Happy New Year! We’re finally back and will pick back up our Romans journey tomorrow morning, Lord willing. For today, here is the first part of a quick New Year’s series reflecting on the extent of God’s knowledge of us and how we should react to that knowledge. Today as we dive into Psalm 139, we will marvel with David at God’s intimate knowledge of us and talk about some tools for remaining in that knowledge. Enjoy!

God Knows

A paradox is when two ideas which seem contradictory of one another are nonetheless simultaneously true, and we live in a world that’s full of them. Consider one particularly glaring one. We live in a world full of people screaming to be known. Depression and anxiety are off the charts these days in part because so many people feel isolated and alone, like no one really knows who they are. In response to this, and with the help of social media, many will invite the world into their most intimate spaces and times just so they can feel like somebody, somewhere, knows them. Of course, just because you show someone something intimate or personal about yourself doesn’t mean they really know you at all. Really knowing another person and being known by them takes relational investment over time. Without that, the presumed knowledge is merely a mirage. It may be a mildly comforting one (which is why so many people clamber for it), but when we are forced to face the truth, the shock of the cold water of reality can be debilitatingly intense. 

On the other hand, we go to elaborate lengths to hide our real selves from the world. We often do this right out in public. We are all the best camouflage artists in the world. Ironically, social media gives us an incredible tool in this regard. With all the video editing and manipulating and straight up faking technology out there these days, it’s hard to trust that anything we see on a screen is real. People can show whatever they want—and, believe me, they do—to make themselves look like they are on top of it all, or to look vulnerable and authentic, but they hide the real truth behind the safety of the social media smokescreen and nobody is the wiser. Nobody knows how broken and empty they actually are. No one sees the sin that brings them so much shame. I suspect you know someone who has done this in some way, and it may not even be the person who looks out at you from the mirror each morning. 

What we are facing here is a tension. We both desperately want to be known, and we try our hardest to hide so that no one knows the real us. The result is often that we find ourselves left in a place of confusion and brokenness; of perpetual loneliness and isolation. Major governments around the world—including our own—have actually declared this loneliness and isolation a public health epidemic. And on top of all that, in this season when many folks are both reflecting back on what has been and looking forward toward what will be, these feelings can be all the more concentrated and intense. We hate where we have been, but we can’t see a positive pathway forward. Too often we just wind up going nowhere; settling for obscurity when we know in our heart of hearts we were made for more. In light of this, it seems like a very good time to remind us that the Scriptures speak right into this tension with grace and truth, offering us a solution that extends hope, encouragement, and a necessary challenge. 

Now, there are several places in the Scriptures that address this widespread issue, but one that stands out in particular is Psalm 139. For the next two weeks in a quick, New Year’s teaching series called, Fully Known, we are going to take a look at this incredible reflection from King David on the nature of the God we serve and what we should do about it. 

Personally speaking, I’m drawn to this powerful psalm not simply because of the great theological truth it imparts to us, but because it is one that has always been a favorite of mine. I still remember really reading these words for the first time in high school and being just absolutely blown away by them. I had a yellow, Jansport backpack that was my signature accessory throughout high school. I wrote all over it and invited others to do the same. The beginning of the second part of Psalm 139 occupied a large piece of prime scribbling real estate. That’s all to say that this isn’t just an intellectual or even spiritual exercise of preaching this week and next. I am personally invested in these words. In spite of that, though, in more than 17 years of ministry, I don’t think I’ve ever preached on it. I’ve definitely never preached on the end of it which, as we will see next time, can be pretty tricky to work through. So, here we are. 

Now, the Psalms, of course, form the spiritual songbook of the Scriptures. A majority of them were written by King David, with a handful of other contributors rounding out the rest including Solomon, Moses, Asaph, the sons of Korah, and, of course, the ever-present “anonymous.” But while the Psalms have inspired many of the songs we sing, they aren’t songs in a form we might recognize. This is just because most of them were written close to 3,000 years ago when singing in worship looked and sounded pretty differently than it does now. 

The Psalms as a group offer a masterclass to believers in seeking God no matter what our circumstances or emotional state may be. If you are feeling it, there is probably a psalm that addresses it. There are psalms that praise God, psalms that cry out to God from places of deep hurt, psalms that are happy, psalms that are uncomfortably angry, psalms that are quiet, psalms that are loud, and everything in between. There are even a couple of psalms that don’t have happy endings. They end in with the psalmist angry at God and that’s it. And because worship isn’t just an activity, but a teacher, the psalms teach us a great deal about God and His character. Psalm 139 is no exception. If you have your copy of the Scriptures handy, find your way to Psalm 139 with me, and let’s check out what the Spirit has to say through David. 

David opens with a declaration of God’s character. Specifically, he declares just how thoroughly God knows him. “Lord, you have searched me and known me.” For modern readers the past tense phrasing in English might be a little confusing. What good is it for God to have known me in the past when I need Him to know me right now? In the original Hebrew, though, the verb tense here conveys past action that continues into the present and beyond. And the idea of searching doesn’t imply that God had lost him at some point. Rather, this is more of a studying-type of searching. 

When you have spent enough time with something or someone, you get to know them pretty well. I am very quickly approaching the point that I’ve been married longer than I haven. I doubt very seriously there is anyone in the world who knows my bride as well as I do. God’s knowledge of her, though, is on a whole other level. That’s the kind of knowledge David is talking about here. God has done His homework on David and knows him completely. Just when that homework was done is something we’ll talk about next time. For now, our focus is going to be with David on just how thorough God’s knowledge from all His studying really is. 

Before we dive into the details, though, let’s allow that banner idea to soak in. What David claims for himself before God is true of you and me as well. God knows you. Really well. No, you don’t understand. He knows you better than you know yourself. Jesus said His knowledge of us is so detailed that He knows how many hairs are on our heads—or perhaps how many hairs used to be on our heads. Either way, He knows us. That last time you felt alone, like no one really knows who you are or understands what you are going through. That wasn’t true. It wasn’t true then. It isn’t true now. Even if no one else does, God knows you. 

How much does God know you? David goes on to tell us. “You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; you are aware of all my ways.” That’s a lot of knowing, right? But while we can focus in on the literal meaning of the words, psalms are poetry. They aren’t about the literal words, but the themes and ideas they convey. 

God knows when we sit and when we stand. He knows our bodies. He knows us physically. He understands our thoughts from a distance is a pointer to the fact that God knows what we are thinking. This isn’t in a mind-reading type of sense, although God certainly does know our thinking like that too. Rather, God understands how we think. He knows how our minds work. He knows us intellectually. You have perhaps experienced the meaningful convenience of being around someone who has gotten to know you well enough that they know what you want before you ask for it and go ahead and have it ready for you when you want it. That’s the kind of knowledge David is talking about here. 

The part about travels and rest doesn’t simply mean that God knows when you are on the road and when you are at home. Your going and resting are about more than that. God knows your rhythms. He knows your habits. He knows the kinds of activities you pursue, and when you need downtime to recover from those activities. The second part there just affirms this understanding. He is aware of all our ways. All the things you do, God knows them. All the habits you have developed, God is aware of them whether they are physical habits, relational habits, emotional habits, mental habits, or any other kind of habits we might have. 

He even knows our speaking habits. “Before a word is on my tongue, you know all about it, Lord.” Now, if that one doesn’t make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you probably aren’t paying enough attention. That thing you said flippantly or in anger that really did hurt the other person’s feelings? Yeah, God knew about that. He knew it was going to come out of your mouth before it rolled off your tongue. Jesus said that we speak from out of the overflow of our hearts. The things that come out of our mouths are the things that are in our hearts. If God knows what is going to come out of our mouths before it even hits our tongues, this means God knows what is in our hearts. 

His knowledge of us is perfectly comprehensive. That’s what David is pointing at in v. 5: “You have encircled me; you have placed your hand on me.” Finally, David simply expresses his utter amazement that God would know Him so well. The thought of the extent of God’s knowledge is overwhelming to him. “This wondrous knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty, I am unable to reach it.” I don’t know about you, but I can’t reach this kind of knowledge either. I don’t have this knowledge of another person. I know my bride and my boys pretty well, but not like this. They all still surprise me all the time. I don’t even know myself this well. But God does. In fact, this only begins to scratch the surface of the full extent of God’s perfect knowledge of us. 

And can we be honest with each other for a second? This level of knowledge can feel pretty uncomfortable. You can’t hide from someone who knows you this well. Even when you want to. And sometimes we really want to. Think back to the story of the first sin in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve ate some fruit from the tree God had told them explicitly not to eat from and what was the first thing they did? They hid! They hid from each other, and then they tried to hide from God. They didn’t want to be known in that moment because they were ashamed of themselves. That’s what sin does. So, when you combine our all being sinners and having sin in our lives with this level of knowledge about us on God’s part, you wind up with this awful tension. 

Again, like Adam and Eve, we want to hide. But like Adam and Eve, we can’t. Look with me starting at v. 7 now: “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” Is there anywhere we can go that God is not? Nope. “If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I fly on the wings of the dawn and settle down on the western horizon, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night’ —even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you.” 

So, where can you and I go to get away from God? The answer is as clear as could be: Nowhere! He’s everywhere. Yet while this can be a deeply uncomfortable truth, it can also be an enormously encouraging one. That time you felt like you were in a place where no one really knew where you were, God did. You may have been seen by lots of people, but none of them really saw you. But God did. He always sees you. He sees you just as fully as He knows you. God knows you and sees you. 

Let’s reflect together for just a second on what all of this means. Perhaps most important is the fact that you are never alone. Ever. You have never had a single day in your entire life when you were truly by yourself. There is a God in this world who loves you, and who has always been with you. In your lowest moment, He was there. In your most embarrassing moment, He was there too. In that time when you felt like the wheels had completely fallen off of life and you hardly knew which way was up anymore, let alone which was the right way to go, even there you were not by yourself. 

Now, just because God was with you doesn’t mean He was necessarily involved the way you wanted Him to be. We often fall into the trap of thinking that God’s being with us means that He is going to operate pretty much on our terms. He’ll do what we want Him to do when we want Him to do it. We sometimes like to think of God like our own personal genie, and then we get upset when He doesn’t ask how high when we tell Him to jump. Yet while we may have an imaginary god who operates on those terms, the God of the Bible does not. He has given us the gift of being able to make meaningful and consequential choices, and He honors that gift even when we make choices that are going to cause us or the people around us pain. He goes with us into that pain and will redeem that pain if we will entrust ourselves into His hands and live life His way in spite of the pain, but He does not take the pain away because that would negate the meaningfulness of our choices and render real love impossible. Yet in spite of our needing to wrap our minds around the actual reality of God’s knowing us, we can nonetheless count on it. God knows you and sees you. 

As you prepare for what this new year has ahead of you, you can walk forward with confidence knowing you will never experience a single part of it by yourself. The God who made you, who knows you, who sees you, and who loves you will go with you every step of the way. This is a good thing because some of you are facing some pretty tough stuff. You are facing scary stuff. You’ve got mountains to climb, and you don’t see any footholds. You know there is a season of grief waiting on the road to meet you. There are financial hardships and difficult decisions and relational chaos yet to unfold. My friends, do not despair. God knows you and sees you. He will go before you, come along beside you, and follow up behind you. God knows you and sees you.

Of course, the challenge here is as obvious as the encouragement. You can’t hide from God. If you’ve got things in your life that you know shouldn’t be there, God knows about them. He sees them. If you’ve got sinful habits you are mostly keeping hidden from the people they would hurt most, you can rest assured that they aren’t hidden from Him. God knows you and sees you. If you persist in those things, He will put up some roadblocks to your doing them because He loves you and wants the best for you. Those roadblocks won’t likely be much fun. And, if you refuse to heed His warnings to stop, eventually He will judge you justly. That’s only a matter of when, not whether. It’s best not to test His will and resolve. He won’t quit loving you because He is love. But He will also not give you any special favors because you’re just so cute when you commit that sin. You’re not.

Yet as easy as it is to get lost in the challenge here, this is where the Gospel comes racing into the picture. Jesus made clear in His ministry that God does indeed “understand my thoughts from far away.” More than once people were thinking things when they were around Him they assumed were private thoughts and He called them out for what was going on between their ears. But if that’s an unnerving thought, it is equally true that the same Jesus who judged them for their unrighteous thoughts gave up His life on the cross for them when they were nowhere in the universe of worthy of such a sacrifice. That the eternal God who made heaven and earth would give up His life for creatures who were unworthy of Him and who were in fact in the process of rejecting Him so that they might share in the eternal life of His kingdom doesn’t make the first bit of sense. God knew them and saw them…and then He died for them anyway. God knows you and sees you…and He died for you anyway. Why? Because that’s what love does, and as great as God’s knowledge of you is, His love for you is even greater still. God knows you and sees you and loves you anyway. Perfectly. 

The full slate of how we should react to such news as this is something we’ll talk about in a great deal more detail next time, but for now, let me draw your attention to something that would be easy to miss here. That thing is David’s tone throughout the first half of the psalm. His tone is not dark or dreary. It is not morose or heavy. It is joyful and confident. I don’t know about you, but when I think about God’s having this incredibly intimate knowledge of me, sometimes I get a little queasy. But David shouts it from the rooftops, and then rhetorically stands boldly before God with a smile on his face just delighting in the fact. How could he do such a thing? 

Because he rightly understood God’s character. David knew God in a way that was more intimate than most people ever experience. This didn’t mean he was perfect—he most assuredly was not. But he just kept pursuing God in a relationship in spite of his faults and failings, and as he did, he came to know Him better and better and better. He came to recognize that even though he had junk in his past and would likely have some junk yet to accumulate in his future, God was good. His knowing him was a good thing. Well, friends, God is still good. And His knowing you and me is a very good thing. God knows you and sees you. Even if you’ve got things you think are sure to leave you hopelessly separated from Him, pursue Him anyway. Run in His direction. Throw yourself on His mercy. Because He is who David knew Him to be and Jesus revealed Him to be, you can be sure you’ll receive it. God knows you and sees you and loves you anyway. And if you’ll walk in that love into this new year, you’ll find yourself having a very joy-filled new year indeed. That doesn’t mean it’ll all be easy—it probably will not be. But with Him, it will always be good. 

Right here at the end, then, let me remind you of three things that will help you stay by His side. We talk about these three all the time, but it’s worth the reminder all the same. This is a great time to build in some new habits if they aren’t already in place. You need to be engaging with God regularly and consistently through the Scriptures. You need to be engaging with God regularly and consistently through prayer. And you need to be engaging with God regularly and consistently through the church body. If you do all three of those, you will grow in your faith in this next year; you will grow in your appreciation of God’s knowing and seeing you. If you don’t do all three of them, the best you can hope for is to plateau, but in reality, you’ll probably decline in your relationship with Him. God knows you and sees you. When you pursue knowing and seeing Him too, you’ll always be right where you need to be. And that is a very good place to be.