God’s knowledge of us began before the foundation of the world,
and continues every day of our life and for eternity.
God’s searching and knowledge is careful, complete, thorough, constant.
Are these thoughts producing reactions in your life?
Psalm 139:1
O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
This is certainly one of the most well-loved and better-known psalms by David. As I read this psalm, there are several reactions that come to my mind. First of all, we notice that David addressed God as LORD. The self-existent and self-sustaining One, the ‘I AM’, is interested in man - in me! David has expressed the same idea in another psalm.
Psalm 8:4
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Does this thought become “normal”? Certainly, when we stop to concentrate on it, we are surprised, amazed, humbled, and overwhelmed by this truth, but how does it flesh out in our daily attitude, in our expectations, in our prayer life, in our service, in our relationships, in our purity, in our sanctification? In other words, how does it impact every aspect of our lives?
This first reaction is followed by emotions of both joy and fear. I cannot hide in the masses of humanity, for God is carefully scrutinizing my life, and this produces the fear of God. All of our thoughts and intentions – those things that we assume no one notices - are not only noticed by God, but evaluated and weighed by Him. At the same time, in a world where we are often misunderstood, where people around us do not seem to be able to really know how we feel and what we are going through, we are overwhelmed by the fact that God knows us.
God’s knowledge of us began before the foundation of the world, and continues every day of our life and for eternity. God’s searching and knowledge is careful, complete, thorough, constant. Are these thoughts producing reactions in your life? We should be quick to obey, quick to repent, quick to trust, quick to rejoice. We should be quick in all our reactions to this realization.
David goes on to describe four attributes of God that express the quality of God’s search and knowledge of us and expresses some of His reactions.
Psalm 139:2-6
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
The first attribute that David mentions is God’s omniscience. The all-knowing God is searching me and knowing me!
God is aware of every movement in my life. In fact, He is aware of the thoughts that precede and produce my actions. God is totally aware of the reasons I do the things I do! This complete knowledge is the result of careful scrutiny of man’s actions and habits. Nothing surprises God about our lives. He knows the history, the patterns, the habits, the decisions that accompany our every action. When we speak , God knows exactly why we said the things we did. He is intimate with the causes of our words, for our words express our hearts, which God knows intimately.
God’s knowledge surrounds us on every side, God is never unaware, He is never distracted, He never overlooks, He never forgets.
We can meditate on these truths, but understanding them completely is impossible. David expressed this clearly, when he said that “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”
It is a wonderful truth. We cannot remain unchanged, even though our human understanding of it is so limited.
If I would only be more aware that God continually searches me and knows me, I would weigh my actions more carefully, my attitudes would be so different, my plans would be more thought- out. In other words, my life would be very different.
I think that we need to take time to pray and ask God to help us live our lives with a greater awareness of His omniscience. Even our approach to the Word of God and to God’s instructions should be affected deeply by this truth!
May our lives be different today, in view of the fact that we are under the careful and loving scrutiny of our all-knowing God.
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
Does this thought become “normal”? Certainly, when we stop to concentrate on it, we are surprised, amazed, humbled, and overwhelmed by this truth, but how does it flesh out in our daily attitude, in our expectations, in our prayer life, in our service, in our relationships, in our purity, in our sanctification? In other words, how does it impact every aspect of our lives?
This first reaction is followed by emotions of both joy and fear. I cannot hide in the masses of humanity, for God is carefully scrutinizing my life, and this produces the fear of God. All of our thoughts and intentions – those things that we assume no one notices - are not only noticed by God, but evaluated and weighed by Him. At the same time, in a world where we are often misunderstood, where people around us do not seem to be able to really know how we feel and what we are going through, we are overwhelmed by the fact that God knows us.
God’s knowledge of us began before the foundation of the world, and continues every day of our life and for eternity. God’s searching and knowledge is careful, complete, thorough, constant. Are these thoughts producing reactions in your life? We should be quick to obey, quick to repent, quick to trust, quick to rejoice. We should be quick in all our reactions to this realization.
David goes on to describe four attributes of God that express the quality of God’s search and knowledge of us and expresses some of His reactions.
Psalm 139:2-6
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
The first attribute that David mentions is God’s omniscience. The all-knowing God is searching me and knowing me!
God is aware of every movement in my life. In fact, He is aware of the thoughts that precede and produce my actions. God is totally aware of the reasons I do the things I do! This complete knowledge is the result of careful scrutiny of man’s actions and habits. Nothing surprises God about our lives. He knows the history, the patterns, the habits, the decisions that accompany our every action. When we speak , God knows exactly why we said the things we did. He is intimate with the causes of our words, for our words express our hearts, which God knows intimately.
God’s knowledge surrounds us on every side, God is never unaware, He is never distracted, He never overlooks, He never forgets.
We can meditate on these truths, but understanding them completely is impossible. David expressed this clearly, when he said that “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”
It is a wonderful truth. We cannot remain unchanged, even though our human understanding of it is so limited.
If I would only be more aware that God continually searches me and knows me, I would weigh my actions more carefully, my attitudes would be so different, my plans would be more thought- out. In other words, my life would be very different.
I think that we need to take time to pray and ask God to help us live our lives with a greater awareness of His omniscience. Even our approach to the Word of God and to God’s instructions should be affected deeply by this truth!
May our lives be different today, in view of the fact that we are under the careful and loving scrutiny of our all-knowing God.
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