LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH
SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 17 JANUARY 2021
PSALM 139 VERSES 11 - 18
In Psalm 139 we get a wonderful and beautiful picture of God. We see that God is revealing his mind, his very thoughts to the people of Israel. In this revelation we see God's heart towards you and I. God is here and he is speaking to us. The people in Jeremiah 29 have rebelled and rejected God's word and have been taken captive to Babylon. Maybe they feel abandoned, that no-one understands the situation they are in. God tells them they are not far from his thoughts. He is thinking of them all the time. God's thoughts to his people was to give them a promised future. We see through the scriptures something of the arm of God when he brought his people out of Egypt. Then we seen the finger of God in giving the commandments to Moses. We are reminded that no man could look on God's face. Now we see God's mind. Psalm 139 verses 17 and 18. The Psalmist gives this note of praise for God's thinking towards him. Psalm 8 "what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou shouldest think of him." David realised that the Lord knew all about him, despite all the flaws in his life when he let God down and failed him. Remember God visited you right where you were in your fallen rebellion and he saved you. That is how he is coming to his own people in Babylon.
Does this not bring to us a sense of praise today? To know God is thinking of us even at this time. The Children of Israel were delivered by God's mighty hand. God brought them through the wilderness, not by the way of the Philistines even though that was shorter lest they would see the battle and want to turn back. God was thinking of them and their future. God is thinking of you today. Psalm 139 verse 17. How precious are you to God that he would think of you. John 14 as Jesus looked at his followers, he knew how their hearts would respond when he went to Calvary. He knew he had to leave it all behind, that he would die to save them from their sins. He told them "let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you ... that where I am there you might also be." Jesus knew there would be sadness in the days ahead. Remember when Jesus looked out over Jerusalem, he knew what would happen in the coming days - that Jerusalem would be invaded, the people would be slaughtered, buildings crushed and Jesus wept for that coming time.
Notice also how precious are those thoughts. The Psalmist realised that God was thinking of him personally. This was God the creator who spoke the word and everything came into being. The great creator. The great sustainer. How precious to think that the God of creation would think of me and you. That God would send his son into this world just to die for us. Imagine this people in Babylon who had drifted from God, turned their backs on him yet God said "you are still on my mind". Maybe that is an encouragement to you today. You are on God's mind today. God hasn't given up on us. Imagine the prodigal son - he made a choice when he asked for his inheritance early. He took that inheritance and went out to a far country and spent it all. He had a really good time but ended up feeding pigs. He had no food, no money in his pocket, no friends. Somehow in his heart he thought of his father. He decided to go back to his fathers house. When he came home he found a father standing waiting for him. He loved him so much. He was never far away from his father's thoughts, not for one second. Remember how the Lord told John in Revelation about the seven churches - in Laodicea they were neither hot nor cold but if only they would repent because he was standing at the door waiting for them to open it again and let him back in. They were still on his mind.
The thoughts were also personal - verse 17 "how precious are thy thoughts unto me." I don't know how you stand spiritually speaking, the difficulties you are going through but God knows your personal thoughts. The Psalmist realised the preciousness of his thoughts because they were so personal. In Jeremiah 29 we read that God wanted to give his people an expected end. In Psalm 137 we read "by the rivers of Babylon there we sat down when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps in the willows in the midst thereof." God promised them a future. Israel has a future one day in the end days - we seen that when in 1948 Israel was established as a nation. Remember he is thinking of you and your future. That is why God's word is precious. "Cast your care upon the Lord for he cares for you." "Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you." Isaac was a young man who ran into a difficult time - Genesis 26. There was a famine in the land and Isaac planned to go down to Egypt but God told him to remain where he was and he would see him through. Years later Jacob was faced with the same situation and he was reluctant to go to Eygpt. He knew there was food available in Egypt, his sons had already been there and received some. In Genesis 46 God came to him and said "fear not to go down to Egypt for I will there make of thee a great nation" God worked in those circumstances for Jacob. Remember Elimelech in the book of Ruth. He had a decision to make - to stay in Bethlehem or get out to Moab because of the famine in the land. He received no instruction from God and went down with his family to Moab. His whole family were wiped out as a result. Job in the Old Testament lost his family, his herds and flocks and his health. His wife came in and tells him to "curse God and die". His 3 friends gathered to encourage him. Job said "but he knoweth the way that I take." God has it all worked out for us. He knows the way we take today. God will not forsake and abandon us today.
The thoughts God has towards us are plentiful.
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