KNOWING THE GOD WHO KNOWS YOU
Notes
Transcript
Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? These are just a few of what we call “the ultimate questions of life,” questions that run through our minds and haunt us all of our lives.
Do I really matter? Does my life have a purpose? If God exists, does He know I exist? And if He does, does He even care that I exist? To these very important questions Psalm 139 responds with a resounding YES!
This psalm INSTRUCTS US IN KNOWING THE GOD WHO KNOWS US. A.W. Tozer What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. ... Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.
Psalm 139 was penned by King David. It clearly divides into 4 stanzas of 6 verses each in our English text. The word “know” dominates the passage, occurring 6 times in vs. 1, 2, 4, 6, 14 and 23. King David wants us KNOW THE GOD WHO KNOWS US.
David knew, as we must know, that wrong ideas about God will inevitably lead to wrong ideas about who we are. Such wrong thinking can tragically lead to wrong decisions, leading to the wrong path, resulting in the wrong destiny.
David wants us to know the God who knows us! When you know the God who knows you - you will understand you. John Calvin said, “Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” What then does Psalm 139 teach us about our God and ourselves that we must know and never forget?
We are made by an omniscient God.
We are made by an omniscient God.
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
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.
Stanza 1 affirms
The all knowing God - knows you.
The all knowing God - knows you.
A.W. Tozer He Knows All Things That Can Be Known
That God is omniscient is not only taught in the Scriptures, it must be inferred also from all else that is taught concerning Him. God perfectly knows Himself and, being the source and author of all things, it follows that He knows all that can be known. And this He knows instantly and with a fullness of perfection that includes every possible item of knowledge concerning everything that exists or could have existed anywhere in the universe at any time in the past or that may exist in the centuries or ages yet unborn.
God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell.
Because God knows all things perfectly, He knows no thing better than any other thing, but all things equally well. He never discovers anything, He is never surprised, never amazed. He never wonders about anything nor does He seek information or ask questions.
God knows my heart.
God knows my heart.
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
This is both convicting and comforting. God knows your character. God knows me inside out. He has exhaustive knowledge of my soul.
Many of us have “soul secrets” that we keep hidden from others, even those close to us. We are relieved to know that no one knows some of the things we have thought and some of the emotions we have felt. However, someone does know. The Lord has searched you and He knows it all.
Our heart, our soul, is an open book to God.
God knows my action.
God knows my action.
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.
God knows your conduct. The “you” here is emphatic. “My sitting down and my rising up” simply means - all of our actions. You cannot so much as take a seat, or leave it, without it being marked by God.
SEARCH means {to sift through something - to sort the good from the bad} [it carries the idea of a police officer searching a man for contraband - or pillagers ransacking a house for loot] the Lord knows all things naturally - it requires no effort on His part - furthermore searching does not imply ignorance it simply means that the Lord know us as thoroughly as if he had examined us minutely and had pried into the most secret corners of our being ) my path, 2) comprehend my lying down and 3) are acquainted with all my ways. (v. 3).
You (discern) my thoughts afar off. You not only know what I do, you even know why I do it, something I may not even know at times. You see, the heart that deceives you (Jeremiah 17:9) can never fool God.
My path and my pallet, my running and my resting, are alike within the circle of thine observation. Thou dost surround me even as the air continually surrounds all creatures that live. I am shut up within the wall of thy being; I am encircled within the bounds of thy knowledge. Waking or sleeping I am still observed of thee. I may leave thy path, but thou never leavest mine. I may sleep and forget thee, but thou dost never slumber, nor fall into oblivion concerning thy creature. The original signifies not only surrounding, but winnowing and sifting. The Lord judges our active life and our quiet life; he discriminates our action and our repose, and marks that in them which is good and also that which is evil. There is chaff in all our wheat, and the Lord divides them with unerring precision.
God knows my words.
God knows my words.
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
God knows your conversation. Even before you say it, He knows. And, He knows them exhaustively and completely (“altogether”).
You and I, in an unguarded or angry moment, blurt out something foolish or hurtful. “I had not planned to say that. I surprised myself.” God wasn’t surprised. He was not caught off guard in the least.”
God knows my destiny.
God knows my destiny.
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.
God knows your course. In fact He has you surrounded and “hemmed in”. We are enveloped, “enclosed” by His love and care. How do I know He loves me and cares for me? Because He has “laid His hand upon me.” The child of God is clearly in view here. He guides me and he comforts me. I cannot escape Him but then, why would I want to?
The word “wonderful” is in an emphatic position at the beginning of the sentence strengthens its force. It has the idea of “extraordinary” or “surpassing.”
Divine omniscience is simply too high for us to “attain it.” Try as we might, we can’t “go there!” It goes beyond my wildest imagination. God knows me better than I know myself.
We are made by an omniscient God and a omnipresent God.
We are made by an omnipresent God.
We are made by an omnipresent God.
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
The all present God is - with me.
The all present God is - with me.
Do you know what it means to be omnipresent? God has never gone anywhere. The Psalmist is not attempting to evade God but explain Him. God is everywhere but not in everything.
God is with me wherever I go.
God is with me wherever I go.
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
David ask two rhetorical questions anticipate the obvious answer - nowhere. He further expands this thought in verse 8 and 9 by including omni-directional compass.
Go up to heaven you are there. If I make my resting place in Sheol, the grave, the place of the dead, you are there (v. 8). You are up and down and everywhere in between.
If I take the wings of the morning (and go east at the speed of light) and if I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea (west/ the Mediterranean) … you are there too (v. 9).
He concludes this whole matter that God is with me wherever I go by saying - no matter where I go you will lead me and protect me.
Anywhere and everywhere I might go You are there with what is best for me in Your sight!
God is with me wherever I am.
God is with me wherever I am.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
Distance cannot separate me from the omnipresent God. Darkness cannot hide me from His presence either. Turn off the lights. Pull the drapes. Close the blinds. Pull those covers over your head. Darkness may conceal one man from another, but it can never hide a man from God.
What is dark to me literally and spiritually is light to Jehovah! Addressing the omnipresence of God, Stephen Charnock, who lived in the 17th century and was a Puritan preacher wrote,
“How terrible should the thoughts of this attribute be to sinners! How foolish is it to imagine any hiding-place from the incomprehensible God, who fills and contains all things, and is present in every point of the world. When men have shut the door, and made all darkness within, to meditate or commit a crime, they cannot in the most intricate recesses be sheltered from the presence of God. If they could separate themselves from their own shadows, they could not avoid his company, or be obscured from his sight…Hypocrites cannot disguise their sentiments from him; he is in the most secret nook of their hearts. No thought is hid, no lust is secret, but the eye of God beholds this, and that, and the other. He is present with our heart when we imagine, with our hands when we act. We may exclude the sun from peeping into our solitudes, but not the eyes of God from beholding our actions”.
We are made by an omniscient and omnipresent as well as an omnipotent God.
We are made by an omnipotent God.
We are made by an omnipotent God.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.
The all powerful God - created you.
God saw us and loved us before He made us and as He made us.
Omnipotence knits us together in the dark and secret place of our mother’s womb! Even before she knew she was pregnant, the Lord was busy shaping and forming me in my mother’s womb. Further, he was already laying out the particulars of my life. David wants each one of us to know that God cares about our beginning (vs. 13-15), and He cares about our future (vs. 16-18).
The Lord formed my body.
The Lord formed my body.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
You formed –“You” is emphatic again. You and no other formed/created me, even my inward or inmost parts. All that I am inwardly, body and soul, you made it.
Covered – wove, knitted. God was involved in the intricate details. As a skilled craftsman would knit a piece of cloth or weave a beautiful basket, this is how God made us.
David marvels over the mysterious process of a developing baby inside his or her mother. He can only break out in praise seeing we are fearfully and wonderfully made (v. 14). We are awestruck with wonder, amazement and reverence at God’s magnificent creation. We stand amazed in His presence!
David sees the works of this great Creator God as “wonderful”. He affirms: “my soul knows it very well.” (v. 14) He has no doubts either about the Creator or the tiny creation in view! There is human life in there put there by God.
The theme of God’s omniscience now makes another appearance. My frame (lit. “bones”) was not hidden from You. You see everything and you know everything.
Made in the secret, hidden place within my mother, I was “intricately woven”, The Message, “You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something”). The Hebrew word for Intricately woven is translated eight times to describe the needlework in the tabernacle and clothing described in the Exodus.
“In the lower parts of the earth” is simply a poetic expression, a figure of speech, that points to the darkness, hiddeness and secrecy of the mother’s womb.
We may not know all that is going on. Even with 4-D sonograms our knowledge of all that is unfolding and developing inside a mother’s womb is so small and insignificant in comparison to what our God sees and knows.
Transition: You see He not only formed your body. He also foreordained your life.
The Lord foreordained my life.
The Lord foreordained my life.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.
Once more omniscience and omnipotence come together working hand in hand.
God saw me at the moment of conception as an unformed substance. Even when I wasn’t much, I was still something to Him! In fact He prerecorded and set out in advance all my days. God 1) wrote all the details of my life in His book and 2) He fashioned and formed all the days of my life when none of them yet existed (v. 16). God had a plan for David. God has a plan for each of us. Both in terms of length of life and the specifics of life, God has His purposes and plans.
Once more these truths inspire David to break out in praise to His God (vs. 17- 18). These two verses say something like this if I might paraphrase them: “your thinking of me down to the last detail is so very precious to me my God. The vastness and greatness of their total is so great they are more than every grain of sand on the earth. Trying to count them all exhaust me and I fall asleep. Yet when I wake, You are there as you are every day of my life.”
Some Bible scholars believe the phrase, “when I awake, I am still with You” may be alluding to another waking; the waking up from death in the very presence of the Lord. Unlike the wicked who are slain by the Lord (v. 19), the believer in the resurrected Jesus has a different destiny all together. No wonder the New Testament repeatedly refers to the death of the child of God as “sleep.” He closes His eyes one moment, and awakens in the presence of Jesus His Maker and Savior the next. The God who made Him is the God who saved. The God who gave him life is the God who gives him eternal life.
We are made by an omni-competent God.
We are made by an omni-competent God.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Our great God is a good God, a just God, a righteous God.
Our God will deal with the wicked.
Our God will deal with the wicked.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.
Our God will lead the humble.
Our God will lead the humble.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
CONCLUSION
Since God is omniscient - be real
Since God is omnipresent - quit running
Since God is omnipotent - find rest
Since God’s ability transcends my reality it is best to bow to His immensity.