The Knowledge of God
The Doctrine of God #6
May 27, 2007 (AM) - Pastor Ronnie Wolfe

Text:  Psalm 139

Psalm 139:1 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.

Would you really want God to search you and know you? Are you sure you really want God to know everything about you? The lost world does not realize that God does know everything about them. We call this God’s omniscience, or his all-knowing attribute.

Here the psalmist is calling for God to search him and know him. When we read the rest of this Psalm, we realize why.

2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

There are valid reasons for our downsitting. We may sit down to rest, and in that rest God knows our need of rest and brings rest. Also, we sit down in laziness, but God also knows about that. He will reward the one and judge the other.

Our uprisings are also positive and negative. We may rise up to serve the Lord, and God will bless that. But we may also rise up to play:

In 2b we find that God understands our thoughts even though is far off–in Heaven overlooking the affairs of his world and executing his plan flawlessly.

3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

If God knows everything about me, then he knows our path. God has laid out a path for all of us to take, and that is the path of righteousness. He demands that every man should walk that path of righteousness. None of us is able to walk that path, so we are all sinners before God, and he knows it.

The word "compassest" in verse 3 is the Hebrew word for "scatter." God is scattered among every segment of my path. I cannot go anywhere that he is not there.

The "lying down" here is referenced by some commentaries to mean lying down for meditation or study of God’s word. When we lie down to meditate or study God’s word, God is there and knows our frame of mind. We do not meditate enough, mostly because we do not know how to meditate. Our minds are so full of the world that we cannot put our minds on God and Christ.

He is "acquainted" with our ways. That means he takes an integral part in our affairs. The word can mean "useful." If God were not involved in our ways, they would be of no profit to God. He must take an active part in our lives.

4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.

The Psalmist is speaking here of the silence of your tongue, before the word actually is formed with the tongue and spoken. Even before the word is said, the Lord knows it altogether.

The word may still be in your mind, but you are still guilty of the sin if that word is a sinful word, even though you may never speak it. God knows us that well.

Be careful little mouth what you say; be careful little mind what you think.

5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

The word "beset" means to enclose or to shut up. God has shut us up in his hedge of protection. He is all around the believer, and his hand is upon each believer, the hand of power and protection. We should have nothing to fear. Why, then, do we get anxious when he tells us to "be anxious for nothing"?

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

Here David sums up the previous verses and explains his thoughts about God’s knowledge: it is too wonderful for him, and it is for me, also. We cannot attain unto it or reach it. That is why it is so marvelous and wonderful!

This shows our total weakness and helplessness even though our faith is in Jesus Christ. We need the Lord’s presence, and we need to know that he knows our ways. This will carry us on to our victory in life and give us assurance and confidence in our service to him.

Now let’s skip down to verse 11.

11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.

Even when the darkest situations cover us, not just the darkness of the day, but the darkness of despair and anxiety, God can see through that horrid darkness. He knows the way that we take, and we cannot hide that way from him.

When we sin in the darkness, it is not darkness at all with God. He saw through the darkness when the whole earth was full of darkness in the beginning; and just as he vanished the darkness in the beginning with a miracle, so he can vanish our darkness and show us the true meaning of faith in him and bring us mentally and emotionally above the darkness to see above the clouds where the sun always shines.

12 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 darkness and the light are the same to him. He can see through both. Isn’t that a wonderful grace?

14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.  15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Our frame was made by God, not by mother and father. Every human being should stand in awe at the making of the human body, and many do. Many writers even of old have expressed their virtual disbelief at the symmetry of the body and the intricacies of the makeup of the bones, nerves and vessels in the body.

Any scientist who can examine the human body and not believe that there was a divine architect is of men most ignorant.

Verse 15 says our substance is not hid from God. When we were made in the womb (in secret), we were "curiously" made (wrought) in our mother’s womb (lowest parts of the earth), or the most secret parts of the earth regarding the life of man.

He carefully made us like a curious piece of needlework or embroidery (John Gill). He knows every small detail about us, because he meticulously made us.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:  24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Now it is time for each of us to join the psalmist in asking the Lord to search us and to know our hearts, to try us and know our thoughts.

This is a very important part of every Christian’s life–he must be searched and tried by God so that he can reveal to us our good and our bad. Otherwise we can never live for him in righteousness.

If the Lord knows by seeing if there is any wicked way in us, he can lead us in the way everlasting, which is the way of righteousness.

If you are not in that way today, you may be a part of this way by repenting of your sins and your unrighteousness and trusting in the One who is perfectly righteous, Jesus Christ.