The Rev. Frank Logue
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
January 27, 2002

It’s Me and You God
Psalm 139:1-17 

Victoria and I had an acquaintance when we were students at Georgia Southern named Leland Harasti. Once, we went to Leland’s house for a little get together of foreign language students. During the gathering, Leland went to turn on the TV. First, he uncovered the converter box from the cable company. But in doing so, Leland warned us that we were being watched.  Leland believed that the cable converter box was also used as a camera, so that Leland could be watched. He explained in some detail how he had learned of this through a book he had bought at the supermarket checkout line. Leland was absolutely convinced that his every move was being monitored whenever the cable converter box was uncovered.  

I found it interesting that he subscribed to cable TV anyway. Somehow it was a fair trade to Leland, because he knew the secret. Since he knew that he was being watched, he wouldn’t be caught off guard. He lived his life as if some great behind-the-scenes conspiracy was keeping tabs on his apartment. Leland was frustrating the ominous powers behind this plot. He only uncovered the cable box when he was watching TV. If there were some great conspiracy going on, all they would have to report on Leland was what he looked like as he sat in his Lazy-Boy watching football games and MTV. 

Would you live your life differently if some government plot had placed a camera in your living room? What would it change if you knew that your every move was being watched?  

That idea is, of course, connected to today’s Psalm. In verse 3, the psalmist writes, “You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.” Just as Leland thought the government was watching his living room, so God is watching us. 

In today’s portion of Psalm 139, we have a beautiful description of two characteristics of God. God is described as omniscient, or all knowing, and omnipresent, or ever present. God is inescapable. All our thoughts, all our actions, are known to God. That’s not a surprise. We all knew that, right? But, what does this mean to us? How should God’s knowledge of us change our lives? 

The secret sins we have are not secret to God. Whatever someone keeps hidden on the back of the closet shelf or under the mattress, God sees. Whatever someone does when he or she sneaks across town or even across the country on a business trip does not escape God’s notice. God is acquainted with all our ways. Even the parts of us we most want to hide from others are well known to God. But, of course, God doesn’t just see our secret sins. God sees the kindnesses we do that no one else knows about. The words of encouragement we give to a friend, or the money we loan to help someone out of a jam. No one else may know, but God sees all the good things we do as well. 

But, is this what God’s omniscience and omnipresence are all about? God is all knowing and ever present, but is that just to keep tabs on us? Is God just hanging around 24/7/365 making a list of what we do that’s bad or good? No. The psalmist points to something more. God isn’t merely watching our every move and listening in on our every thought. God cares. In verses 7-10, the psalmist writes,

“Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
And settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
Even there your hand shall lead me,
And your right hand shall hold me fast.”

Listen to the words,

“your hand shall lead me,
And your right hand shall hold me fast.” 

Wherever we go, God is not there to hover about as an observer. God is there to lead us. God is there to hold us fast. Even if we make our bed in Sheol, in hell, God is there. Even if we settle at the farthest limits of the sea, God is there.  

There are many ways that we can find ourselves on the far side of the sea, feeling like God cannot reach us. There are many times that people make their beds in hell. And yet, God does not abandon us. God wants to comfort us in our times of trouble. In Psalm 23, we read, “yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.” Even in the valley of the shadow of death, God comfort’s us. 

A professor of theology at my seminary found himself in a very dark place. His daughter died unexpectedly. One day while playing alone, she accidentally hung herself. Clearly not a suicide, it was very unfortunate accident. When he took to the pulpit to preach his little girl’s funeral, the theologian was still very much in grief for his daughter. Nonetheless he preached, “I have been to the bottom and found it firm.”  

“I have been to the bottom and found it firm.” When his daughter died, the theologian had cried out to God. And in his dark despair, God comforted the theologian. He was not left alone. God was there grieving with the theologian and his family in their loss. His loss was real and very painful. When he said that he had been to the bottom, he meant it in a way I hope I never have to experience it. But he had also found God’s presence even there in the belly of hell. 

God is omniscient—all knowing. God is omnipresent—ever present. So, when the bottom falls out of your life, God is there. When everything falls apart and you can’t see how you’ll ever put the pieces of your life together again, God is there. When tragedy strikes and life doesn’t seem to make sense any more, God is there. When you reach the bottom and cry out to God in prayer, God is there, and you too can proclaim, “I have been to the bottom and found it firm.” 

God’s omniscience and omnipresence mean that no matter where we find ourselves, God is there to help us, to comfort us. Psalm 46 says that, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” But God’s omniscience and omnipresence are more than comfort in trouble and they mean more than knowing our secrets, good and bad.

In the movie, The Truman Show, Truman Burbank lives a life that presents a distorted view of Psalm 139 in which omniscience and omnipotence are used for control. In the film, Truman’s whole life is broadcast to the world 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but Truman does not know he is being watched, at least not for a long time. But during the course of the movie, Truman decides that all is not right in his world. He can’t put his finger on it, but something is very wrong in his perfect world unto itself. Truman plans and carries out an escape to the farthest reaches of the sea. Truman slips out into the night, steals a boat and finds himself the next morning sailing across the sea. The TV shows producer Christof, has a God complex and tries using a storm, complete with rain, wind, thunder and lightning to prevent Truman’s escape. However, Truman has more to him than the producer realizes and Truman reaches the farthest limits of the sea when his boat pokes a whole in the side of the enormous set in which he has lived his whole life. This dramatic turn of events sets up the first conversation between Truman and the presumptuous director who fashions himself as the loving creator. Here’s a short scene from the movie’s end. 

[Insert 2:30 minute clip from the Truman Show’s final scene] 

Christof wants to control Truman. He says Truman has nothing to fear, but Christof has created and used Truman’s fears to keep him trapped on the set of a TV show. It is only here after 30 years of being manipulated by the TV producer that Truman learns something of the mind working behind the scenes in his life.

But Psalm 139 shows that God is not unknown to us, even if God’s thoughts are beyond our thoughts. In verse 17, the psalmist writes,

“How weighty are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!” 

God is beyond our full understanding. But God is not unknown to us in the way Christof was unknown to Truman. We may know God only in part, but we do know God. This is a Psalm about relationship. I can’t point to a single verse that tells about a relationship with God, because the relationship is throughout the verses we read. Not in one verse, but throughout the Psalm. The psalmist relationship with God is the foundation the Psalm is built upon. In every verse, we read the words “you” and “I.” Permeating the Psalm, ringing through every verse, is the relationship of the psalmist to God. Yes, the knowledge of God is “too wonderful” for the psalmist. The knowledge of God is more than the writer can attain. Yet, God is not passive. Rather than being some unknowable presence beyond the psalmist, God is actively involved in the psalmist’s life. God has been there with the psalmist from the mother’s womb.  

God is always present, all knowing. Our secret thoughts are known only to us and to God. So our relationship with God is deeper than any other relationship we have in our lives. And that is what Christianity is about at its core. It isn’t about following a religion. It is about developing a relationship. It is about getting to the “you” and “I” familiarity the psalmist has with God. You and I. You and I. You and I. It is about relationship. Whatever happens in this life, it’s you and me God. 

When we get to that point of You and me God, we’re in this together, we won’t fear God’s omniscience and omnipotence. Then we won’t have to worry about God snooping around our lives the way Leland feared the government was spying through his cable converter. Because God is not trying to manipulate you like the producer of the Truman Show. God is calling us all into relationship.  

Answering that call to relationship can take place in an instant as you accept Jesus as the Lord of your life (but that’s not the end, but the beginning). Our relationship with God is ongoing. That relationship shouldn’t be pushed off to Sunday mornings, or left for times of crisis. We each need to come to God every day in prayer and through studying scripture. We need to gather together each week and take part in the life of God’s church. We need to treat our relationship with God for what it is, the most important relationship we will ever have. And then we won’t have to wait for the hard times in our lives to feel the comfort of our Lord being close at hand.  

Amen.