The Knowledge And The Ever-Presence Of God Series

Psalm 139:1-12

All the knowledge in the world was doubling at a rate of every 100 years in 1900. After WW2 is was every 25 years that human knowledge would double. By the 1960’s it took 2 years for the world's knowledge to double. In recent years it was estimate that total knowledge doubled every 12-13 months. Today, in our computerized networked world, they say it doubles every 12 hours. We are experiencing a data explosion.

And did you know that some of that information is about you? Your internet habits are being cataloged and filed. Search for an item on Amazon and then when you go to Facebook, isn’t surprising that the very thing you are looking is on a Facebook ad. Just a coincidence? Hardly.

Marketing researchers can now make available detail information on the buying habits, computer habit, and television watching habits of most all households in America (this is 10+ year old information!) as well as the key attitudes and values of those households. We are entering the age written about by Orwell in his book "1984." How much does “Big Brother” know about you? Here’s a fact you can bank on. God knows a lot more more.

God knows everything – sounds simple doesn’t it? God’s intellectual capabilities are unlimited, and God uses them fully and perfectly. As we consider the attributes of God, of course we consider His might and power, His creation of the entire universe and all that it holds. The Laws of nature and laws of physics are His laws and His creation. Much of this we discussed last week. Today we are looking at the knowledge and presence of God. Of course, God is all knowing and he is present throughout the universe:

Hebrews 4:13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Some translations have “to whom we must give an account.” There is coming a day when we must answer for every idle word spoken and there will be no “fast talking“ and tap-dancing in the presence of God. He knows everything. There will be no excuses.

Nothing is hidden from God, nothing is beyond His knowledge and understanding. And sitting here in church, we acknowledge these facts. All this is easy to talk about, until it gets personal.

The fact is, God knows all about you and God knows all about me. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows the deep recesses of our hearts and minds. He knows our deepest and darkest secrets.

When sometime I hear someone justify their actions by saying “Well, God knows my heart,” I shudder. You bet He knows your heart and His Word tells about the human heart:

Jeremiah 17:9–10  “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? 10 “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.

As was read earlier, the psalmist took the all knowledge qualities of God, His omniscience, very personally.

Psalm 139:1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me.

“Known me” is Hebrew word is “yada” and it does not mean book knowledge. It means to know personally; to know experientially; to know intimately. God know us inside and out. He knew us before we were even born.

Jeremiah 1:4–5  Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

God knew and appointed Jeremiah before he was even conceived. The psalmist understood that as well.

Psalm 139:16 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.

God knew us and had a plan for each one of us before we were even born. Can we grasp the significance of that?

Psalm 139:2–3 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.

God knows our comings and goings, God know our very thoughts. He knows very well what goes on in our minds, how we think and what we think about.

Psalm 69:5 O God, it is You who knows my folly, And my wrongs are not hidden from You.

One reason we need to confess our sins is that God already knows them all. What can we hide from Him? He knows the details of our sin that we do not.