The Wonderful Knowing God

The Wonderful Knowing God
Psalm 139:1-24
July 13-14, 2024

     This is one of the most widely read and studied of all the Psalms. Written by David, it is one of the most personal. At the same time, it’s one of the most deeply theological of the Psalms.

     Almost all students of theology will study this Psalm at one time or another. Here, David describes some of the highest attributes of the nature of God. God is omniscient, God is omnipresent, and God is omnipotent. It means that God is all-knowing, fully present everywhere, and is all-powerful.

     In the description before verse one, it says, “for the choir director, a Psalm of David.” In other words, David meant this as a song of praise and a prayer to be prayed while singing of the mighty attributes of God.

     These glorious attributes of God are meant to be personal. They are not just abstract, academic theological understandings a student would read out of a book to prepare for an exam, they are glorious attributes of God that are meant to be applied to your life.

     When Moses encountered God on Mount Sinai, when God spoke to him out of the burning bush and told Moses that he would be the one to lead Israel out of their slavery and oppression in Egypt, Moses said, “When I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors sent me to you.’ What if the people say, ‘What is his name?’ What should I say to them?” God then said to Moses, “I am that I am. You say to them that ‘I am’ sent you to them.”

     The name can be more literally translated, “All that I am I will be to you.” All that God is is meant to be personal, is meant to be applied to your life. When you understand the glorious attributes of God and that the nature of who God is is to be applied to your life, you can then understand that it is in the applying of God’s nature that God mends that which is broken in your life.

     I remember reading the story of a certain village many years ago that had a beautiful stately church which had a magnificent organ. They would open the doors on Sunday mornings and the beautiful music would fill the valley. Great crowds would come to hear the majestic sounds of the great organ.

     One day the music stopped. Something was wrong. The organ was broken, and no one knew how to repair it. They searched far and wide for a specialist, but none could be found. Week after week it sat in solemn silence. One day, just as suddenly as the music stopped, it began again. The magnificent organ once again filled the valley. The town ran to the church to find out what had happened, and there sat an old man joyfully moving the keys and pedals making harmonious music.

     Finally, when he had finished playing, someone said to him, “How were you able to fix it?” The old man replied with a gentle smile, “I’m the one who made it.”

     What is it that is broken in your life? Fixing what is broken is not a DIY project. Having that thing, or going to that place, or being with that person will not fix it. It is only in knowing the God who knows you, who knit you together in your mother’s womb; fearfully and wonderfully are you made.

     Psalm 139 will give you a deeper understanding of God and a right understanding of man. They are deeply connected in this Psalm. In other words, you cannot rightly understand yourself until you rightly know your God.

I. God Knows You Intimately Well

• Verses 1-6 – declares the omniscience of God. It means that God knows all things — known, unknown, and knowable.
• David doesn’t just declare the omniscience of God as if it was something he learned from a book, he writes it for the choir director to be sung in the most intimate, personal way.
• “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you understand my thoughts from afar… You are intimately acquainted with all my ways.”
• In other words, the God who knows everything, knows me — intimately well. The God who made the galaxies by His great power and knows every star by name, knows little ol’ me and takes notice of when I sit down and when I rise up.
• There are many people in this world who do not like the idea that God knows them intimately well. For the unrepentant sinner, such knowledge strikes such fear that they try to shut it out of their minds.
• But for David, such knowledge is wonderful…

A. How wonderful to be known by God

• Verse 6 – Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high; I cannot attain to it.
• For anyone who walks in trust and obedience with God, this is comforting news for whatever is going on in your personal and private world.
• Verse 1 – You have searched me and known me…
• The word ‘searched’ can refer to a miner digging and searching the earth for precious ore. Or it can be like when an army sends spies to search out a city or land. It means to investigate thoroughly.
• David said, God has searched me thoroughly and knows everything about me – – the good, the bad, and the ugly. And not only that; God knows the good, the bad, and the ugly and He still loves me.
• We want people to know the good part about us. But here’s the truth; if people really and truly knew the bad part and the ugly part, they wouldn’t want anything to do with us.
• For David, such knowledge is wonderful. It’s what creates such intimacy with God. God is intimately acquainted with all my ways and then invites me to draw near to Him. God doesn’t turn away when He comes to know the bad and the ugly, He knows how to transform the bad and ugly.
• It’s a beautiful relationship when you trust God’s heart for you so much that you say to God, “Search me and know me; see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead to me in a way that is everlasting.”
• If a person pretends that God doesn’t know and then hardens their heart in the hope that God will not know, then a great wall arises between that person and God. And the result is a tragedy…
• Jesus said that those whose hearts are far from God, who even have the appearance of religion, will one day hear the four most damnable words anyone could ever hear…

Matthew 7:23, “I never knew you… depart from Me you workers of iniquity.”

            The worst judgment is to have God disassociate Himself from you. And the greatest blessing is to say, “God has searched me and known me.”

B. God knows the intentions of our heart

• Verse 2-4 – You understand my thought from afar… Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all.
• To understand our thoughts from afar means that God knows the very intent of your thoughts. And before there is even a word on your tongue, God knows it all.
• In other words, not only does God know the words you say before you say it, He knows the words you wanted to say, but didn’t.
• Verse 3 – You scrutinize my path… The word ‘scrutinize’ means to winnow, like a farmer winnowing wheat, throwing it into the air so that the chaff blows away in the wind.
• David says that God knowing your thoughts and the intentions of your heart, and the words that come from your mouth is wonderful.
• The God who knows your thoughts can transform your thoughts. The God who knows the intentions of your heart, can change your heart. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is too high, I cannot attain to it.

Psalm 19:14, May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock, and my Redeemer.

C. God will be your protective hedge

• Verse 5 – You have enclosed me behind and before and laid Your hand upon me.
• He knows you intimately well, so that He can care for you. He has enclosed you behind and before and laid His hand upon you because He cares about the matters of your life.
• God’s knowledge of you is His love. He has you surrounded to protect and guard you so that you will not give up.
• In other words, whatever schemes the enemy has against you, he has to go through God to get to you.
• In other words, God knows you so well he knows how weak and vulnerable you are. He lays his hand upon you and surrounds you to enclose you behind and before.
• There is spiritual protection for those who dwell in the shadow of the Almighty.

Psalm 121:7-8, The Lord will protect you from all evil; he will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever.

• If God is your spiritual protection, your enemy would have to go through Him to get to you. If you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, He becomes the strongman in your life now.
• If Jesus is the strongman in your life, then what power will defeat Him? If they try to destroy Him by fire, He’ll refuse to burn. If they try to destroy Him by water, He’ll walk on the water. If they try to destroy Him by a tempest or storm, the wind and the waves will bow down to Him and kiss His hand. If they try to destroy Him by the law, they will find no fault in Him. If they try to destroy Him by the seal of an empire, He’ll destroy it.

Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

• “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; is too high, I cannot attain to it,” David said.

II. God is Always with You

• Verses 1-6 declare the omniscience of God in a very personal way.
• Verses 7-12 – declare the omnipresence of God, which is a deep theological truth regarding the nature of God. He is always fully present, everywhere. But David sees this great truth as being very personally meaningful to him.
• God is always there, and God is always with you.

A. God’s hand will always lead you

• Verse 9-10 — If I take the wings if 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.
• This is a triumphant declaration. No matter where you are, no matter what you’re going through, God is there to place His hand to lay hold of you and there His hand will lead you.
• It’s meant to be understood personally. No matter where you find yourself in life, whether it’s in a doctor’s office, or a courtroom, or standing by an open graveside, you are not there by yourself, God is there with you, and He will lay His hand upon you to lead you right where you are.
• Some people would find it an alarming thought, that there is no place they can run or hide from God.
• But to David, this is wonderful. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil,” David said, “for You are with me.”
• Verses 11-12 — 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.
• If you find yourself in the darkness, God is with you. If you are going through a dark night of the soul, God will be your light in the darkness. His word is a light unto your path, and a lamp to your feet.

B. You are fearfully and wonderfully made

• Verses 1-6 declare the omniscience of God. Verses 7-12 declare the omnipresence of God, and verses 13-18 declare the omnipotence of God.
• But here again, David sees this great truth about the nature of God very personally. It’s surely true that God creating the heavens and the earth declare the power and glory of God.

Romans 1:19-20, That which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

• While all that is true, David declares in this Psalm that God’s omnipotence, His great power, can be seen when He formed him in his mother’s womb.
• In other words, God made me personally. “God formed my inward parts and wove me in my mother’s womb.”
• God formed my inward parts can also mean the immaterial part of who I am. God made my soul and breathed life into that soul. I have God’s breath in me. God made me personally. He personally knit me together in my mother’s womb.
• Verse 14 – “I will give thanks to You… I will praise You for what you have done when you formed and breathed life into my soul… For I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
• The words ‘fearfully made,’ mean that God made me reverently and with honor. And then David adds, not only reverently and with honor, but God made me wonderfully.
• Even if a person has a limitation or a handicap, God can use all things for His glory.

Illus – When Jesus and the disciples were in Jerusalem, they passed by a man blind from birth. The disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” Jesus answered, it was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

• When God called Moses on Mount Sinai to lead the people of Israel out of their oppression and slavery in Egypt, Moses responded, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent… For I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
• God responded, “Who made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then, go, and I will be your mouth, and I will teach you what to say.”

C. God numbered your days before you were born

• Verse 16 – Your eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in Your book, they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.
• This is one of the most personal and profound understandings of the nature and character of God. Before you were born, God wrote a number next to your name.
• I find great peace with this deep truth.
• When our daughter was killed 10 years ago, this Psalm and these verses meant the world to me. God wrote a number next to her name, 10,724. That was the number of days she lived. God wrote that number next to her name before she was born. And because I respect God, I respect that number.
• Verse 17 – How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
• Verse 23 – the Psalm ends as it began. “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 way that is everlasting.”