Fearfully And Wonderfully Made

Who are you? Who are you, church? I think this is a question that is both the simplest and the most profound question human beings can ever ask. Who are you?

Not, what do you do for a living? Not, what are your hobbies? Not, where are you from? But who, in the innermost of your being, are you? What is it that gives you your value? Your dignity? Your purpose?

Our world offers a thousand different and sometimes conflicting answers to that question. Culture will tell you that who you are comes from your achievements, appearance, net worth, or political affiliation. It may also tell you that you are a sum of all your desires, defined by nothing but your own choices. Science might say to you that you are nothing more than a cosmic accident, a collection of molecules that randomly came together. And in the face of all these different voices telling you who you are, it is easy to feel confused, lost, and insignificant.

Do you know that feeling? When you are driving and all of a sudden it hits you like a truck and you start thinking about where your life is headed, what you have done or haven’t done? You replay the tape of your life, and add the wins and losses, and you feel that you’ve come up short. You're working hard, but it doesn't feel like you're getting anywhere. You feel under-appreciated, overlooked, underpaid, or even unnecessary.

But this morning, we turn to one of the most beloved psalms in all of Scripture to find God’s answer to that question. This psalm is an intimate confession, almost a love song about God’s personal and constant care for His people. And this is the truth I want us to hold onto today, our big idea: You are intentionally and wonderfully made by a God who knows you completely.

GOD KNOWS ME

The psalm opens with a profoundly personal statement. David writes, “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.” It is interesting that this entire psalm is almost like a fabric woven of first and second-person pronouns. Virtually every line’s syntax contains “you” or “your” and “I” or “me” (Verse 1: You have searched me; you know me/Verse 2: You know when I sit; you perceive my thoughts). When David wrote this Psalm, God was not someone who was far away and distant, but very close. This is so important because, from the get-go, it reveals what God’s relationship with David was like and what our relationship with God is like.

Think of a couple that has been married 50 years. They sit in their living room, and a whole conversation can happen without a single word. He starts to get up from his chair, and she says, “Here’s your slippers.” How did she know? Because for a lifetime, she has known him.

The keyword that frames this entire psalm is the Hebrew verb yada, “to know.” It appears seven times. The word “yada” means so much more than our English word, “know.” When we say, “I know,” we are talking about a certain knowledge that we have gathered through observation, studying, information, or relationship. We “know” that the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West. I know my neighbor is this person, works at this job, drives this car, and has this number of children. It’s mostly head knowledge. However, in Hebrew, yada refers to a deep, experiential, and intimate knowing. It’s the same word used in Genesis to say that Adam “knew” his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore a son.

And that’s how God knows you–not just head knowledge, not like knowing your neighbor, but a deep knowledge that comes from an intimate relationship.

He says in verse 2, “You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.” The NIV says God perceives our thoughts; the ESV says He discerns them; the King James says He understands them. All these point to a God who is not just aware of our outward actions—our sitting and our rising—but intimately knows the secret, interior world of our minds. He knows our motives, our anxieties, our unspoken questions, our deepest intentions, from a great distance. There is no thought so private that He is not already there.

He continues, “You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.” He knows our every journey and our every resting place. He knows what we are going to say before the thought has even fully formed into a word on our lips. This is total, comprehensive knowledge.

Think about one of the most recognized symbols of precision and quality in the world: a Rolex watch. There’s a well-known saying that it takes a full year to create a single Rolex watch. Now, that doesn't mean one watchmaker sits at a bench and works on a single watch for 365 days. The reality, as the company explains, is even more impressive. It reflects a year-long journey that prioritizes uncompromising quality above all else.