Such knowledge is too wonderful for me

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.

The psalmist begins:  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. 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.  As the heading of today’s text says, God is omnipresent and omniscient. The question is not about God, but rather about us. How will we respond to God’s omnipresence and omniscience? Will we like the psalmist respond that it is wonderful? Or, will we deny God, setting ourselves above Him.

The psalmist continues:  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. 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.    For the believer there is nowhere that we go without His Spirit, because His Spirit is in us. We may wonder down paths that His presence will not go with us. He will not abide with us in sin, should we choose to go there. But, Like Peter when he saw the storm around him and began to sink, He is always there when we cry out Lord save me. We can be overwhelmed by darkness, but if we will abide in God’s omnipresence we will be in His light. 1 John 1:5 says: This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.  

For 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. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 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.   To think that we exist as we are by anything other than the hand of a creator seems utterly foolish. With all of the increased knowledge of medical science, if we are honest we have to admit there is at least as much that we don’t know and understand about the human body as what we do know, particularly regarding our inward parts. Far beyond the perfection of how our bodies work together, how the eye sends messages to the brain, how our sense of hearing and touch work, God created our DNA, the very stuff that determines who we are, how we look and so much more.  

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…  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 says: How precious also are Your thoughts to me. God says: For I know the plans that I, have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.  I will be found by you. (Jeremiah 29:11-14)   For anyone who truly looks at all of creation, all of its vastness and intricacy, for anyone who seeks to find God, He will be found, because He is everywhere.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit thank You that You thought of me long before I was born. You thought of me on the cross.  Amen.