I invite you to turn with me again tonight to Psalm 139, Psalm 139 as we continue our brief series on this psalm. We want to read together tonight the first 18 verses, the text being verses 13 through 18 of this psalm. Psalm 139, beginning at verse 1 as we give our attention to the Word of God. O Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and 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 know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in behind and before. You have laid 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 the heavens, 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 hold me fast. If I say, surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night 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 my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am 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 one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, over most of our lifetimes, we would have to admit that the advances that mankind has made in technology can be measured in leaps and bounds. Think of space exploration. We're far beyond the moon. We don't mess with the moon anymore. Think of the advancement in the technology of automobiles in the past hundred years, or even in travel altogether. Or we can consider electronics, or that which we now fondly know as the World Wide Web, or even robotics, which have replaced many humans on many assembly lines. Computer technology is also amazing. That which used to take up rooms of space now sits on your lap. Indeed, technology has made great strides, but there is one thing that man will never, ever be able to invent or create, and that is another man. No matter how hard we try, we will never be able to duplicate the most wondrous creation of all, and that is human life. Of course, we all know that medical researchers try, and God has given them the technology to play with genetics, But in truth, only God can give life and form and substance to man. Now again, as we turn our attention back to Psalm 139, we find that David confesses this very fact. Remember, in verses 1-6, David speaks about God's perfect knowledge. He has searched and he knows David. He knows everything there is to be known about David. And then in verses 7-12, David speaks about God's presence. He is always with David. There's not a place where David can go where God is not to be found. And now in the text for tonight, David turns his attention back to God's knowledge, but this time in relation to God's wondrous work of creating David. And this points now to God's omnipotence. His power, boys and girls. He is all-powerful. It's clear that God is able to search and know David. Because God made David. God planned David. And this includes the fact for us that God planned us and all of our days before He even made us. In that light, and in connection with these verses from Psalm 139, we hear this Word of God, the believer's confession that He is planned by God. And this plan is, first of all, seen in God's detailed creation of man. Secondly, this plan is reflected in God's numbering of man's days. And then finally, this plan is expressed in God's continuous thoughts toward man. Now again, if you recall, we talked in verses 1-6 about the fact that God knows what we think and what we say even before we think it and say it. God knows all things, even about every one of us. And He knows all things perfectly and completely about us. But it shouldn't be a surprise to us that God knows all of these things. After all, He made us. Each and every part. And David confesses here about the detail with which God made us. In verse 13, he begins by saying, For you created my inmost parts. I believe David is speaking about his insides, his heart, his kidneys, his organs, and everything else that is inside of him. God didn't simply arrange everything in David, but He made everything in David. But this also includes those things that you cannot see, those things that cannot be surgically removed, we might say. It includes His intellect, His emotions, His mind, His soul, His thinking capabilities, all those kinds of things. Everything that makes each one of us tick. And all those things that make each one of us a little different from the next person. God made all of these things. And this is why it should be no surprise to us that God knows our secret thoughts. He gave us the ability to think just as an inventor knows his invention inside and out. Like a robot, for example. Boys and girls, the inventor knows each function that the robot will perform. And he knows exactly which electronic impulses will cause the different functions to perform. He knows the robot inside and out. And make no mistake, God knows each one of us inside and out. He knows why and how we think. He knows how our emotions work. And of course, He knows how our bodies function. He should. He made all of these things. David says, for you created. In other words, it wasn't Mother Nature. It wasn't evolution. It wasn't by chance. It wasn't by lab experiment or anything else. But it was you and only you, O God, who made me, David says. But not only did He make all of our individual components, but indeed, He arranged them all. He put us together in such a way that every part would perform its function and all the parts would work together for the benefit of the body. David says it this way, You knit me together in my mother's womb. Now we know that knitting and needlework is detailed work. It's an art or a craft that we do with our hands. And I would think that it involves good eyesight if we want our pattern to be right. Our great, our awesome God does this kind of detailed work when He makes every new person. And David says that He does it in the womb. The womb is considered the place of secrecy and darkness. You remember from verses 11 and 12 of this psalm that David says that to God there is no difference between the dark and the light. The darkness is as light to God. And therefore, beloved, it's a waste of time to try to hide from God in the dark or any other place for that matter. If you're thinking about it, forget it. But God does His detailed work in this place of secrecy and darkness. He can see in the womb clearly. It's not dark to Him. In fact, when God knit each of us together in our mother's wombs, he could see us perfectly as if there was a spotlight shining on us. Beloved, this is awesome stuff. And it's clear that David felt this way as well. In verse 15, he continues to talk about God's work in the womb. But first, there's a slight intermission. In verse 14, David breaks into praise, breaks out into praise to God. Again, throughout this psalm, David has been talking about the greatness of God, about His knowledge, about His reassuring presence, and now about His power and work of creating man. David builds and builds and builds like pressure, building up in a pressure cooker. And then all of a sudden, David explodes in praise. He says in verse 14, I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. What a statement. That's quite a confession. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. David realizes that his construction, his anatomy, is way beyond his comprehension. And we have to admit that even the most intelligent of medical researchers, no matter how much we know about the forming of the body in the womb, yet this is still way beyond our comprehension. The life there inside that womb. And the knitting together of that life. Ecclesiastes 11 verse 5 says, As you do not know the path of the wind or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things. David says fearfully. Now again, he's not talking about fear in the sense of being afraid. He's talking about fear in the sense of awe and amazement. He's amazed at how God has put him together. It's as if he is saying, Wow, this is great. Look at what my body can do. I can walk. I can talk. I can move. I can throw a ball. I can feed myself. I can breathe. My heart beats all by itself. And it all started in my mother's womb. David says this is wonderful. Remember from verse 6 that the word wonderful is used in the Bible to describe deity. To describe God. David says, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. That is, I am made by God. Only he could do this kind of work. You see, David had a habit of breaking out in praise to God. He did it here in verse 14. And in reality, he did it in verse 6 if you look back there. And if you read the Psalms closely, you find many other places where David breaks out into praise. Meditating about the greatness of His God made David want to worship and praise God. And beloved, we shouldn't be any different. Just thinking about God and what He has done and what He will continue to do should move us to break out in praise. To say with David, your works are wonderful. What that means, beloved, we are to stop and take the time to meditate on the greatness of our God. When we look at a flower, or at the blue sky, or the many stars at night, or at each other, or when we look at a newborn baby, we should be awestruck at what God can do. Boys and girls, think of it this way. When you scrape your elbow or your knee, it hurts for a day, a stab forms, but before you know it, it's gone. And you may think that that's a bit of an odd example, but think about it this way. In a lifetime, even for some of you, in your short lifetimes, you have skinned your elbow or knee, the same one, over and over and over and over again. Even now, if you were to look at your elbow or your knee, if you don't have any scrapes on it, you see that the same elbow or knee that you have scraped up before is perfect. Over and over and over again, uncountable times in a lifetime, God heals those same scrapes. It's amazing, isn't it? But think about an unborn child in the womb. That's a fearful thing. It's an amazing thing. Again, we don't really know what's going on in there. But God does. A mother feels the movement. She feels the kicking. Even at times, she can tell that the baby is hiccuping. And then the birth of that child. It's an awe-inspiring thing to behold. And it must be awe-inspiring. We must not take it for granted. Your works are wonderful. All Your works, O Lord. I know that full well, says David. Unlike unbelievers, David knew this and he confessed it. He was not afraid to let the whole world know. In verses 15 and 16, David returns to talking about his being formed in the womb. He says, my frame was not hidden from you when I was made in a secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. Now David talks about his frame which I take to mean his bones, his skeleton, the support of his body as it forms in the womb. And again, David is driving home the fact that God is in control. Nothing is hid from God. Now of course this isn't true when man crafts something. If you're an artist or a craftsman of some sort. You need to have the material you're working with right in front of your eyes in order to form and make something. But God doesn't. He does His work in the secrecy of the womb, in the depths of the earth, as David calls it. Beloved, David's language is beautiful. And with the detail and care that God took to make David, it's clear that David was planned by God. We all, each and every one of us, were planned by God. Each of us with our physical and emotional differences, those things that make us each unique, were planned by God. And He made us perfectly according to His plan for us. He made no mistakes. Oh, we look around, we see mistakes in others. When we look in a mirror, we see mistakes in ourselves. No. God made each one of us perfectly according to His plan for us. David says, When he was woven together in the depths of the earth, God's eyes saw his unformed body. Again, here we think of weaving or needlework like embroidery where threads are skillfully interwoven together according to a plan to make a perfect design. That's what God did with you and me. Our whole body, our veins, our muscles, our nerves, our organs, our tissues, our arteries, everything else was interwoven together by God perfectly. It's no wonder that David is amazed. He even adds that God's eyes saw His unformed body in contrast, I believe, to His frame. And here David confesses that from the very first moment of conception, God knew Him. In the original language, the words unformed body literally reads, embryo. The embryo has no specific shape, but God knows it and God knows who it will be. and He is the one who gives it shape and form. People of God, I hope all of this does something to you. I really do. Each time you look into a mirror, you must be amazed at the detail and care that God used to create you. He planned what you are, how you should look, how you should walk, the color of your hair, everything. You were created in His image, and your body is a temple of the Lord. And this should make us think twice about complaining how we look. I'm not saying that we shouldn't take care of this temple. We are supposed to. But I'm talking more about changing things about ourselves that ought not be changed. Things that we want to change because of our vanity. Things that we don't like. Things that ought not to be changed. Ephesians 2 verse 10 says, For we are God's workmanship. Beloved, God knows us perfectly because He planned us, He made us, and because God became man Himself in the flesh. He is perfectly acquainted with man through His incarnate Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus became completely human, physically, emotionally, biologically, yet He was perfect in every way. He lived that perfect life without sin. He lived that life for us that we couldn't live for ourselves. But that's not all. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as God, not only created us physically, but through His perfect life, death, resurrection, He recreates us. He redeemed us, making us right with God the Father. He has given to His people a spiritual heart transplant, new birth, and given to us that perfect, eternal life. the fact that God has planned us can be seen in His detailed creation of you and me. But this is also reflected in God's numbering of man's days. David says in the rest of verse 16, All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Now this verse makes it clear that God planned how many days of life each one of us are to have. And He had this planned even before any of us had that first day of life in the womb. did you catch that in the womb we believe that life begins at conception although David probably had no idea about abortion we cannot consider these verses without thinking of the abortion movement it's clear to me that David supports the anti-abortion movement here in this psalm it's clear that the unborn child is so much more than a piece of tissue like the abortion rights advocates would have, you and I believe. To them, the unborn child is not a living being and it's nothing more than the personal property of the mother to do with whatever she pleases. This is sick. And it's wrong. That unborn child is a living being created by God for God's glory. And listen again. David says, God created His inmost being. God knit Him together in His mother's womb. God made him fearfully and wonderfully. Beloved, God owns every unborn child, not the mother. We have no right to tamper with God's property in that way. It is the Lord who gives, and the Lord who takes away, not man. And therefore, as Job says, blessed be the name of the Lord. God planned the number of our days and the details of each day. In Jeremiah 1, verse 5, the Lord says to Jeremiah, Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. God knows what we are going to be and what we are going to do even before He makes us. And again, this is hard for us to understand, especially some of the college kids here tonight who you don't even know what you're going to do yet. You're struggling with that decision, but God knows. But what a comfort to know, especially as Christians, that life is not in any way by chance, but is planned by God's fatherly hand. David says that all these things were written in God's book before one of them came to be. God has a commentary on David's life, and He has one on your life and on my life too. And in that book, He records everything. He records our thoughts and our words and our actions, our good days, our bad days. Everything about us is recorded in God's book. We read about that book in different places in Scripture. For example, Psalm 56 and Psalm 69. Also in Exodus 32, where Moses is pleading for forgiveness for the Israelites, and he says that if God will not forgive them, then blot His name out of God's book. In Revelation, we read numerous times about the book of life. Congregation Jesus' earthly days were also numbered. And again, God numbered them long before Jesus was born as a baby in Bethlehem. In Genesis 3, verse 15, God speaks of our Lord's crucifixion as well as of our salvation when He says, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike His heel. Jesus crushed the serpent's head when He conquered over sin, death, and hell on the cross. And at the same time, He brought His own salvation. How anyone could even remotely think that our lives take place by chance is simply beyond my comprehension. God planned the number of our days long before we took our first breath and He knows exactly how many days each of us has left. Now, sometimes we're not comfortable talking about this, huh? But it might be a half a day. It might be one day. It might be a week. A year, maybe 20 years. We don't know. And that's not our concern because God knows. And you know what? He will not give us one more day than He has planned. Neither will He cheat us out of one day that He has planned. Our concern is that we are ready when that last day comes. But there's one more thing that we need to consider here. David's confession that he is planned by God is expressed in God's continuous thoughts toward David. In verses 17 and 18 we read, How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. God's thoughts toward David or about David are too numerous to count. In the Bible, the expression grains of sand like stars in the sky means that something is uncountable. Basically, God thinks about us non-stop. There is never a time when we are out of God's thoughts. David calls God's thoughts precious. This means that God's thoughts are valuable and dear to David. David considers them a cherished possession. He doesn't resent the fact that God thinks about him constantly. Instead, it's a comfort to him. Just like God's presence and God's knowledge of Him were comforting to Him. A refuge for Him. Many people today would consider this an invasion of their privacy. That God knows everything about them and that He's always thinking about them. But it's not. God created each and every one of us and we belong to Him. And then David says, when I awake, I am still with you. A simple phrase, but a beautiful phrase if you stop to think about it. This brings real comfort. Pointing to the fact when we are asleep, so often God is not in our thoughts. Even in the daytime, we get preoccupied with the things of life, with the details of the day, things that are going on around us. We don't take time to think about God. In fact, we outright forget about Him. We forsake Him, which is a sad thing. In Psalm 46, verse 10, the Lord says, Be still and know that I am God. But God never forsakes us. Boys and girls, again, think about sleep at night. Even when we close our eyes in sleep for the night and for a number of hours, we are unconscious and totally unaware to everything that's going on around us, Even to God, God never stops thinking about us. In fact, when we wake up in the morning, we have the assurance of knowing that while we were asleep, there was never a second that God was not thinking about us. He has not taken so much as a coffee break. In Psalm 121, it says, He never slumbers nor sleeps. Beloved, no parent can even give that kind of care to their own children. But God gives to us second by second, moment by moment, care. Our Lord is thinking about us even at this very moment. How do we know? Because Jesus said so. In John 14, Jesus said, In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you I am going there to prepare a place for you. And He said, And surely I will be with you always to the very end of the age. At this very moment, Jesus is thinking about us as He prepares our rooms. He promised to be with us always. Beloved, these verses tell so much. They are packed with comfort, at least for the child of God. If you believe that God planned your life and has all of your days mapped out, then you have no reason to worry about today or tomorrow. You have no reason to be anxious about today or tomorrow. It doesn't mean that we go out and are irresponsible. We are called to live in the way that God has commanded us to live. As responsible people of His. But we don't have to worry. We don't have to be anxious about today or tomorrow. You see, apart from Jesus, the unbeliever's future is also planned. And it's far from comforting. God has prepared the eternal lake of fire for the devil, his angels, and all who follow him, it's only through Jesus Christ that you can have the comfort of God's salvation plan. But indeed, it is through Jesus Christ that any who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ can have that comfort of God's salvation plan. Again, the God David exalts is a mighty fortress. And for those who believe in Him, they can say with confidence, My salvation is secure with Him. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, once again, we are so grateful for the instruction that You have given to us in Your Word and especially in Psalm 139. As we have considered over the months your love for us, as we have considered the teaching of John in 1 John, and how you have an intimate relationship with your people. Now to consider your greatness, your majesty, your power, to consider who you are, we stand amazed, again, that the one and only God of all time, of all the universe, should be our God, should call us to be your people. Father, may we be comforted each and every day, each and every evening as we lay our heads down and sleep, knowing that you are with us. And as we open our eyes in the morning to a new day, to know that you have never left our side, that you have cared for us perfectly and completely. Father, we thank you for who you are. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray these things. Amen. Thank you.