What Does God Know About You? Series

We all want to know who we are. We seek and search and try to “find ourselves.” Many of us have taken personality tests and other assessments. We learn personality inventory lists that tell us we are a lion, a beaver, a competitor, a high “I,” high “D.” We all want to know who we are. But what if I told you, you’ll never know who you are until you know who He is. I invite you to turn on your Bible and turn in your Bible to Psalm 139. You’ll never fully explore your psyche, your personality until you have come to know God.

How You View God Matters

We continue a seven week series tracing out some of the chief characteristics of God in the book of Psalms. Whether you call it attributes, traits, or characteristics, these are the adjectives the Bible uses to describe God. How you view God matters. Here’s why your view of God matters: You’ll never see God’s commandments as anything more than joy-killers until you know the God behind the commandments. Once you know the God behind the command, “Thou Shall Not Lie,” then you realize He operates like a physician who is writing you a prescription for your life and your happiness. Again, how you view God matters.

Think with me about God’s character for a moment for we need to tread carefully here. God CANNOT be fully known. God is so great, He cannot be searched out. I am sharing with you four reasons why God is incomprehensible by sharing with you one a week over the first four weeks of this series. Got it? Think of these four reasons as breadcrumbs left along the trail of the series (like Hansel and Gretel). Last week, I said only the infinite God can fully comprehend the infinite. But here’s a second reason God is incomprehensible: the perfect unity of God’s traits are far beyond our comprehension.

Have you ever said, “I like to think of God as …” and then share their personal picture of God? The Bible doesn’t allow us to simply picture God as love or grace or mercy. Instead, the Bible gives us a complex but complete picture of God’s traits. The Bible describes God as: “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3). So no matter how much careful thought you put into it, you’ll never be able to completely trace how God’s wrath, justice, holiness, jealousy, mercy, grace and love are integrated together in perfection. Yes, God has descended down the mountain and we see Him but our minds can only trace His steps up so far before the thick clouds obscure our perfect view of Him. The infinite complexity of God’s character is perfectly unified in Him and we are amazed.

While God cannot be fully known, we can be confident that we know Him. Yes, we trust Scripture here because inside the pages of Scripture, God has chosen to reveal Himself. The Bible is the curtain pulled back on God, so we can better see Him and know Him and ultimately trust Him.

Today’s Scripture

“O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.” (Psalm 139:1–6)

“How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.” (Psalm 139:17–18)

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23–24)

This psalm actually breaks down into four almost completely equal and symmetrical parts. Some traits belong to God alone and Psalm 139 describe the 3 the omni- attributes. He is omniscient; He knows everything. He is omnipotent; He has all power. He’s omnipresent; He’s everywhere. The main point of Psalm 139 is God is present everywhere. We cannot get around Him. We cannot get away from Him. His presence is our inescapable environment.

1. God Knows Me

God’s knowledge of you is precise and full proof. He has exact intelligence on you; He’s better than the NSA or the KGB.

1.1 He Knows Me Physically

“You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar” (Psalm 139:2). He has perfect knowledge of our every posture in verse two. You don’t even remember exactly when you woke up this morning. Nor do you know exactly when you’ll lay your head on the pillow tonight. Yet, God’s eyes are everywhere: “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). Say this after me, “He sees me.” Yes, He even knows you intimately: “But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” (Matthew 10:30)