HAS THE AMAZING BECOME “NORMAL”?

READ PSALM 139

GOD KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT ME!

Psalm 139:1
O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

Several reactions come to my mind, as I read this well-loved psalm by David.

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 this 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” to us? 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 attitudes, in our expectations, in our prayer life, in our service, in our relationships, in our purity, in our sanctification? In other words, how does God’s care for us 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 actions that we assume no one notices are not only noticed by God, but evaluated and weighed by Him. But at the same time, when people around us do not seem to be able to really understand how we feel or what we are going through, we are overwhelmed with thanksgiving by the fact that God does know and fully understand everything about 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 loving, thorough, and constant.  Are these thoughts producing responses in your life? We should be quick to obey, quick to repent, quick to trust, quick to rejoice because of this realization.

David goes on to describe four attributes of God that express the quality of God’s searching knowledge of us and then 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! 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, 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 by it, 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 certainly weigh my actions, attitudes, and plans more carefully. In other words, my life would become more closely aligned to His will and His ways!

I think that we need to take time to pray and ask God to help us to live with a greater and more continual awareness of His omniscience. And then ask Him to enable us to walk according to His Word.

May our lives be different today, because we know that we are under the careful and loving scrutiny of our all-knowing God.