Truth For Life

Bob Lepine: Have you ever wondered where you were before you were born or where you'll go when you die? We'll look at these questions today on Truth For Life Weekend and learn why God's sovereignty is praiseworthy even in confusing and difficult times. Alistair Begg is teaching from Psalm 139 and we're focusing on verses 13 through 18.

Alistair Begg: When we began a couple of weeks ago, we said that this Psalm along with the Bible really in its entirety addresses foundational questions that are asked by everybody at some point along the journey of life and we articulated them in a certain way. Similarly, we could say that people are asking where was I if anywhere before I was born and where will I be if anywhere after I die? Very, very important questions. We need to have an answer to those questions to explain our origins and to understand our destiny. And so philosophers and scientists, people of great worth, have answered those questions in their own way throughout history.

Now we could go around the universe and give other answers, but let's just look at the answer that David is providing here. David is saying, I am the result of God's creative handiwork. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. It's not uncommon when you begin to affirm such things or perhaps get in a conversation with friends and colleagues at work or at school and you are brave enough to make such an affirmation to say, well, we're studying the 139th Psalm and this is what it says.

And one of your friends says to you, but I thought you were doing science at college. I thought you were a scientific person. I mean, why would you even suggest such a thing? And the great pressure that comes to individuals unless we've got a grasp of this is a real pressure. And at the same time, when we begin to affirm these things, at least this may not happen to you, but it happens to me, people say, well, why does the Bible say such silly things? I mean, why does it say, for example, that God clothes the grass of the field? He doesn't go out clothing the grass of the field. Why does it say that?

Well, it's a good question, isn't it? It says it because the Psalmist or the prophet in affirming that did not say that because he did not understand the process of sowing and of germination and of fruitfulness. He wasn't saying, "Oh, we don't know how it works, God just clothes it." No, he's saying that the primary cause of all that we have is none other than God himself. In the same way, when you read the Bible and it says that God sends the rain, when it says that God moves the clouds, when it says he controls the thunder, when he deals with the lightning.

Once again, it is not because the people did not understand the water cycle. They may not have understood it the way we were taught it at school where we had to understand evaporation, convection, precipitation, and collection, and it all goes around like that. They got some measure of that. They recognized that they looked up and they saw it, but what are they saying? God is behind this. God is the one who put the water cycle in process. That's why it works as it does.

God's omnipotence shapes David's understanding of the world. It is because of who God is that the world is as it is. And that's why the prophets of God spoke so straightforwardly in their generation. Because the gods of the nations that surrounded them and often invaded them had all kinds of theories and ideas. And so for example, Jeremiah, he says, "Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain?" Answer is no. They can't bring rain.

You see, either God is God or you have a god that you imagine. He exists somehow or another in your imagination. What kind of a god would that be? No, you see, God has revealed himself. Can any of the false gods bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are you not he, Oh Lord our God? We set our hope on you for you do all these things. You're the one that does all this. You see what a vastly different perspective in view of the world it actually is.

How to think Christianly, as we said on the first Sunday of the year, is so vitally important. To think biblically, that does not mean you only think about things that are in the Bible, but it means that we view the things that unfold in the universe through the prism of the Bible or understood in light of the truth of the Bible. You do all these things. And all these things includes not only the vastness of it all, the macro picture, but also the micro picture.

And it is to this micro picture—forgive me for taking so long to get to verse 13—but this micro picture is what is being addressed here. Notice what he says. Let me suggest that we just gather our thoughts under two simple headings: one, you designed me, and two, you determined my days. You designed me first of all. Notice what it says: "For you formed my inward parts." Created, fashioned, put together according to plan. I did not arrive by accident, but I am here by design. I am the intended result of the mind of God.

Look at how David is dealing with this. He doesn't just say, "You know everything," he says, "You know me." He doesn't say, "You are everywhere," he says, "You are everywhere with me." And he doesn't just say, "You made everything," he says, "You made me. Me. You made me." Now the pictures that are here can be teased out on your own. "You knitted me. You wove me." There's nothing random about this. And all of this you've done in secret.

"My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret in the depths of the earth." What does he mean by that? Well, I think it's just a metaphor: in the place of unknowing. When I was safe within my mother's womb, your eyes saw my unformed substance. You see what he's saying here? Even when my mom didn't know that I was there, you knew I was there. When I was embryonic, when that little thing had happened down there and she didn't even know, she didn't know, but you knew because you were responsible for that. That's what he's saying.

Well, you say, this is not exactly a very scientific explanation of things, is it? No, of course it's not. It's a very good explanation of things. Some of you are medics. I was at the clinic this week and sitting in the coffee shop waiting for someone and trying to listen in on conversations, see if I could learn something. And I was hoping, actually, that I would sit next to a couple of doctors who were in obstetrics because my head was full of Psalm 139.

And I thought, perhaps they'll be talking about things and then I can learn. Well, they were talking about things, but unfortunately, they were not in obstetrics. But they were talking about how they have some exams coming up, and one was a fellow and another was something else. It was all very interesting. I only got the gist of it, but it was clear to me that there is a certain way in which you're trained and there is a certain answer to the question that you're asked. For example, "I would like you to explain in our next tutorial the formation of the fetus."

Now, we don't expect that the Christian medic says, "Oh, that's easy, Psalm 139:13 and following." But we do expect that the Christian medic actually believes that. That's not the scientific explanation, but that is the underlying reality. God is at work. Psalm 127 we often share it, don't we? When we have occasion to write a card to somebody who's become a parent for the first time. "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward." God has done this.

God has put me together, he says, with a unique purpose. There are no mistakes. God from eternity gladly giving life, deliberately bringing each of us into being. Now we need to teach this to our children. It's a fair question: where was I before I was born? You were nowhere before you were born. We're not Hindus. You were nowhere before you were born. You were put together, woven, knitted intricately in an amazing way in your mom's tummy. And God did this because he wanted you here right now today to be you. You designed me.

And then just secondly, and you determined my days. That's really verse 16, isn't it? "Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written every one of them before they came to be, the days that were formed for me." I find that a harder translation than the NIV. The NIV says, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Before one of them came to be. All the days. So from embryonic to the very end of life and beyond, you are in sovereign control.

Now you see what a difference this makes to really every aspect of our lives. Many of us wrestle with anxiety, some of us are sometimes almost paralyzed by these things. And we need the help of the companionship of God's people. We need the instruction of God's word. We need the encouragement of God's Spirit to come to us in the watches of the night and remind us of these things. We ought not to feel so put about that we feel these very things.

After all, Jesus addressed his own disciples who were within his company, who watched him, who listened to him, who saw him perform miracles. And yet he says to them, "Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?" Now obviously, anxiety was part of their existence. Don't be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. Your eyes saw my unformed substance. You've written this down in your book.

How precious to me are your thoughts, Oh God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, I couldn't get them on a spreadsheet. If I could count them, they're more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. Now, let me say: You design me, you direct my steps. How does David respond to this here? I suggest just in two ways, but I want to add one. I think it's there, you could check. First of all, he responds in verse 14 by saying, "God, you are praiseworthy. You are worthy of praise. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

So this is not the same as people going on Facebook explaining how magnificent they are. No, the person who understands that God made them realizes what they are. Good, bad, ugly, whatever the bits and pieces might be. The real amazing part of it is that you are worthy of praise because you actually made me. I am not a self-made man, I am not a self-made woman. There's no reason—I don't care how many followers I've got on my thing, whatever it might be. No, it is praise, it is praise.

Because you have enabled me to see what godless people cannot see. We sang of it: "Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see." Isn't that what we saw in Romans chapter one? Behind a facade of wisdom, they became fools who exchange the glory of immortal God for things that creep and crawl and fly. And they've said, no, no, we don't believe in the living God, but you'll worship this? Though the eye of sinful man your glory may not see, we see.

So atheists know whether it's snowing or whether the sky is blue. They can look up and say the sky is blue. They can look out and say it's a sunny day. But the hymn writer gets it well in his amazing hymn which begins "Loved with everlasting love, led by grace that love to know, Spirit moving from above, you have taught me it is so." And then he gets into his second verse and he says, "Heaven above is softer blue and earth around is sweeter green, and something lives in every hue that Christless eyes have never seen.

And birds with gladder songs o'erflow and earth with deeper beauty shine since I know as now I know that I am his and he is mine." So I mean the Christian artist ought to be really jazzed about the art. The scientist as a Christian ought to be able to say they come out of the surgery and they don't just say, "We did a great job there." They say, "That was a great job, but God, you're an amazing God that you plumbed everything in such a way that we could do that, that you made it in all of its intricacy. You are worthy of my praise. Wonderful are your works."

Secondly, your thoughts are precious. So worthy of my praise and your thoughts are precious. How precious to me are your thoughts. It's almost a repeat of verse six, isn't it? "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it's high, I can't attain it." Now I think that David here is just referring to all the thought, if you like, that God has put into forming, fashioning, and framing his life. He says, "I can't even begin to imagine how you could put the universe together, how you could put all this together, how we're in the right position in the solar system, why we haven't frozen to death, why we haven't burned up, why we actually still spin."

The philosophers were always asking. Paul was a bright guy. You know how he answered it? He says in Colossians 1, "In him—that is in Christ, in the word, in God incarnate—in him all things hold together." The Psalmist is looking out and he says, "You know, I just can't grasp it all." And then notice how the section ends: "I awake, and I am still with you." Are we to assume that David actually having these big thoughts kind of drifted off to sleep and then he woke up and he said, "I better finish this. I awake, and I am still with you."?

I don't think so. I think it's open for discussion, but I think it's a little glimpse of the resurrection. After all, sleep is one of the metaphors that runs all the way through the Old Testament and into the New. "Don't worry," Jesus said of someone, "She has fallen asleep." "Don't worry," he says, "I'll take care of Lazarus. He's asleep. I go to wake him." I want to read this little phrase, "I awake and I am still with you" in light of First Thessalonians 4.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. When you fall asleep, you never know you're asleep until you wake up. That's what being asleep is. Ultimately for the Christian, you fall asleep in the arms of Jesus and you wake up and you're home. And what he's actually saying is as he's—remember he said, "If I go all the way up there, if I go all the way down there, if I go there, if I go there, already you're there with me because after all, think about it, you made me. You fashioned me. You've got it under control from the very beginning to the very end. All the bits and pieces."

Now here's my final thought. The word here for "precious" is a word that means "weighty" or "heavy". So I wrote down in my notes, I said, well, wait a minute, God, your thoughts are praiseworthy, your thoughts are precious, but your thoughts are pretty heavy. So let's do—because I want another P—so praiseworthy, precious, and puzzling. Puzzling. Or perplexing. Or painful. Because recognize that when we affirm the sovereignty of God in this way, we are acknowledging that Scripture affirms his sovereignty over all.

That this God sees the invisible, that he is the one who penetrates what to us is inaccessible, and he is the one who is operative, superintending every detail. And that this God is able to do everything that he chooses to do. And yet we live in a fallen world. That we live with brokenness, we live with pain, with suffering, with disappointment, with bereavement, and with death. Therefore, when we seek to affirm with David here, your thoughts are precious, you are praiseworthy, but God, your thoughts are puzzling to me. Because only you know the end from the beginning.

You realize how vitally important this is for the believer to acknowledge that God's sovereignty extends to our genetic code. Therefore, we have to be prepared to say, I don't know why this would be, I don't know how this works, and I don't like it. Your thoughts are painful to me. "All the days of my life were written in your book before one of them came to me." Now loved ones, you've got to understand that God cannot be sovereign over some things unless he's sovereign over all things.

And that is why he says, your thoughts are heavy. These are heavy thoughts, Oh God. This is not some light, superficial explanation of the universe that puts a spring in my step and allows me to dance through my days. No, this is through many dangers, toils, and snares. Jesus is helpful in this, isn't he? Jesus goes to the cross according to the eternal plan and foreknowledge of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And they find him in the Garden of Gethsemane and he says, "I am overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death."

He's not going, "Hey, yeah, I'm the propitiation for sin." No. "If there is any possible way." Well, if that is Christ and he is touched with the feelings of our infirmities, then all of our sadness, all of our questions, all of our disappointments, all of our failures may be gathered up in his embrace. Read the passage again for yourselves maybe today and think it out.

Bob Lepine: God has designed us and determined each of our days. That's a reassuring message about our sovereign God from Alistair Begg on Truth For Life Weekend. As Alistair mentioned, God reigns over all things, including science. In fact, you may have friends who believe that science somehow disproves the existence of God or maybe have a colleague who claims science proves that the Bible is irrelevant.

Many of these folks have never seriously considered the evidence for their beliefs. So today we're excited to offer a free audiobook titled, *Can Science Explain Everything?*. It's written by a scholar, an Oxford professor, John Lennox. He examines the writings of many scientists from Newton to Hawking concerning religion, the universe, God, and creation, and then makes a rational argument for how science and Christianity are, in fact, compatible.

As you listen, you'll gain a deeper understanding of the scientific worldview and the Christian worldview to show how in many places they align both historically and scientifically. This is a book that provides facts and evidence so you can have a meaningful discussion with unbelieving friends. It's also a great book to spur conversations with family members in high school or college who are learning science. In the process, it will deepen your faith in the Bible's authority.

Again, the book is titled *Can Science Explain Everything?* and for a limited time, you can download the audiobook for free at truthforlife.org/science. I'm Bob Lepine, and before we go, I want to wish every mother and everyone who is celebrating their mom a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. Join us next weekend when we'll learn how it's possible to hate wickedness without seeking revenge. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth For Life. Where the learning is for living.