God's omniscience

Psalm 139-1-4 (NASB)

O LORD, You have searched me and known me.  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all.

Read these words carefully……..do you really believe them?  If so, do you really understand them?  Have you really thought them through?  For most readers, I’ll bet not.  Do you believe, do you understand and have you thought through what it means with all of the following?

·  For the Lord to search you?

·  For the Lord to know you?

·  Every time you sit down, the Lord knows it?

·  Every time you rise up, the Lord knows it?

·  That the Lord knows what you are thinking?

·  That the Lord scrutinizes where you go and when you stop?

·  That the Lord knows every detail….yes, every single detail….about everything you do?

·  That the Lord knows what you are going to say, even before you say it?

As you meditate on these questions and thoughts, it is no wonder that Paul wrote in Romans 11:33, “how unfathomable are Your ways”.  Really, the finite human mind, even the most intelligent human mind in the world, cannot comprehend what it really means for the Lord to be what is called omniscient.  To be omniscient is the capacity to know everything.  That’s what these words are saying; in fact, most of what Psalm 139, the entire Psalm is saying……God knows everything (and also is omnipotent and omnipresent).  He has unlimited, infinite knowledge.  Someone once said, “Did it ever occur to you that nothing occurs to God?” No human has this characteristic so no human can explain it. 

So, once again, faith is brought into the forefront.  Faith is what you must have in order to believe in the Word of God and trust that it is all true.  You cannot understand and explain omniscience, and no human being has it, so all you have left is either faith or no faith to believe that God has it.  And, if you believe He has it, then you must realize that all these characteristics of God’s omniscience apply to you personally.  The thought---without understanding it---that God knows everything you have done, are doing, and will do, even down to what you think and what you will say---does this not change your life’s perspective a little….or a lot?  Are you comforted by this, or, more likely, are you uncomfortable and intimidated by this thought?  Really, don’t you shrink a little figuratively as you think about God knowing everything about you and everything that is going to happen?

Isn’t it incredible that God knows everything and is everywhere yet most humans don’t include Him or don’t consider Him important in their lives?  People spend most of their time idolizing other gods (money, position, sports, TV, other addictions) and completely ignore the One who is all-knowing.  The One who can meet our needs the best and the most is the One we ignore.  Why is that the truth for most humans?  One possible explanation is that God is not small enough for the human mind to comprehend and so “ignorance is bliss”.  If the human mind cannot fathom the character of God, especially His omniscience, why even try?

How difficult is it for you to believe in the omniscience of God?  What must you do to gain such belief if you don’t already have it?  Or, is omniscience a concept that you cannot believe? How comfortable might you be to express and even try to explain your belief in God’s omniscience to others, especially those you know will doubt, even ridicule you?  How do you reconcile the omniscience of God with free will of man?  Ah, all these questions are not for the person unwilling to think and meditate about such deep thoughts.