Search Me, Know Me, Lead Me

There were times in my childhood when I was convinced that my mom had eyes in the back of her head. I couldn’t get away with anything. It was like she knew what I was going to do before I did it. Once, when I was about to touch a plant that I wasn’t allowed to touch, she said from the other room, “Richey, don’t touch that plant.” It was so annoying. And amazing.

God knows us like that. Just as my mom always seemed to know what I was up to, God also knows what we’re up to, but he knows perfectly.

In Psalm 139, the writer affirms this. God is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (everywhere all the time), and omnipotent (all-powerful). David takes these three characteristics of God out of the seminary classroom, out of a dry book on systematic theology, and puts them squarely into our everyday lives.

The psalm starts with God’s omniscience (v. 1-4). The opening words acknowledge that God has “searched” and “known” the author. God knows everything about us. He sees the things we don’t allow others to see. He knows what we think before we think it, what we say before we say it, and what we do before we do it. God also knows exactly how we feel about him, not just what we say about him. There is nothing in my heart that I can hide from God.

Being known like this can be both scary and comforting. On the one hand, we can’t hide anything from him. It’s like when someone says to you about someone who’s already in heaven, “I’m sure they’re looking down on you and are so proud.” And that makes you feel good for about a minute, and then you think, “Wait, they can’t see everything, can they?” No, they can’t. But God can. And that’s a good thing.

On the other hand, being known means we’re never far from God’s protection:

God both protects us (“You have hedged me behind and before”) and guides us (“And laid Your hand upon me”). Because God knows everything, we’re never beyond his care. This protection is far greater than we can comprehend (“It is high, I cannot attain it”), but it is very real.

God is not only omniscient, but he’s also omnipresent. All of God is everywhere all the time (v. 7-12).

There is nowhere in the entire universe that I could go where God is not. David isn’t trying to get away from God so much as he’s pointing out the impossibility of doing so. From the highest place to the lowest (heaven and hell, if God should choose to visit there), and from east to west (“wings of the morning” and “uttermost parts of the sea”), and everywhere in between, God is present. There isn’t even a single place in Creation that’s too dark for God to see us (v. 11-12).

Again, this can be both scary and overwhelming and incredibly comforting. If you’re trying to hide from God, okay, this is scary. But it’s comforting to know that every moment of every day, whether things are great or horrible, God is always there for you! He never leaves your side for a single second.

Finally, God is omnipotent (v. 13-16). After saying there’s no place so dark that God can’t see us, David pictures the darkest, most mysterious place he can think of: our mother’s womb. God, though, not only saw us there, but he knew us there. In his omnipotence, God guided every step in our physical development. The word “covered” in the NKJV translation of verse 13 means “wove”; God “knitted me together,” as the ESV says. The formation of the human body is simply miraculous, but that’s how powerful God is. Every student of anatomy ought to say to God, “Marvelous are your works” (v 14).

Even before your mother knew she was pregnant with you, God knew you and loved you and was taking care of you. This is why taking the life of an unborn child is such a hideous sin. Before you were conceived, God knew you, loved you, and charted your life’s course. He both knew and wrote your future. He is sovereign over both the creation of life and over death. His sovereignty is always perfect, even when it seems anything but perfect to us.

After saying all these things about God, the writer can only respond, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!” (v. 17). What God knows, where God is, and what God can do is incomprehensible.

Sadly, not everyone accepts these truths about God, and David wanted nothing to do with those folks (v. 17-22).

He longed for God’s justice to be brought down on the enemies of God. He writes strong words about the ungodly in verses 19-22, but they’re based on his love for God. God will deal with those who oppose him, and we must leave that up to him. We’re to stand up for God and his Word and his ways, but how he handles the opposition is in his hands, not ours.

That’s why David makes two prayer requests: 1) God, please slay the wicked (v. 19), and God, please search my heart:

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)

This circles back around to verse 1, where David wrote, “You have searched me.” Now he prays, “Please search me.” If these feelings I have for the wicked are wrong, if what I’m asking for is evil, if I’m actually more like them than I think I am, God, please show me that. And do more than just show me, Lord, change me!

This should be a daily prayer for every Christian. “God, show me anything within me that doesn’t line up with your will. Point out every sin and every area where I’m not living up to what you want for me. And, in the power of your Holy Spirit, change those things about me. Change me, Father, to be more like you.”

God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. What does this mean to me right now, today? It means that God knows everything about me, past, present, and future, and still loves me. It means that God is everywhere all the time, so he’s always with me; I’m never far from his help. And it means there is nothing in the universe more powerful than God. Not a single problem I face, not a single sinful desire of mine, is stronger than my God.

What’s our only response to that? The same as David’s — bow to God’s greatness, and pray:

“Search me, know me, lead me.”