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.
Matthew 10:30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
If God knows the count of our hairs on our head, what else does he know about us?
Psalm 139:4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all.
I cannot say a word without God fully knowing what I am going to say before I say it. Jesus tells us be careful what we speak:
Matthew 12:36 But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.
The NKJV has “every idle word.” These careless and idle words are what we speak when we are not thinking. What foul words come from your mouth when you injured yourself, or someone cuts you off in traffic? Jesus says you will give an account. You only say what is in your heart.
Matthew 15:18 But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.
But the heart is evil, we had just read that from Jeremiah. We must have a change of heart and that only comes from God. But we tend to resist God from changing us, and we instead want to try and hide from God. But God knows all this:
Psalm 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
"Too wonderful" is how most translations word it. But in the Hebrew, the word used is stronger meaning extraordinary or surpassing all comprehension. The knowledge that God has about us can be overwhelming for us to understand. When we begin to grasp that God really does know us completely, our tendency is to hide from God. Is there any escape?
Psalm 139:7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?
Considering that God knows everything, where can one go to escape Him?
Psalm 139:8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
Obviously God is in heaven so we cannot escape Him there. What about Sheol? – The KJV has “Hell.” In the Hebrew the word "Sheol" is the place of the dead, the netherworld. Even in death, one cannot escape God. Many believe that suicide is a way of escape but it really is not. But God is there too. In all of creation, and in all manor of existence, including all aspects of life and death, God is present. Even in death, God is there.
Maybe we can outrun God? If you remember the story of Jonah, He tried to outrun God and failed.
Psalm 139:9–10 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.
The “wings of the morning” refers to the rising of the sun in the east. The Hebrew word for “east” means rising sun. The Hebrew word for “west” is our word for sea. In the Promise Land, where is the great Sea – or the Mediterranean sea, which is to the west? So a loose translation of this verse would say "as the rays of the sun from the east to the farest west." So how fast does sun rays travel from the east to the west? Speed of light – We cannot outrun God – There He is already there waiting for us, even if we travel at warp speed to the other side of the universe, God is there already.
Psalm 139:11–12 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.
Darkness is not even a cover over us – what is darkness to God? John tell us that men love darkness rather than light. Why?
John 3:19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
Evil things are done in darkness because those doing the deeds think that no one will see them. Yet we know God sees all. Sinners try to hide from God, whereas the true believer will hide in God.
So if God is everywhere – everything is in His presence - It begs the question - Why does God seem so distant at times? Why does He seem so far away?
Jeremiah 23:23–24 “Am I a God who is near,” declares the LORD, “And not a God far off? 24 “Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.
When we pray for God to come and help us, we mean it in a psychological way. But why does God seem remote? Remoteness and dissimilarity are the same thing. When we cannot feel God, it os because we are dissimilar in nature with God, we are not the same, we has lost a close fellowship with God.
Have you ever felt alone in a crowd? To our married couples – have you ever felt distance from your spouse, even though you are sitting right next to him/her? It is the same way with God. How connected are you to Him.
During the worship service, do you let your mind wander, think of other things? Then come the invitation time, do you wonder why you don’t feel anything?
the same thing happened back in the garden of Eden. In the garden the God ask Adam:
Genesis 3:9 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
This was not a matter of God not knowing where Adam was, it a bigger matter of Adam not knowing where he was.
Jacob encountered God and said:
Genesis 28:16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.”
Paul told those at Mars Hill that God is near and He can be found.
Acts 17:27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
Isaiah tell us to seek Him:
Isaiah 55:6–7 Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
When we pray for God to move, are we seeking Him. Are we expecting to feel His presence? But here is the good news. Even when God feels distant, we know He is not. As much as it is terrorizing to a sinner to know that he cannot escape God, the believer knows, God is always near. We ask God show us what He knows about us.
Psalm 139:23–24 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.
Yes, God knows our hearts, and He knows where we are. Yes, God knows our name. And Yes, God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us way too much to leave us that way. He wants to lead us in the everlasting way. Jesus tells us:
John 10:14 I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me,
Do you know the Good Shepherd? He does knows you.
If there is a barrier between you and God? It is called sin. God is not far, God knows all about your sin. You must confess your sin, which is agreeing with God. He knows your sin and you are agreeing that it is sin. Then you can accept His forgiveness which is made possible through Jesus sacrifice on the cross.
