“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.” Psalm 139:1-5 NIV
I wrote recently that I am comforted by knowing that God is everywhere and that I cannot hide from God. That He can see and knows what I am doing and thinking. This verse speaks about the idea of God knowing not only what I am going to say but what I am thinking a little more in depth. In my post “Nearby or far away”, I wrote about Jeremiah 23 and how God knows where we are and what we are thinking, saying and doing. I wrote that I take comfort in that because there are times when temptation feels too strong and knowing that God is everywhere encourages me to draw on Him for strength to resist the temptation.
Just as Jeremiah was writing about the mistaken belief of the false prophets, that they could hide from God, David is also writing about the idea of not being able to hide from God. David expresses to God that he knows that God is omniscient and omnipresent. He knows that God is aware of not only what he has said and done but what he is thinking even before he says it. This means that God knows David’s heart and God knows each one of our hearts, as believers.
As true believers, I pray that our hearts are wanting to please God and not sin, but we are human and know that we are not perfect. We are all going to make mistakes and going to sin. Thankfully we serve a God who knows our hearts and knows that we want to please Him. He knows what has happened, what is happening and what will happen, and He is choosing to love us anyway. That is amazing to me.
The last part of this passage is also comforting. David states that God hems us in from all directions as well as lays His hand on us. When we think of a hedge or bush, we think of a barrier between one thing and another. A bush or hedge at the end of a yard is a barrier between that yard and the next, for example. That bush or hedge can also serve as an object of protection, which is how David is referring to it in this passage. God hems us in, He protects us from all sides.
David stated that God lays His hand upon him and you can feel that David does not mean that God is doing this in a way of controlling David but in a way that means God is showing him grace. So God knows what we are thinking, before we do, He knows what we are going to say, before we do, He knows what we are going to do, before we do, but most importantly He knows our hearts. God then chooses to lay His hand upon us in acts of grace and protect us because we are His children and our hearts long to please Him.
Heavenly Father, I pray that as you continue to know all about each one of us, believer or not, that You continue to love us. Thank You for that, Lord. Thank You for knowing us intimately, knowing our hearts and while knowing all that we do, that You still want to give us grace and protect us. We are so underserving of Your grace, but You love us so much that You give us Your grace anyway. I am humbled by that, Lord. I pray that everyone who reads this today, has chosen You as their Lord and Savior or is led to choose You as their Lord and Savior. I pray all of this in Your Son’s most precious name, Jesus. Amen.