Psalm 139 part 1 - God Knows Intimately

"O Yahweh, You have searched me and known me" (Psalms 139:1).

Few words are as deeply personal and comforting. How so? The Psalmist describes Yahweh as having a familiar knowledge of each of His children. This familiarity is deeply intimate in nature and speaks to a warm caring relationship. The focus, from the first verse to the last of Psalm 139, portrays an all-knowing God, our God who sees and who cares.

These verses reveal that Yahweh is God and does only what God can do. The writer begins with: "O Yahweh, You have searched me and known me." Then for the next seventeen verses provides in detail the vastness of God's all knowing and how comprehensive and complete that knowing is. There are no secrets or deceptions, all is within sight.

Yahweh’s knowledge is whole and absolute. In other words, there is nothing about a person God does not know. As Creator, "He created ... male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27). Since Yahweh is capable of creating people, it makes sense He would know each of His image bearers to the smallest detail.

Who God Is

Every word the Psalmist writes comes as he meditates on who God is. Those words express the love God holds towards His people as their Creator. In turn as the Psalmist writes and the words he uses, express a knowledge of this love that invokes an emotional response of gratitude and worship and at times is beyond words.

"You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar." From the simplest and ordinary actions to ones thoughts, the visible and invisible, all are within the sight of the Lord. Unlike us, distance is not a hindrance to God. The Psalmist using the modest of terms, illustrates the perfect knowledge of God - the Lord sees them all. "For the ways of a man are before the eyes of Yahweh, And He watches all his tracks" (Proverbs 5:21).

Path & Ways

"You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways." The "path" and "ways" are known because Yahweh is a God who "sees." Job understood this when he put forward a rhetorical questions: "Does He not see my ways And number all my steps?" (Job 31:4). There are no stray or random circumstances to God. God is intimately acquaintance with each person's activity and direction, all of which is the result of His creative action. And as Charles Spurgeon puts it, "my running and my resting are alike within thine observation." In other words, each path and step was planned: "In Your book all of them were written the days that were formed for me, When as yet there was not one of them" (v.16).

 "Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Yahweh, You know it all." The depth of His knowledge reaches into the vary thoughts of the heart that form the words we speak. There are no secrete places in the mind or heart. All is transparent before the Lord the Creator. This is how complete and intimate God knows a person.

 Presents

"You have enclosed me behind and before, And You have put Your hand upon me." Such is a comforting hand - His real and actual presents during ever moment of life. The Lord goes before leading the way, and protecting from behind. In other words, you are never alone! In every moment and movement in life, you are enclosed, surrounded and secured by the almighty God: "No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand" (John 10:29).

"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it." These words are a humble acknowledgment. Who can find the words to properly describe the infinity of Yahweh? Who is able to measure God's knowledge? The wonder and exhalation of the Lord is truly above and beyond any comprehension. Can human knowledge or speech fully capture His nature? It is by faith one believes the greatness and wonder of God who is above and beyond all apprehension!

By Faith

The expression of the Psalmist is certainly that of faith. This is faith in the Creator who is far beyond the Psalmist's ability to wrap his brain around. Here we see a humble faith, a faith of gratitude and from that springs love with worship. Each directed toward Yahweh the Creator.