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Discovering God Through the Psalms: Designed with an Eternal Touch
Psalm 139:13-24
The Design of Our Lives
From Psalm 139 we discover that God that He has a special design for each human being. Come with me now and let us explore how God in eternity plans for us in time. God’s special design for our lives required three major items. The thrid and last point is below: namely, we are crafitly designed by the hand of God – Psalm 139:16.
3) Purpose & Meaning (Ps 139:16)
“Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Thy book they were all written, The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.” (Psalms 139:16).
God has marvelously created us. God has specially designed us. But our understanding must go one important step further. We must understand that whenever God makes things, He does it with a purpose. If God made a person in His own image, then there is a reason for it. God’s purpose for man is intricately connected to his creation and design.
We find the same thing with man. If we see a building, whether it is old or new, tall or small, a skyscraper or a hut, we understand that there are three essential items for that thing to be built. The forming requires power and resources needed to complete it. Then there is the organization - the way everything is associated: this is the design. Lastly, we find the purpose. And perhaps this is the most important.
If a man does not have a reason to build, then why should he? There are reasons behind this push of energy and resources. We can understand these elements because we have been made in the image of God. We duplicate His ways. Yes, we are greatly inferior, however, the pattern of power, plan and purpose or the creation, design and the goal are still clearly seen.
Not only does God plan out our days, but our ways are made accountable to Him. Evolution teaches that man is not at all responsible for his behavior. God teaches the opposite. God has a book and our bodies and souls are fully accountable to Him. Denial doesn’t change things. If God made us without purpose, then it doesn’t matter how we spend our time. But if He has given us time, money, riches and gifts, then we are certainly fully accountable to Him. Even our days are ordained before Him.
Application: Life is in God’s hands.
* We should never consider suicide. It is taking our own life in our hands rather than trusting God to help us. Suicide is defined as murder of one’s own life.
*On the other hand, we should also learn how to rightly look to God for direction in our lives. We often are trying to discern our purpose in life. But we need to go one further step. We need to ask God to reveal His purpose for our lives.
God is the almighty designer with a full understanding of man’s place in His eternal purpose. This is totally different from evolution who would state man is missing parts (evolution - growing), full of inconsistent parts (remember the tonsils were left over?) and meaningless (just another blob). Mankind was designed in eternity. God’s goal was perfectly reached in His creation. After God created the man and woman, what did He say? He said it was “Good!” God’s goal was not just to have a Mr. & Mrs. America body of imaginable design, but a design that would enable us to complete His work in our lives. His work is the purpose for which we live. But the good news is even better. We often quote Ephesians 2:8 and 9. They are great verses. Listen also to verse 10.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
God has caused a recreation within our lives; He has given us a spiritual new life. This is what we call the redemptive plan. The evil one wants you depressed so you will feel as if you cannot do God’s will. I am not denying that there is often an actual chemical depression. The real issue is that this depression confuses us to what is true and right which leads us along the path to normalcy. The real problem is our faith, not the power.
God's Power at Work!
Most of us do not believe we can finish God’s Great commission in this generation. God’s design, however, has wonderfully incorporated all the needs for this generation to reach the lost for Jesus Christ. But because we do not think we can do it, we do not take up our responsibilities in help implementing this wonderful program. We give up before we start. It is not money, personnel or closed country problem. The problem is our faith.
The same is true when we think about what God wants to do in our lives. The problem is not God’s design of our lives. Think back to David. Here God was going to make David into a king. Now David was the youngest son. So he had to take on the worse chores of all. We can see that David had the hardest of all jobs when the prophet came to anoint a son for a king, he was not even asked to come. Each brother told the younger, you do it. If David knew he was to be king, then he would have fit that tending the sheep in the wild was the totally irresponsible way to treat the future king. God didn’t think so. God made him the youngest to train him. God raised up David to be king even though it seemed so unlikely.
We are not to focus on whether God is able to do something through us. We instead are to focus on what is it that He wants to be done through our lives. Faith preempts sight.
Today we have parents who are scared to have one child let alone two. Parents don’t think they can handle it, but God made enabled us to not only have many children but raise them as godly children. Where is our faith in His design?
The children of divorced parents are scared of intimate relationships such as marriage. They think they will mess it up. But again, if you turn back to God’s design, you will find that God will train and equip you to be a faithful husband and wife.
Today we have those who have been scarred emotionally and sometimes physically. We think that we are totally inappropriate for God’s work so we never even ask Him what He wants for us. But the scar is never totally healed and comes easily off.
God has designed a way with the blood of Jesus to bring real healing and forgiveness to our lives. Who could be worse than Mary Magdalene afflicted by 7 demonic spirits or Saul the persecutor of Christians? We give up on our lives but God is the restorer, the re-creator.
• Whenever we are confused about God’s making of us, we focus on our will rather than His.
• When we get confused about God’s plan or design, we get frustrated and give up, thinking we couldn’t accomplish anything great for God.
• When we get confused about His purpose for our lives, we feel bored and meaningless.
Now let us twist this around.
• When we understand God’s ownership of us, we act fully responsible to Him (Fear of God).
• When we understand God’s design for our lives, we have faith in Him to fulfill all His purposes by His Spirit.
• When we understand God’s purpose, then we run in glee accomplishing great works for God to His glory.
Application
Are you confused, depressed or bored with your life? Then you are missing out on God’s power, working through your life for His glorious purpose.
If you do not yet know the Lord, oh do come and turn from your sin and believe on Jesus. He will take away all your sin and give you that new life.
If you know the Lord, then I invite you to repent of your unbelief that He wonderfully made you and your unwillingness to be identified with Him and His will. It is time for God’s great work to be shown in these feeble bodies of our own. There will never be a computer game or movie that is so dynamic and wonderful than the eternal God mightily at work in our lives.
This article on Psalm 139 ends here but we have a hugoe amount of resources including audio/video in our Old Testament Digital Library or you can continue to read below.