God Knows His Own
(God intimately knows the hearts of His people)
What are your thoughts about the all seeing eye of God watching you?
Psalm 139, the text for this lesson, is regarded by many as the most notable of the Psalms. It is held high in this regard because it is a song of praise to God for His omniscience (He knows everything), for His omnipresence (He is present everywhere), and for his omnipotence (He has power to do whatever He wills to do). Along with the colossal themes regarding the nature of God, this psalm is a profound reflection on God’s personal interest in every person. This psalm tells that, from the moment of our conception to our birth, all through our life, and through death and beyond to the afterlife, not one human soul is without God’s notice and loving interest.
Golden Text- 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
Lord You Know Me
A. Completely Known
139: 1 O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
**Lets notice how David makes this a personal matter. While God does know the heart of us all, David begins this by focusing on his personal relationship with His God. “Thou hast searched ME, and known ME.
2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
**2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
**Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
**I believe that, if we are honest, our mind is the toughest thing to bring into subjection. Particular situations trigger thoughts that we feel like we have no control over. This is why it is important that we “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” (Philippians 2:5).
3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
**There is not a place that the child of God goes that God is not present. There is not a situation that keeps the child of God up at night that God does not know about. David wrote in the 23rd Psalm that he would not fear the valley of the shadow of death because his Shepard was with him, and that God would prepare a table before him in the presence of his enemies. No matter where I am or what situation I face, my God is with me!
**God is acquainted with all my ways. He knows every step I take and the reason I took that step. Matthew Henry’s commentary says He knows every right step and every by step. While this is very convicting it should also be comforting that no matter where I go, whether it be right or wrong, I have a Father there that cares for me.
4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.
**Just as God sees every step I take he knows every word that I speak, knows what I meant by what I said, and the thought that it came from. “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.” (Psalms 19:14)
5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
**This reminds me of learning to ride a bike. You take the training wheels off and your parent walks beside you and you feel their hand on your back and you are just as confident as you were with the training wheels on. You go a little ways and start to think you have the hang of it and start to speed up to the place where your parent is forced to remove their hand because you have decided to go at your own pace and eventually you realized that you haven’t completely figured it out.
This is the same way with our spiritual walk. No matter how much we think we have this thing figured out we ALWAYS need the hand of the Father. As long as we continue to trust His timing and move under His guidance he will not remove His hand from us.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
***Not only does God know me, but He is active in that knowing. He is described as searching David, and when God searches, He knows us fully. There is no instance of anything in our lives that is excluded from His examination.
B. Know My Heart
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.
David begins the chapter acknowledging that God knows everything about Him, and he concludes the chapter asking God to continue searching him out. As a child of God I need God to continue to search me because it is then I realize my need for more of Him. When I come into His presence, and He searches me out, I see where I am and that I have not yet obtained all that I long to obtain.
Lord, You Are Always Near
A. Where Can I Go?
7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
***Over the course of Davids lifetime, he experienced many ups and downs, successes and failures, but ultimately his life was a success by God’s grace. One thing he learned through it all, was that God is present everywhere at all times, and God knows everything about everything there is. He realized this when he was a shepherd trying to protect his sheep, and he saw it firsthand in his God-given victory over Goliath. Davis knew this on his best days and worst days, and in the darkest days of his worst sins. He was comforted by the fact that God was present with him, because this meant that, everywhere and all the time, God’s hand was leading him, and God’s right hand was holding him steady.
B. Through the Darkness
11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
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.
**Here David is showing us the blessing of being called out of darkness and to walk in the marvelous light of Christ. It is then that we can find comfort in the darkest situations. The definition of darkness is the absence of light, but the definition of light is NOT the absence of darkness. I believe this is because the light does not “do away” with the darkness, it overcomes the darkness. Just because we “walk in the light of Christ” does not mean that we will never experience spiritual “darkness”, but it does mean that we can let our light shine in that darkness and watch the darkness be overcome.
Lord, You Made Me
A. Fearfully and Wonderfully Made
13 For thou hast possessed my reins (the heart, or seat of the affections and passions): thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
**I believe this is the reason why God that God is continually searching us. We are his prize possession and the workmanship of His own hands. We take care of what we own, and probably even more so the things that we build with our own hands. This is how God sees His children.
14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
**We are amazed, and rightfully so, when we see the ocean or the mountains because of their beauty. How often to we fail to realize that WE were created by that same God.
15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
**What a humbling thought that from the time I was conceived God had His eye on me. Through each stage of life God has been there forming each one of us and watching over each of us.
B. God’s Thoughts
17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
***As much as we might be amazed at mathematical calculations that go into making a complex machine, David was amazed at the thoughts of God which have produced all His works. God’s thoughts, which resulted in His creation of the whole vast, measureless universe, and now keeps it going, outnumber the grains of sand on the earth. Still, God thinks about us, loves us, has a personal interest in our lives, and with the coming of each new day, we are still with Him; or rather, God who is the source and purpose of our existence, is still with us.