THE HOUND OF HEAVEN
Psalm 139: 1-12
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A PRESBYTERIAN PSALTER - by Pastor Max A Forsythe |
Once at Presbytery we heard the very fine testimony of a young man who came to Christ in San Francisco! You know the city where so many people have lost their hearts to humanist causes. Well, this young man who has become a candidate with Great Lakes Presbytery actually left his heart in San Franciso when he began his journey into the faith in a church service which so disturbed him that he ran away all the way to New York City! For two years or more he avoided the Christian experience as far as he was able. But it time he came to Christ, returned home to St Louis to visit his father and now has turned up in our Presbytery as a candidate for the ministry.
Again, some years ago, I was sheparding one of my students into the faith with the help of one of his friends. All of a sudden he ran away to move in with a girlfriend in Indiana. Since his friend and I were able to get the address, we sent him a hand written copy of this psalm portion before you today. We added a final comment: "You can run, but you can't hide!" Within three weeks he came home for more lessons before running away again. Before he disappeared he claimed to have become a "reformed presbyterian", maybe even a "Calvinist" on a good day. Trouble was, there were too many bad days between the good. We encouraged him to go further and become a Christian. Some of you may chuckle, but there sometimes is a difference! There are indeed a few tares in amongst the wheat as there are in all biblical churches. But, I still hope and pray that what the Lord was beginning will one day be finished in a saving relationship based on Christ alone. Now, enough of the saints in the history of the church have unsuccessfully resisted the persistence of the Spirit that one translation of today's psalm portion bears the title "The Hound of Heaven".
Now there is also a very famous Christian poem of that name which I had always heard of and yesterday found in an obscure collection of religious poetry on my dusty shelves. In the stilted language of the late nineteenth century, Francis Thompson describe a frenzied hurrying and scurrying from the God of heaven who would save the soul of the frantic mouse hiding from the pursuing Spirit of our God. I have to admit that the finding of that poem was a disappointment to the years of expectation something more profound, more scriptural like the psalm portion before us. So let us turn and learn of the Spirit who seeks His own.
These first twelve verses can be divided into two parts. Verses one through six where we learn of the omniscience of the Lord our God. Then verses seven through twelve where His omnipresence is celebrated.In the common language, the two doctrines celebrated here would be explained as all knowing and all present nature of the God of creation. In other words, God knows everything there is to know and he is also in every place and every time.
Well should we fear this revealed God of heaven, he knows everything about us past, present and future. He knows who is day dreaming at this instant. He knows whose mind is wandering. He knows our worries, our cares, our wants and desires, He knows our sin. Knowing He knows us, how does David respond? And how should we respond? "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me". Spurgeon observes that "this infallible knowledge has always existed ... there never was a time in which we were unknown to God, and there never will be a moment in which we shall be beyond his observation." One of the cautions of dealing with computers and the internet is that even individual key stokes may be reconfigured. Advertisers and Sales people want to know what we are watching so they can better appeal to our wants and desires.
Years ago, I was briefly hooked by the Reader's Digest sweepstakes, for a few months I sent in every notification that a check was soon to be delivered in Rushsylvania. Before too long, Publisher's Clearing House had my name. The Post Office was making money both ways. Finally, I received a foreign letter concerning a Hanover Sweepstakes which supposedly dated back to the Napoleonic Wars. All I had to do was send in a small token amount of cash to participate. Providentially, that letter alerted me to the fact that more and more mailing lists of sweepstake suckers included my name. And I came to the Spirit's senses and bailed out of that whole tawdry scheme.
In the same way our computer antics can easily be reconstructed. There have been many cases where employees used in house corporate e-mail to blatantly flirt with other employees during business hours. The in house e-mail at school so far has been harmless nonsense. One person regularly broadcasts to everyone that they haven't received any e-mail for the day. And the sympathetic types respond. Every one knows that everything may be read and recorded so there is no complaining or whining yet. Some people in some places have been found out and lost their jobs for misuse of these systems. Big Brother or as some people in Washington jokingly say, Big Sister knows what you are saying and even if like Ollie North you erase your hard disk, someone can always come in, find the files and restore the necessary evidence.
Now, let's magnify that perceived problem a thousand times theologically. God knows what you are thinking at any time of day or night. He knows where your mind will wander. Look at verses two and three, He knows what we are doing and where we are going. Verse four should cause us to hesitate in wanting something we know the Lord doesn't want us to have.
Lately I have noticed something extraordinary in my life. For some years I have experienced a small personal tragedy after I have chosen to stray ever so slightly. In the last year the timing of those subtle events has shifted. A few weeks ago, I felt I had been very good and was feeling smug about having resisted some common temptations that come our way. All of a sudden I felt like I had been punished and I honestly didn't think I had done anything. Then it dawned on me, I had been wanting to do something and I was caught like one of my students who was once sent to time out for doing something they really didn't do. As they sought consolation from me I reminded them of the time we thought they had skipped school and we couldn't prove it! "Didn't you really deserve at least one day in time out?", I asked. Well, actually it was more like three days, that they really deserved if you counted the day they had gotten away with smoking in the rest room. So I assured them that the one day was fair and just punishment for a "crime" they had thought they had gotten away with.
By nature of His all-knowing, God is able to encourage us to behave so that His glory is better reflected to the world at large. See verses five and six? By the power of His Spirit we are kept as better people than we might really want to be. "You have laid your hand upon me!" Once in the photography dark room at our school, a student came into the lab thinking the instructor was not around. So he stepped into the dark room and lit up a cigarette. Out of the dark a hand reached out, and grabbed it right out of his mouth as the instructor whispered "boo" in his ear! Since his mother had to come in with clean clothes, the instructor decided not to write the student up for punishment.
Like that student, those who really belong to the Lord can try to run away but, David asks another essential question about the nature of the Hound of Heaven that unceasingly chases after us to claim us and use us as and for His own. "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?" Like that student you may often think hat "surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"? Why do you think so many clubs and bars are so dark, isn't it because there are games of chance, empty bottles too numerous to count, and entertainment not rated wholesome? Unfortunately all of those habits and enticements are becoming all too common and have become too easily brought into homes by cable, net and microwave. Yet, even by human standards, there are records that hopeful politicians must be wary of. Even by human standards the focus of many hearts may be exposed and shouted from talk radio. How much more ought we to fear the spiritual Hound of Heaven who knows us and tracks us wherever our sinful mind would take you!
Go back up to verse ten for some hope in the midst of this lusting after darkness. "even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." If we are His, He will find us, save us and hold us. May you all know the divine presence in your lives this moment, this day and until eternity. Because He comes, He comes to show you mercy and to claim you as His own. Praise be the Holy Spirit of our God, our King and our Lord. Amen.
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Resources Used: |
For Bo! |
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Kidner, Derek. |
Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Psalms. | |
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Spurgeon, C.H. |
The Treasury of David. | |
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Thompson, Francis. |
"The Hound of Heaven". | |
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IBS: The Holy Bible, New International Version (1984) | ||
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Psm 139a |
14 January 96 | |