Psalm 139

“O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.” (Psalm 139:1)

“I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!” (Psalm 139:7)

David opens this Psalm with an inescapable truth: the Lord knows your heart and everything about you. This is a recurring theme in this Psalm: there isn’t anything the Lord doesn’t know about you. God knows where you are, what you are doing, and what you are thinking. David is writing about the omniscience and omnipresent nature of God; He knows everything and is everywhere. Many people have spent a good deal of their lives pointlessly hiding from a God who is everywhere and refusing to confess to a God who knows all. We cannot hide from God, not ourselves or anything we have done. David goes on to examine how intimately God knows him.

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.” (Psalm 139:13-14)

This is why God’s omniscience and omnipresence is reassuring. This isn’t an impersonal god who cares nothing about us and yet knows everything and is inescapable. Our God made all of the delicate parts of our bodies, He knit us together Himself while we were in our mothers’ wombs. The complexities of our bodies stand as testaments to His craftsmanship. We need not fear an omnipresent, omniscient God who is personal and loving.

“How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!” (Psalm 139:17-18)

The dictionary defines precious as: “(of an object, substance, or resource) of great value; not to be wasted or treated carelessly.” That’s how David chose to describe God’s thoughts for us: of great value, not to be wasted or treated carelessly. Not only are God’s thoughts about us precious but they cannot be numbered. Every grain of sand is a “thinking of you” card from God. Since God thinks this way of us, it leaves us no room to think negative thoughts about ourselves. Since God’s thoughts are precious about us, it would be insulting for our thoughts about ourselves to contradict God’s. David finishes with a bold invitation and declaration to grow.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” (Psalms‬ ‭139:23-24)‬ 

David boldly asks God to search him, to know his anxious thoughts, and to point out anything within him that offends God. That’s a challenge for all of us. Can you ask God to point out anything in you that offends Him? Because if you do, He will, and once God brings that to your attention, it has to go; you have to kill anything in you that offends God. There’s no room for it. He intends to live in you; there’s no room for offensive things in His dwelling place, which is you. We serve a God who knows all and is everywhere, a God who loves us intimately and Whose thoughts about us are precious. The only logical response to such a God is surrender, confession, and praise.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

—Redeemed