Mark spoke this morning from Psalm 139, a psalm of David which looks at how God knows us better than we know ourselves. We often find it hard to predict how we will react in certain situations, but God knows our thoughts before we speak and He knows all our actions before they happen. He has searched us and knows us – which can be reassuring when we think about the positive things in our lives, but can be challenging when we think of all our many failings. To be known by God is humbling; He made us and comprehends our paths (‘winnowing’ them so that all the rubbish is sifted from our lives.)

God protects us from dangers both seen and unseen and His presence is always with us – behind us, before us and all around us. His hands underpin us, adding stability to our lives when we feel life is crashing down around us. God gives us both physical and spiritual guidance, shedding light on our paths. We are skilfully made by a master embroiderer – no wonder David feels that the thoughts God has for him are too much for him to comprehend!

God knew what we would become even before He made us; we are special, chosen and blessed by Him. David goes on to pray against those who hate widkedness and concludes the psalm by praying for God to search him, know him, test him, know his anxious thoughts, see if there is any offensive or wicked way in him and lead him in the way everlasting. (Ps 139:23-24) This is a challenging prayer, for we have to be willing to take heed of God’s answers and verdicts and act on what He says. This psalm reminds us that we are blessed and chosen by God and fully known and accepted by Him, which should result in both humility and thankfulness on our part.

There are some special meetings happening in October. The ‘Churches Together’ monthly prayer meeting will be on Tuesday 9th October at 10.30 a.m. at GPCC. This is an opportunity to pray with Christians from local churches about our lives, our communities and the wider world. Prayer is at the heart of the Christian life and if you are free on Tuesday, we invite you to join with us to pray for God’s will to be done and His kingdom to come in our local area. So often, we feel too busy to pray, but as one leader commented, we are too busy NOT to pray. Prayer has to be the source of our energy, as we wait on God and seek His face for revival, blessing and favour.

On Sunday 21st and 28th October we will be hosting a Christian bookstall from CLC Bookshop in Sheffield. This is an opportunity to buy Christmas cards, diaries, books and gifts without having to travel to Sheffield!

On Wednesday 31st October we will be hosting a ‘Churches Together’ family fun day, when we will be holding a ‘Light Party’ from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. This is an opportunity to explore the fact that Jesus is the Light of the world and calls us to be light, carrying ‘the light-giving message into the night’ (Phil 2:15, The Message). There will be craft activities, games and free refreshments. We will be looking at heroes of the faith as well, and if you would like to tell us about your heroes (from the Bible, from history or from modern day life), we would love to hear about them and include them in our ‘heroes’ labyrinth’ on that day.

Please pray for these opportunities for outreach as well as for our regular outreach to children on Monday nights, on Friday mornings and for the coffee morning on Saturday mornings as we seek to be salt and light in our community all the time. There are opportunities for other groups to start using the building shortly, including a befriending social club which looks at tackling isolation and loneliness among the over 65s and a Movement and Music class for under 5s. Pray for these groups too.

Stephen spoke from Ps 37:1-7 tonight, a psalm which (like Ps 73) deals with the subject of the frustrations and anxiety we feel when we look around us and see the godless prospering. The psalmist repeatedly commands us not to fret (Ps 37:1, 7, 8), since it leads to evil, to an erosion of the path on which we walk. So often, we have a short-term perspective of prosperity, looking only at the material blessings; we need to understand that the godless and wicked will not prosper long-term (like the grass, they will wither away) and that God is able to give us our heart’s desires as we take delight in Him.

Jer 29:11 reminds us that God has good plans for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future. The antidote to fretting is to trust God and do good; to commit our ways to Him and trust that He will sort everything out for us in the long term. An essential part of Christian maturity is to learn to be still before the Lord and to wait patiently for Him. That is not easy for us, but if we are not careful, fretting leads to something akin to coastal erosion: our security and stability in God is gradually eaten away through anxiety, stress, envy and anger. Only as we trust in God and wait for HIs timing will we be able to take hold of the delights God has for each one of us.

Mark spoke this morning about the book of times and seasons which God has for each one of us. Each season is different and has something lovely in it; the ongoing reliability of the seasons is testimony to God’s faithfulness (Gen 8:22) God not only controls the seasons but rulers (see Dan 2:21) and Ps 31:14-15 reminds us that our times are also in God’s hands. God controls nature and kingdoms, but is also heavily involved in individual lives, reminding us in Eccl 3:1-15 that there are different times for everythng. There is both variety and security in God; we are not meant to relive the same experiences endlessly (as in the film Groundhog Day!) but have to be prepared to move on as God leads us.

Ps 139:16 reminds us that ‘all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.’ God’s plan for our lives was present even before we were born (as Jer 1:5 makes clear) and we live in the time and place chosen for us by God (see Acts 17:26-28). Sometimes we have to wait for God’s timing (see Hab 2:2-3), because God’s plans are not always clear to us (‘the revelation awaits an appointed time.‘) Nonetheless, we are called to trust God and listen to Him as He calls us to new things. God has a lifetime of blessing and adventure for us all and His plans are to prosper us (Jer 29:11). We are called to seek God and obey Him in every season of our lives.

Shakespeare wrote that ‘journeys end in lovers meeting’ (‘Twelfth Night’), and the Psalms of Ascent conclude with the pilgrims’ arrival in Jerusalem to worship God. The last three Psalms of Ascent (Ps 132-134) are all focussed on Zion, with Ps 132 remembering the time when David brought the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem and the other two psalms looking at the blessings of unity and worship which come with the end of the journeying.

We may well have mixed feelings about reaching our destination, fearing a sense of anticlimax or even disappointment, and (if we are honest), anxiety about the process of reaching that destination (death). The Bible clearly talks of the relationship between God and His people as marriage (see Song of Songs, also Eph 5:22-32, Rev 21:2) and the New Testament anticipates our arrival with God with joy (see 2 Cor 5:1-10). There is no sense of anticlimax in Ps 134, simply a sense of God’s people blessing God and God blessing them. Ultimately, when we arrive with God, there will be both praise and blessing. (Rev 5:11-14) It will be a wedding to top all weddings!

Ps 134 is a psalm of blessing and praise. Ps 132 has looked at blessing for Zion and Ps 133 at blessing in Zion, but here, there is blessing from Zion. (Alec Motyer, P 388) Other psalms have rightly looked at distress, power, security, but in this psalm, we are securely at home in Zion throughout; the key word in this psalm is BLESS.

Like so many psalms, this one involves a call and a response. We are urged to come and bless God (Ps 134:1-2) and the response is that God blesses us (Ps 134:3). The call appears to be addressed to the priests and Levites whose duty was to recite the nightly service of praise (see 1 Chron 9:33). It reminds us that praise is a choice, often indicated by the simple act of raising hands (see also Ps 28:2, Neh 8:6). It is not about feelings as such, but about obedience (see Heb 13:15).

All Christians are called priests (we are a royal priesthood, Peter says (1 Pet 2:9)). We all therefore have this obligation to lift our hands and bless God. As the pilgrims reached their journey’s end and gathered to worship God in the temple at Jerusalem, there must have been a sense of exhilaration and fulfilment. We are looking forward to meeting God and worshipping Him for eternity. We might as well start now!