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The River ChurchSermons

Psalm 136

Jayson Combs · Sunday, 26 July 2026 · 43:21 · 5,307 words

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Psalm 139 is the focus, showing that God is all‑knowing, everywhere present, and all‑powerful. The sermon argues this should bring both comfort and holy fear, urging listeners to recognize they are known completely by God and called to grateful obedience. It also addresses the worth of unborn life, calling for righteous anger and compassion toward those facing unplanned pregnancies. The message ends by inviting listeners to ask God to search their hearts and respond with love, service, and renewed awe.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

grieve 12 hate 16 david 22 gpt 4 everywhere 9 search 9 center 7 god 102 begg 3 anger 7 intimately 4 abstract 3

Topics

Sin 7 Atonement & Sacrifice 2 Righteousness 2 Prayer 1 Hope 1 Salvation 1 Judgment 1

Scripture referenced 21

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 139 0:47 Psalms 139 0:50 Psalms 139 1:35 Psalms 139 1:42 Psalms 23 1:49 Psalms 139 1:52 Psalms 139:1 1:52 Psalms 139 2:05 Psalms 139:1-6 2:21 Psalms 139:7-12 2:37 Psalms 139:11 2:41 Psalms 139 5:31 Psalms 139 9:44 Psalms 38 10:08 Psalms 38:6 10:38 Psalms 139:16 19:03 Acts 17:25 19:26 Matthew 5:44 24:22 Matthew 23 26:37 Galatians 6 27:06 Romans 10 29:49

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 14 lines, 0:38. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Dave Hudgens.

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Thanks again for joining us

and we hope that you are blessed by today's message.

Welcome to the River Church.

So glad you've joined us toward the end of July,

wherever the summer has gone.

We're in Psalm 139, so if you have your Bible,

turn to Psalm 139.

Again, just thankful for the last couple weeks of camp.

My son was up there last week

and just thankful for the impact,

thankful for many of you praying,

many of you giving toward the camp auction

and being able to send so many kids

and praying for the church.

I get the privilege to run into many parents.

I was backstage, one of the parents looked at me

and goes, thank you.

My child so needed camp and it was so impactful

and that's just so exciting.

I always say, as a youth pastor for many years,

I go, people go, how good was camp?

And I always say, I'll tell you in October

because I want to see, right?

It's not a week change or a month change,

it's a life change.

And so looking forward to these kids

and them serving the Lord.

Psalm 139,

we are coming toward the end of our Psalm series.

We have a few more,

but Psalm 139 may be the second most famous Psalm

in all the book of Psalms.

We have Psalm 23, I would say is probably the number one,

but Psalm 139, verse one says this,

oh Lord, you have searched me and known me.

And just the start of that second verse, you know.

In Psalm 139, it gives us,

specifics unto how God knows us.

There are some big church words that aren't in here,

but we use that describe,

like verses one through six tells us

that God knows everything,

which can be really comforting or really scary.

We have the big church word, this is omniscient,

all knowing.

Verses seven through 12, God is everywhere.

He is omnipresent.

And verses 11 or 13 through,

through 18, he is all powerful.

He's omnipotent.

This is our God.

I had a little fun.

I took, I had a little experiment I did this week.

I went into one of those AI search engines, right?

I went into one of those chat GPT,

and I just wrote, who is Jason Combs?

It got really interesting.

These, you know, chat GPT knew a lot about me.

I was actually, it got pretty scary.

It gave me a list of things like where,

I lived and that, who I was married to and that I had one

son and that I enjoy collecting He-Man.

This is all what chat GPT said about who is Jason Combs.

Now I do have a little advantage.

My first name is with a Y, so there's lot less Jason Combs,

but when I typed it in and it gave me a little information,

it then said, do you want to know more about the preacher?

I said, yes, I do.

And so it gave me a lot more about the, it said,

I've been in ministry since 2000 serving at the river church.

It said, I serve with my brothers, Caleb and Josh Combs.

Now I want to tell you if chat GPT can not get it right,

that Caleb and Josh are my nephews.

I don't know if anybody is going to get it right.

This is worthless technology and it doesn't understand anything,

but that's why I put it in here in the information.

I work with my brothers, but it was fascinating.

It told me what kind of preacher I am.

It said when he preaches and it just gave, here's the list.

Then it said me, it said overall biblically faithful pastoral shepherd care,

Christ centered focused on discipleship thinks really,

really, really highly of the church.

And I was like, Oh, Oh, okay.

I I'm in.

So what I did is I sent that to my wife.

I'm like, Laura, look at this.

I put, who am I?

It knows me.

And part of that is amazing.

Laura, we just laughed.

We're like, this is just crazy.

If I gave you all the specifics, it's like, yeah, that's.

And it's kind of this amazing, like, this is crazy how it knows that much.

And it also takes you to a place of a little bit being scared, doesn't it?

Like, Oh, I know some of you are like, I'm not on the internet.

It's not going to know me.

It's interesting, fascinating, and yet a little terrifying.

Well, in Psalm 139, David writes a Psalm that says, God knows all the data.

David writes a Psalm that says, Hey, God knows.

All the details.

And we can look at the AI that we have in our, and be like, Whoa, that's crazy.

What?

It knows.

It knows nothing compared to what God knows.

See, God knows everything.

And if we truly think about that, and I hope this morning, the Lord will use this in your

life that I hope you'll hear about it.

And you'll be like, wow, this is wonderful.

And if we're honest, wow, this is a little terrifying that God knows it.

Now, I will tell you.

This sermon last week was a sermon that, um, I don't want to say it's a soft sermon, but

it was a sermon speaking on thankfulness that it's one of those ones that everybody goes,

thank you.

You know, like, it's just like, it's just one of those sermons that lands really well.

And people got a lot of feedback.

I don't know if this one will be the same.

I felt like last week, you know, sermon on thankfulness, which the Lord used.

And then what I felt like the Lord gave me this week, I'm like, Oh Lord, this is going

to be, this is like a Cedar point rollercoaster ride.

And I want you to know the beginning is not where the drop-off is coming.

It's coming toward the end.

So it's coming, but here in the scripture, I want you to see the Davis.

David gives us a glimpse into who the Lord is, and this is so important.

One guy said that wrong thinking about God can tragically lead to wrong decisions, which

leads us to a wrong path, which can result in the wrong eternal destiny.

It's why this morning.

I will fight through these passages.

And there's some difficult ones because having the right understanding of God is so important.

The devil right now, what does the devil want to do?

It wants to deceive you on who God is and what God says he's been doing it since the

And there was a snake and he uses, and today he uses false teachers and false pastors and

false churches to give a false identification of who the almighty God is.

And what is so wonderful is we know that the Bible gives us the true character.

It points us to who God is.

Verses one through six, tell us that God knows everything.

Verse one.

Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know, when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar, meaning

you know them, you know, my thoughts, you know what I think either wonderful or scary.

You search out.

You search out my path and my lying down are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know it all together.

You him me in, you encircle me.

You are behind me and before me and you lay your hand upon me.

So what is happening?

Speaking of who God is, God knows every action.

He knows when we sit, when we stand, when we're running and when we're lying down.

Verse three, it says he knows our travel.

He knows our rest.

He knows our thoughts.

Spurgeon says the Lord, he judges our active life and our quiet life.

Verse four gets even more interesting.

He knows what you're going to say.

One said that Psalm 139 puts God's claim on every nook and cranny of the universe.

And it says he hymns me in.

He's he, he encircles me.

And one asked the question remains as to whether God's knowledge is comforting or upsetting.

God's hand is wonderful upon him or like Psalms 38 too says for your arrows have sunk into me and your hands have come down on me.

Or as Hebrews 413 says, no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

We have this truth of who God is, that God knows everything.

And in verse six, David's mind explodes.

He says, such knowledge is too wonderful, is beyond me.

It is high.

I cannot obtain it.

At the end of each of these truths, it's like David stops and just goes, right?

I've showed you the brain exploding emoji before.

If those were around, that may be in here.

Just to stop and think God, God knows everything.

Maybe to push your brain a little bit.

I'm going to quote A.W. Tozer, an American pastor who lived in the early 1900s.

But Tozer.

Tozer, who always was really good at just going, oh man, that's who the Lord is.

And my brain hurts.

But he said, to say that God is omniscient is to say that he possesses perfect knowledge and therefore has no need to learn.

But it is more, it is to say that God has never learned and cannot learn.

The scriptures teach that God has never learned from anyone.

From there, it is only a step to the conclusion that God cannot learn.

Could God at any time or in any manner receive?

To his mind, knowledge that he did not possess and had not possessed from eternity, he would be imperfect and less than himself.

To think of God who must sit at the feet of a teacher, even if that teacher is an archangel or seraphim, is to think of someone other than the most high God, maker of heaven and earth.

God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit.

God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit.

And all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feelings, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and on earth, motion, space, time, life,

death, good, evil, heaven, hell.

This is our God.

He is all-knowing.

And we love to take God and put him in a box.

He goes in no box.

Our God, whom we serve, who sent his son Jesus, the creator of heaven and earth, is all-knowing.

And may we step back in our little human body, with our little human minds, and say, Lord, help me to grow.

Help me to be in awe of Christ.

Who you are.

This is too wonderful for me.

It's too high.

And then verses 7 through 12.

Where shall I go from your spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you're there.

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take up wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me.

And your right hand shall hold me.

See as he.

Verses 1 through 6.

You kind of see the same kind of thought.

You see, this is God.

You see the hand of God.

And then 11.

You just see, how can this be?

You see, David, if I say, surely the darkness shall overcome me, and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to you.

The night is bright as the day, for the darkness is as light with you.

Here we have God.

It's everywhere.

If you have a teenage son and you're a parent, you may have tried to instill that into them.

I like to tell my son, hey, I'm.

I'm everywhere, right?

I see.

And now with the technology that we have, we don't like I got.

I got cameras everywhere, son.

I got the finder on my phone.

We got life 360 now, which is really great.

You can see how fast they're driving.

It tells me how fast it'll tell me if you stop too fast.

I know it all, son.

I got trackers.

I see my son, who is a good kid.

He loves the Lord.

That's not super terrifying.

And when you know the Lord, as David said.

He says, God, where can I go?

Because you could think, God, you know everything.

And the best bet would be for me to run away then.

God, you know the intimate thoughts that I have.

You know right in here.

And if we get honest and we get a little vulnerable, there are times that we don't even want our spouse to see what's in here.

We struggle to talk or to explain because we don't know if they'll hear it or accept it.

God says, I know you intimately.

You may want to run, but there's nowhere to run to.

To the depths of death, to the heights of heaven, when the sun rises in the east and sets as far as the west on the sea.

The Lord is there.

Verses 13 through 18.

For you formed or you created my inward parts.

You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works.

My soul knows it very well.

My frame or my bones was not.

I was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth, skillfully wrought.

Or this word, this Hebrew means to be like embroidered, to be designed specifically, Lord, in the womb where no one else can see.

You were there.

You had a plan.

Gives the illustration of God's personal power, creator, human life.

He knows when it starts.

He knows the illustration shown.

Knowing God's seeing it all.

For my family, it's funny.

We took a trip out west and didn't know that Silas was riding along with us because we didn't know that God had given us a baby yet.

And so my poor son, every time a picture pops up on the screen of us on that trip where I go, hey, you were with us, son.

We didn't know it, but you were there.

And there's a 16-year-old, you know, he's like, yeah, I know I was there.

I get it.

Picture God knows.

The God of eternity.

He is the one who.

Psalm 139, 16.

Different translation says your eyes saw me when I was formless.

All my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

Here we have the truth of sacred life.

Here we have the truth like in Acts 17, 25, that God is the one that gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

That it is all by his power.

That it is not.

It is not by accident.

It is personal.

Here we see the sanctity of life.

We see God creator.

And listen, it is personal.

Alistair Begg did a great job.

He just said when David talks about God knowing everything, he doesn't just say, you know, everything.

David says, you know, me.

He doesn't just say, God, you are everywhere.

He says, God, you are with me.

He doesn't just say, you made everything.

David says, God, you made me.

See, the world is not in chaos.

We see an almighty creator.

A personal God.

And this fighting to grow, to know him and to trust him.

To know, hey, God knows everything.

What does this mean to my life?

That God is everywhere.

What does this mean to what I do today?

And that God is all powerful.

God is purposeful.

My life is not an accident.

There is a plan.

And he knows it all.

Warren Worsby, in speaking of these three truths, it says, we cannot deceive him while he knows everything.

We cannot escape him.

He's everywhere.

And we cannot ignore him because he is a whole powerful God creator.

Begg says, he knows me intimately.

He's with me continually.

God has made me wonderfully.

Maybe you're in here and you just need to hear that truth this morning.

Desperate part of your life where you're struggling and searching.

Or maybe it was just a bad day.

Or maybe it was just a bad week.

May you run back to knowing how good and personal God is.

The comfort of knowing the Lord is with us.

He never leaves us nor forsakes us.

He knows us intimately.

He's with us continually.

God has made us wonderfully.

But the end of the chapter, it almost seems like it shifts.

And Begg says this, that God knows me intimately, with me continually.

God has made me wonderfully.

But as we get to the end of the chapter, we see that God judges me rightfully.

Verse 19, he says,

Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God.

Oh, men of blood, depart from me.

They speak against you with malice intent.

Your enemies take your name in vain.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

Do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

I hate them with a complete hatred.

I count them my enemies.

Wait a minute, pastor.

This feels like there's...

There's a turn here.

Like there's like God is everywhere and everything.

He knows us out of purpose.

And then David, who's writing this, and we don't know when he was writing.

There's no like...

David then turns to like, God, there are people who hate you.

Shouldn't I hate them, God?

It's this prayer that David has.

Shouldn't God...

And so then we read this as we do with other psalms and go, wait a minute.

Does this sound like Jesus?

Pastor, you preach out of this and you tell us this tells us about God.

But is this...

Is this what is true?

I mean, doesn't Jesus tell us to love our enemies?

Matthew 5, 44.

I say, love your enemies.

Pray for those who persecute you.

Didn't Jesus go to the woman at the well, the outcast lady that nobody wanted to be with?

She had to come at a time when nobody else would go to the well.

The disciples were like, what are you doing with her?

And Jesus loved her, even though she was a mess and sinful.

The woman in adultery, they brought to her in Jesus, who is the one who could judge her.

church. Jesus is the one who is perfect. I don't know what to do. What do I do with this? David

speaks specifically. He speaks of those, those talks about old men of blood murderers. One said

those who use religious evil schemes, they, they use the name of the Lord for false and deceptive

purposes. They are religious liars and hypocrites. Men are evil in their own agenda. They hate the

Lord. And so David prays this. And then we ask, somebody's calling to ask, we ask, still calling,

is this what I'm supposed to do? Is this God's word? Is David right? Is this off? And so what

people will do, some will falsely say, you know what, David, he's just a mess here. You can't

really trust this part. They'll, they'll preach the first couple of verses. You can trust that

part, but don't trust this part. Just say, good luck with that. Taking parts of the Bible that

you like, because in your mind, it fits your character and who you think you should be.

That's garbage. Some will say, well, the difference is just the old Testament and the new

Testament, right? In the old Testament, we see the law in the new Testament. We have the new

covenant Jesus loves. But when you read the new Testament and you study the new Testament,

you'll find like Jesus with the Pharisees in Matthew 23, he asked them, how are you going

to escape the sentence of hell or in the epistles, right? Written to the church, new

Testament, Paul in Galatians one says that if there are those who change the gospel of Jesus

Christ, there are those who do not preach the true gospel. Paul says, let them be accursed.

Let them be destroyed. Wait, that that's in your Bible too. Or in revelation chapter six,

the question, how long before you judge Lord, how long before the wrath of the lamb

comes? I know you're sitting there going, okay, pastor, you keep asking me questions. Where do

I go? Give me an answer. There's a couple of things. First, when, when we read this,

we understand something. I think you need to see that's important. David. So is looking for a place

where evil will be eliminated as Christians. We long for the elimination of evil. We look forward.

You have heard me say entirely, Hey, there's going to be a day, no more sin, no more pain,

no more lying, no more murder, no more.

Children being, I wasn't done yet. Children being abducted, children being molested. No more,

no more. We look forward to that day. We cry out for that day, but we know that day will be,

the Lord will come and his judgment will come. One said, I thought it was awesome. When we pray

the Lord's prayer, your kingdom come Lord. What does that mean? God will come and judge sin.

And so we see David longing for that.

That day, but it still leaves us with the question. Wait, am I supposed to hate people? Am I supposed

to pray for damnation upon people? What do I do with this? And I think some of you are sitting

there go past. I got the answer. I got it. Figured it out. The answer is love the center and hate the

sin. I got it. I just know this is what I do. Now those two statements separated a really, really

good. We are to love the center because then we look at ourself and see that we're a center. Look

at ourself and see how we have fallen short. And we'll look out at everybody. We look, we, we love

the center and we do hate sin. Romans 10, nine, let love be genuine. A poor detest hate, reject

what is evil. Hold fast to what is good. We see that that's what we're called to do. And so with

this, when we see the teaching, right, this isn't a vengeance of David. We're going to see David's

him getting back because that would be sinful. Why? Vengeance is the Lord's is what the Bible says

in the new Testament and in the old Testament, same flow. But when we think we have the answer

to love the sin, excuse me, love the center and hate the sin. When we put those together,

can I tell you, it falls short of what God has called us to do, how God has called us to think.

John Stott says this, it says, sin is not something abstract. It exists in the hearts,

in the ways of evil people. So when the judgment of God falls, it will fall on evil doers,

not upon evil and abstract. For me, that was really helpful in understanding,

because if we're going to understand God, I know this is deep thinking here,

but I just want you to see it's so important. We have to see who God is because if we just

separate the center and the sin, what happens when God brings his judgment, we'll think God is doing

something wrong. God's not doing something wrong. God is doing exactly what is right.

God is being the righteous judge, judging sin. Sin is not abstract from us. It is not separated

from us. So what do I do, pastor? What does this look like? I think Jesus shows us.

Mark three, five, Jesus is looking to heal someone. Jesus is looking to heal someone

and the Pharisees and their deception, trying to deceive people, to pull them away from the

truth, from salvation. Come and they try to scheme people and pull people away. And in Mark three,

five, the Bible says this, Jesus, he looked around at them with anger. Wasn't a light thing.

Wasn't a light thing for people to pull someone away from the truth, away from salvation. Jesus

was angry and he grieved. He was angry. His heart was broken. Bible says when Jesus came into

the cross was before him. He grieved over the city. Jesus shows us. Yes, there is to be this

anger. There is to be this righteous anger over those who falsely teach the gospel. I hate that

to deceive people from Jesus. But we also breathe. We love and our hearts break for people

because we know we are sinners without the cross of Jesus. We don't have the cross. We don't have

salvation. We're not the good people. Jesus is good. And because he has saved us, we have received

the righteousness of God. So there is an anger over sin. But as a Christian, you should grieve for

people. Since I'm being offensive, let's just take this to one more level. As we read this passage,

as we see God creator, we see that God formed us. He forms our inward parts that we are knitted

where? In our mother's womb. That in the very beginning, God knows it all. That God has put

great worth on mankind. That you cannot read this passage but about thinking. I look at some of you

who are pregnant and I think of the wonderful creation that God has given. That baby who has

worth, not because man says there's worth, not because politics says there's worth, but because

this unborn baby has great worth. And so you read this passage and we live in a time

where millions of them are being slaughtered. There should be a righteous anger that some 1.1

million unborn babies aborted this year. The number is staggering across the world. A righteous

indignation. One says what a good man feels in the presence of stark evil. Such anger is particularly

appropriate for this situation. We see God who has put great value on these children. There should

be a righteous anger. But can I tell you also, we should grieve. We as a church should grieve for

people to grieve for that young girl who has been told over and over that the sacrifice of that baby

will give her life. And she's heard it over and over and over again. We should grieve for her

to see the deception and we should love and care.

We should grieve over that lady whose mom and dad have put that pressure over and over and over

again from parents or from a man. We should grieve our hearts. We should have great care and great

passion and great love. Grieve the man who has no control. We should grieve, have grief in our heart

because there are those out there walking around with guilt and don't know what to do with it.

And they don't know that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again and offers

forgiveness. That you don't have to walk around with that guilt. That God forgives. That we all

here are in a church. We all here are sinners that need the forgiveness. Without that, we are all

guilty. And to know there's a place to come, that God loves them, forgives them. We as a church

should grieve and that should move us to action. That should move us to where, hey, what do we need

to sacrifice? How do we need to be a church that is a place where people can come when they don't know what to do?

What to do? Or they're lost. They need help. They know, hey, you can come here. This is a place that

will care for you. What can we do? What can we sacrifice? How can we give? What can we help with?

Here in this passage that isn't easy, but I've told you we don't skip around hard, hard scripture.

David so hopes for the day, desires the day where there'll be no more sin. Maybe this helps. John

Piper says this, there's, there's a kind of hate for the sinner that must coexist with pity and even

desire for their salvation. He goes on to say that, but there may come a point when wickedness

is so persistent and high-handed and God despising that the time of redemption has passed. There only

remains irredeemable wickedness. We will grant to the psalmist David who speaks under the guidance

of the Holy Spirit as the foreshadow Messiah and judge the right to call down judgment on the

enemies of God. This is not personal vindictiveness. It is a prophetic

execution of what will happen at the last day when God cast all his enemies into the lake of fire.

We will do well to leave such final assessments to God and realize our own

corrupt inability to hate as we ought. Let us tremble and trust God lest we fail and find

ourselves on the other side of the curse. And David ends the psalm by this, says, do I not

hate them? And then he says, God, search me, oh God, know my heart, pry me and know my thoughts,

and see, Lord, if there's any grievous way in me. God, is there any way that I am misthinking? Is

there any way that I am not loving how you've called me to love? I'm not caring. I'm not

pouring sin as you've called me to. Lord, search my heart, reveal it to me. Can I tell you that's

the answer on how to live? Lord, search my heart. May I hate the sin inside of me, the sin that I do

as much as I see what's going on in the world. I'll come back to that quote, wrong thinking can

lead to wrong decisions, leading to wrong paths, resulting in a wrong eternal destiny. If we read

the Bible, we must see God's perfection and holiness and righteousness along with his

forgiveness and love and care. As we view this, as we grow in it, as we see the great God, this is

what brings us peace and hope. This is what shows us how to live, that we see or in awe that God is

all-knowing. God is everywhere. God is all-powerful. May we humbly bow and stand together. Lord God,

thanks for this morning. God, may you use this for your glory and honor. May we live as you've

called us to live, and may we grow to be more and more in awe of you. Thank you and praise you in

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