Good morning, Friends! Thank you all for coming today.
I want to talk with you this morning about something which almost everyone feels at times. It’s worse for some people than others. Sometimes it’s not too bad. Sometimes it’s almost unbearable.
What I want to talk about with you today is loneliness. And the bottom line, just so you know it ahead of time, is that we’re never alone.
Our scripture today is a familiar one. It’s one of the psalms of the Old Testament. These are ancient prayers – prayers which have been around for more than three and a half thousand years.
This one was written by David. David had a pretty rocky life. He grew up as a shepherd. They made him into a warrior. At times he was a rebel. His family life was truly horrible. But David was one heck of a song writer.
David’s prayers and songs are still here, because of two things: David was honest about his feelings. And in spite of all his faults – and he had many – David loved God.
This is a prayer, or a song, that David wrote. It’s Psalm 139.
Lord, you have searched me, and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.Before a word is on my tongue, Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!If I were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.Psalm 139:1-18
This is one of the best prayers of the entire Bible. David knew what he was talking about.
Loneliness is not a new condition. Almost everybody feels lonely, at least some of the time.
It’s a huge thing. If you go to the bookstore, you’re going to find shelves full of books about loneliness. If you go online, you’ll find hundreds of web sites.
People feel lonely because they have no friends, or because they don’t know how to make friends. Many older people tell me their friends have all died or moved away.
People are lonely because they feel like they don’t fit in, or because they’re anxious and depressed. People will do almost anything to try to stop the pain of loneliness.
People feel lonely because they don’t know anyone, or they feel that no one knows them. You can feel lonely in the middle of a huge crowd or a stadium. You can feel lonely in a school or a crowded shopping center.
One of the worst forms of loneliness is when you’re in serious pain, and you feel abandoned. No one cares. Nobody even knows what you’re going through.
There’s the loneliness of grief, when you’ve lost someone dear to you. There’s the loneliness of breaking up, when you wonder if you’re worth anything.
There’s the loneliness of being tired and exhausted, when you just wish someone would help you. Loneliness comes in a lot of different forms.
Some people feel horribly unattractive or physically untouchable. Some people feel too stupid, or too smart, or too angry, or too afraid.
You all know what I’m talking about.
David says, there is One who knows me, inside and out. There is One, who has searched me, even into the darkest places in my life, into places I’ve even hidden from myself.
I am never alone, says David. I am never alone.
God knows when I get up in the morning, and when I go back to bed at night. God knows when I stand up and when I sit back down. God knows where I am at all times, day and night.
God knows when I’m hungry and thirsty. Not just when I’m hungry and thirsty for food and drink – God knows when my heart is hungry, when my soul is thirsty.
Even before a word goes out of my mouth, David says – even before a word is on the tip of my tongue, God knows it already.
Sometimes we wish God would let us take our words back, don’t we? Sometimes we wish we could un-say something, or start that conversation over again. God, why didn’t you stop me, before that one wrong word slipped out of my mouth?
David says, you can never run away from God. God is always going to be there, wherever you go. Climb up to heaven? God’s already there ahead of you. The farthest country on earth? God already bought a ticket.
“If I rise on the wings of the dawn,” David says. Beautiful phrase., “If I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”
Midnight? No problem. Three a.m.? God’s there already. Tossing and turning on your bed? Guess who’s there. Can’t fall asleep? Don’t count sheep – talk to the Shepherd!
David even says – and this is incredible – “If I make my bed in the depths” – other translations say, “If I make my bed in Hell” – “You are there.”
That’s a really daring thought. Because we usually think that Hell is a place where we are totally and permanently separated from God. If you really want to get away from God, go to Hell.
But David says, “You can’t even get away from God there. God will come and find you, even in Hell.”
There are people with addictions, there are people who’ve been in prison, who can testify to that. They were in Hell, maybe even a hell of their own choosing or their own making, and God came and found them there.
Do any of you remember the story of Jonah? Jonah tried to run away from God. Jonah got on a boat, and did his best to get as far away from God as he could.
God sent a storm, and all the sailors thought they were all going to be drowned. The boat was about to break up in pieces. The sailors all drew straws to try to find out who was to blame for causing the storm. Jonah drew the short straw.
The sailors asked him, “Who are you, and where do you come from?”
Jonah said, “I worship the Lord, but I’m trying to run away from God.”
The sailors didn’t know what to do. Finally, Jonah told them, “Throw me overboard! Maybe I’m to blame.” So they did.
The storm stopped, and the sailors were even more afraid. But what about Jonah? The story says that “God provided a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and for three days he was in the belly of the fish.”
I know – maybe it’s just another fish story. But the lesson of Jonah is, “You can run, but you can’t hide from God.”
Then there’s the story Jesus told, about a shepherd who had lost just one sheep. Rather than write it off, Jesus says, rather than cut his losses like a sensible person, the shepherd cut out and spent days and nights, searching for the lost sheep. Didn’t rest, until he found it. And when he found it, Jesus says, he carried it home and asked everyone to rejoice.
“There is more joy in Heaven,” Jesus says, “over one missing person who was lost, and is found, than over 99 others who never went missing at all.”
Doesn’t make much sense, you might think. Unless you happen to be that one missing one.
That is a profoundly Christian belief. There is no place where God will not go, there is no place where Jesus is afraid to go, to find us.
Yeah.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
If you ever think that you are out of God’s reach, then you don’t know God very well.
Do you think that you don’t matter? Jesus says that God knows every sparrow that falls, and counts every hair of your head. In Jesus’ day, sparrows were sold two for a penny in the street market. You’re worth more than that. You’re worth everything to God.
People who feel lonely say, “The universe doesn’t care about me!”
Maybe not. Maybe the universe doesn’t care. But God does. God cares more about you, than you will ever know.
David says, “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. . .Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before even one of them came to be.”
God knows you, better than you know yourself. God sees you, and you know what? God is crazy about you!
That line about “knowing our inmost being” – God knows us down to the cellular level – God doesn’t just know us on the surface, not just the face we show to the world. God knows us all the way down to our DNA, all the way back to before we were born.
But there’s so much more! God sees how our cells interact and behave. But God also sees how individuals interact, and how thousands or millions of people act together. God sees it all!
And we are not only known, but loved.
We are not only known, but forgiven.
We are not only known, but we are accepted and welcomed.
Just who we are.
Paul made a promise, in 1 Corinthians 13. Paul says that one day we will know God the way God knows us – directly and face to face. We aren’t alone now, but one day, we will really know God, in a way that we can’t even imagine right now.
We will know, as we are known.
If you feel lonely, if you feel out of step, or abandoned or afraid, God is never far away. God is closer to you than your own heartbeat. God is with you, with every breath you take.
David says that God hems him in – not like a prisoner in jail, not like sheep or cattle, but held like an infant in its mother’s arms, or like a child in a crib or cradle – you are protected and held.
In the words of one of the other songs that David wrote, “Even though I walk through Death Valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and staff they comfort me. . .”
We talked about that in Bible study this week. The staff, of course, is the walking staff the shepherd uses to steady their feet, to help them to climb up steep hills and dangerous places.
The rod the shepherd carries, is a longer, light stick, maybe eight or ten feet long. When the shepherd is working to guide the sheep, the shepherd stretches out the staff in one hand and the rod in the other. The rod and staff are like extensions of the shepherd’s arms, to gather the sheep and to guide the sheep safely home.
The very last line in this morning’s reading is one of the most important. David says, “When I awake, I am still with you.”
When I awake from a bad dream, God is always there.
When wake up, and I’ve been struggling to get away from God, God still loves me.
When I wake up, and I’m lonely, I’m never alone.
When I wake up from death itself, God will be there, to welcome me home.