Known By God

Psalm 139:1-24

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

“O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.  Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.  Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.  For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.  Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” (Psalm 139:1-6)

Sometimes we feel like no one understands us, and sometimes we don’t even understand our own motivations and thoughts.  At such times it is comforting to know that God knows and understands us even better than we understand ourselves.    He knows every time we get up in the night or when we sat down to rest.  He understands our thoughts, even before we think them.  Sometimes we say things that do not come across the way we intended, but God knows exactly what we meant and why we said what we said.  He shapes and molds us, protecting us from things that would harm us.  We can’t even begin to understand ourselves like he knows us.  How could anyone else understand us like he does?

“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.  If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.  For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.” (Psalm 139:7-13)

Sometimes we have a guilty conscience and like Adam and Eve in the garden, we try to hide ourselves from God, blaming others and avoiding other Christians and moral people.  Some people leave their families or change religions or become obsessed with making money in an effort to escape God.   Others become drug addicts or alcoholics and some commit suicide in the efforts to escape their sense of guilt.  As David points out There is nowhere they can go that God is not already there.  The things we do may prevent us from seeing God, but they do not stop him from seeing us or working in our lives.  He has known and tried to guide us from the time we were conceived.  Unfortunately, many are like an untrained horse, fighting the reins and making things worse for ourselves.  . 

“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.  My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.  Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.  How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” (Psalm 139:14-16)

When we begin to understand what it took to make an organism as complex as a person is we begin to understand how powerful, intelligent, and loving God is that he worked out the details. So that we can survive in this world.  God knew exactly what would be needed at each step of our development from the time of conception to the point we are at today.  He understood the formation of our DNA and developed it when he made man from the dust of the earth, foreseeing what we would become even before we had begun to develop.  As we understand that we begin to understand how much he cared about us to make such detailed plans and preparations.    We can’t even begin to count the various things he did to create us, and it is only because he still cares about and for us that we still exist. 

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“Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.  For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.  Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?  I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.” (Psalm 139:19-22)

Understanding the amount of planning and effort God has put into each individual. It is obvious that he will not allow rebellious people to destroy all his work.   He is love, and is not willing that any should be destroyed.  As a result, he must destroy those who try to destroy others.  David hated those wicked who hated God and tried to prevent people from pleasing him and was frustrated by their actions.  He considered them as his enemies, hating their actions with a godly hatred.    

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:  And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)

At the same time, David was concerned that he might develop attitudes similar to the wicked, thinking he was better.  He asks that God would examine him thoroughly and reveal anything in his own life that was wrong.  Instead of judging everyone else, we need to make sure of our own state, as Romans 14:13 tells us.  “Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.”   We can’t do much about what the wicked are doing, but we can change our own actions and attitudes, and he knows us.  We can’t fool him.