Psalm 139: God Knows You and Never Abandons You

Introduction

Omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent. Ivan Bannwarth of Église Connexion (Paris Centre) defines these three words at the very start of his message: "omni" means all. God knows everything, God is everywhere, God can do everything. Having grown up in a Christian family, he sees these three attributes as biblical givens, something he has always known. But he doesn't remember often hearing a sermon explain what this concretely changes for him.

The problem is that these three words can be frightening. An almighty Creator God seems very far away, and we are very small. A God who knows everything, and therefore sees everything I do, is unsettling. As a child, it was a way for his parents to keep him obedient when they weren't around: a Big Brother. We end up feeling that God watches us only to punish us.

The preacher wants to show that this picture of a distant God who is only there to judge is a very poor understanding of God. He proposes looking at how David understands God's omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence in Psalm 139. This psalm is not part of the summer series on the first book of the Psalter: Ivan Bannwarth had preached it at the beginning of the summer in La Garenne-Colombes, and the elders allowed him to stay on this text.

Message Outline

1. Verses 1 to 6: God Knows Me Intimately

• The first stanza speaks of God's omniscience. David acknowledges that God's knowledge is too wonderful for him, far beyond his reach: "Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. You are acquainted with all my ways. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high. I can't attain it."
• But David isn't talking about God's infinite knowledge of the universe, of science or of mathematics. What overwhelms him is that God knows him, and cares about him.
• Verse 1: "Yahweh, you have searched me." David sees in his God someone who deliberately seeks to know him. He doesn't experience omniscience as intrinsic knowledge, but as the fruit of God's desire to know us. That is what interests God: knowing us intimately.
• Verse 5 is a little different: "You hem me in behind and before, and lay your hand on me." It is no longer about knowledge but about presence. The preacher sees in this David's intention to link the first stanza to the second.

2. Verses 7 to 12: God Never Abandons Me

• The places David imagines going to are not appealing at all: far from God's Spirit, far from his face, lying in the place of the dead, at the farthest part of the sea, covered by darkness. Why does he consider going there?
• It is likely that David, knowing that God knows him intimately, is like a child who is afraid of being judged. We sometimes cancel an outing with friends because we don't want to admit to them what we have done. With God it is worse: he already knows.
• You can sense in this stanza that David would like to be anywhere except near God. But he also knows what happens in those places: God is still there. He has already lived through moments when he tried to run from God because of his sin or because he was at rock bottom, and God never left him.
• As with knowledge, David does not acknowledge an abstract presence of God throughout the universe, but a presence that translates concretely into permanent companionship.
• We sometimes believe that when we neglect our personal devotion or when we sin, God no longer wants us. David shows the opposite: even alone, at rock bottom, thinking we are far from God, God is with us, before and behind, and his hand is on us (verses 5 and 10).
• Verse 12 marks the transition: the place of darkness is miraculously turned into light by God's power.

3. Verses 13 to 18: God Made Me as I Am

• God's almighty power is not contemplated here in an abstract way, as in the creation in Genesis, at the beginning of John's Gospel or at the end of the book of Job. What matters is its application in David's life.
• David recognizes God's omnipotence in creation and in the making of who he is. God did not wait until we were grown up or until we had a relationship with him to care about us: he is the origin of everything that concerns us, even before we were an embryo.
• An aside on verse 14: "I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." The preacher confides that he grew up with many complexes about his appearance and still finds it hard today to say this verse as if it were his own words. He has to identify his complexes, recognize that they are a view of himself tainted by the teasing he received in childhood, and listen to what God says about him.
• These three stanzas show that God wants us as he created us and that he made no mistake. Even if there are things in us that make social life difficult, God does not leave us alone to face them.
• The stanza ends once again on God's presence: "When I wake up, I am still with you." The circle is complete.

4. Progress Check: Three Statements to Remember

• David builds his song with three stanzas that say that God knows everything about him and desires this intimate knowledge, that even if he tries to run, God never abandons him, and that he is also able to do so: since he is his Creator, everything about him was chosen and shaped by God.
• Without the technical terms, it comes down to this: "God, you know me intimately. You never abandon me. You made me as I am."

5. Verses 19 to 22: The Stanza That Disturbs

• The fourth stanza contrasts sharply with what comes before. It speaks of the wicked, of bloodthirsty men, of enemies, of killing, of hatred and disgust. Does that belong in a song? Jesus tells us in the Gospels to love our enemies. Can we take David as an example and pray this?
• We might be tempted to say: this is the Old Testament, let's keep the first three stanzas and forget the fourth. The preacher himself admits he struggled to understand these verses.
• In reality, David is troubled by the presence of sinful men who use God's name to justify their criminal acts. Yet David does not act, although he could: he is king. He first wants to bring his bewilderment and his emotions before God.
• David is overwhelmed by his emotions. He is torn by anger as he sees people committing injustice against God. Deep inside he feels the desire for these wicked people to be punished. That desire may be justified. But isn't using this desire for divine punishment a way of justifying one's own hatred? Couldn't it slowly lead him, too, to use God's name to justify his own actions? David knows he is not perfect. That is why he is tormented.

6. Verses 23 and 24: "Lord, I Open My Heart to You"

• It is then that David makes this request: "Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way." Some versions speak of the "anxious thoughts" that trouble him.
• Why did David make all these reminders in the first three stanzas? Because he needed to remind himself that he can trust God enough to open his heart to him. He knows that God knows everything about him, that he can hide nothing from him. He knows that God has never abandoned him and will never abandon him, even if he strays from the right path, even if he is filled with anger or hatred. And he knows that God has the ability, the power and the strength to do something concrete to lead him in the everlasting way.
• The title the preacher gives to this last stanza: "Lord, I open my heart to you, since you know me intimately, you never abandon me, you made me as I am."

7. Jesus Has These Three Attributes and Has Put Them at Our Service

• Jesus shows in the Gospels that he also possesses these three divine attributes. He displayed his omniscience when he knew people's thoughts. He demonstrated his omnipotence by feeding 5,000 men with a few loaves and fish, or by calming a storm with a single word. He speaks of his omnipresence when he promises to be with us every day until the end of the age.
• Yet, despite knowing the future that awaited him, Jesus came to earth. Despite his almighty power, he gave up defending himself in order to go to the cross and take on himself the punishment for sin in our place.
• Like David, we therefore have proof in the Bible that Jesus wants us to trust him enough to speak to him about the reality of our hearts. He demonstrated at the cross that his intentions were more than kind. God gave up his rights to enter humanity, offer a solution to sin and reconcile us to himself.
• Jesus is the person best placed to hear our emotions, our torments, our confession. We owe him everything: our existence, our salvation, our reason for living. There is no point trying to hide our bewilderment or our anger from him, even anger at him. You can't make him believe lies. What good is it to pretend before Jesus in our prayers? Let's be real, accept our vulnerability and submit to his kind authority.
• You may, like the preacher, have a very hard time naming what you feel. He did not grow up in a family where emotions were put into words, and it is often a jumble in his head. But Jesus knows you better than you know yourself. Even without knowing what we feel, we can bring it to him: "Lord, I don't know if I feel anger, sadness, loneliness, despair or weariness, but I hand it over to you. You understand, and you can help me see clearly."
• If you are going through a hard time, full of bewilderment or doubts, or if you have no idea what to think about this whole business of the Bible, God or Jesus, there is no shame in talking to God about it, no shame in trying to pray. If you don't understand all of God's plans, reread verses 6 and 17: David didn't understand them either, but he chose to trust him.
• You too can choose to put your trust in Jesus so that he becomes your Lord and Savior. He will help you gradually experience peace and joy in him, he will deepen this intimacy and lift doubts over time, if we truly share with him what troubles us. We express our trust in him to separate good from evil, and to straighten our thoughts, our behavior and our emotions according to what he knows is good for us.
• An almighty God who knows everything about us can be frightening. But this text shows that God uses his omniscience, his omnipresence and his omnipotence to love us. And that is why we can trust him.

8. A Song for the Community: Living Vulnerability Together

• This psalm is a song, meant to be sung by a choir. David therefore shares with the community what he feels, his bewilderment, his doubts, his sorrows. He makes himself vulnerable before his brothers and sisters.
• The preacher encourages us to live this vulnerability not only in personal devotion and prayer, but also in a setting of mutual trust: a small group, or a growth group of two or three people.
• He finishes by reading from "The Disciple-Making Parent," which Laurent Nelson offers to small group leaders, and recommends it. If we live this vulnerability with one another, this trust and this ability to be real, we will be able to see God's omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience at work in the lives of these people, and have ever more reasons to give glory to God.

Key Takeaways

• David isn't amazed by an abstract omniscience: what overwhelms him is that God deliberately seeks to know him, personally, intimately.
• Even when we try to run from God because of our sin or because we are at rock bottom, God does not leave us. His hand is on us, before and behind.
• God shaped us before we were even an embryo and he made no mistake. Our complexes are a view of ourselves that needs to be confronted with what God says about us.
• Anger and the thoughts that trouble us are not to be hidden but brought before God, asking him to search our hearts.
• Jesus possesses these three attributes and has put them at our service all the way to the cross: God uses his knowledge, his presence and his power to love us.

Personal Application

1. When you think that God knows everything, is everywhere and can do everything, does it draw you closer to him or does it frighten you?
2. Is there a place, a situation or a sin where you feel far from God? What does verse 8 change for you?
3. Are you able to say verse 14 as your own words? Which complexes do you need to confront with what God says about you?
4. What anger, what bewilderment or what doubt are you still refusing to bring before Jesus in your prayers?
5. With whom can you live this vulnerability in a setting of trust: a small group, two or three people?

Verses Cited

• Psalm 139
• Psalm 139:1-6
• Psalm 139:7-12
• Psalm 139:13-18
• Psalm 139:19-24
• Matthew 5:44
• Matthew 9:4
• Matthew 14:13-21
• Mark 4:39
• Matthew 28:20

Frequently Asked Questions

What do omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent mean in Psalm 139?

Omniscient: God knows everything. Omnipresent: God is everywhere. Omnipotent: God can do everything. Ivan Bannwarth shows that David does not contemplate these attributes in the abstract: he marvels that God knows him intimately, that he never leaves him and that he shaped him as he is.

Why does David talk about hatred at the end of Psalm 139?

In verses 19 to 22, David is shaken by men who use God's name to justify their crimes. He is king and could act, but he chooses first to bring his bewilderment and his anger before God, and then to ask him to search his heart to see whether he himself is on a wrong path.

How do you pray when you can't name what you feel?

The preacher reminds us that Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. You can simply say to him: "Lord, I don't know if I feel anger, sadness, loneliness or weariness, but I hand it over to you." There is no shame in talking to God about your doubts or in trying to pray.