Fully Known

That we are studying Psalm 139 is indeed no coincidence. Given the circumstances we are living in, given the difficulties we have endured over the last several months of isolation, this Psalm speaks to our need for security. That God knows us, fully. That because God knows everything about us, we are totally secure.

King David opens his Psalm with a picture of God’s complete knowledge of him. Verses 1-6 describe God’s watchful eye, he has searched David and knows him. He knows everything about David. He knows when he sits down, when he gets up, his thoughts, his waking and sleeping, even the words before he speaks them. God is all around David, hemming him in, at times wonderfully comforting, like a hug, at other times wonderfully direct, as in leading him through things he didn’t want to experience. The reality of God’s knowledge of someone as insignificant as David is mind boggling to him.

You are as much known by God as David was. God has already searched you. He knows all about you. Nothing is hidden from him, nothing. He knows your hopes, desires, dreams, fears, bad deeds, good deeds, everything. He knows you, down to the number of hairs on your head. God is with you, hemming you in, that is hugging you close, when you are alone, afraid, insecure. He is your security, your friend, your Father, your brother, your strength. He is with you always. He is aware of your wrongdoing, and he refuses to leave you, even if you try to leave him. Nothing about you surprises God. Jesus promised in Matthew 28:20 that he is with us, even to the end of the age.

God knows your thoughts. He knows the words you are going to say, before you say them. He knows your path. He knows what you will have for lunch today, and all the days to come, or if you’ll skip lunch. He knows where you will live, where you will work. He knows the friends you will make. He knows the people who will support you and he knows who will not support you. He knows your fears and your anxieties. Nothing scares God. And nothing you will ever face in this life is too big for God to handle. Nothing is bigger than God is.

Verses 7-12 describe God’s omnipresence. God is everywhere. This means, that in our darkest moments of despair to our moments of utter joy and delight, God is there. When we are in the miry depths of sinful activity, God is still present—there is no where we can go to flee from him. But there is also no need to flee from God. God the Father isn’t a stern taskmaster, waiting for us to step out of line so that he can punish us.

God the Father is full of grace, lovingkindness and mercy. The last thing he wants us to do is to try to run away from him. How’d that work out for Jonah? So unless you want to spend three days and nights in the belly of a fish, run to God, not away from him. When we run to God, we discover his arms are open and ready to embrace us. God rejoices when we are with him. God rejoices whenever we turn to him. Don’t delay. When you feel you are far from God, turn to him!

God is everywhere, in heaven, and even in the depths of Sheol—the abode of the dead. Even if we could try to run away from God, travelling as fast as the sun rising sun, God is still with us. If we could go as far away as we could possibly go, God is there. God leads us by his hand. He hold his hand out and he invites us to grab hold and hang on. When our strength fails, His mighty right hand holds us fast—the mighty right hand that rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt rescues us from slavery to sin. Even if we are lost in the darkest dark, darkness is not dark to God. Jesus is the light of the world. The light of Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it!

How can God know our thoughts? Verses 13-16 demonstrate that God knows us, because he made us. He created us. He created you just as you are. You do not have to try to be someone else. You don’t have to be like a famous person, you don’t have to try to be like anyone. Be the person God created you to be. He knitted you together. He gave you your looks, your physiology, he gave you your genetics. He wrote your DNA.

He knows you. He knows all about you. He knows your circumstances. He knows your life. He knows your pain, your sorrow, your joy, your hopes, your plans, your dreams. He knows the day you were born. He knows the day you will die. All the days were known to him and were written in his book before the first one began. Nothing about you or your life catches God by surprise. He knows.

All this knowledge fills David with wonder. That God is mindful of him is amazing to him. God’s thoughts toward us are overwhelming, more than the sand on the seashore! God thinks of you. God thinks of you every moment of every day. Even when we are asleep, God isn’t, God’s presence is with you, especially when you don’t realise it. God envelops you in his mercy and his grace. There is never a moment when God is not aware of what you are going through, never a moment at all.

Verses 19-22 make a sharp shift. In contrast to God’s amazing greatness comes the vileness of God’s enemies. David here cries out for justice. He sees the wickedness all around him. We too, barely have to turn on the news, look online to see all manner of wickedness around us. Murderers, evil people who speak wickedness and take God’s name in vain. They dishonour God. They rebel against him. King David hates God’s enemies with righteous anger. Since they have rejected God, God will reject them.

David is describing God’s enemies, who rise up against God and who will suffer God’s wrath. These thoughts are echoed by Jude in verse 15, “to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” It seems almost impossible, doesn’t it, that anyone could ever reject God? Those who do, do not know the one True God. And so their deeds are murderous, evil, and their evil is hated, they are counted as enemies.

We need to be sure of where we stand before God. Though David has just asserted that he counts God’s enemies as his enemies, he invites God to search him. David knows his own heart. David knows how prone he is to doubt, to wander, to sin. David was guilty of murder, of adultery. We who have had murderous, adulterous, lying, idolatrous, blasphemous, all manner of sinful thoughts, words and actions are also guilty of sin, guilty of being enemies with God.

So, along with David, we invite God to search us:

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Come, Lord, examine me. Search my heart, search my mind. Reveal to me all my cares and concerns. Other translations put it, “test me and know my anxious thoughts.”

God knows we will have anxious thoughts. But in light of what this Psalm teaches us, in our knowledge of how great, powerful, attentive and watchful God is over us, to remain in such thinking is sinful. Jesus warns, in the parable of the sower, that the worries and anxieties of life can choke out the Word.

Peter teaches us to cast all our cares upon Christ, for he cares for us—in this he is echoing Psalm 139. Paul teaches us in Philippians 4:4-8 how to handle our anxiety—through prayer and petition making our requests known to God, then, having put our trust in God, the peace of Christ guards our hearts and minds.

How many cares and concerns have we had for the last several months? How many cares and concerns do we have, each one of us, right now? God knows them all. God’s got this. Do you believe it? Do you know it? God’s got you. Do you trust him?

I tell you the truth. God is big enough. Don’t sin as God’s enemies do, thinking too little of God.

Invite God to see if there is any offensive way, any sinful way still within you. Confess it, repent of it, and trust in him.

Trust God to lead you in the way everlasting. He will lead you into everlasting life. Amen.

Let us pray:

Lord, when all the cares of this life threaten to overwhelm, be our vision. Continually remind us of Your presence, you are always with us, and we are always with you. Be our vision—may we always see life through your eyes, as we trust in you fully and completely, Amen.