The Omniscience of God – He knows everything. Psalm 139
Even AI doesn’t know what it doesn’t know.
God DOES know everything. He is bigger and more incomprehensible than we can imagine. For us it is OK to say “I don’t know”.
Omniscience defined
God knows all things, past, present and future – nothing is hidden from Him.
God knows all that we say, do and think
1 You have searched me, Lord,
Psalm 139:1-6
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar …
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
God’s knowledge of David (and us) is exhaustive, complete. His arms surround us and his hand protects and guides.
He knows our hiding places
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
Psalm 139:7-10
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.
King David knows there is nowhere to hide geographically. Is there anywhere on earth we can hide from God, where He does not know? Up, down, left, right; there is nowhere He is not. Even our darkest secrets. “Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” Nowhere is dark enough to hide, too dark for Him to reach me and help.
13 For you created my inmost being;
Psalm 139:11-18
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.
…And nowhere to hide before even birth. Fearfully and wonderfully made, every child His masterpiece. Even at conception, and with all their special needs, we are valuable, not disposable. Even before conception, even when unformed. All my days were planned before one came to be. This is overwhelming and comforting.
God knows the end of His enemies
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Psalm 139:19-22
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.
King David knows that only God has the wisdom and knowledge to set the time for judgement. Only God knows the heart of those who do evil. David distances himself from those who hate God, content to wait for God’s justice. “‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” Romans 12:19
So, search me!
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
Psalm 139:23-24
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
My motives are not always good. Anxiety, sinful patterns, root them all out. Remember “His kindness is to lead us to repentance” Romans 2:4 and “if our hearts condemn us he is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.” 1 John 3:20
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Romans 11:33 New International Version – UK (NIVUK) Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
Acts 17:21