God"s Wonderful Knowledge

If you have your Bible, turn to Psalm 139. Today we begin the reflection, I think, of one of the most beautiful, comforting, and thought-provoking psalms in all of the Psalter. There are 150 psalms, and we're coming to the end of the Psalter with this one, Psalm 139. I'm sure you'll agree with me, if you've read and studied it, it's truly a masterpiece.

Beautifully written. It's written by a king, King David. He is a musician, he's a poet, he's a warrior, but most important of all, he's a man after God's own heart. And this psalm neatly falls into four sections, each of six verses. We're going to consider tonight the first six verses under the subject, God's Wonderful Knowledge. Then in a couple of weeks, Lord willing, we'll look at verses 7 through 12 with the title, God's Inescapable Presence. And then later we'll look at verses 13 through 18 and see God's Overwhelming Power. And then finally in verses 19 through 24, we'll think of God's Penetrating Search. His Wonderful Knowledge, His Inescapable Presence, His Overwhelming Power, and His Penetrating Search.

My goal in studying this psalm is not just to give you more information about the psalm, but much more importantly, to learn more about a glorious God. I think most of us here would say that we believe in God, and so it's important we understand who the true God is. One of our tendencies is to create a God after ourselves, a God that we're comfortable with, a God that conforms to society rather than understanding the true God, the biblical God, the God who is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. At the beginning of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin writes, true and sound wisdom consists of two parts, the knowledge of God and of ourselves.

I think that's a very good, insightful statement. True and sound wisdom, Calvin says, consists of two parts, the knowledge of God and then the knowledge of ourselves. He goes on to say, it is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God's face and then descends from contemplating Him, that is God, to scrutinize Himself. So our goal as we look at this psalm is to understand more about God, and tonight our subject is God's wonderful knowledge. So let me read with you Psalm 139 verses one through six.

It's written to the choir master, it's a psalm of David as I've said. Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all of my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, oh Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

It is high, I cannot attain it. Psalm 139 verses one through six. What's the psalm is saying? The Lord knows everything, that we are the subjects of God's complete knowledge. The basic point of the psalm is in the first verse. Oh Lord, you've searched me and known me. God knows David thoroughly. I said this morning as we thought of 1 Peter, that the key to 1 Peter is at the end of his letter, while the key to Psalm 139 is at the beginning, it's at the front door. It is in the first verse.

You've searched me and known me. The Lord knows David's every action, every move from the time he gets up in the morning to the time he goes to bed and every moment in between is thoroughly known by God. You know, when I sit down, when I rise up and he says, you discern my thoughts from afar. God from afar knows every thought that David has.

He investigates and evaluates David's personal life in great detail. Verse three, you search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all of my ways. That is, no aspect of David's life is excluded from the knowledge by God. Even before David articulates a word, even before he speaks, God knows what he will say.

God is able to read his thoughts. Verse four, even before a word is on my tongue, behold the Lord, you know it all together. David's thoughts, his motivations, his speech, his actions and attitudes are totally known to God. Of course, this applies not just to David, it applies to you and me. From David's perspective, God's complete knowledge of him is a bit confining and limiting. Verse five, you hem me in, God's knowledge of him, think of this, you hem me in behind and before and lay your hand upon me. When David thinks and reflects and meditates on this knowledge that God has of him of every aspect of his life, David feels a bit hemmed in. He can't prevail over it. He can't get away from it. He is in the cup of God's hand. The Lord is all around him and in a sense, the Lord is above him. He just can't get away from the complete knowledge of God.

And he finds that a bit restrictive, a bit limiting of his own independence. I had the experience often in my teens. I'm sure some of you did. I'd be in my teens and I would be out with some of my friends and perhaps come a little late. And my parents, usually my mother, would say, John, where were you? Oh, I was out. Who were you with? Well, I was out with some friends. It wasn't necessarily that I was doing anything wrong, but it just was I don't want my parents to know everything about me that I was doing. Wouldn't you agree that full knowledge of us by anyone makes us feel a bit uncomfortable and intrusive?

Can you imagine if I knew every single thing about you? How would you feel about that? You would say, why doesn't Monroe back off a little bit? He's being a bit intrusive. And I think David feels that.

I think we sometimes feel that, that we just can't get away from it. But before I speak, you know exactly what I'm going to say. You know what time I got up this morning, Lord? You know what I had for breakfast?

You know exactly what time I'm going to bed tonight, even though I don't know myself. But when David reflects this godly man on the Lord's knowledge of all his life, he begins to understand that such knowledge is wonderful. Such knowledge, verse six, is too wonderful for me.

It's high. I can't attain it. Your life, like David's life, David's life is under God's penetrating and wonderful knowledge. God's knowledge is so comprehensive, so detailed, so penetrating that God knows every single thing about you.

You can't get away from God's wonderful, the thought is of surpassing, incomprehensible, awesome if you like, knowledge. The Lord knows your name. He knows your address. He knows your parents. He knows your friends.

He knows your social security number. The Lord knows every single thing about you, including all of your secrets. God knows everything about you because God knows everything about everything.

Do you believe that? We call that God's omniscience. That's one of the attributes of God. He is omniscient.

He knows everything about everything. I'll turn over a few pages to Psalm 147. Psalm 147, verse four, the psalmist writes, he determines the number of the stars. Scientists today don't know how many stars there are.

God does. God determined the number of the stars. Furthermore, he gives to all of them their names. Imagine trying to remember all the names of the stars. Not single one of us knows all of the names of everyone in this sanctuary.

And even if we got everyone to state their name, by the time the last person stated their name away in the back row there, we'd have forgotten some of them. God not only determined the number of the stars, He gives names to all of them. Verse five, great is our Lord and abundant in power, His understanding is beyond measure. He knows everything about everything. Isaiah 40, that wonderful chapter that we love, Isaiah 40, verse 13, who has measured the Spirit of the Lord or what man shows Him His counsel. Is there anyone here who's going to counsel God? Whom did He consult and who made Him understand?

Who taught Him the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding? Is there anyone here able to advise God? Is there anyone here able to give counsel to God? Is there anyone here who can add to the knowledge of God?

Of course, these are rhetorical questions, of course not. God is infinite. And when we say that God is infinite as to His knowledge, we're saying that His knowledge has no limits.

You have knowledge, I have knowledge, but our knowledge is limited. God has no limits to His knowledge. He is omniscient. God has perfect and eternal knowledge of all things, whether they be actual or possible, past, present, and future. God knows everything about everything.

Isn't that a great God? God has never had to learn anything as He knows about everything eternally. How do we learn?

Bit by bit. Remember at school, Mrs. McDonald begins to teach us the multiplication tables. Two ones are two, two twos are four, two threes are six. Some of you didn't learn that way, but I did.

And we were relieved when we got 12 twelves are 144. And I still remember it as a little boy. What am I learning? I'm learning my math bit by bit, day after day after day, bit by bit.

And I am building on my knowledge. That's not true of God, is it? God doesn't learn in that successive way. He knows about everything simultaneously. God knows everything in the past, present, and future instantaneously.

God knows by how many points the cowboys may beat the giants tonight. Because He knows everything about everything. God not only numbers the stars, we read He gives names to all of them. And because God is immutable, one of the other characteristics of God is that He's immutable, but that we mean that God never changes. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. God is immutable. His knowledge never varies. God's knowledge neither increases nor decreases. And His knowledge is all-encompassing.

We have interests in certain subjects, and other subjects are of little interest to us. God knows everything. Nothing lies outside the scope of God's knowledge.

Listen to this. Nothing can possibly happen to you that God doesn't know about. God has perfect knowledge of everything.

He knows everything about everything. God's knowledge, as David is telling us, this knowledge is also very intimate. He knows when David gets up, and when he goes to bed, realize he's using figures of speech here to emphasize his all-encompassing knowledge. I don't want to know when you get up. Don't call me tonight and say, I'm about to go to bed, John.

I'm not that interested in you. But God's knowledge of us goes down to details, doesn't it? What others of us may think is trivial, inconsequential, unimportant, is important to God. Isn't that what Jesus taught in Matthew 10, in that passage which we find of such a comfort? Matthew chapter 10, verse 29, Jesus says, Jesus says, are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. You're driving along, and you hit a bird. You see the feathers bind, and for a few seconds you feel bad, don't you? I hope you do, but it's quickly forgotten.

God's knowledge knows the fall of a sparrow. The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Now, I love my wife, but I have never counted the hairs of her head. My knowledge of her doesn't extend to that kind of detail. She has a better idea of how many hairs I have in my head, but that's another thing. So even the knowledge of people we love has a limit. We say, I'm really not that interested. I'm not going to sit down and count the hairs of my wife's head. I mean, who cares?

As long as she keeps her hair, I don't mind. But the Lord's eye is on the sparrow, for His eye is on everything. He knows everything about you. He knows everything about me, because God knows everything about everything. Now, if that is true, and it is in these first six verses, I want to think of three responses that we can have to God's wonderful knowledge. What a great God we know. What a great God we love. No wonder we come and we worship Him and we praise Him, because He's great in everything He is and does. But here are three responses to God's wonderful knowledge.

Three responses to God's omniscience. First, spend time with the Lord. Second, spend time with the Lord.

I received advice, as many of you did, as a young person. Spend time with the right kind of people, people that you can learn from. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 33, bad company ruins good morals. You know, if you spend a lot of time in very negative, with negative sinful people, there's a tendency we become like that, so don't do that. We would say that to our children, to students, but it applies to us, doesn't it?

No. If you're going to learn, be with people who are wiser than you. People that today to use the cliché, who can mentor you, who can help you. But imagine spending time with someone who knows everything about everything.

That's God. Solomon says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. How are you going to get wisdom? How are you going to have true understanding? Spend time with the Lord. If you believe, as I do, that the Lord knows everything about everything, shouldn't you be spending time with Him? James says, if you lack wisdom, what might you do?

Ask of God who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to Him. But let them ask in faith without any doubting. That is, God imparts His wisdom, His understanding, His knowledge, to those who come to Him in faith, in true humility.

So, and you're going to be shocked to hear me say this, spend time in this book. If it's true that God knows everything about everything, shouldn't you spend time with God? Listen to the Psalmist again in Psalm 119 verse 97.

He says, oh how I love your law is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies. You want to be wise?

Spend time in the Word, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. You want to be wiser than your teachers?

Study God's Word. I understand more than the agent, for I keep your precepts. Just because someone is old doesn't mean to say that they're wise. No, you can have more understanding than an old person if you spend time in this book. I hold back my feet from every evil way in order to keep your word. I don't turn aside from your rules, for you've taught me how sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts, I get understanding.

Therefore, I hate every false way. How am I going to be wise? How am I going to get understanding? How am I going to be able to navigate myself through life with all of the difficulties and options and temptations through spending time with God's Word? The more time you spend with God, the more you will know God, the more you will understand God, the more you'll understand life, and as Calvin says, the more you will understand yourself.

Some people are totally, seem to have very little self-awareness. One of the great benefits from knowing God is that then we begin to have a true understanding of ourselves, and as we do that, the wiser our decisions will be. If God knows everything about everything, number one, spend time with God. Number two, trust the Lord.

Doesn't that follow? Trust the Lord. Sometimes we don't trust people because we realize that their perceptions are distorted.

They are inaccurate. I'm always amused when you go to a restaurant and the waitress comes, and you're looking at the menu, and she says, well, Sessonsuch is my favorite. I always feel like saying, I can't say it because I'm a pastor and I've got to be nice, but I always feel like saying, who cares? I mean, here is someone I've never even met.

For all I know, her idea of an ice meal is peanut butter with collards and green beans or something like that. I mean, why would I trust this person to advise me in eating? Now, if I knew someone, if I know that you're a person of taste in terms of food, I'm going to listen to you. But the more we know someone, the more we're going to trust them. Sometimes we don't trust ourselves, our own judgment, because we don't have all of the facts.

We don't have all of the right circumstances, as it were. But the Lord knows all of the facts. Sometimes the Lord knows all of the circumstances. The Lord knows all of your needs. The Lord knows all of your emotions. The Lord knows all of the future. Every single thing is known to Him.

Therefore, what does Solomon say? Trust in the Lord, Proverbs 3, with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Here is a God who knows everything about everything. And therefore, I am to trust Him. He is 100% wise. God never makes a mistake, because He knows everything about everything. So, instead of worrying, anybody worrying here tonight about your week ahead of you?

The answer is yes. Many of you are worrying about all kinds of things. Instead of worrying, trust this God who knows tomorrow.

Who knows you? Who knows the future? We worry because we're not sure how things will turn out. But Jesus tells us in Matthew 6, don't be anxious. Don't worry. Don't be anxious. Don't worry.

Why? For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. In other words, why are you worrying? Trust your heavenly Father. He knows everything. He knows your needs. He anticipates them.

He knows everything about you. Needing direction in life, struggling with a very difficult personal dilemma, trust the Lord. Job says, He knows the way I take. When He's tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

No, when we trust the Lord, doesn't mean to say it's always easy, but He will see us through that way, and we will come forth as gold. God knows the way that we take. God knows the outcome of that situation. God knows exactly what you can handle. So don't be afraid of the future. Are you going to trust God?

This God who knows everything about everything, knows everything about your circumstance, everything about your health, everything about your future, everything about that difficult person you work with, every single detail is known to God. So here you are, you're worrying about the future. Don't do that. Trust the Lord who knows everything about everything. Here's the third one. Number one, spend time with the Lord. Secondly, trust the Lord. Third, and this is difficult for us, be honest with the Lord. Even our closest family members don't know everything about us.

Is that true? Perhaps we're ashamed of something that we did, that we have difficulty even admitting it to ourselves, far less anyone else. Can you hide anything from God? Hebrews 4 13, no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

The picture is before God, you're naked. There's no secrets. There's nothing you can hide from God.

David has told us. He reads our thoughts. He knows our words.

He knows exactly what's going to happen. It's impossible to cover up our wrongdoings from God who knows everything. Don't you agree? We can cover up things from one another because we don't know everything about each other. But if God knows everything about me, it is essential if I'm going to grow, I'm to be honest with the Lord. God is Elroy, the God who sees you at all times. Do you believe that? He's reading your thoughts. We'll see you next time. You can't run away from God.

Utterly impossible. God's everywhere. Not only does He know everything about everything, He's everywhere you go. You cannot run away from God.

God sees you at all times. In the movie A Man for All Seasons, Richard Rich, a young Cambridge graduate, is very ambitious politically. And so, Thomas More encourages him to become a schoolteacher.

And Rich objects. He says, no one sees a good teacher. And Thomas More responds. He says, your teachers will see you. You will see you. And God will see you. So, you'll live your life.

You think, you know, it's pretty mundane week after week. No one really knows what I'm doing. Well, you know what you're doing. But more importantly, God sees it. God sees how you're going to work tomorrow. God knows the attitude in which you're going to work. God knows your attitude in your home and your marriage and your relationship with your children and your friends.

God knows every single thing about it. Therefore, be honest with the Lord. Stop trying to cover up. Sometimes we're not totally honest with other people because we want people to think well of us. Or we think if we revealed certain things about ourselves to these people, we would be rejected.

And that may be the case. But we thought this morning, didn't we, of God's everlasting love. The God who knows the very worst about me is the God who loves me the most. God knows the very worst thing that you've done.

The worst thing you've done that if we knew about it, we would say, that is really bad. God knows about it, and God loves you. This is the Gospel, isn't it? That God demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Knowing everything about us, He loves us. Knowing everything about us that we would do from all of eternity, God loves us. He knows exactly everything we're going to do, and His love is eternal.

This is the wonder of His grace, isn't it? But God wants us as we grow in our faith, and of course as we come to Christ. The Gospel is that we are to repent. We're to be honest before God. We're to acknowledge our sins. We're to acknowledge before God that we have sins. In Proverbs 28 verse 13, He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

Isn't that a great verse? You want to find forgiveness? Don't conceal your transgressions.

You will not prosper. Confess them before God, forsake them, and you will find compassion. Will you do that?

Have you done that? Are you a follower of Christ? Has there ever been a time when you have acknowledged your sinfulness before God and cried out to Christ for forgiveness through His death on the cross and His glorious resurrection? Knowing our sinfulness and our inability to save ourselves, God has provided the Savior who comes not to condemn us, but to love us and to save us.

This is Psalm 139 verses 1 through 6, God's wonderful knowledge. What am I to do? I'm to trust the Lord. What am I to do? I'm to be honest with the Lord.

What am I to do? I'm to spend time with the Lord. So make sure you know this Lord who knows everything about everything. And when you're anxious, when you're not sure what to do, when you find yourself in the middle of the foggiest situations imaginable, remember you're all knowing God. He sees your situation. He's aware of your worries. He's aware of your fears. He knows your future, but He loves you.

He cares for you. And if His eye is on the sparrow, I know He watches me and you. This is God's wonderful knowledge. Our Father, we thank you that you're such a great God, a God who knows everything about everything, and we humble ourselves before you and ask that we will spend more and more time with you, how proud we are turning to our own way, often seeking the counsel of others and not bowing our knee to you and crying out for help and for instruction and for wisdom. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for the forgiveness that flows from the cross of our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. And we ask, Father, that we, who are followers of Christ, may spend more and more time with you, listening to your voice as our Lord Jesus did, getting up early in the morning. His ear was open to your cry so that day by day our lives will bring glory to you.

Thank you, Father. And thank you that through our Lord Jesus Christ, we can know you, the great God, the God who knows everything about everything. And so we entrust ourselves. We entrust this day. We trust our future. We trust our eternal destiny in your hands in your hands because of your love, because of your care, because of our Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray, amen.