Such knowledge is too wonderful for 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.

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 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.   Like the psalmist, we as believers have the wonderful knowledge that God is omniscient, that He knows everything that is happening in our lives. We have confidence, because in Jeremiah 29:11 He 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.  This same knowledge and truth, that God knows all, should strike fear I the heart of sinners. It is possible to deceive others and even ourselves regarding sin. We can justify or excuse our unrighteousness, but we cannot deceive or hide our sin from God. Those who choose to continue in sin respond to God’s omniscience by foolishly denying that He exists at all.

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.  In Deuteronomy 31:6 God says:  "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you."   We have the confidence of knowing that God is with us even in the darkest and most difficult times. Romans 8:28-29 says: God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.  Even the most difficult things we face, while they are not caused by God to harm us, can work according to God’s good plan for our lives. As we trust Him, we are conformed to the image of Christ, His Son. What hope is there for the one who does not believe? Rather than faith, they respond to darkness in fear. Rather than knowing they cannot flee the Spirit and the presence of God, they cannot flee the spirit of fear. Rather than believe what is good, they fear what is bad.

The psalmist says:  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.  What peace, what comfort, what confidence we have knowing that we were planned and created by a loving God, that He knew us and planned for us even before we existed here on earth. The unbeliever is left to think that all life, including his or her own is merely an accident. In fact, they foolishly believe that our existence is the result of millions of sequential random accidents; that all of creation, from the vastness of the universe, to the splendor and majesty of the heavens and the earth, to the perfect, life sustaining balance of the sun, the moon and our atmosphere, to the intricacies DNA and quantum physics are the result of unplanned random accidents. If all the splendor of creation is simply an accident, how can they not fear that an accident will also destroy it?  In fact, one of their scientific theories says that the natural tendency of things is to progress from order to disorder. So we should expect that things will get worse. We can see the evidence of the teaching and belief in the theory of evolution in our society and culture today. Rather than being conformed to the image of God, people are becoming more like the animals they have been told they came from.

The psalmist says:  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, to which the believer says, amen. 

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God of creation, my God, my Lord and Savior, the one who created me and the one who keeps me.  How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!  Amen.