God entirely knows us and still loves us

Tradition attributes Psalm 139 to David, written probably near the end of his life as he is looking back over all he has seen and done: Saul, Goliath, Bathsheba, and all the rest of one of the most checkered figures in history. Here is his testimony of the grace of God. Let’s walk through the beautiful psalm together today. 

God knows all about us: “O LORD, you have searched me and known me!” (v. 1).

He knows our actions: “when I sit down and when I rise up.” He knows the good and bad things we’ve done, our personal Goliaths and Bathshebas and everything in between.

He knows our thoughts: “you discern my thoughts from afar.” He knows what you’re thinking at this very moment.

He knows our activities: “You search out my path and my lying down,” what I do in public and in private. “and are acquainted with all my ways,” literally “all the paths I take, everywhere I have been and am going.”

He knows our words, so that before we speak our next word “you know it altogether.” (v. 4). He knows what we say and what we mean by what we say.

And yet, despite all that he knows about us, he loves us and cares for us. “You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.” (v. 5) His hand is upon us so that he will never lose us (John 10:28).

He will not abandon us, even when we abandon him (vs. 7–12). “ If I ascend to heaven, you are there!If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” (v. 8). These are the vertical extremes of the world, from the highest to the lowest. “ If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” (vs. 9–10). The “dawn” was to the east, of course; the “far side of the sea” was the Mediterranean Sea to the west. These are the horizontal extremes of the world, from the east to the west.

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me’... even the darkness will not be dark to you … for darkness is as light with you.” (vs. 11–12).

These are the moral extremes of the world, from worst to best. Even then God will not abandon us.

God knows you to your core and still loves you. 

Take a moment to think through your actions, words, activities, and times when you abandoned God or were at your lowest moments of sin. 

When any guilt, sadness, or regret boils up, realize that God knows all of that to its deepest depth, and he removes that transgression from you as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). What wonderful news!

Let the notion that God has searched you and knows you to your uttermost depths cause you to rejoice with thankfulness.