How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!

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 ends today’s text 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.   For the psalmist this is not only submission, as we see in the full text, it is an admission. The psalmist yields to God, inviting Him to search him. He does it not because God requires his permission, but rather because it would be futile to resist the omniscient and omnipresent God or to try to hide anything from Him.  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.”   The psalmist 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.   In Luke 12:6-7 Jesus says:  “Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”  In Jeremiah 1:5 God says:  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you.”  If God has known us; chosen and consecrated us, if He is intimately aware of all that we do, why would we fear? Why would we be so foolish as to think that we can hide out thoughts and actions from Him?

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.    We choose when we enter into and walk in the power of God’s presence, but He always sees and knows where we are and what we are doing. That He see does not necessarily mean that He agrees. He will lead us, but we must choose whether we will follow. Consider the life of Saul and what Jesus said when He confronted him on the road to Emaus. ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ (Acts 26:14) Look though what He said to Ananias when He sent him to pray for Saul, in Acts 8:15-16:  “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”   Surely God did not agree with the evil saw did in persecuting the church, yet His hand was upon him and eventually Saul did follow the leading of the Lord. In our society today, many people are filled with anxiety and stress; they find it difficult to rest and have peace. Like Saul, perhaps it is that many are kicking against the goads. They have no peace and rest because they resist and oppose the will of God. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says:  “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”   When we acknowledge that it is both futile and difficult to resist and oppose God, when we finally determine, like the psalmist, that it is best to submit to Him and His leading, we find rest. The Lord’s burden is light because knowing all that we would do, even against His will, knowing all that we need, on the cross, Jesus bore every burden for us and in John 19:30 He said: “It is finished.”   Like the psalmist, I say:  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.  Romans 5:8 says: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  It is incomprehensible that the God of creation, our Lord and King would die for us, even while we were in sin. Yet for us, we need not understand, but only to believe.

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 our 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.  Amen. Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit; how precious indeed are Your thoughts to me, particularly Your thoughts two thousand years ago, before I was born or formed in the womb, knowing all that I would do and all that I would need, You thought enough to die for me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it. 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.