Truth For Life

Bob Lepine: Welcome to Truth for Life Weekend where we're studying Psalm 139. In this psalm, King David comforts himself by reflecting on how God is present and sovereign everywhere, even in death. So does this mean that God is everything and everything is God, as some people suggest? Alistair Begg walks us through the answer.

Alistair Begg: Sheol, the abode of the dead, is described throughout the Old Testament in various ways: a sepulcher-like cavern, a stronghold, a wasteland, a place of nothingness. When we read these things, we have to recognize that the language is evocative, poetic language. It is not definitive language.

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: 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 of sadness, it is not a denial of God's sovereignty beyond the grave.

If you think about it, this is what is so striking about this statement: "If I ascend to the heaven, you are there; if I were to make my abode in Sheol, you are there as well." There is nowhere that I can go that is outside of your presence. Now, when we read our Bibles, 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 he writes without the benefit of the knowledge that we enjoy since Christ has not only come, but Christ has also triumphed over sin, death, and the grave. We have to read these things in light of their ultimate reality.

When Peter 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, to marshal all of this information and encapsulate it in a way that is so clear. He says, "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 in verse 31, he says, "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." Peter is articulating the fact that Christ has descended into the depths.

In the Creed, we say he descended into hell. He descended into Hades, Sheol. He has gone into that place. And yet, for us as New Testament believers, Sheol has become Paradise. When the man on the cross says to Jesus, "Will you remember me when you come into your kingdom?" Jesus does not say, "Today you will be with me in Sheol." He says, "Today you will be with me in Paradise."

In God's presence, there is fullness of joy. At his right hand, there are pleasures forevermore. David here is making an amazing statement. I found that I could easily get sidetracked by this, and I sense looking at some of your faces that you might want to do the same, but a good commentary will help you. Wilcox on the Psalms has a very helpful passage in this.

He says the word about remembrance in the fifth verse of Psalm 6 has to do not with memories but with memorials—commemorations. David certainly believes that after this life, he will still belong to God. Verse 5 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—infinitely better. But for all his limited view, the psalmist has a lesson for us. What he wanted to leave behind in this world, he has by now discovered that he has not lost after all, namely the opportunity to serve and praise God.

He had his priorities right. He asks if that means there will be no memorials, and then he says to himself, "No, God's got that covered as well, whether it is here 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."

He doesn't mean that he doesn't care whether he lives or dies. He means that whether he lives or dies is under God's jurisdiction, and therefore he 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, "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."

Secondly, David says, "If I were to take the wings of the morning." It is a wonderful picture. The poetry is good. "If I travel at the speed of light," he says, "and I go as far east as I can possibly go, or if I go to the other side, into the depths of the sea." For the Israelite, the Mediterranean Sea was the point to the west.

Whether I go to the farthest east or to the farthest west, you will be with me there. Israelites were not sailors. They were fishermen, some of them, but they weren't sailors. The fact that the disciples got so upset on the boat is an indication of the fact that they were not wonderful seafaring people. They didn't live in that kind of context.

In some ways, they would have thought that if you eventually get to the end of the ocean on the west, it might be like an infinity pool. Maybe you could just fall off the end of it into who knows what. David has no concept of it beyond what he can see. He's saying to himself, "If I went all that way, you are there."

God is absolutely everywhere. No distance from the farthest east to the farthest west can separate me from your presence, because there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. It is a picture of God's power, his presence, and his overarching jurisdiction. "Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but thou art mighty. Guide me with thy powerful hand."

I actually had a chorus in mind during all of this week. I could hear my father attempting to sing it. My father was no better a singer than I am, which is pathetic, but it didn't stop him from singing in the car. We found it very funny as children, and we never really gave him much encouragement. I feel bad now as I think about it.

I don't know who he thought he was when he would launch into one of these, but he used to sing this chorus: "I trust in God, I know he cares for me, on mountain steep or on the rolling sea. Though billows roll, he keeps my soul. My heavenly Father watches over me." I don't know whether he'd been listening to Caruso or some great singer, but I can still hear his little voice going, "Though billows roll..."

I would never be able to tell you about that song if I didn't have a dad who, despite his inability, sang truth to me and to my sisters in our childhood. I know that my dad believed that his Lord knew everything about him and was everywhere he could ever go. I learned that from him. The songs we sing with and to our children really matter.

Thirdly, what then if I decide that darkness will be able to hide me? Darkness is able to hide us from other people, but it can't hide us from God. It's an interesting thought. "If I say surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night." If the whole thing closes down, the eye of God pierces the gloom.

Even the darkness isn't dark to God. The night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with him. David is saying, "This is a fantastic thing, God. There's no place I can go. I can't hide in a closet, in the trees, or in my car. I can't cover myself with darkness because you know me entirely." The Christianized version of it is, "Oh be careful, little eyes, what you see. Be careful, little hands, what you touch. Be careful, little feet, where you go."

David is saying that this is a wonderful, dynamic, liberating thing. He's not looking for an out; he is comforting himself by the fact that there is no out. There is no escape. If I go as far that way or as far that way, even under the cover of darkness, you watch over me and provide for me. Isn't that what we said as children?

If you were staying in somebody's house that you hadn't been in before and the person comes to put you to sleep, what do you always ask? You say, "Would you leave a light on?" There his hand is with me. Of course, he leaves a light on. Let me say one word or two before I wrap this up, because it is clear that there is no corner of the universe that is hidden from God.

God is everywhere, but God is not everything. I say that because the environment in which we are living, if you take what we are discovering this morning out onto the street, many of your work colleagues will interpret what you're saying along the lines of contemporary views of spirituality. Those contemporary views, a combination of New Age and Buddhism and Hinduism, are wrapped into many of the books that you will find in bookstores.

All of these various spiritual notions say this: that nature includes and is enfolding the sacred. Whatever there is of God or spirit is enclosed and contained in nature. This finds expression, for example, in contemporary preoccupations with planet Earth. This is also represented on a daily basis in the press as the great discoveries and concerns of science.

It is ultimately not science; it is religion. It is an ideology that is grounded in an idea, and the idea is that somehow or another God is everything. If the sacred is in nature and we are part of nature, therefore we are divine. We used to think it was so funny when Shirley MacLaine was out on that limb. We thought she was just a crazy lady.

Well, she was just ahead of her time. It's mainstream now. As Christians, when we say that God knows everything and is everywhere, unless we are very clear to say God is everywhere but God is not everything, our friends will interpret it as they choose. David Wells has helped me with this more than anybody else. He says as Christians we affirm that God is one in his being: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God is one in his being, but he is not one with nature. Spiritualities abound teaching that the way we make contact with God is by finding him within ourselves. So much contemporary psychology is based on that. But when you and I find our true selves, we discover that we are sinful, lost, rebellious, and in deep trouble. Therefore, we don't really want to make that discovery.

There is an invisible boundary between God and ourselves. We cannot cross the boundary to know him savingly. He is not found in our deepest self. He is outside the range of our intuitive radar. We are in fact alienated from him, and we cannot access him on our own time or on our own terms. It is he who must cross the boundary if we are to know him.

That is what he has done in Jesus. He crossed the boundary. So when your friends say they don't know about God or if he exists, and that they looked in but found nothing, tell them they are looking in the wrong place. Deep down, they aren't even looking, but God is. He made you for himself. This is how the Gospels begin. Matthew says his name will be called Emmanuel because he is God with us.

I had another song from the 60s that wouldn't leave me alone this week. It was written by Ralph Carmichael. He’s gone to glory now, but we sang his songs at our youth group. One began, "In the stars his handiwork I see. On the wind he speaks with majesty. Though he ruleth over land and sea, what's that to me? I will celebrate nativity, for it has a place in history. Though he came to set his people free, what is that to me?"

"Till by faith I met him face to face. Then I found the wonder of his grace. Then I knew that he was more than just a God who didn't care, who lived away up there. Now he walks beside me day by day, watching over me lest I stray, helping me along the narrow way, 'cause he's everything to me." Zacchaeus thought he was hiding up the tree, but Jesus says, "Hey, let's have tea."

The woman at the well wasn't hiding from God; she was just hiding from other ladies. That's why she went to the well in the middle of the day. Nobody goes then because it's so hot. Maybe she thought she could hide, but Jesus asked her for a drink of water. He knows. And that is why we have been given the mandate to go and make disciples of all nations.

That is why we're praying for North Africa. That is why we're excited to see all that God is doing in Northern India. That is why our friends are in Japan. That is why our hearts are with the world and we believe in Bible translation. We want the gospel to be as widely distributed as we possibly can, because we know what David knows: "God, you know me, and God, you're with me, and I trust you."

Bob Lepine: You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend with Alistair Begg. Alistair returns in just a moment to close today's program. You will find no shortage of books that offer advice on how to be a better parent. It's no surprise that parenting is difficult, but self-help books can leave you feeling even more anxious, frustrated, or confused.

We want to recommend to you a book today called Good News for Parents: How God Can Restore Our Joy and Relieve Our Burdens. The book teaches you how to shift your focus to the grace of God and walk in step with the Spirit so that your home can be marked by the fruit of the Spirit—things like love, joy, peace, and patience—rather than being marked by exhaustion, anxiety, or shame. To find out more about the book Good News for Parents, visit our website at truthforlife.org. Now here's Alistair with a closing prayer.

Alistair Begg: Father, I thank you that in the mix of all of this, we might hear your voice. We pray that every distracting influence may be lost sight of and that which is clearly from yourself may be that which we lay hold of. We pray for our friends and family members who have all kinds of different views.

We pray that you will give to us a spirit of gentleness and grace, that we might live our lives in a way that they come to ask us questions rather than that we go to tell them stuff. Lord, thank you that you have crossed the boundary, otherwise we'd never sing these songs or trust in Jesus. What a wonder your kindness and goodness is to us. We want to learn to trust you more, to take you at your word. So help us to that end, we pray for Christ's sake, Amen.

Bob Lepine: I'm Bob Lepine. Thanks for taking time out of your weekend to study the Bible with us. Ever wonder where you were before you were born and where you'll go after you die? We'll explore those questions next weekend. I hope you can join us. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the learning is for living.