Funeral: "Reflections from Psalm 139"

FUNERAL MEDITATION: "REFLECTIONS FROM PSALM 139" (Psalm 139:1-10)

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2001

Where below you read "the deceased" Pastor Manuel

inserted the name of the individual.

When I visited with the deceased, I would often ask if he had a favorite Bible passage that I could read. He usually left the choice to me, saying that he liked them all. As I wondered what passage to use in my meditation today, I asked his daughter if I could borrow the deceased's Bible, thinking that he might have marked a passage I could use. You can tell a lot about a person by looking at what he marks in his Bible. What I discovered was not much help, not because the deceased did not mark his Bible, but because he marked it so much. It was testimony to the time he spent reading God's word, testimony to the priority God had in his life. I settled on Ps 139, a section he marked completely and, as I read it, I understood perhaps why he found it so significant.

 

In Ps 139, David offers some reflections on his relationship with God. What impresses the biblical author is how much God knows. "In particular," he says...

 

I. God knows me (Ps 139:1-4).

Ps 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.

That God knows us is not news. Omniscience is part of being God. What amazes David is the detail of God's knowledge, and that He is even interested. The psalmist says...

A. He knows my schedule.

He is aware of every moment, however common or casual. He knows "when I sit and when I rise." David also says...

B. He knows my thoughts.

If you live with someone, you become familiar with how that person thinks, and you can even begin to predict it. My wife often knows what I'm thinking but not always, and only when we are together, not long distance. God, however, never misjudges, and He can "perceive my thoughts from afar." The psalmist says further...

C. He knows my activities.

He misses nothing, even what I think no one notices. God knows not just some of what I do but "all my ways." Finally, David says...

 

D. He knows my words.

Some people's minds work so fast, they see where you are going in conversation and can finish your sentences before you do. Yet, no matter how good they are at this, they cannot finish every sentence. God, according to David, can anticipate my every word, "completely."

 

There are people familiar with bits and pieces of our lives, but no one knows everything about our schedule, thoughts, activities, or words. Who would want to? Who would care to know? That God knows and tells us so, demonstrates not only His power but His interest. He cares about every aspect of our lives.... Just as God knew David, in the same ways He knew the deceased—his schedule, his thoughts, his activities, his words—everything about the deceased, and He cared about every aspect of the deceased's life.

 

Along with God's omniscience comes another aspect of His nature that works to our advantage, because the second thing David finds impressive is that...

 

II. God keeps me (Ps 139:7-10).

Ps 139:7 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, you are there. 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.

David is speaking about God's omnipresence, His ability to be everywhere at once, that no area of creation is beyond His reach or outside His jurisdiction. It is not that David wants to escape from God. Quite the contrary, for he says about God...

A. He is my companion.

Friends and family accompany us, but not always and not everywhere. God alone is a constant companion. "Wherever I go," David says, even to the most remote areas, "you are there." Furthermore...

B. He is my help.

Even if I travel to places I have never been before, regions far from home and unfamiliar to me, "your hand will guide me [and] hold me."

 

There are people who are with us and help us along much of life's journey, but there is a limit to where they can go and what they can do. God has no such restrictions. He is always with us and ready always to help us wherever we go, if we put our trust in Him.... Just as God kept David, in the same ways He kept the deceased—He was his companion and his help.

 

Those of us who knew the deceased were familiar with different aspects of his life—from farming to construction, running a motel to selling religious literature. Some people accompanied him and helped him along the way, even as he accompanied and helped others. Yet there is one who knew him and kept him best, the same one who knows and keeps him still.

 

You can tell a lot about a person by what he marks in his Bible. The deceased marked Ps 139 because David's reflections about God paralleled the deceased's relationship with God, enabling him to echo confidently with the psalmist: God knows me and God keeps me. It is an assurance the deceased now realizes fully, the ultimate fulfillment of this psalm—eternal life in the presence of his great God.

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