Being Known and Knowing the Greatness of God

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Is God watching?

I read of a college student who recalled a humorous sign in his campus cafeteria. Evidently students were taking apples from the cafeteria to their room. Someone put up a sign, “Please take only one apple. God is watching you.” Someone else put up a sign by the cookies: “Take all the cookies you want. God is watching the apples.”
I know your head says that is absurd, but how often do you live your life as if God is not watching, or not involved? How often does your heart feel as if God is not aware of your circumstances like your suffering or your hardship? How often do you feel distant from God, almost as if he does not know you or even pays attention to you? Feeling this way can tempt the heart to believe God does not care about you.

The greatness of God is that knows the depths of your heart and still loves you the same.

This morning I want you to see the greatness of God. I want you to behold the greatness of his knowledge of you and the the greatness of his love for you. Knowing His greatness, I want you to surrender to Him and live to the glory of his greatness.

The greatness of God’s knowledge of you.

Psalm 139 reveals to everyone who reads it that God is an omniscient God. That is, God’s knowledge is unlimited, comprehensive, and perfect in every way. It is the complete opposite of our knowledge. Our knowledge is passive. We enter the world needing to learn meaning and truth of the world around us. We learn the law of gravity. We learn good hygiene is healthy. We don’t know the possible. Possibility, for us, is left to the imagination. God’s knowledge is active as it pertains to his will and creativity. He knows what he wills and he knows what he does not will. He knows the actual and the possible.
I was told as a child that I could be whatever I wanted to be when I grow up. There were thousands of possibilities of what my life would look like. I could imagine myself being a doctor or professional football player, but I didn’t know. God knows both what I am and what I will be. He knows my genetics, my will, my circumstances, every human other human being who will interact with me, and everything in between God’s decision for me to exist and my eternal life.
Think about the prophet Jeremiah. God said to him,
Jeremiah 1:5 ESV
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
God determined Jeremiah would exist. He determined when he would live, where he would live, how he would live, what he would do with his life, and when and how he would die. Because God is omniscient, He thoroughly knew Jeremiah, friend, God thoroughly knows you.
Psalm 139 also reveals that God is omnipresent. What this means is that God is everywhere, in all spaces and places. It’s not that he takes up space everywhere. That is called pantheism. To say that God os omnipresent is to say that he does not have spatial dimensions. He has no size nor is is localized in one space. God created space and is free from any boundaries that makes up space.
For example, think about time. God is eternal. He created time for our sake. He is not bound by the limitations of time. In the same way, God is spiritual. He does not have a body. He is not bound by the limitations of physical presence. David says in our text this morning,
Psalm 139:7–10 ESV
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.
Friend, because is omnipresent, God is always with you.
Now, put the two ideas together, God’s omniscience and omnipresence and you begin to understand who God knows you so well.

How well does God know you?

Consider five truths about how well God knows you from Psalm 139.

God carefully orchestrated your life (Psalm 139:13-18)

God created your life. The Hebrew concept here is that God fashioned you shaping your body with intentional care. Job describes this fashioning
Job 10:11 ESV
You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
God not only forms the body, but brings life to the body by providing the soul.
Ecclesiastes 11:5 ESV
As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
David describes this work as wonderful, extraordinary, exceedingly great, works filled with greatness.
The birth of every child, black or white, abled or disabled, born into wealth or poverty, is a display of the greatness of God.
The implications of God’s thoughtful care in the process of the womb means that disability is not a mishap or outside the will of God for us on earth. Autism is a beautiful pattern in the tapestry of God’s design for his image bearers in a fallen creation. People born with disabilities are just as fearfully and wonderfully made as abled bodied people.
I’m so drawn two the wisdom Hebrew Scholar Dr. Mark Futato reveals about God’s knowledge of me and presence with me in my mother’s womb. He says,
Though I was hidden from human view in my mother’s womb, I was not hidden from the gaze of God. His eye was on me, and I was in his thoughts from my very beginning. When I was in the utter seclusion of the womb, God was watching over the process of my formation.
You are not a mistake. Your skin color, your gender as male or female, your physical features like your nose or your eyes or your head, your personality, your ability to understand truth or knowledge, whether great or small, was not hidden from God, but was made fearfully and wonderfully by God for His glory to display his greatness. And do you know how God felt about you as he was making you?
As God was laying out your life before the foundation of the world to your mothers womb to the time you would spend on earth, David says God’s thoughts were precious.
Psalm 139:16–18 ESV
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.
David is overwhelmed by thoughts of God’s intimate care for every detail of life, from the smallest cell on your body to the day you would meet him face to face for eternity, he says that they are like grains of sand. There are just too many of them to count.
God has carefully orchestrated your life from the very beginning. He took great care to make you into his image to display his greatness the way he wants it displayed.

God thoroughly knows the smallest details that fill your days (Psalm 139:1-3)

In the opening verses of Psalm 139, David is reflecting on God’s personal knowledge of him. Verse 1, “Lord, you know everything about me.” Verse 2, “You know when I sit down or stand up.” Verse 4, “You know what I’m going to say.” There is nothing about your life, in the morning when you rise or at night when you sleep, that God is not deeply involved and aware of.
I cannot help but be reminded of a lyric of a song by the band Police,
“Every breath you take And every move you make Every bond you break Every step you take I'll be watching you
Every single day And every word you say Every game you play Every night you stay I'll be watching you”
Thats the idea in the first three verses. The guy in the song is stalker, God, however, is your creator father who keeps his eyes on the whereabouts of his children. He is not limited by blindspots around corners or the bumper of a car. He sees everything in every place, in every space your feet find a step.
Job says
Job 34:21 ESV
“For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.
Jeremiah says
Jeremiah 23:24 ESV
Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.
God goes eyes go further than where your feet step. His eyes pierce the depths of your heart.

God vividly sees the depth of your heart (Psalm 139:4)

Jesus teaches us that from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. From the depths of your heart come your words, good or bad, blessing or curse. David knows the heart is the well-spring of life (Proverbs 4:23). Your thoughts and your desires well up into words, and God sees every one of them before they hit your tongue.
Psalm 139:4 ESV
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
Before David died, he told Solomon to guard his heart, that is, do not let it be divided, so that he could serve the Lord faithfully.
1 Chronicles 28:9 ESV
“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.
David understood that God knows your heart, all your plans, all your desires, all your thoughts, even before you make them known.
Putting the tow ideas together, David also says in
Psalm 33:13–15 ESV
The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.
If I could go back in time to the day that God told Jonah to go to Nineveh, I would be the good friend who slapped Jonah upside the head the moment he said, “He let’s get out of here. Let’s take a ship and get as far away from Nineveh as we can.” I would be like, “And go where? God sees everything. He is not bound by anything. God knows everything. He knows what you are thinking right now and is 10,00 steps ahead of you. Where are we going to go where he cannot see us, find us, and be upset with us that we ran away from his will.”
Have you ever thought about the big fish that Jonah was swallowed by when he went over the ship? I’m going to speculate here, but I wonder if that fish was somewhere on the other side of the world, days away from Tarshish. And God told the fish before he commanded Jonah, go ahead and get moving to Tarshish. You are going to swallow one of my disobedient prophets. I’m going to command him to bring a message of repentance to Nineveh, and he is going to try to run away from my presence. You be there to catch him when I drop him in the sea. By the way, don’t chew him up. He is not your dinner. Just given him a ride.
Now you look at Jonah and say, “Man you are foolish. How would you think you could get away from the eyes of God?” But how about you? Do you not see God with the same eyes as Jonah? How often do you live like God is not watching or aware of your thoughts, your words, and your actions? How often do you live with the unbelief that God does not care about your trials or tribulations?
God carefully orchestrated your life from its very beginning. He thoroughly sees the smallest detail that fills your days, and knows the depths of your heart-every thought, feeling, and word, even before you speak. Furthermore, he has even ensured you will never be outside of his pervasive presence.

God assures you will never be outside of his pervasive presence (Psalm 139:7-12)

The first three verses reveal that God knows every detail of your life. In verses 7-12, he shows you the boundaries to which you could go and still never be away from God.
Psalm 139:7 ESV
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
This is a rhetroical quesrtion. There is no where you can go to be outside God’s pervaisve presence. Let’s explore those boundaries.
Psalm 139:8 ESV
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
David first explores the spiritual realm. Heaven is where God lives. It makes sense he would be there. But what about the place of the dead? Sheol can be the realm of the dead, but many take it as a reference to hell. Is God sovereign over hell? Can God still be God in hell? The answer yes. Paul that people in hell will bow their knee to Jesus and confess He is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11).
Psalm 139:9–10 ESV
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.
The wings of the morning refers to the eastern horizon. If David goes as far east as he can go and as far west as he can God, will he still be in God’s presence. Yes! What if go to the deepest part of the chaotic ocean, does your presence extend there. Yes!, As a matter of fact, David says God’s right hand will lead and guide him. That is, God’s sovereign rule will and authority has no limits.
Psalm 139:11–12 ESV
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.
What if I found myself in a place where light could not exist, say like a black hole in space. Will I still be in your presence. Yes, David says. Even in a place where darkness engulfs light, the presence of God would light like the day for you.
There is no where in the universe or depth of creation, not in heaven or hell, where God’s presence can be exhausted. His knowledge and presence have no limits. That is part of what makes his sovereignty so effective and his care for you so good. He knows you.
Being known by God is one of humanities deepest needs, but it is also the most terrifying reality. We don’t want God to see everything, do we?

Worship is The Right Response To The Greatness of God’s Omniscience and Omnipresence (Psalm 139:19-22)

David responds to God’s knowledge and presence in verses 19-22. He breaks out with God’s judgement on the wicked. If God knows you so thoroughly and is able to care for you so deeply, to protect you and love you so intimately, why would you come against him? How could you treat him so treacherously? David says kill them all. Wipe the wicked off the face of the earth. What place does their scoffing have with a God as good and supreme as you O Lord?
David’s response is to worship God as the one true God who knows him and is always with him. God knows David is innocent and does not deserve to be attacked. David trusts God with his life and to be vindicated in time. Verse19-22 are imprecatory in nature, that is they call onGod to judge his enemies.

The problem is, you don’t respond rightly...

I understand David’s sentiment and even sympathize with it until I read verses v23-24
Psalm 139:23–24 HCSB
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.
David is asking God to examine his heart for any offense he may have committed. In David’s context, he is likely asking God to vindicate him from an enemy who is attacking him for no good reason. David is innocent in that matter. But David is a son of Adam like me. I tremble at the thought of God searching my heart to find any offensive way. He will not have to go very far.
I am a son of Adam. I was born with his sinful nature, just as you were born with it. Every heart is naturally the way Jeremiah describes it:
Jeremiah 17:9 ESV
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Paul says our hearts are not righteous nor do we pursue God, but are eager speak godlessness. He says
Romans 3:13–14 ESV
“Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
We are also eager to do godlessness. He says
Romans 3:15–17 ESV
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.”
Jesus describes our heart in the same manner when he says
Matthew 15:19 ESV
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.
By nature, you fundamentally oppose God. Your mind is set on the flesh and is hostile to God in every way (Romans 8:7-8). God clearly sees all of this in your heart. He sees it so clearly that Jesus says at the judgment God will hold you accountable for every careless word you have ever thought and spoke (Matthew 12:36-37).
You can see how terrifying it is to ask the omniscient and omnipresent God to search your heart for any offensive way in you, and to test your heart with His holy standard. God’s knowledge of me and presence with me is too great to ask such a thing.

The Greatness of God’s Love For You (Psalm 139:19-22)

In 2004, Chris Tomlin released a song written by Laura Story and Jesse Reeves called, “Indescribable.” In the last tag of the song, after singing about the greatness of God’s sovereignty over al creation, he sings
You see the depths of my heart And You love me the same You are amazing, God
Amazing God is right. After reading Psalm 139, I am baffled at how can God see what he sees and know what he knows about me and still love me?

How can God see the depths of my heart and love me the same?

Jesus. Before the foundation of the world, God determined that He would send His Son to die for sinners for the glory of His grace. Adam’s fall was not unknown to God. God was not absent from his creation when Satan tempted Eve. God called Adam to hold him accountable, not to try and figure what happened. God decided long before the Fall that He would set his love on sinners, and despite their rebellious and idolatrous ways, he would take extreme measures to demonstrate his love for them.
If you think long and hard enough on Psalm 139:16, you realize that when God was ordaining your days, every one of them, he was fashioning your salvation. There is a book of life that he wrote names in before the world existed. For these the Lamb of God would be slaughtered as you see in
Revelation 13:8 ESV
and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
Before the foundation of the world, God set his love on you. Paul says to the the Ephesian church, and to every believer
Ephesians 1:3–6 HCSB
Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.
God set his lavishing love on you before the foundation of the world in order for you bring him praise for his glorious grace. The glory is
Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
When you ask, “How can God know what he knows about me and what he sees in me and still love me,” you see that God set his love and lavished his love on you long before you existed on earth. He loves you without condition. He loves you without needing anything from you. That is why you cannot boast. It is by grace, pure grace, you are saved.
When he was was fearfully and wonderfully fashioning you in the womb, He lavished His love on you knowing you would be corrupted by sin and live in idolatry for a time. But he also knew that he had plans to demonstrate his love for you. He knew you needed a new heart that would love him and obey him. He knew you needed eyes of your heart opened to see your need for atonement. He knew you would needed your sins forgiven as far is the east is from the west. He knew he wanted to adopt you as his son or daughter and that it delighted him to give you an eternal inheritance. He knew that you would need His Spirit to live inside of you so that you can live in obedience to Him and enjoy His fellowship. He knew that you would need anew body, a powerful resurrection, if you were to live with him forever in His kingdom. He knew all of it.
Jesus is means of such great love. Jesus is the reason God can see the depths of your heart, knowing you the way he knows you, and seeing you the way he sees you, and still loves you the way he does. His love his not based on your work or your ability or your goodness. It’s based on Jesus. Yes, that love is indescribable. Unimaginable. Or as David says,
Psalm 139:6 ESV
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.

Prayer of Surrender (Psalm 139:23-24)

Psalm 139:23–24 ESV
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!
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