knows who he's made us to be. He's familiar with the ways in which we can serve him best. He's familiar with the gifts that he gave us beforehand, which he has placed within us in order to serve him.

He is familiar with us. Our personalities, our characters, our temperament, the situations we do well, the situations we don't do well. He knows us. He's familiar with every 1 of us perfectly. Verse 4, my words before they're even on my tongue.

He knows. I mean, that is quite something, isn't it? The lord doesn't just know what we actually do say, but what we planned to say or what we really wanted to say but didn't or what we wish we had said but failed to say. He doesn't just know the actual words that leave the mouth but all of the planning and preparation and thinking that has gone into our words. He knows that entire process from speech to delivery of speech.

Verse 5, you hem me in behind and before and you lay your hand upon me. The word hem me in carries the idea of being surrounded by a palace or or even by an army being surrounded by castle walls perhaps. And the point there is that the lord knows how to protect us. He has placed around us this kind of 3 60 24 7 at the front and at the back and to the sides and over the top he has he has protected us with castle walls. And I just love that image because if you think about those old castles, often they would have a drawbridge, you know, and you would have scouts on the ramparts and they would have to decide who to let in and who to keep out.

And so it is with the lord. He's surrounded us and he knows what to let in and what to keep out. He he he protect he's engaged in the protection of the children that he knows so well. So what incredible knowledge this is, do you see? That the knowledge he really does know everything about his king and his people.

How remarkable that is? You see in our relationships, we often have sir circles, don't we? So there might be and this will be true of all of us, I'm sure. There might be, you know, in the in the biggest circle, there are lots of people that we know a little bit. And when we see them, we might tell them that we've had a good summer and we tell them where we've been on holiday and we tell them that, you know, works okay and that sort of thing.

Then there's a slightly smaller circle on the inside and those are a few people who we might really say a lot more So we might tell them that the facts and the details of life, but we also tell them how we're feeling about those things and what we're struggling with and what we're encouraged by and we're willing to bear ourselves a little bit more with those people. Then within that circle, there's an even smaller group where literally whatever you say to them and in whatever mood you are in, it won't be a surprise to them. They they know you so well that there's no pretense, no guarding at all. Just a few for how relationships we might have. But even within that smallest circle, there are things that those people will never really truly know about us.

Things that we would perhaps never tell even those in that smallest circle. David says, you o lord have searched me and you know me. You know me. That smallest circle there in the middle is only me and you. You know me.

You know me. And so, fourthly, the lord knows everything about his king and his people, and here's the last part of the sentence. The lord knows everything about his king and his people, praise the lord. The lord knows everything about his king and his people. Praise the lord.

And when you look at verse 6, that seems to be the response on David's lips. When he thinks about that comprehensive knowledge, he says it is too wonderful for me and too lofty for me to attain. And so the dominant thought of this Psalm is, I will never be able to hide from god, and isn't it wonderful. The knowledge of the lord is simply unlike anything that I could ever have. It is it is beyond my range.

I I I will never ever be able to have that kind of knowledge. But it is also beyond my comprehension. Not only is it beyond my range. I can't even imagine what it would be like to know people that well. And not just 1 person, millions of them.

Across all the ages, I can't imagine what such searching knowledge would be like. And therefore, it is a kind of knowledge way beyond my ability. Or to put it another way, if I did have such knowledge, it would be a disaster. You've all seen Bruce almighty probably, you know, when I won't go over the plot. He gets the clay god for a little bit and it goes very, very, very wrong.

It is beyond my range. It is beyond my comprehension, and it is beyond my ability. It is all together. Too much for me. And so praise the lord that I'm not the 1 with it.

Verse 6 is a little bit like those words that Heather read to us from Romans 11 in her prayers. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of god. How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. Too lofty for me to attain.

It is clearly good news in David's mind that god knows him and his people so well. And so I wanna close now that we've looked at this Psalm together by just giving you 3 reasons or suggesting 3 reasons why the knowledge god has of us in verse 1 to 5 really should provoke us to worship in verse 6. In other words, why is being known so well so good. It is good news, firstly, because of who god is. And I say that because I reckon that for some people in this room, to be told that you are known this well might be quite unsettling.

And if that describes you, It might be for a very good reason. You see, maybe you are the sort of person who finds it very hard to open up in your relationships. Because at some point, somebody you really trusted used knowledge about you in a way that you didn't expect. In order to shame you perhaps or to humiliate you or even to do you harm. You've let someone in to your life.

And you've entrusted them with knowledge about yourself. You've brought them in if you like to the smallest of those circles. And then at some point, they used that knowledge about you in a horrible way. And if that is the case, then protecting that knowledge in future relationships becomes a very understandable thing for somebody to do. And so for people like that, especially, and for all of us, how does this searching knowledge of god become a point of praise for us even if We've had an experience like that.

And the answer is simply that we must understand what sort of person the lord is. You see, this is not like being sat in the big brother house. Remember Big Brother, where you are always being watched so that a director who does not love you can monetize your most shameful embarrassing moments for a nation that doesn't love you either. That is not what he intends to do with this knowledge. If that is what we think the god of the Bible is like, then we have a pagan view of god.

But Christians understand that the lord who knows everything about them will only ever use that knowledge in order to love them better and to guide them and to shepherd them and to do the very best by them. This is why heaven has no need for data protection laws. And I'm serious about that. You see, why is it that we need GDPR laws here on Earth? Because in this world, not everyone who has knowledge about you will use that knowledge to bless you.

Some people will take the knowledge that you give them and use it in harmful and inappropriate ways. But brothers and sisters, the knowledge that god has of us is never misused. And it is never abused and it is never used in ways we wish it wouldn't be, but it is only used for his glory and for our everlasting good. The lord knows everything about his king and his people. Praise the lord.

It's the first reason. Secondly, this is good news because to be known like this shows us who we really are. You see, if all of this is true, then we no longer have to rely on self examination or on novels or on YouTube algorithms. To find out who we really are. And when we're thinking clearly, we know that to be true, don't we?

How how could a YouTube algorithm ever help me to know who I am. See, I'm not actually against algorithms in general. You know, I think sometimes they really do recommend bands that people like and content that people like and they do work quite well sometimes. But they can never ever know you in this way. And neither is AI committed to your well-being.

You see, let's remember that the same artificial intelligence that can recommend you a band that you love might also recommend young people content about self harm. If it thinks that's what they need and would like to watch. Ai's motivation is not your best but to keep you watching and to keep money coming in. Could it could anything like that really ever know you? And here's the thing.

This is not just a question that we need to settle in our teenage years, is it? That the who am I question, the how do I know myself question resurfaces at many points in our lives, doesn't it? When we find ourselves in a new relationship or when we find ourselves unexpectedly single again when children come into our lives or when they grow up or when they leave home. When we get a job or when we retire. That there are all kinds of moments in life where we revisit this question of how do I know my who am I now?

That's what I've been who am I how do I get to know myself now? And if we don't have these foundations in verse 1 to 6, we are going to find ourselves lurching from crisis to crisis as we go through these times. They may not be huge crises where we suddenly pull the plug on all of our relationships and move to live in a cabin in the woods by ourselves and, you know, buy a motorbike and start wearing leathers and, you know, well, you know, You can do that if you want. That's not, you know, buying a motorbike is not the big thing. But we we will begin to lurch from crisis to crisis because we won't know something about our identity has gone.

Something has changed. And now I'm asking myself all over again. How do I know myself? And I just love what Psalm 139 does here, because it it flips the whole question on its head, and it gives us a much better question to ask, not, how do I know myself but am I known? That's the better question to ask, isn't it?

Not where where do I go in order to know myself? But does the god of heaven know me? Am I known and am I loved and am I am bought by the blood of Christ? I mean, you know, all the theology we need is very often in our children's songs, isn't it? You are higher than a skyscraper.

You are deeper than a submarine. You're wider than the universe. You're beyond my wildest dreams. This knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty to attain, and yet you know me, and you love me. And before the world began, I was part of your plan.

Isn't that the better question to ask? Not how and where will I know myself But in all of life's ups and downs, am I known? Am I known by the god of heaven? What stability that will afford to us as we go through these various changes in life? This is good news.

Praise the lord that we are known. Thirdly and lastly, this is good news because we can now come out of hiding. 1 of the reasons that we don't share everything about ourselves with other people is we're afraid of what they might think if they were to find out. It's about self protection, isn't it? There's no possible way I could be accountable or to reveal that about myself because I don't know what they would think.

They've got this view of me and I wanna preserve it and protect it. And I don't know what's gonna happen to their view of me if I let them in. They might think I'm altogether less competent and less strong and less godly, then I try to let them know that I act. We're afraid. We're afraid.

To let people in. But as we've seen in verse 1 to 6, god already knows everything about you and about me. There is nothing that you have done in your life that is a surprise to god. There is nothing which if you confess it to him will be new information for him. He knows you.

And he knows all that you have done. And that means we can give up that charade when it comes to god, and we can we can come to him. And we can say god and father of my lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that you know me warts and all. You've seen it all.

You know it all. You know my worst actions and you know my darkest thoughts and so I bring them to you. And I pray that your son, the 1 who is known, would bear it away from me on the cross. I pray that he would know my sin in dying for my sin, and I wanna come out of hiding with you because you know me anyway, so the whole thing's silly. I I wanna be known by you as my saviour.

And you see when we talk to the lord like that, we can it's it is liberating because then we come to the last verse of this Psalm. I mean, after all, we've said it's a funny verse, isn't it? Verse me god and know my heart. Well, he he knows. He already knows your heart.

Search me god and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. He's saying, lord, you know everything there is to know about me, you know my sin anyway. So if there's something here that is wrong and needs to be come out, come out, show it to me that I might confess, you know me anyway. And so let me bring it to you and then I can serve you joy. As 1 who as 1 who is known.

Praise the lord. The lord knows everything about his king and about his people. Praise the lord. Let's pray together. We'll use the words of an old prayer that fits very well with this Psalm and you can just close your eyes and sit quietly and they'll read this prayer for us.

Almighty god to whom all hearts are open. All desires known. And from whom no secrets are hidden. Cleends the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our lord.