Thanksgiving for God’s Knowledge, Power and Presence

“O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thoughts afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high. I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?...For you have formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well…Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139: 1-7; 13-14; 23-24. NKJV) [Read Psalm 139]

Psalm 139 needs to be read in its entirety. It praises and celebrates God’s omniscience (having all knowledge), omnipotence (being all-powerful) and omnipresence (present everywhere always). When the psalmist (believed to be David) considered God, he was overwhelmed with who He is, what He knows, how powerful He is. God is ever with him, even before he was conceived in the womb. I pray that you will read the whole psalm and rejoice with the psalmist in Who God is and how He relates to each individual. To think that the God of the Universe knows even me is “knowledge too wonderful for me!” (v. 6).

The psalmist considered himself, and how he is “fearfully and wonderfully made!” (v. 14). When we give attention to our body, mind and spirit, how each functions to make us who we are and what we do, we marvel, indeed! Take note of this scientific analysis of our being: “God has equipped the human body to function effectively in the world, giving us eyes with more than one hundred million receptors to enable us to enjoy the kaleidoscope of colors around us. God has given us ears with twenty-four thousand fibers that pick up the lilt of a robin’s song or the cry of a little baby. He has given us bodies that function by synchronizing the movements of five hundred muscles, two hundred bones, and seven miles of nerve fibers. God has given us a heart that pumps more than six hundred thousand gallons of blood through sixty thousand miles of veins every year. He has given us a brain that weighs less than three pounds but contains ten billion nerve cells connected in such a way as to make it possible for us to reason and think. We are, indeed, ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ ” (Brian L. Harbour, “God Is All Knowing.” Commentary. Uniform Adult Bible Study Series. Macon, GA: Smyth and Helwys. September-December, 2010. Lesson for November 28. p. 66.) When we consider this scientific summary of how the elements of our body are synchronized and work according to God’s pre-arranged and marvelous plan, we with the psalmist have to declare: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made!”

The all-knowing, ever-present, all-powerful God knows our actions and speech, even before we act and speak! He has preknowledge of our potential and what we can and should become. Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie in his wonderful book on the Psalms, Falling into Greatness (Minneapolis, MN: Grason, 1984, p. 202) sees this preknowledge of God concerning us as relating to the “converted wanter” within us. “The Lord has a purpose and plan for each of us, a personal, particularized destiny. He has a will for us which is unique and special, envisioned for no one else…He guides us in the direction we should go and is always before us to maximize each relationship and opportunity.” Each individual can examine the “wanting to do” and relate it to what God has planned for him/her. God’s seeking—and the individual’s seeking—will come together, synchronize, work to accomplish God’s plan and our potential. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalm 139 is a powerful affirmation of faith and of God’s knowledge, power and presence. Verses 13-16 are a strong anti-abortion passage. Someone has aptly stated that when God wants a job done in the world, he brings forth a little baby with the potential to fill that job and accomplish it in the future. God knows even me! “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it!” (v. 6). But thanks be to God, it is true, and worthy of my wonder and praise! In retrospect, many of us can examine steps in our lives where our “converted wanter” aligned with God’s purposes and marvelous were the results. For the future, let us rid ourselves of anxieties, turn them over to God, and move with Him to attain still the potential He intends for the rest of our earthly life, knowing that He leads “in the way everlasting.”

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Tuesday, November 30, 2010