Lord, You have searched me and known me.

Psalm 139 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

God’s Omnipresence and Omniscience. A Psalm of David.

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.

Hebrews 11:6 says:  Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.      First and foremost we must believe that God is. Having faith without believing that God is, is having an empty powerless faith. Many people have that type of faith, a faith that believes in self; a faith that believes in the power of creation, nature and the universe, without believing in the creator. The psalmist knows and understands; believes that God is. As the heading of the text says, he speaks of God’s omnipresence and omniscience, that He is everywhere and is all knowing. That is part of what we must believe that God is. The psalmist says:   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 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. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!    Do we believe that the thoughts of God toward us are precious? Jeremiah 29:11 says:   “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”    Those are the precious thoughts of God toward us, plans to prosper us, plans for hope and a future. Do we believe that He is thinking of us that way?

The psalmist 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. 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.    First let’s clarify what the psalmist says about light and darkness. They are the same to God because:  God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)  So, wherever God is, wherever He goes there is light, even in the darkest night. In Exodus 13:21, when God led the nation of Israel in the wilderness it says:  The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.    Darkness and light are not the same with God when it comes to the darkness of evil and the goodness of His light. In Isaiah 5:20 God says:  Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!    God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. (1 John 1:5-6)   Do we believe that God is? The psalmist knows, understands and believes that there is nowhere he can go and nothing he can hide from God.   Why do we act as though we can hide from God? Why do we mistake or substitute the presence of people for the presence of God? We act as though, because we can hide our thoughts and actions from people, that God is also unaware. As 1 John 1:6 says: we lie and do not practice the truth.    But, it is not God who is deceived. He sees all and knows all. We deceive ourselves. To live a lie is to believe the liar rather than believing that God is.

In John 10:10 Jesus says:  “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”   Hebrews 11:6 says:   Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.    When we fail to believe, to know, to understand and to walk in the light of God, not believing that He is, we cannot have His reward. We do not participate in and receive all the good plans God has for us. We do not and cannot have the abundant life that Christ came to give us, if we believe a lie. Jesus says the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. The truth is that he does not need to steal God’s goodness and abundance from us, in fact he cannot. 1 Peter 5:8 rightly says:  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.   The devil seeks whom he may devour. He requires permission. Because of Christ, he has no power over us. God’s plans are for our good, for hope and for our future. God will not give the devil permission to devour us. So the devil does not steal our reward or our abundant life in Christ. We give him permission when we participate in deception. God is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Jeremiah 29:11-14 says:  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,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes…      

The psalmist, who knows, understands and believes God is, says:   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.    Do we believe that God is? Will we say amen?  Amen heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit. I say Amen to I Am. I believe You are. Amen.