My Mind Blowing Caretaker
Favorite Psalms Part 21
Psalm 139:5-12    9-15-2013
Summary: If you are a believer, God is omni-interested and attentive to you every moment in a personal way, laying His hand upon you. His knowledge of you, the more you learn about it, will blow your mind. And all this is not just from heaven. God will always, always be close by you with His life-giving, joy-producing presence. And because of the fact that He is self-sufficient, you will never lack anything you need to do His will and achieve His purpose for you, and your security and the outlook for your future can never be touched by any person, any event, any circumstance, any loss, or any threat.
Introduction
God Is Interested
Surrounds Me
God Is Personal
His Hand On Your Shoulder
What That Feels Like
Requires Knowledge
God Is Inscrutable
God Is Knowable
Why Me?
God Is Omni(favorably and personally)present
All Of God Exists In Every Place
Omnipresence Vs. Omniexistence
No Location Is Out Of Range
Wings of the Dawn and Far Side of the Sea
Never Completely Separated
No Such Thing as Alone
God Is Self-Sufficient
The Threat Of Nothing
Your Outlook Never Changes
Conclusion: What God Is ... To You
1:25 Questions

Psalm 139:1 O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. 5 You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, behold, you! 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 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, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. 19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Introduction
In this church there is one question that is more important to us than any other question - the question, "What is God like?" The most important commandment is to love God, and you cannot love someone if you don't know what is good and delightful about that person, so our primary goal around here is to increase our knowledge and experience of God. And you would have a hard time finding a place in Scripture more densely packed with truth about God and how to experience God than Psalm 139. It starts with the amazing fact that God takes an interest in His children.
God Is Interested
Psalms 139:1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue, behold, you know it completely O LORD.
That is where we left off last time. God takes an interest in every detail of our lives. But not just a distant interest. He is also close to us.
Surrounds Me
5 You hem me in-- behind and before
If you are a believer, you can not move a hair’s breadth backward or forward without bumping into God. God goes in front of you, preparing the path in front of you, and blasting into oblivion any lurking threat that violates His plan for you before your feet reach that place. And He goes behind you, blotting out the memory of your sins. He guards you against threats that would overtake you from behind. He guards you from the front, like a windshield, sheltering you from oncoming harm. He has you surrounded. His surrounding presence protects you from breaking out of God’s perfect plan for you. And not only does His encompassing presence shield you from outside threats, but also from internal threats - threats that come from your own heart. God protects me from the disaster of unrestrained self-determination, which, if it were allowed, would lead me to utter destruction. 
God Is Personal
His Hand On Your Shoulder 
And all this shielding and protecting is done in a very personal way. It is not like being protected by a tank or a bomb shelter or a bulletproof vest. Those are all impersonal things that don’t care about you. God’s protection of you is described so beautifully at the end of verse 5.
5 ... You have laid your hand upon me.
Picture yourself as a soldier in Israel's army in the time of David. You are advancing into hand-to-hand combat, and it’s not going well. All around you there are fewer and fewer Israelites and more and more Philistines. You are exhausted, you can barely even lift your sword, and you are fully expecting that any moment you will feel the thrust of a steel blade right through your body. But what you feel instead is a hand on your shoulder. You look over, and it's King David. He has got his sword in His left hand, cutting down the enemy all around you. But his right hand is on your shoulder, reassuring you and strengthening you and giving you courage. It is a very personal image. God is not like "the force" in Star Wars. He lays His hand upon you.
What That Feels Like
And one of the most important things you can ever do is learn what it feels like when God does that. And I assure you - it is something you can feel. Not physically, but if you know what this metaphor means, you can feel it, in your emotions, when He lays His approving, protecting, comforting hand of love on your shoulder.
And if you don’t know what I am talking about, think about the difference in what you feel when various different people put their hand on you. Some people, if they were to touch you, would make you feel uncomfortable. Other people, it doesn’t really mean anything. But aren’t there certain people whose touch can have a powerful effect on you? For me it’s my wife. There are times when I am about to go up and preach, and Tracy can tell I’m struggling - tired or sick or distracted or upset about something, and just before I go up she will just reach over and put her hand on me. Any time Tracy does that, without exception, it has a huge effect on my emotions. Any time she puts her hand on me it instantly gains 100% of my attention. And just as instantly it fills me with warmth and comfort and pleasure - especially if she does it right before I am about to do something hard.
So what does it feel like when God puts His hand on you? It is a sensation of being accepted by Him. It is an awareness that right now He approves of me. And it is not just a knowledge of that approval, but an enjoyment of it - an enjoyment that causes me to feel strengthened and encouraged and empowered and loved.
Requires Knowledge 
“So why are there so many Christians who never feel that?”
In many cases it is because they don't realize it is His hand. If Tracy touches me, but I am looking the other way and I don't realize it's her hand - I think it's someone else, then it won't have the same effect. I have to realize that it is her hand. Many people don't enjoy God's hand on their shoulder because they don't realize it is God who is touching them. When they experience blessings and pleasures and the ability to enjoy good things all through the day, they don’t interpret them as gestures of God’s love. When they have the ability to understand God’s Word or the ability to resist a temptation, or to use their spiritual gift or to respond to a hard situation in a godly way - they do not interpret those things as the hand of God being laid on their shoulder.
Ecclesiastes 5:19 when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work--this is a gift of God.
It is God laying His hand upon you. Enjoy it for what it is. It is a marvelous thing not only because of what you feel when it happens, but also in the confidence it gives you in what God feels toward you.
God Is Inscrutable
In verse 6 David is so overcome by what he has been saying about God that he has to stop and respond.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 
It is more than I can take in. It is beyond what I can appreciate. If I filled my brain to capacity with the study of this truth, I would not grasp it all. I am in over my head when I start thinking about how much attention God pays to me. It is as if someone said to you, “You’ve got one hour to explore Rocky Mountain National Park.”
You would look at the map and say, “There’s no way I can even scratch the surface.”
This is the unfathomableness of God. What is God like? He is interested in your life. He is personal - lays His hand upon you. And now, He is beyond understanding. 
Romans 11:33 ...How unsearchable You judgments, and You paths beyond tracing out! 
God’s ways and God’s wisdom and God’s knowledge and God’s love and everything else about God are unsearchable, unfathomable, inscrutable, incomprehensible, inconceivable, and beyond tracing out.
God Is Knowable 
Does that mean God is unknowable? Some people have gotten confused on this doctrine and have decided that God cannot be known at all. They say, “No, you can’t claim to know anything for sure about God because He is unknowable. If there is a God out there, He would be too big to be detected or known by us."
Not only is that wrong; it is self-refuting. When someone says you cannot know anything for sure about God, my question is, “Do you know that for sure?” If they are sure about that statement, then they are claiming to know something for sure about God (the fact that He is unknowable).
The unfathomableness of God does not mean it is impossible to know true things about God. If God has infinite power and infinite wisdom, surely He is capable of revealing true things about Himself. We can know a great deal of truth about God. The fact that He is unfathomable simply means we cannot figure out anything about Him that He has not revealed. But by definition we can know what God has revealed – that is what the word "revealed" means.
Although - even the things we do know about God, are limited in our depth of understanding. We do not know everything about anything. Every fact we learn about God is the tip of a giant, hidden, unknowable iceberg. And we cannot see the whole iceberg, but the tip that we can see is real, and we can know about that tip with accuracy and precision.
So the doctrine of the unfathomableness of God should not cause us to throw up our hands and say, “It’s no use trying to learn about God.” Just the opposite! It should fill us with joy because we will never run out of new things to explore. If you do not have enough time to fully explore every nook and cranny of Rocky Mountain National Park, that shouldn’t make you throw up your hands and say, “Let’s just go home.” It should make you say, “Let’s use every minute we do have so we can explore as much as possible!”
Why Me?
So what is it, exactly, that blows David’s mind so much that he has to stop and say, "This knowledge is just too wonderful and lofty for me"? The idea that God knows and pays attention to my every movement and every thought is easy enough to understand. That is not complicated. A child can understand that. Maybe the thing that was so astonishing to David was the “Why?” part of it. Why would an infinite God have genuine interest in a speck of dust on a speck of dust on a speck of dust in the universe?
Is God unfathomable and inscrutable? Yes, but that is not David's point here. His point is not just that God is inscrutable in general; his point here is that God's interest in me is inscrutable. It is inconceivable! With all that God has created, and with all His immense ability to observe and enjoy the most marvelous things in heaven and throughout the universe and on earth – it is astonishing beyond measure that He would have any real interest in such a speck as me – especially given that this particular speck has so provoked Him and dishonored Him and rebelled against Him! Why would He show so much interest in me when I have shown so little interest in Him?
Most of us have experienced what it is like when a simple, easily understood truth one day just explodes with meaning and astonishes us with God’s wisdom. That is what happened to David in verses 1-5, and so he has to just stop for a second in verse 6 and talk about how floored he was by all this. But by the time we get to verse 7 David is up and running again, and he is ready to look into another great truth about God.
God Is Omni(favorably and personally)present
7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, behold: you! 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 
All Of God Exists In Every Place
These verses have been used to prove God’s omnipresence - the doctrine that God exists everywhere at all times. That is another thing that is impossible for the human mind to conceive of. We could imagine that God is so big that He would take up all space, but that is not the same thing as being fully present everywhere. If God were just some massive creature that was so big that he took up all space, then in each particular place there would only be one tiny portion of God. So in the space where you are, maybe just a little fragment of his left ankle bone would be there. But that is not how it is. There is no place where only a portion of God exists. Not only is God in every place, but all of God is in every place. If you take a tiny little matchbox, or a BB, all of God in all His fullness is inside that BB at all times.
The pantheists say that God is just the sum total of all the parts of the universe. The trees are part of God, the mountains, the clouds, people - put it all together and you have God. That is false. God is not made up of parts like we are. God is a simple unity - no parts. Wherever God exists, He exists in all His fullness, which means He is witnessing everything that is happening everywhere firsthand.
Jeremiah 23:24 Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?" declares the Lord. "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" declares the Lord.
God does not just fill heaven and earth. He fills heaven and earth in such a way that He is aware of every single thing that ever happens. That means He is fully there in every place.
Omnipresence Vs. Omniexistence 
That is the doctrine that theologians call the omnipresence of God. That doctrine is true - God does most definitely exist in all places at all times in all His fullness. However, I think that doctrine is somewhat misnamed. It should be called the omniexistence of God. I say that because of the way the word "presence" is used in the Bible. In English, when we say that someone is present, all we mean is the person is there. But when you see the word present in the Bible, it means something more than that - more than just being there. The word translated presence in the Bible is the normal, everyday Hebrew word for face. So when the Bible says God’s presence was in the Holy of Holies, it does not just mean God existed in there. God exists everywhere. What it means is that place is where God’s face can be found. In other words, that is the place where God is available for personal interaction. So in these verses David is not saying, “No matter where I go, God, You exist in that place.” What he is saying is, “There is no place I can go where You will not turn Your face toward me in favor in a personal way.” The doctrine of God’s omniexistence is true, and it is a wonderful doctrine. But it is not what David is focusing on here. David’s point is not God’s omniexistence, but rather God’s omni-favorable-personal presence. Make sure that is also in your list of attributes of God. David is saying, “Wherever I go, God, I can personally interact with You as You turn Your face toward me. Wherever I go, I will never get so far away that I am out of reach of Your guiding, strengthening, presence.”
Some interpreters have read this and assumed that David actually wanted to escape God’s presence. They read this as a complaint - like David is tired of God always watching him and he wants to get away from God’s judgment. Is it true that it is impossible to escape God's judgment? Yes. 
Amos 9:2 Though they dig down to the depths of the grave, from there my hand will take them. Though they climb up to the heavens, from there I will bring them down. 3 Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, there I will hunt them down and seize them. Though they hide from me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them. 4 Though they are driven into exile by their enemies, there I will command the sword to slay them. I will fix my eyes upon them for evil and not for good."
So it is true that no one can escape God's judgment, but that is not at all what David is getting at here. This is not a complaint about not being able to escape judgment. It is a celebration that he is never cut off from God's kindness. And if you doubt that, just look at how David defines what God's presence means.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 
So the definition of what David means by God being present is God’s hand guiding David and holding David fast. Guidance and strengthening. David is saying, "It doesn't matter where I go - Your guiding hand and strengthening grace will always be immediately available to me." If you are a child of God, you can never escape God’s favorable presence to bless.
No Location Is Out Of Range
Now some of you might be scratching your head a bit at this point, because a few weeks ago I did a whole sermon on our responsibility to seek God’s presence. And I told you that if you do not seek Him with all your heart, you will not find His presence. Why does Scripture make it sound like it is so hard to find God’s presence in some places, and then here it says it is impossible to escape from God’s presence? Is that a contradiction?
No. The point of verses 7-10 is not that it is impossible to ever be separated or distanced from God’s presence. Rather, it is saying there is no geographical location that would put you out of range of His presence. Sin can put distance between you and God, but there is no place you can travel and no circumstance in life that will put any relational distance between you and God. In some places you cannot get a signal on your cell phone, but never are you out of range of God’s presence - which is a remarkable statement when you remember that David is writing here as an Old Testament saint. To approach God they had to come to the Tabernacle. That was how God had taught them to worship Him. But even then, the Old Testament saints understood that God’s presence could be experienced in some measure anywhere in the world. The Tabernacle was the primary center of God’s presence, but His favorable presence to bless was not restricted to the Tabernacle.
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there.
David did not have an airplane or a rocket, so he could not actually go upward very far. But even if he could, he would still be within range of God’s blessing.
8 ...If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
For some reason the NIV always leaves out the “beholds” in the Bible, but in the Hebrew it reads this way:
8 ...If I make my bed in the depths, behold: you!
No matter how high I go You are there, and no matter how low I go ... Oh look - there You are! The word translated depths here is SHEOL - the realm of the dead - the grave. God is with you even at the lowest point. Even on that day you make the transition from this life to the next - when no one else will be with you. On the day you die, your spouse will not be able to come with you. Your parents, your children, your best friend - no one can come with you when you pass over to the other side ... except one Person. Jesus Christ will be there with you the whole time – He will never let go of your hand. His presence will not disappear even for a spit second.
He will be with you in death, and He is with you in life - no matter how bad things get. He will be there on your darkest day. Even in the time of God’s most severe chastisement for your sin - even in the middle of your driest desert, God’s tender, gracious, life-giving, life-supporting, strengthening, encouraging, motivating, awe-inspiring, healing, upholding, guiding, enlightening, delightful, joy-giving, soul-satisfying presence is there supplying what you need.
Even if you traveled to hell itself. Hypothetically, if there were some way you, as a Christian, could somehow go into the lake of fire, you would be the only happy person there. You would be the only one there experiencing God’s favorable presence. God’s presence is so wonderful it can transform any place into paradise - including hell itself. The reason you could never be in hell, as a Christian, is because if you did go there, the moment you got there it would cease to be hell because hell is a place devoid of God’s favorable presence. And if you were there, God would be there with you, and it would no longer be hell. And if God’s presence is so good that it would make even hell itself a paradise, how much more this room! How much more that place in your life that feels so dark?
Wings of the Dawn and Far Side of the Sea
So David covers height and depth in verse 8, then in verse 9 it is east and west.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 
The dawn is in the east, the sea is to the west (when you are in Israel). The farthest extremes of east and west are not out of range. And this phrase, the wings of the dawn - it seems to be talking about riding on the rays of the sun as the sun comes up and the light shoots across the earth from east to west. Even if I were rocketing across the sky at the speed of light, if I looked behind me God would be gaining on me so fast it would look like I was standing still. In an instant He would be upon me, with His gracious, guiding, upholding right hand laid upon me.
For some of you it does not seem like that. It seems like you are alone in the darkness, and God has abandoned you. But to think that is to think like a child. If your father is with you in the room and someone turns off the light, that does not mean your father is gone. Just because you can't see him does not mean he’s not there. If you are a believer and you are crying out, "Where is God in all this?" the answer is He is right next to you. You are in His arms.
Never Completely Separated 
Now, as I said, the one thing that can actually separate you from God is sin. When we sin against God it does put relational distance between us and Him. However, if you are a believer, your sin never cuts you off completely from His presence. No matter how far down into sin you fall, if you are truly saved - you genuinely believe and are truly trusting the Lord Jesus Christ, there is some degree to which you are always experiencing some amount of God’s presence - even while you are sinning. It is never totally cut off. He turns away some, but never completely. We need to seek hard after Him to experience it in great measure, but every believer is always experiencing His presence in some measure. That is what it means in places like Psalm73:23 where the psalmist says to God, “I am always with You.” There is never a time when a follower of Christ who genuinely trusts in Christ is shut out of God’s presence altogether.
David said, “No matter how far I go east or west, You are with me.” But what about if God tells you to go east and you go west instead? If you want to know the answer to that just ask Jonah how that works. God told him to go east and he rebelled and went due west to run away. And he ended up at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. But the moment he let go of his rebellion and cried out to God for help from the bottom of the sea, how long did it take for God to rescue him with that fish? I don’t know how long Jonah could hold his breath, but it was less time than that, because Jonah didn’t drown. Even way out in the sea as far as Jonah could run from God, God was with him, ready to rescue him from his own folly as soon as he repented.
Even if, by some insanity, you wanted to flee from God’s guiding, upholding right hand, you couldn’t. Those who desire to escape my love generally find it pretty easy to do so. But there is nowhere we could ever flee from His love. 
No Such Thing as Alone
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ you are never, ever, ever alone! If you feel like you are alone, that is insanity. The definition of insanity is when what you perceive does not match reality. If you perceive the world to be one way, but the world you believe is there is not the real world, that is the technical definition of insanity. So if I ever feel lonely, that is insanity trying to encroach into my life. If I am tempted to sin because I am alone, or if I am wallowing in self pity because of loneliness, that is absurd. If I ever think I am all alone, that is a denial of the very nature of God. For the child of God, there is no such thing as alone. If I am in the farthest, most obscure corner of creation, the maximum distance from any human being, I would still be standing before the greatest, most massive Audience there is.
What a horrible calamity aloneness would be, were it possible. The most fear I have ever experienced in my life was when I was a kid and I got lost hunting. I got separated from Dad, I was totally lost, it was evening, it was extremely cold, and I knew I wouldn't survive the night, and so I was terrified. But spiritually there are a lot more severe threats than that all around us. If we were ever left alone we would be ravaged in our souls by the devil and his demons until we were eternally destroyed. And if you are not in Christ, that can happen to you. But it can never happen to a child of God, because our Father never leaves us.
God Is Self-Sufficient
So we have seen God’s omni-interest and omni-attentiveness to us. We have seen that He is personal and lays His hand upon us. We have seen His inscrutability and the unfathomableness of His love for us. And we have seen God’s omni(favorable and personal)presence. Then in verse 11 David brings up one more wonderful and fascinating attribute of God.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 
The Threat Of Nothing
This is the doctrine of God’s self-sufficiency. Notice the things that threaten us that do not threaten God. First, darkness.
11 Surely the darkness will hide me
Your Bible might say, cover me. The word literally means to bruise or crush. It is the word used in Genesis 3:15. So it is a strong term - the sort of thing a snake does to your heel and the sort of thing your heel does to a snake’s head. David is saying darkness can do that to us. Darkness can have a crushing effect on us.
Think about that. What is darkness? Nothing. Literally nothing. Darkness is not even something that exists. It is just the word we use to describe a situation where light isn’t there. And that is a threat to us. Without light we would all die.
That is how fragile we are. All it takes for us to be destroyed is nothing. No hostile power is required. We are such dependent beings - we depend on so many things in order to stay alive (air, water, light, warmth, food, rest, shelter), take those away, take me to a place where there is nothing - out in outer space somewhere, and I will instantly die.
I depend on so many things just to continue to exist. And not only do I have to have them; I also have to be able to see them. If all the light turns to darkness around me, I become terrified. It is not just children who are afraid of the dark. We are all afraid of the dark. We are all afraid of what we cannot see. What happens when they announce layoffs at work? You don’t know what is going to happen to you, you can’t see into the future, and so what happens? Fear. What happens when you feel a mass under your skin and you don’t know what it is? Fear. What happens if it is a blizzard and your spouse is hours late and hasn’t called? Fear. Why? Because of what you don’t know. We are all afraid of the dark. We cannot perceive what is going on, and so we are afraid. Sometimes literally - even in our own homes. Sometimes you are in your own house, and it is dark - middle of the night, you are home alone, and you can get spooked. If you turn on the light, what do you see surrounding you? All kinds of things designed to meet your needs - food, water, clothing, shelter - things for your comfort - couches, chairs. But turn off the lights, and fear returns. You can literally be surrounded with 1000 things designed to meet all your needs and keep you safe, but it is not enough for us to just be surrounded by them; we have to also be able to see them.
What weakness! Talk about fragile! We are so dependent on light. But God isn't.
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 
Darkness is not a threat to God, because He is His own source of light. Nothingness is not a threat to God, because He does not need anything. If all the air and water and food and light and warmth and everything else went out of existence right now, God would not be affected in the slightest. We could never survive on Pluto because it is such a hostile environment because of what is not there. But there is no environment that could be hostile to God. Pluto, the surface of the Sun, deep space - none of those environments would threaten God’s infinite, eternal blessedness in the slightest. To Him they are no different from the Garden of Eden - or heaven itself. Why? Because darkness is as light to Him. He is His own light. He is His own everything. Everything God needs is supplied by Himself. All of the infinite, unlimited, vast, unfathomable riches He enjoys are supplied 100% by Him. The riches I enjoy are supplied 0% by me. If you subtract external, foreign blessing from me I am left with nothing. Subtract external, foreign blessing from God and there is no change at all, because there is no external supply of blessing to God. He is utterly self-sufficient. 
Your Outlook Never Changes
Think about what that means for you. He is your Caretaker! He is your Provider and Protector. What a great thing to go through life with a Caretaker who generates all His own supply of everything! A caretaker who depended on something to supply him might end up being of no use if something cuts off his supply. But if your Caretaker is the source of all supply, then not even the worst circumstance in the world makes any difference at all in your blessedness. Even the most crushing darkness in the most horrible place makes no difference at all in the outlook for your future. If God is your Caretaker, that means the outlook for your future is unchangeable. If the stock market crashes, your future outlook is unchanged. Think about it - as a Christian, what was your hope for the future before the stock market crash? It was an infinitely rich and generous Father in heaven who supplies all His own gifts and who has promised to lavishly care for you. Now after the stock market crash what are you left with? - an infinitely rich and generous Father in heaven who supplies all His own gifts and has promised to lavishly care for you. Lose your job, find a tumor in your body, lose all your retirement savings - your future portfolio is unchanged. Even if the worst imaginable disaster happens - even if the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, that is not even the beginning of a challenge for God. 
Conclusion: What God Is ... To You
One reason Psalm 139 is such a favorite is that not only is it packed with marvelous truths about what God is like, but it is so personalized - what is God like to you? But again, none of this applies if you are not genuinely born again. So if you have been going through the motions, I want to implore you - there is no reason to wait any longer to give your heart completely to God. Are you going to have to give up some things? Turn your back on sin? Yes. Is it going to cost you? Yes. But nothing you have to give up will compare in the slightest to what you will gain. If you repent of your sins and place your full trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, God will be omni-interested and attentive to you every moment. God will be intensely personal, laying His hand upon you. God's knowledge of you, the more you learn about it, will blow your mind. It will be unfathomable. And all this is not just from heaven. God will always, always be close by you with His life-giving, joy-producing presence. And because of the fact that He is self-sufficient, you will never lack anything you need to do His will and achieve His purpose for you, and your security and the outlook for your future can never be touched by any person, any event, any circumstance, any loss, or any threat.

Benediction: Romans 11:33-36 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34"Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" 35 "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
1:25 Questions
1)	How often do you consciously experience the hand of God being laid on you? What prevents it from being more often?
2)	When are you most prone to the insanity of thinking you are alone?
3)	What darkness in your life is most frightening? Ask the group to help you think of some truths about God that turn that darkness to the light of day.