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).
Our lesson today is another well known Psalm of King David. As you study with us today, think on the “me” and “my.” This Psalm is personal, intimate, and about the relationship that King David trusts. What is your relationship with God like? Do you surrender your talk, your walk, and your thoughts to His authority? Are you striving to know Him, to please Him, and to be like Him? Are you brave enough to invite God in, to search your heart, to bring to mind your faults for Him to fix? Are you willing to allow Him to remodel you if the result is a closer walk with Him?
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.
From the very beginning, God has known you. He formed you. He placed you in His plan. He shared with Jeremiah, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5). This is true for you as well. We are not without purpose and calling. Don’t rush past this thought. God knew you - before you were known or thought about by anyone else. He knew YOU, individually, intimately, and purposefully. God didn’t stop there. He continues knowing and surrounding you and every aspect of your life. Despite our flaws, our sins, and our spiritual attention deficit disorder, God stays with us. David says this is so overwhelming that he cannot wrap his head around it. The Apostle Paul said it like this: O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (Romans 11:33).
As human beings, we are so limited that we see through the glass of life darkly. We can only understand in part. But there is coming a day that we will see, actually, physically, and personally see Jesus face to face. For the very first time, we will attain this height of understanding, and we will know Him, as He has known us all along. To borrow a phrase from King David, Selah! Think on this for a while!
Now, there are different kinds of knowing. There is nothing and no one that God doesn’t know everything about, and yet, the Bible says that God will say to some in judgement, “Depart from me ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you.” Don’t get confused. The depth of intimacy David is describing comes from a life surrendered to God. This knowledge is the result of a relationship between a Heavenly Father and His child. All to often people claim the promises of God without submitting to the person of God, that won’t work.
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.
The scripture gives us examples of people who tried unsuccessfully to hide from God. Reread the stories on Adam and Eve (why are you hiding?), Cain (where is Abel?), or Jonah (Nineveh- not Tarshish!). God not only knows everything, He is everywhere. There is no place we can be that God is not. There is nothing we can do that He does not know. David says that even in the pitch blackness of night, God is able to see him as if he was standing in direct sunlight. Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? (Isaiah 29:15).
The answer; God does. Notice also that everyone who tried to hide from God failed. So why do we run, and why do we try to hide? Is it because we don’t know God, really, very much at all? Is it because we think that He has somehow lost His authority or ability? Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: (Isaiah 59:1). God is our ever-present strength, refuge, and help everyday and everywhere. He knows us. He created us. He has every right to perform maintenance and remold and remodel as He chooses. He is the author of the original; He is the owner. As followers, we struggle. We want control. We don’t want accountability. We are fearful of what He plans for us, what He may ask us to do, or what we might have to change. Unfortunately, we fail, often and significantly, yet He loves us. His word is a powerful manual for having and maintaining this David-like relationship to God. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).
As human beings, we operate by what is apparent and obvious. That is not the kind of relationship David records for us in Psalm 139. Here, David is reminding us that God knows each of us - personally, intimately, and better than we know ourselves. He created us individually with a plan in mind. God is everywhere, and there is no place that we can run to hide from His presence. How much better it is to simply run toward Him in both our successes and our failures. It is right to assume that if I stand in the presence of God’s fierce perfection on my own and in my sin, I can expect the wrath and judgment of God. But because of Grace, the blood of Jesus has given me access to the presence of God without fear and condemnation. It is only comforting to be known by God if we have been born again through the blood of Christ. The world assumes knowledge of God without acknowledging His authority, but the Bible warns that there is one way, “no one comes to the Father,” except they do so through Jesus Christ. How well do you know God? Are you willing to ask Him to search your heart to find out?
Thank you for studying with us! God bless!