Hello dear friends,
Today, let’s take a closer look at how much God actually knows us:
O Yahweh, You have searched me and known me.
— Psalm 139:1
We know that God is omniscient, meaning He is all-knowing. God knows everything there is to know because He created everything, and nothing that exists could have existed outside of Him. He was there at the very beginning of existence.
All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
— John 1:3
Despite knowing that God knows everything, sometimes we find it overwhelming to even begin to consider the depth and breadth of God’s knowledge.
In this short section of Psalm 139 that we are examining, the author goes to great detail to break down the extent of God’s knowledge at an individual level.
David begins by saying that God has searched him and known him. This is an eagle-eye view of all that our Lord knows about us. However, this level of knowledge is very difficult to comprehend, even for us.
Thankfully, in the next few verses, the Bible king attempts to dissect this knowledge, and in doing so, brings us, the readers of this beautiful psalm, a little closer to understanding how deep this knowledge actually goes:
1. God Knows All My Actions
You know when I sit down and when I rise up…
— Psalm 139:2
Whether I sit or rise, whether I walk or stand, in all my coming and going, God is aware of all my actions. There’s nothing that I can do or anywhere I can go where God will not be aware of it.
This extends from all our secret acts of charity that we perform anonymously when no one is looking, all the way to our darkest deeds that we do in secret. God knows it all, and we cannot hide any of it from Him.
2. God Knows All My Thoughts
…You understand my thought from afar.
— Psalm 139:2
Our thoughts are like the safe deposit box in our minds. Many times, we can get away with faking morality with our actions. We can try and keep up an act externally while in our hearts, we remain as wicked as can be. As Jeremiah writes:
“The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can know it?
— Jeremiah 17:9
God has an answer to this dilemma. God knows the heart of man. He knows that while men profess to be righteous, their hearts are far from Him.
‘This people honors Me with their lips,
But their heart is far away from Me.
— Matthew 15:8
God knows the heart of man, the thoughts that proceed from such a heart. He knows who the true worshipers are, those who worship in truth and in spirit (John 4:23).
3. God Knows All My Plans
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
— Psalm 139:3
Not only does God know exactly what goes on in our hearts and minds, He also knows exactly what we plan on doing. The psalmist says, “God scrutinizes his path.” This implies a careful and thorough study of that path. He also says that God is “intimately acquainted with all my ways,” which speaks to how personal this is for God, to know our business, to know our ways.
If God knows us this personally, we should come to a place of placing confidence in His providence. We need to understand that whenever God allows various things to come to pass in our lives, even the things that we may consider unpleasant or unfair, we need to remember that He does this after having scrutinized our paths and become intimately acquainted with all our ways.
4. God Knows My Future
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Yahweh, You know it all.
— Psalm 139:4
Multiple times we see the scriptures tell us not to worry about the future. A good example is our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount:
“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
— Matthew 6:34
His knowledge stretches not only to the physical and the metaphysical, it also goes past space and into time. He knows all that has been, all that is, and all that is to come.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
— Revelation 1:8
This should bring us much comfort, knowing that God is already aware of all that is to come, and as we place our faith in Him, we can have confidence in the hope that He has promised us:
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
— John 14:1-3
5. God Knows Everything There Is to Know About Me
You have enclosed me behind and before,
And You have put Your hand upon me.
— Psalm 139:5
The psalmist concludes this section by submitting to the greatness of the knowledge that God possesses:
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
— Psalm 139:6
Here are some encouragements from these reflections:
- God knows us personally: He is not a distant, impersonal force. Rather, God is a personal God, capable of relationships with us, and knows us so well that He’s the only one we can actually be completely vulnerable to.
- The depth of God’s knowledge about us transcends that of any man: This includes our closest partners. We serve a God who knows us deeply and intimately. He ought to be the one we run to with all our burdens of this world, and He gives us rest (Matthew 11:28).
- Not only does God know us, He has made Himself known to us: We don’t just blindly serve a God whom we don’t know, but rather one who went as far as taking on flesh, to live a perfect life in our place, and die in our place, so that those who believe in Him would be given the right to be called His very own children (John 1:12).
I pray this word reminds us of the love of the God we serve.
May grace and peace be upon you,
Paul.
Leave a Reply