Truth For Life

Bob Lepine: Did you play hide and seek as a child? Or maybe with your children? It's always fun to find a hiding place where no one ever finds you. But don't try to play this game with God because he wins every time. Today on Truth For Life Weekend, Alistair Begg considers why trying to hide from God is foolish and why he continues to seek us.

Alistair Begg: I invite you to turn to Psalm 139 and to follow along as I read the second section, as it were, beginning in the seventh verse. And David writes: Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you're there. If I make my bed in Sheol, you're 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. Amen.

From our hearts, we say, speak, oh Lord, as we come to you to receive the food of your holy word. Take your truth and plant it deep in us. Shape and fashion us in your likeness. In Christ's name we ask it. Amen.

Well, I think we know this, but it's good to remind ourselves of the fact that the Bible expresses great truths from the very beginning to the end in the realm, as it were, of personal experience. When we turn to the Bible, and sometimes if you give a Bible to somebody and you suggest that they might begin reading it, this will actually become apparent to them. It will very quickly be obvious that the Bible isn't an academic textbook. It doesn't provide us with information that encourages our speculation, with information that is, if you like, simply theoretical.

But in actual fact, we discover pretty quickly that it is practical. It is at the same time personal. And in order that the response of the heart of the reader might be one of devotion, might be one of worship and one of obedience. And that's why, actually, we've been helped in the singing of many of our songs by those who've written about the Bible in a way that we can sing these truths to ourselves and to one another. For example, Brenton Brown's: The word of God is light in our darkness. It is hope for the hopeless. It is strong and true. The word of God is strength for the weary. It is a shield for all who trust in you.

Now, it's in that framework that we read our Bibles on our own on a daily basis. We gather sometimes in other groups throughout the week, or in different groups here throughout the Lord's day, in order that we might be reminded of these things: that our response to scripture is one where we find ourselves declaring the goodness and kindness of God. Last time in these first six verses, we considered how it was that David marveled, not just that God is omniscient—that is, that God knows everything—but the real marvel is that he says, God knows me.

In fact, as we read it together, we realized that God knows him and knows you and me better than we know ourselves. If your Bible is open, you notice that little phrase in the second half of verse five about God laying his hand upon him. And I don't know about you, but part of my reason for being in Psalm 139, I suppose, is that I just can't hardly let go of David and Second Samuel. And I found that in the week as I was reading this again, I was back in the narrative of First and Second Samuel, wondering just where and when and at what point along the way David would have had occasion to write this particular poem.

Of course, we don't know, but I was reminded of how in Second Samuel 7 we read: Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, oh Lord God? And what is my house that you have brought me? See this? It's the I of God and it is the he of David. Who am I in relationship to who you are? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, oh Lord God. What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, oh Lord God. You know your servant.

And of course, that is a powerful and an important truth. And I think perhaps you have had occasion, like me, to ponder that as we have gone through the week. I've said to myself, well, you better take seriously what you were studying. God knows you. He knows when you're sitting down, he knows—it's not—it's fascinating actually as I think about it. We've accredited with Santa Claus what is only true of an non-existent being, what is only true of God, the creator of the universe. He knows when you are whatever he knows. He knows when you are something. He knows when you're sad. He knows when you're bad and good or good and bad. It doesn't matter.

But the fact of the matter is God knows us in that exact way. And he knows not only who we are, but he knows where we are. As I was making my way to Los Angeles on Wednesday during a particularly exciting period of the flight when we moved more into the realm of roller coaster than air, which was after a four-hour delay because none of the computers worked for the Federal Aviation Administration. So, I was up there saying to myself, well, if I make my bed in the heavens, you are there. If we drop down into the sea, you'll be there as well. So let's just keep going. Dear God, help the pilot. And so there we have it.

Now, in this second stanza, we come to it with the sixth verse ringing in our ears. David has ended his first statement, aware of the fact that he is baffled by it. Essentially, he can't get his head around it. God knows me. This is knowledge too wonderful. It's high, I can't attain it. So it serves as an excellent conclusion to what he has said concerning God's omniscience and also as a wonderful introduction to the fact that God is with me.

Now he begins, you will notice, with a question in verse seven. Where shall I go from your spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? Is there any place I can go to be out of your sight, oh God? That's what he's saying. Now immediately, this raises a question for us because we have to decide: is David asking this question because he's considering the possibility of making a run for it? In other words, is he saying, is there somewhere I can go, after all, you search me, you know me, you know everything about me, maybe I should find an escape route?

The answer to that, I think, is unequivocally no, but let me ponder for a moment the fact that there is precedent, of course, in the scriptures for those who have asked that question because they do want to make a run for it. In fact, from the very beginning of the Bible, if you think about it in Genesis chapter 3, that is what Adam and Eve were seeking to do. And they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of God among the trees of the garden. It's almost a funny picture, isn't it? That they could hide from God in the trees of the garden.

And God comes to them and he says, what do you think you're doing? And he said, well, I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. Well, they were singularly unsuccessful, weren't they? Or what about our friend Jonah? Jonah. He was making a pretty good run at it himself, wasn't he? In fact, I'm going to just turn it up so that I quote it accurately. Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk. I have to say to myself because I can lose Jonah very easily after Obadiah. Not, of course, that you would ever do such a thing. But there you have it, and many of you are not even going to make an attempt at looking it up for the very same reason.

That's fine. Well, here we go. The word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city and call out against it. But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. God said this is where you should go. He said no, I'd rather go over here, and he ran away from the presence of the Lord. Of course, he was singularly unsuccessful. And in fact, the extent to which God is sovereign over the affairs of time are revealed in being swallowed up by a gigantic fish and having a prayer meeting from the belly of the fish.

What about the young man we just made mention of last week in Jesus' parable? The young man who got together all that he had and he took his journey to a far country. In other words, to get as far away as he possibly could. But he was singularly unsuccessful because when he was still a long way off, his father saw him. So the question is a realistic question, isn't it? Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

By nature, that's what we do. By nature, humanity is a band on the run. You don't find people just walking around in the Cleveland area saying to people in the street, excuse me, I was looking for God. Does anyone know where he is at the moment? No. And those same people find when they read their Bibles that God is the searcher, that God is the one who searches and knows, God is the one who knows everything, and God is the one who is everywhere.

So by nature, we hide from God. And if we're honest as Christians, we're tempted to have a go at it. You may be here this morning and actually you've decided that one of the cleverest places you could hide from God is actually amongst people who are apparently gathering in the presence of God. They'll never look for me here. It's the way that David did, remember? They'll never look for him in the middle of the Philistines. Or he put himself in that context. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.

Before I go on, get back on track, as it were, let's just remember what the Bible says. Jeremiah 23:23: Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? says God. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord. It's just possible that you are on a little down a little escape route in your own mind. The challenges and calls of God in relationship to family life or in relationship to marital fidelity or in relationship to unscrupulous honesty or in relationship to the ethical demands of the gospel are just pressing in a little too much.

And you've decided—and only you know, and only God knows—that there is actually somewhere that you can probably go and hide. I say to you this morning because God loves you, because he reaches out with an arm of love, he's not going to let you do that. Now, with that as an aside, let us come back to the central path. Let us get back to the fact that I take it that David is not looking for the possibility of escape, but he is actually comforting himself in the fact that escape is impossible.

Don't you see that's what he's doing? I think it is. After all, if we were to think that he was actually considering running away, it'd be strange that he ends as he does in verses 23 and 24: Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. Be a strange sort of juxtaposition if on the one hand he was looking for a way to hide from God and at the same time in the awareness that God's searched him and he knows him and that he actually wants him to investigate him even further.

Now, the comfort that he knows is in the fact that such an escape plan is an impossibility. If I climb up to the sky, you're there. If I go underground, you're there. If I fly on the morning wings, you would find me in a minute. When I got to where I was going, you would be there already. And so with this series of ifs, you will notice: if, if, if, if—we can look at these three strategies. In verse eight, first of all: What if I ascend to heaven or make my bed in Sheol? Now, to paraphrase it would be simply to say: what if I go up to the heavens and what if I try to go underground?

But he's very specific: if I ascend to heaven, the uttermost reaches of up and on and out; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. Now let me encourage you to turn for a moment to the sixth Psalm in order that I might say a word or two concerning Sheol. We're not going to delay on it, but I think it's impossible to tackle this without saying something concerning it. It's mentioned in various ways in the scriptures. It is essentially the abode of the dead. Verse five of Psalm 6: For in death there is no remembrance of you. In Sheol, who will give you praise?

Sheol, the abode of the dead, is described throughout the Old Testament in various ways: sepulcher-like cavern, a stronghold, a wasteland, a place of nothingness. And when we read these things, we have to recognize that the language is evocative language. It is poetic language. It is not definitive language. So that a cry, for example, as here in the fifth verse of Psalm 6, is a cry from the heart. The psalmist is saying what everybody recognizes, and that is that life is all too short, that death is implacable and decisive, and it has ramifications.

But at the same time, although it is a cry, a cry of sadness, it is not a denial of God's sovereignty beyond the grave. Because if you think about it, this was so striking about this statement here: if I ascend to the heaven, you're there. If I were to make my abode in Sheol, you are there as well. Because there is nowhere that I can go that is outside of your presence. Now, you know that when we read our Bibles, we say to one another, it is helpful to read them backwards, because we are able to do what the psalmist was unable to do.

The psalmist, as an Israelite, is writing according to his own understanding of God's revelation of himself. But the psalmist writes without the benefit of the knowledge that we enjoy since Christ has not only come, but Christ has also triumphed over sin and death and the grave. So we have to read these things in light of their the ultimate reality. So for example, to help us in that regard, when Peter—good old Peter—when he preaches on the day of Pentecost, one of the things that is so remarkable about that sermon is the way in which Peter is able, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, clearly to marshal all of this information, to encapsulate it in a way that is so clear.

Men of Israel, he says, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, for it was not possible for him to be held by it. Then he goes down to verse 31: David foresaw these things and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God raised up.

In your presence there is fullness of joy, Psalm 16:11. At your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And David here is making an amazing statement, isn't he? I found that I could easily get sidetracked by this, and I sense looking at some of your faces, you might want to do the same. But a good commentary will help you—it helps me—and Wilcox on the Psalms has a very helpful passage in this, referencing what we've just said. He says, you know, the word about remembrance there in that fifth verse of Psalm 6 has to do not with memories, but with memorials, that is, commemorations.

David certainly believes that after this life, he will still belong to God. Verse five is not, therefore, the cry of a despairing sinner. We New Testament people are much more fully informed now that Christ Jesus has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. We know that though this present life is full of good things and is God's perfect plan for us for the time being, the next life will be even better, indeed infinitely better. But for all his limited view, the psalmist has a lesson for us.

What he at least wanted to leave behind in this world, he has by now discovered that he has not lost it after all, namely the opportunity to serve and praise God. He had his priorities right. He says, does that mean that there will be no memorials? No, he says to himself, no, God's got that covered as well. Whether it's there or there. Richard Baxter in the 17th century was an effective minister, and one of the hymns that he wrote has been helpful to many of us.

It begins: Lord, it belongs not to my care whether I live or die. What he means by that is not I don't care whether I live or die. What he means by that is whether I live or whether I die is under your jurisdiction. Therefore, I can rest in that fact. As he goes on in the hymn to speak about the unfolding drama of God's purpose beyond time, he finally concludes—and I'm sure you've got this because I've quoted it to you before, I quote it to myself all the time—my knowledge of that life is small, the eye of faith is dim. It is enough that Christ knows all, and I shall be with him. Not only do you know me, but you are with me.

Bob Lepine: You're listening to Truth For Life Weekend with Alistair Begg. We'll learn more about the omnipresent God next weekend. Here at Truth For Life, our greatest desire is for people to run to God, not hide from him. That's why our mission is to teach the Bible every day with clarity and relevance. Our prayer is that God will use Alistair's straightforward biblical teaching to reach those who are still trying to hide.

To learn more about God and how to live out your faith, you can request a copy of a book we're currently recommending called *A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation*. This book will help you establish important practices that will guide you on your path of continued spiritual growth. In addition to essential practices like prayer and meditation, this book will help you understand how to expand your spiritual disciplines to things like self-evaluation or worship or Christian fellowship.

The book challenges you to begin or to recover a faith marked by genuine devotion and a deep affection for God through the consistent study of his word. For more information about the book *A Heart Aflame for God*, visit our website at truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lepine. Thanks for studying the Bible with us. We learned today that God is everywhere. Next weekend, we'll find out why that doesn't mean that God is everything, as some people suggest. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth For Life, where the learning is for living.