I value privacy. My hubby, Roy, and I are introverts. Spending time alone or with each other refreshes us, body, soul, and spirit. My mama (age 95) is also an introvert. A while ago, she fell several times within a week. With her permission and agreement within the family, we installed video cameras that allowed us to see and hear her. We can also speak to her through their built-in microphones as needed. Why am I telling you this? Because Psalm 139 is God’s notification that He’s got better equipment than video cameras to know everything about everyone–including you!

Deciding Where To Place The Cameras

Our goal is always to ensure our aging parents maintain their dignity as long as possible. So, we decided not to put a camera in her bathroom or dressing area. We restricted our knowledge to maintain her dignity. At some point, that may have to change, but for now it’s working.

Nervous About God’s Access?

God has unrestricted access to EVERYTHING about us, and David somehow knew that. No one knows for sure in which season of his life he penned this beautiful psalm, but it’s one of my favorites. Let’s look at David’s insights about how well God knows and understands you, me, and every human being:

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Psalm 139:1-6 (emphasis added)

In these opening verses, I’ve used bold italics for God’s actions and underlined His access to our earthly life. Here’s a chart if you like visuals:

How Do You Feel About God’s Access Now?

Psalm 139:1-6 describes how our good, good Father knows us so completely while we live on earth. Does this truth from Scripture bring on a sense of conviction or comfort?

Comfort:

It may be comforting if you feel alone or abandoned, and these verses reassure you that He always “gets” you.It may be comforting if you’ve felt as if God has forgotten you because David is clearly confident that Yahweh is a permanent fixture in His kids’ lives.

Conviction:

You may feel the Holy Spirit’s conviction if you like to be in control because we don’t get to decide which areas of life God searches and knows.You may feel the Holy Spirit’s conviction if you’re hiding something–from the people in your life or thought you could hide something from your Heavenly Father.Do You Sometimes Wish You Could Hide From God?

William Taverner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Adam and Eve tried hiding after they sinned. Didn’t work.

Jonah tried sailing away from God when he didn’t want to speak a message of repentance to the Assyrian king–because Jonah didn’t want them to repent. Look what happened to Jonah–he became fish vomit and still had to obey God. 😯

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139:7-12

Even David tried to hide when he had sinned by sleeping with Bathsheba, while she was still married to Uriah. Read Psalm 51 for a glimpse of the conviction David felt after he’d slept with Bathsheba and arranged for his general, Joab (who was also his nephew), to position Uriah at the front line of battle–so he would die. It was murder by enemy troops, and I’ll bet David wished he could have found somewhere to hide such horrendous sins from the God he loved.

There is simply no place on or above or below this earth where we can hide from the Creator of all things.

God Knows Things We Don’t Know About Ourselves

My mama praises Jesus every chance she gets, and she covers her kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids…and, yes, even great-great grands with faithful prayer! And her “mom skills?” Off the charts!

Have you ever called your mom and, after she hears your first few sentences, she interrupts and says, “Okay, tell me what’s wrong.” I used to get so annoyed with her because she just knew. I couldn’t hide anything from her.

When I had my first baby, I had no idea what her cries meant. I didn’t even know she had different cries–until my mom taught me to discern. What is it with moms and their magic wands?

Now, I’m the mom who can tell by the sound of my daughters’ voices or mannerisms that something’s not quite right in their world. Now, I’m Grammy, who recognized the babies had different cries and knew what each one needed.

My girls were quick learners and have far surpassed me in mothering my eight grandkids in a world that I have no clue how to navigate. Our grands range from (almost) twenty-one to (almost) seven-year-old twins, and I find great comfort that my good, good Father knit them together in their mama’s womb.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you. Psalm 139:13-18 (emphasis added)

Are You a Little Freaked Out?

I’m all good with God creating my inmost being and knitting me together in my mom’s womb. But I have no idea what David means when he says:

“I was woven together in the depths of the earth“?“Your eyes saw my unformed body“?“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be“?

I’m not sure even David realized what it meant. He did, however, know that what he was saying was coming straight from Yahweh. “How vast is the sum of [Your thoughts]!” he said, and then used the phrase God used in His promise to Abraham. “If I were to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.” Can you hear his delight?

How did he respond?

“I praise You!” And then included a list of these things no one can explain or fathom.“How precious to me are your thoughts.” David is writing down God’s thoughts. How awesome is that?“When I awake, I am still with you.”

I had to chuckle at the last line of v.18. David isn’t so amazed that God’s still with him but rather that he (David) is still “with God.” All the previous night’s revelations weren’t a dream! He didn’t imagine God–and neither do I.

Do you believe God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–is real? Regardless of belief or doubt, He remains close whether we’re awake or asleep.

Mind Battles and God’s Help

So, it seems David has awakened to a new day. He’s basking in last night’s praise session. God’s presence and knowing are real. But so are the struggles David will face today.

If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Psalm 139:19-22

It’s like a broken record, isn’t it? David’s always got an enemy chasing him and always praying for God to annihilate them. Is it right or wrong for David to pray this way–to FEEL this way?

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24

I dunno what’s right or wrong for David to pray. Evidently, neither did David. Sometimes, I don’t know what I should pray in a situation that seems impossible to rise above. Jesus introduced a New Covenant, one purchased with His blood so we could receive His grace when we stand before the one, true God. And Jesus explicitly commanded all His disciples, in the 1st century A.D. and beyond, to spread the Good News of grace and to pray FOR our enemies.

Maybe Psalm 139:23-24 is the prayer we should be praying every day to combat the hatred, contentiousness, and foulness of the world in which we live. The first step to helping others change is to change myself. How do I change? What do I change? Those are questions we must ask the One who knows us better than we know ourselves.

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Tweet-Ables:Psalm 139:1-6 describes how our good, good Father knows us so completely while we live on earth. Is this comforting to you or convicting?Did Davids sin against Bathsheba and Uriah mean David stopped loving Yahweh? Answer in light of your own sins. When YOU are in a sin cycle that has taken you farther than you intended to go, do YOU stop loving God? Or is your sin a wall you have built to hide behind? Let Psalm 139:7-12 reassure you that there is no place you can go to hide from Gods love for you. The first step to helping others change is to change myself. How do I change? What do I change? Those are questions we must ask the One who knows us better than we know ourselves.