All-Knowing Creator

June 2, 2024 homily on Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 and 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 by Pastor Galen

Finishing Each Other’s Sentences

You can tell that two people know each other really well when they can finish each other’s sentences. When you have a best friend or significant other who can finish your sentences for you, you know you’re on the same wavelength. You know exactly what the other person is thinking, and you can guess what they are going to say even before they say it. 

There’s something really wonderful about knowing and being known by someone else. On the flip side, it can be quite frustrating when someone you feel close to misunderstands you, or when someone who doesn’t know you makes a wrong assumption about you based on your looks, or your age, or some other aspect of your identity. We long to be known — fully known, inside and out, and to be understood, and fully accepted for who we are.

It’s rare to find someone in this life who truly understands us and who loves us and accepts us for who we are. That’s what makes it so special when we do find someone like that. It’s why we might refer to someone like that as our “soul mate” or our best friend. Having someone in our lives who knows us and accepts us is truly meaningful. When we don’t have someone like that in our lives, we often feel a sense of longing, or restlessness, or isolation. 

You Have Searched Me and Known Me

In Psalm 139, David proclaims, “O LORD, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways” (Psalm 139:1-3). In other words, God knows everything about us! The theological term for this is “omniscience.” God is all-knowing. There is not anything about us that God doesn’t already know. God knows even the most minute details about our lives.

Sometimes this has been used as a scare tactic to keep people in line. Sort of like Santa Claus, who sees us when we’re sleeping, and knows when we’re awake, and who knows when we’ve been bad or good, so we better be good, for goodness sake! 

We often think of God in this way. But in the very next verse, right after pointing out that our Creator God knows everything about us, David goes on to say, “Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely.”  In other words, rather than imagining God just sitting there waiting for us to mess up so God can withhold gifts from us, David imagines God as knowing us so well that God can finish our sentences!

Now it may seem odd for us to think about God in this way. After all, aren’t God’s ways higher than our ways, and God’s thoughts higher than our thoughts, as we read in Isaiah 55:8-9?

Yes, God’s knowledge is indeed so much greater than ours that we could never attain it, as David points out in Psalm 139:6. But God is not some abstract, distant being who stands afar off, as so many have thought throughout human history. Yes, God is on a different wavelength than us. And yet God came down to our wavelength and has been made known to us through Jesus. As we read this morning in 2 Corinthians 4:6, God “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” In taking on the form of a person and coming down to us, we see that God is not some distant deity silently judging us from afar, but rather God has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has been made known to us.

God knew us even before we were born. In fact, it is God who created us, and so God knows every little detail about our lives, including how many hairs are on our heads, as Jesus says in Luke 12:7 (and Matthew 10:30). But as much as God knows everything about us, we could never begin to know the mind of God on our own. And so Jesus came down to this earth, to show us the heart of the Father. He came down to our wavelength so that we could not only be known by God, but so that we could know God.

Even here in Psalm 139 we see intentionality to God’s knowledge of us. David says that God has searched us and known us (Psalm 139:1), that God searches out our path (Psalm 139:3), and that God has so many thoughts about us that we could never count them. They are more numerous than the sand! (Psalm 139:18). That is a lot of thoughts!

Does God Accept Us?

If God is thinking of us constantly thinking about us, if God has so many thoughts about us that they could never be counted, and if God has sought us out, as David says, then one question that naturally arises is, “What exactly does God think of us?” Sure, God knows each and every little thing about us. But does God love us? Does God accept us for who we are? Many people assume the answer is “no.” After all, how could a perfect God love and accept us imperfect people? Doesn’t God hate sin? We are people who sin constantly, so how could God possibly love us?

But interestingly enough, Psalm 139 does not emphasize our sinfulness or how far we fall short, but rather the fact that we have been “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). Or, as it says in the Message paraphrase of the Bible, “Body and soul, I am marvelously made!” (Psalm 139:14 MSG). Each and every one of us are unique creations. We are God’s masterpieces! God made each and every one of us just the way God desired us to be.

This does not mean that we never make mistakes, or that we never fall short. We constantly fall short of who we were created to be! But what it does mean is that at our core, our essence, we are all children of God, created as God’s masterpieces. And so God surely does love and accept us for who we are, because indeed, God is the one who made us! David says that we have been ”intricately woven” (Psalm 139:15) by God. And so yes, we are fully known, and we are also fully loved and fully accepted by God, because of the grace of God given to us through Jesus Christ.

“Lead Me In the Way Everlasting”

But of course, God also loves us too much to leave us stuck in cycles of sin and despair. In verses 7 through 12 of Psalm 139, David points out that no matter where we go, God is there. We could never flee from God’s presence. And then in the last few verses of this psalm, he asks God to do away with his enemies (Psalm 139:19-22, which we’ll talk about in a moment), David asks God to “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24). 

David knew that God hates evil and injustice, and so he wrongly assumed that the only way to deal with sin was to destroy the evildoers. Keep in mind that David was writing this about 1,000 years before Jesus came to this earth. So he didn’t know that Jesus would teach us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44). He didn’t realize that the Apostle Paul would teach us to forgive as we have been forgiven (Ephesians 4:32), and that even from the cross Jesus would forgive his enemies rather than pray for their destruction (Luke 23:34).

But even though David so obviously was on a different wavelength than God so many times, David is still referred to elsewhere in Scriptur as a “man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), and I believe that’s because of the way he sought after God, and the way he invited God to search his heart and lead him in the way everlasting. David embraced the fact that God knew everything about him, and he didn’t try to hide or hold anything back in his relationship with God, including his anger and animosity toward his enemies. And David invited God to search his heart and to root out any hint of evil. He wanted God to transform him to be more like God. Surely God answered his prayer, as we see that throughout David’s life, he became more loving and more compassionate, and more and more attuned to the heart of God. And I believe it’s because he didn’t try to hold anything back, but rather he invited God to search out his heart and to lead him “in the way everlasting.”

Implications of Being Known By God

What, then, are the Implications of God’s omniscience, and the fact that we are fullly known by God?

1. It means that there is no point in trying to hide anything from God. God created us and loves us, and knows even the most intricate details of our lives, so we can bring our full selves to God, knowing that God knows everything about us anyway. And, we don’t have to wonder or worry about whether God accepts us. We can rest in the assurance of God’s knowledge and love for us.

2. The longing and restlessness we feel to know and be known can never be fully met in anyone else or in anything else. Rather, that longing can only be fulfilled in God. As St. Augustine famously said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” God’s knowledge of us is perfect and complete, and we will never feel complete until we find our identity in God.

3. Our relationships with others are completely transformed when we know that we are fully known and accepted by God. No longer do we have to long for or crave the love and acceptance of other people when we know that we are fully loved and accepted by God. We can experience being misunderstood because we know that God understands us. We can endure rejection because God accepts us. We can even live without a “soul mate” or best friend, because God is our closest companion. (When we do experience love and acceptance from other people, that is simply “icing on the cake,” because ultimately our hearts have ultimately found our rest in God.)

And so this morning I invite you to bring your full self to God, knowing that you are dearly loved and accepted by God. May we invite God to search out every corner and crevice of our lives, knowing that God knows everything about us anyway. May we ask God to lead us in the way everlasting, and may our hearts find rest in God.

Amen!

Questions for Personal Reflection

1. Have you ever felt misunderstood by someone you thought knew you well? How did you handle that situation?
2. Reflect on times when you have longed to be known and understood. What aspects of your identity do you wish others would see and appreciate more?
3. Psalm 139 speaks of God’s intimate knowledge of us. How does knowing that God understands you completely affect your relationship with God? How does understanding that God accepts and loves you impact your self-image and self-worth?
4. St. Augustine said, “Our heart is restless until it rests in You.” In what ways have you experienced this restlessness, and how have you sought rest in God?