“You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.” Psalm 139:3
“He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake.”
Those words could not be more creepy when you consider the image. You wake up from a deep sleep in the middle of the night to find a fat man in a red suit with a giant white beard and an insatiable love for cookies staring down at you while you sleep. Being known by that guy doesn’t sound freeing at all. The only thing it makes you want to do is move to a different state and sleep with one eye open. To make things worse, you’re only rewarded for being really good all the time, which, let’s just admit it, counts us all out. No one is good all the time, says the right things, is continually pouring out acts of service, and dying to themselves for the greater good of their brother.
God knew all that and he still made you. He didn’t have to watch your every move to decide how much he would love you. He knew all that before you were even made. In fact, he knew that before he created Adam, which makes the words of Psalm 139, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me,” such sweet, comforting truth.
He knew you, yet he still made you
In Psalm 139, David lays out what it really means to be known by God, and it’s not creepy at all. It’s actually staggering to think God knew your every move before you were made, yet he still chose to create you. The way you would use your mouth to pour out praise and then in the same sentence spew hatred against him—he knew that, yet he still formed you with his hand. All your attempts to exist in isolation, believing that life was possible on your own without community or even Jesus—he knew you would do that, yet he still breathed life into your lungs. God created us knowing we would forsake him and throw ourselves into the worship of idols. He knows all things and, even with that knowledge, continues to pursue us and search our hearts to expose sin and in kindness lead us to repentance.
Being searched out in this way is quite an overwhelming thought. It means that everything we do, think, or say is seen by God and impossible to keep concealed. As Christians there is not only a responsibility, but also a freedom that comes from walking in the light before our brothers and sisters and, more importantly, before Jesus.
Maybe it would be helpful to look at it from this perspective: Before time, God was there. Before Adam and Eve committed the original sin in the garden, God was a God of grace. Before any suffering, pain, or loss would come as a result of the fall, God was a God of comfort. God’s character did not evolve in response to our sin, He was, is, and always will be infinite in all his ways. What this means is that we were created by his grace. God knew full well that we would hate him and he would still redeem us through Jesus, opening our eyes to his unimaginable worth, thus producing in us a desire to worship him as our Lord.
He knows you, yet he still loves you
Since God knows everything about us, it’s impossible to hide. In fact, in comparison to the freedom that comes from being known by God, hiding seems like a terrible idea. Which is why David, after giving an incredibly detailed description of just how known we are, asks God to search his heart, inviting God to reveal his sin that he might walk in favor with him. And the God of grace answered.
The Psalms make up what is otherwise known as the prayer book of the Bible. A book intended not just for song lyrics or passages to quote and study, but also for the words that the Holy Spirit spoke for us to pray. As Christians, we must not be afraid to pray those same words of David in Psalm 139, boldly asking God “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”
Pastor Zach Bolen is the worship pastor at Mars Hill U-District and leads Citizens, one of our worship bands. Be sure to check out their new Christmas EP, Repeat the Sounding Joy, available from Mars Hill Music and iTunes.
