LESSON TWO
What Is My Self-Worth?
PSALM ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-NINE
In this lesson we will find out what God thinks of our worth.
OVERVIEW
Many people accept that we are a tiny speck in the vast universe. We’re struggling mortals on an obscure planet located in a second-rate galaxy among billions of other galaxies. So how important can we really be? In our western culture, we’ve decided that the worth of a person is determined on the basis of how much society is willing to pay for his services.
In the athletic world, it’s not the worth of the person we applaud, it’s how much we can get from him in terms of applause and how much we’re willing to pay him. In the corporate world, the visible symbols of wealth and power announce the worth of a person. In the military, stripes and uniforms and the chain of command alert everyone to a person’s worth. Throughout our culture, physical appearance and defining achievements decide how we rate each other.
Some years back in the British Journal of Plastic Surgery, there was a disturbing article called “The Quasimodo Complex.” Two physicians surveyed 11,000 inmates who had committed murder, rape, or other serious crimes. In the normal adult population, 20 percent of all people have surgically correctable facial deformities like protruding ears, misshapen nose, receding chins, acne scars and birth marks. In the inmate population that was surveyed, 60 percent of the inmates had those kinds of deformities. The article ended with the question—Had these criminals encountered hostility and rejection from classmates because of their deformities, and could the cruelty of other children have pushed them toward the state of emotional imbalance that ultimately lead to their criminal acts?
We human beings give inordinate regard to the physical body. But if we put our self-worth in our bodies, we are fighting a losing battle. We can’t prop it up forever. The body will hunch over and the hairs will fall out and the wrinkles will come. So where can we place our self-worth?
God Knows You
The psalmist in Psalm 139 reminds us of who we are as far as God is concerned. First, your self-esteem comes from the fact that God knows you. God is beyond the importance of the most important person you can think of, as far beyond that importance as you can possibly consider, and yet God knows you.
God knows what you do. Verse two says, “You know my sitting down and my rising up.” This is a reference to the activity of life. It is an Old Testament expression that talks about the routines of life. David is saying that God knew him in his active life and in his passive life. God knew what he did.
God knows what you think. The psalmist says that before you ever think your thoughts, God knows what they are. God knows your subconscious life. That’s why it says in the New Testament that God knows what you need even before you ask.
God knows where you go. The psalmist says in verse three,
“You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.” God knows all about your habits and what you need, and God knows all that’s going on in your life.
God knows what you say. Verse four says, “For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.” Now that’s kind of frightening, isn’t it? It’s an awesome thought that God knows everything you say.
God knows what you need. In verse five it says, “You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.” This is an Old Testament idiom that is rich in imagery. It’s like saying, “You have hedged me in like a city that is under siege. You are providing and caring for me even when I don’t realize it.” God knows your past—He has hedged you in from behind. He knows your future—He has hedged you in before. God knows your present—He has His hand on you right now.
Stop and think about it. How important are you? God knows you. He knows what you do, what you think, where you go, what you say, what you need. When David thought about this, that God knew him out of all the billions of souls on earth, better than he was known by anyone else, he was overwhelmed. So overwhelmed that he said, “God, it’s too wonderful. I just can’t comprehend it.”
God Is Near You
God not only knows you, He is near you. In the next six verses, the psalmist points out that there is nowhere you can go to get away from God. Often these verses are used to show that we can never get away from God—He will always find us and catch us.
But there’s a positive application of this as well. I believe David is not talking so much about the pursuing God but the present God. He says that God is everywhere. He is not everything—that’s pantheism. But God is everywhere.
David researches the universe as if to go through a checklist to find out if there’s anyplace he could imagine where God might not be. He gives the extremes of heaven and hell and says God would be there. It may surprise you to think of God in hell. But God will be with you wherever you go, from now throughout eternity. Either as the One around whom you have wrapped your worship and love, or as the thought in your mind throughout the eternal days of the One you rejected every time you had a chance to know Him. God will be in your mind forever.
God is not only in the heights and depths, but He is in the East and the West. The psalmist says, “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me.” In Hebrew, the wings of the morning are a reference to the East where the sun comes up. “The uttermost parts of the sea” is a reference to the Mediterranean Sea which was further west than Palestine.
God is in the light and in the darkness. The point the psalmist wants us to understand is that God is near you wherever you go. You can’t go to a place where God is not. God is near you. He is immediately accessible to you wherever you go.
God Made You
You are the incredible creation of the infinite God. God is involved in the conception of each of us. The psalmist says in verse 13, “For You have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother’s womb.” These words describe reproduction in some of the most meaningful and tender verses in all of the Bible. If we read them honestly, we understand they contain the secret for an incredible sense of self-worth.
God knew you before you were born. He knows the moment when you were conceived. In every phase of development, from that moment on, He is there. The human embryo is not the result of a biological accident. God is aware of the union of the sperm and the egg and the attachment of the embryo to the uterine lining and the development of human life. God formed the inward parts and arranged the genetic structure. God knows about that human life and loves that human life from the very moment of its union.
Louis Thomas wrote a book called The Medusa and the Snail about why people made such a fuss over test tube babies. Thomas said the true miracle is the common union of the sperm and egg and a process that ultimately produces a human being. He said the mere existence of that cell should be one of the greatest astonishments in all the earth. He said people ought to be walking around all day calling to each other in endless wonderment talking about that cell. He said “If anyone ever does succeed in explaining it within my lifetime, I will charter a skywriting airplane, maybe a whole fleet of them, and send them aloft to write one great exclamation point after another around the sky until all my money runs out, so incredible is that cell.”
The psalmist tells us that God protects, even at our birth, our individuality. The phrase, “for I am fearfully and wonderfully made,” means we are fearfully and differently made. We’re all different. There have never been two human beings created alike. God has stamped us with our own special genetic code that sets us apart from every other human being on the face of the earth. Out of billions of people, God made certain that every one of us would be special.
God also protects our identity. “My frame was not hidden from You,” (v. 15) refers to the complete structure of the adult person. According to David, the full-grown body had actually been planned, designed, and programmed when it was not even large enough to be visible. Before you were born, the whole genetic plan of exactly what you would be as an adult was set by God. Scientists in molecular biology discovered this no too long ago. We call it DNA. In every cell of your body there is enough information to recreate your adult person as if no other cell were necessary. And every time that cell divides in the process of your growth, all the information contained in each cell is part of the division. Someone has reasoned that if all of the instructions in the DNA of one cell were written out, it would take 1,000 600-page books to put all that information down. And God put it in a cell that no one can see without magnification. And it’s in every cell of your body. God did it so you would have your identity. You are unique. You are individually precious to God.
And God protects your importance. You are so important that all your days were written in His book before one of them came to be (see v. 16). God knew everything about you before you ever started out in life and He has your whole life charted. He knows everything there is to know about you; you are so important to Him.
God Is Thinking of You
Your self-esteem comes from the fact that God, at this very moment, is thinking of you. In the great mind of God, He is thinking of you. Did you ever call somebody you love who was away and say to that person, “I just want you to know I’m thinking of you.”If you can’t be in somebody’s presence all the time, it’s good to be in their thoughts. But the psalmist says we are in God’s presence and we’re in His thoughts.
The psalmist says, “If I tried to number the ways You think concerning me, I wouldn’t be able to do it. Even when I’m not aware that you’re thinking of me because I’m asleep, all during the time I’m sleeping, You’re thinking of me. And when I wake in the morning, there You are. And Your thoughts are of me.” (See vv. 17–18.)
During World War II, the Germans once bombed London for 57 consecutive nights, eight hours at a time. They had 1500 bombers that came each night and they would bomb in waves of 250 bombers at a time. The only thing that stood in their way was the Royal Airforce. The flyers for the Royal Airforce were national heroes, but many of these men paid a living price for their sacrificial service. One of the types of planes they flew, the Hurricane, would burst into flame if hit. The men could eject themselves, but not before the intense heat basically erased all the features from their face.
One of these men was Peter Foster. He described what it was like to go through surgeries and prepare to re-enter public life. In the beginning, the mirror was a measuring device to see the progress the surgeons were making on your face. But as you prepared to be released from the hospital, the mirror became the reflection that showed how strangers would see you. In the hospital you’ve been supported by the comraderie of friends and the ministrations of the staff. On the outside, you will be a freak. At that critical moment, said Peter Foster, one factor alone matters—the response of your family and intimate friends.
Peter was one of the fortunate ones. His girlfriend came to the hospital and insisted they be married before he was released. She told him in no uncertain terms that she loved him, not his face. He came home on the arm of someone who loved him for who he was. There was still rejection from some people.
But Peter said, “Whenever that would happen, I would always look to my wife, and she was the one who gave me the image of myself.” He said, “Even now to this day, regardless of how I feel, if I begin to feel unworthy I just look to her and she gives me a warm, loving smile that tells me I’m okay.”
And Psalm 139 is God’s loving smile to you. You are okay. He knows you. He’s near you. He made you. He’s thinking of you. You’re worthy because God is smiling on you today.
APPLICATION
1. Where do you usually go to find self-worth? What do you usually rate yourself on?
How do you rate other people? Do you ever change your opinion of someone from your first impression? If so, what does this say about how you rate people? Read Matthew 7:1–2.
Take one day this week where you purposefully try to see people as God sees them, not as the world sees them.
2. God knows you. Read Matthew 6:7–8, 31–33. If you have had an attentive parent or friend, you know what it is like to have somebody guess your thoughts sometimes and know what you need. God knows your thoughts and He knows what you need—all the time.
Why do you think God is so interested in all the details of your life?
Read Psalm 139:1–6. What does it mean to you to know that God has laid His hand upon you?
3. Read the following verses:
Psalm 139:7–12
Isaiah 43:1–2
Matthew 1:23
Hebrews 13:5–6
How does it make you feel to know that God is always with you? How often do you feel His presence?
Imagine a place where you think God would not be. Read Psalm 139:7–8 again. Now imagine God in that place. Can you imagine it?
4. In the first six verses of Psalm 139, David is talking about God’s omniscience. God knows everything. In the second six verses, David is talking about God’s omnipresence. God is everywhere. In the third section, David is talking about God’s omnipotence. God is all-powerful.
In Psalm 139:13–16, what does David use as an example to show how powerful God is? Read the following verses to see other proclamations of God’s power:
2 Chronicles 14:11
Psalm 62:11
Ephesians 3:20–21
Revelation 19:6
5. Read Psalm 139:17–18. Have you ever wondered what God thinks about?
God knows every minute detail about you. Read Matthew 10:30. Think of God knowing the minute details of billions of people. How many are the thoughts of an infinite God?
Read Jeremiah 29:11. What does this verse say about some things God thinks about concerning us?
Read Isaiah 55:8–9. God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. How does that elevate your thinking about what God thinks about us? What do you think are some ways God’s thoughts are different than ours?
Read 1 Corinthians 2:10–12. How do we have access to God’s thoughts?
6. You can know you are worthy because God loves you. Read the following verses:
Jeremiah 31:3
Hosea 11:1–4
John 3:16–17
Romans 8:37–39
1 John 3:1
1 John 4:16
DID YOU KNOW?
Saint Augustine wrote, “Men go abroad to wonder at the height of the mountains, and at the huge waves of the sea, and at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean and at the circular motion of the stars, and they pass by themselves in their wonder.”
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