An All-Seeing Eye

In Psalm 139:1-6, David wrote, "O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it."

In this passage, as much as we say we’d like to be known, this is a real frightening psalm. And I think one of the reasons it’s so frightening is because it’s hard to find much comfort in it. Here is this God who sees everything there is to know about us, even what we’re thinking.

David uses some descriptive words to talk about how God knows us. And it’s not just that God knows everything. We sometimes say that God is omniscient, and by that we mean that God knows everything there is to know. And that’s certainly true. You can read in Job 38-39, where God says to Job, "Do you know how the foundations of the earth were laid and do you know how the sun sits in the sky and do you know how this happens and that happens?" The answer that Job gives is obviously, "No." And the implication is that God does know all that. He knows everything.

But that’s not David’s point here. His point is not that God knows all the mysteries of history and the riddles of the universe. Rather, David’s point is that God knows me. He knows everything about me. And in my desire to know God, I need to remember that he knows me before I can know him.

David uses six terms to describe the fact that God knows us.

1. God has searched me

"O Lord, you have searched me..." (Psalm 139:1). The Hebrew term here originally meant "to explore" and sometimes conveyed the idea of digging into something. It’s the word that’s used in Judges 18 for spying out the land. It’s used in Job 28 for digging for mineral ore. It’s an intent looking. David says here, "God, you have searched me, you have dug down into my life."

Have any of you lost anything recently -- keys, wallet, remote control for the TV, glasses? Your glasses are the worst things to lose because you need them to find them. I understand that Jo can tell you a story about losing some plane tickets. But whenever you misplace something, you go all over, looking desperately, turning things upside down. Looking here, looking there, all over, searching.

That’s the first word David uses here Lord, you have searched me. God digs into your life, he looks intently.

2. He knows me

The second half of verse 1 says, "You know me." It’s repeated again in verse 2: "You know my sitting down and my rising up." Not "know" in the sense of just knowing something about us, he knows me in the sense that my best friend knows me. God knows me more than I can even imagine, more than I want at times. Whether I’m taking it easy or whether I’m on the move. It doesn’t matter; God knows me.

3. He understands my thoughts

The latter part of verse 2: "You understand my thoughts from afar." The idea is that God can get inside of my head. He can see what’s going on there. You know, doctors can do some amazing things with the technology that’s available today. They can take a tube and stick it down your throat and look at your insides. That’s amazing. But magnify that a billion times. You’ve got God seeing everything inside, not just my physical body but even my thoughts. God knows everything you’ve ever thought about. Think about that for a moment, and see if it doesn’t begin to scare you just a little bit.