Psalm 139

To be Known is to be Loved

We all have people we know really well. Perhaps our friends or family…we might know a person’s greatest fear or biggest regret…we might know their greatest weakness or what bring them joy...

But no matter how well we know another person…there is always a part of them that is unknowable to us. We never fully know another human being…we do not have access to the recesses of their souls...we can know a lot or even most about another person…but we never know them completely...

It’s the same with God…we know God in mainly two ways:

through the Holy Spirit inspired written word of God (which points to the incarnate word of God Jesus)

And by the wonder and awesomeness of nature.

From the tiniest cell to the grandeur of the oceans…to the unviverse beyond…creation displays a level of complexity and diversity that points to a Creator (God)( who is infinitely wise and powerful…yet beautiful and personal...

As Paul says in Romans 1:20

Romans 1:20 NLT

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

So we can know part of who God is by what is written in the Bible…by what God has created…but even these things have their limitations…because you and I have limitations.

God is not like you and me…the creator is not the creation…although…in Jesus Christ…God became human…the creator became part of creation and lived among us…that is why we know God most clearly through Jesus Christ.

But, ultimately, God is outside of our full comprehension...

Laura loves the slam poetry titled “woman at the well” with the tag line: “To be known is to be Loved and to be Loved is to be Known.”

Do you agree with such a proposition? Do you think the more someone knows you…the more they love you?

Sure we say that about people at funerals…but is it really true?

Known and Loved by God

Psalm 139

Psalm 139 beautifully describes how intimately we are known by God.

How does verse one strike you?

Psalm 139:1 ESV

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

David knows God has searched him…a known him. What do you thinkabout God searching you?

The verb ‘search’ means to ‘scrutinize’... “to find out” ... “to examine intimately”.

Did you know that’s what God does with each of us? God examine’s us…God searches us out…finds us out...

Remember this is David…a man who scripture describes as “a man after God’s own heart”…God’s chosen king for Israel…a man who’s faith in God was unwaivering…despite the fact that David was an adulterer…a liar…a murderer...

David knew God knew him…intimately…he was known by God…the creator of all things...

vv.2-4…David says of God “you know what I do…you know my thoughts…you know the streets I walk…you know the words I’m about to speak before I speak them…David is blown away…he says God’s ways are too wonderful…too unbelievable…for David.

In theology there’s a term for this attribute of God…it is called God’s Omnicense. That is God is all knowing…there is nothing God doesnt’ know about you and me…God is the epitome of a mom who tells her children she has eyes in the back of her head…God knows it all.

Known and Loved

If you’re anything like me…you may cringe at God knowing everything about you. Your thoughts…words…deeds…past/present/future...

I cringe because it’s uncomfortable...it is completely vulnerable to be fully known…you and I…have no where to hide…we are known by a holy and rightoues God...and there’s nothing we can do or say about it.

But unlike humanity…God does not use His power/abilities…to take advantage of us...

…all of God’s attributes are benevolently used…for our Good…not to threaten us.

David…aware how uncomfortable it is to be fully known talks about trying to hide from God…good luck with that one.

David wrties down what he knows to be true…namely…that the all knowing God…whom a person might want a little privacy from every once and while…can never find it.

If we go up…God is there

If we go down…God is there

Same with any other direction we take…God is there.

I like the way Eugene Peterson translates vv.10-12

Psalm 139:10–12 (MSG)

You’d find me in a minute—you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!

At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.

Yikes! There is no where you and I can go…that God is not already there. Even the darkest places in our lives...

HEre is another general attribute of God…His “omnipresence” which means everywhere present.

So God is all knowning (everything about each of us) and God is everywehre present (we can’t hide)

Now listen how God’s knowing and God’s presence followed David (and you and me) our whole lives.

Psalm 139:13–16 (MSG)

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb.

I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made!

I worship in adoration—what a creation!

You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.

Nothing in your life or mine…is unknown to God… “the days of my life…all prepared before I’d even lived one day.”

The things that have happened to us…or that we bring upon ourselves…did not surprise God…even if it surprised us.

None of us are accidents…none of us are surprises to God…we are all fearfully and wonderfully made!

Closing

What does all this do for David’s self-understanding and his understanding of God?

It leads him to worship!

Psalm 139:17–18 (MSG)

Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I’ll never comprehend them!

I couldn’t even begin to count them—any more than I could count the sand of the sea.

Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!

The Woman at the well poem we heard on the video…is from John 4…she felt known and loved…by the incarnate God…God in the flesh…Jesus CHrist...

Like David…the woman at the well was an adulterer…she lived her life in fear of begin known and loved…her neighbors knew her…and rejected her.

God knew her…and offered her the living water of Himself…that leads to eternal life.

We are called to live transparent lives before God. God knows it all anyway.

We are called to…l like David…say to God... Psalm 139:23-24

Psalm 139:23–24 (MSG)

Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me;

Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about;

See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—then guide me on the road to eternal life.

Humanity rejects people when they really get to know them.

God…kowing everything about us and is everywhere present in our lives…does not reject us…but invites us on the road to eternal life.

To be known is to be loved… to be loved is to be known.

Thanks be to God…who knows us intimately…a loves us unconditionally through Jesus Christ our LORD. AMEN