Known: Discovering God through Psalms 139

A few months ago, after a few mentally rough days, I was recommended by multiple people to read Psalms 139. (Thank you, Lord, for speaking through repetition!) I should make note of the fact that my Bible has a heading above each chapter, and this one above Psalm 139 is titled “The All-Knowing, Ever-present, God”. As I was reading, the verse that stood out to me was verse 16, “Your eyes saw me when I was formless, all of my days were written and planned before a single one of them began”. As I was sitting with this verse, a new thought captured my attention. The realization that God saw, knew and loved me before I even had a body hit me like a freight train. From the moment I was the size of a mustard seed, God loved me. Before my parents saw me on the sonogram, God loved me and knew all about me. He was right there with me since the beginning. The next thought I had stunned me, “If God has been with me since the beginning, why do I treat Him like a foreign concept?!” Why do I sometimes think of God like some white-bearded man sitting high in the clouds far away when He has known and loved me before anyone else did? How often do we sit down to pray and think “Are our prayers being heard or answered?” What if instead we flip that thought and direct our attention to Psalm 139, the gentle reminder that God knows us completely. The very first verse of Psalm 139 declares “Lord, you have searched me and known me”. Think about this for a minute, God knows you completely. Not like people you meet who might know some of you, or different sides of you, God knows ALL of you. What a comforting verse! What a comfort to know that God knows everything about you. Even if some parts of your life are marked with regrets, bad choices, secrets, and sin, God knows and yet still loves you. However, God’s grace is not an excuse to keep living a sinful life, but that’s a topic for a different blog post.

Let’s talk about the second half of Psalm 139, “All of my days were written and planned before a single one of them began”. I love this verse because it shows just how much God is involved in every detail of our life. Putting this verse into perspective, I thought about my own life and how God knew everything. He knew how I would break my arm when I would take my first steps, what sports I would take, what college I would attend, He knew everything. My point is friend, if you are like me and sometimes slip into the mentality that God is far away, I challenge you to read Psalm 139. Come to the Father, sit at His feet, sit in peace, and know that you are known and loved.

-Lex

Song with this post: Run to the Father- Cody Carnes; Known- Tauren Wells, Reckless Love- Cory Asbury.

Apply it to your life!

1. Read Psalm 139

2. Think about all the memories you’ve made in your life. First jobs, first car, school memories, awards, things you are passionate about. Think about your life. Think about how God knew you before all of those. Spend some time dwelling on this simple fact.

Comment your thoughts on this post!

Psalms 139

1 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.15 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.16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you. 19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!

20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.