Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Psalm 139 from the daily reading in the One year Bible

God’s Omnipresence and Omniscience.

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. ² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar. ³ You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. ⁴ Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all. ⁵ You have enclosed me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me. ⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
¹⁰ Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,”
¹² Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.

¹³ For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; ¹⁶ Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

¹⁷ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.

¹⁹ O that You would slay the wicked, O God; Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed.
²⁰ For they speak against You wickedly, And Your enemies take Your name in vain.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?  ²² I hate them with the utmost hatred; They have become my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
²⁴ And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.

Would we be as bold as the psalmist, would we invite God saying:  Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts;  And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.  The psalmist only comes to this point because he recognizes and acknowledges God’s omnipresence and omniscience. He begins saying:  O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all. He says: Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me...   In Jeremiah 17:10 God says:  "I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds.”    If we deny God’s omnipresence, His omniscience and His omnipotence, it does not take those things from Him. He is God whether we acknowledge Him or not. Denying that He  sees all, knows all and is all powerful only causes us to try to separate ourselves from Him. The farther we separate ourselves from something, the less we can know the truth about it. When we don’t know truth, it becomes easy to believe a lie. We are influenced by what others tell us. We become fearful. If God searches our heart, if He has already searched it, how can we hide from His omniscience? Why would we try?

Rather than deny God or futilely trying to hide from Him, we should like the psalmist acknowledge and embrace His omniscience and omnipresence. The psalmist says:  You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it… You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.    When we embrace God and all that He is we begin to see with eyes of wonder. While we cannot ever fully comprehend the infinite, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent character of God with our finite minds, the closer we get to Him, the more we acknowledge and embrace Him, the more we will know about His goodness and His love.  When we acknowledge and embrace God and all that He is, like the psalmist we say:  in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.

The things we try to hide from God are the things which we know are not in line with His character and His sovereign will. We try to hide our sin from God. Yet, as the psalmist says, God already sees and knows even our sin. In Psalm 51:1-4 the psalmist says:  Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.    Just like denying God and His character does not change the fact that He is God, so too, does denying our sinfulness not change or remove it. Romans 3:23 says:  All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.   In today’s text the psalmist says:  If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.      It is not that there is no distinction or difference between darkness and light. They are alike to God because:  God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)  The light of God dispels darkness. 1 John 1:6-10 continues:  If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.    To say that we have no sin does not eliminate our sin. Nor do we deceive God regarding our sin, we only deceive ourselves. If we, like the psalmist confess our sin, if we draw near to God rather than hiding from Him, He will forgive our sins. We will know His great love, His mercy and grace. God knows all and sees all. He knows all of our days. Nothing we have done has surprised Him. He knows we have sinned, yet He loves us. Romans 5:8 says:  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Like the psalmist I say:  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

I can only say: Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You for Your love demonstrated in the cross, through which I can come to You, not hiding my sin, but cleansed from it and like the psalmist I can say: Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.  Amen.