Psalm 139 was one of the earliest Psalms I’ve brought myself to cherish and meditate on. It was another Psalm I’ve read through today, as I was working out.
O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
The One who made us and created us with the capability of complex thinking is, Himself, a whole lot more complex; and as to His thinking, well, we’re reminded in Isaiah 55:8-9 that His thoughts and ways are ‘higher’ than our own thoughts and ways.
Might I propose that He was quite gracious in merely saying they were higher – The way I see it, this is our Creator speaking to us, His creation. As such, it’s not even a question of ‘how high’; No, God, as our Creator, is absolutely and therefore infinitely higher, and therefore, no matter how ‘high’ our own thoughts and ways may go, He will ALWAYS be higher.
And with this in mind, I could imagine the sheer state of humility the Psalmist was in saying that, in spite of God’s absolute superiority, He would go as far as to search us – and not only to seek us (As He sought Adam and Eve, even after they hid themselves in the first chapters of Genesis), but also to know us.
Who are we that our great Creator is so mindful of us (Psalm 8), that He knows when we sit down and when we rise up? Who are we that our God is always thinking about us (2 Peter 5:7), that He would care to discern our thoughts ‘from afar’ – that is, from a perspective where He sees everything?
You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
The One who is above all and sees all, the One whose thoughts are higher than ours – the One whose ways also are higher than ours, He not only discerns our thoughts, but He also searches out our paths; And I imagine He does an infinitely better job than the fictional Dr. Strange could in determining all possible points in a singular path.
He searches out our paths, and in so doing, is not only knowledgeable of all our ways, but acquainted with them – that is, He is familiar.
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
Yes, I think that should be of note – that God is not only knowledgeable of our thoughts and ways, but He cares for us to keep an eye on us, and a caring eye at that; Much so that He is familiar – not only with our lowly, finite thoughts and ways, but obviously our words, as well. It’s as if to say that He is aware of every conscious and unconscious action and reaction we make, at every given moment.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
So going through this, I didn’t have a clear idea immediately behind what it means to be hemmed in – Thank God for Biblehub. Other translations share the following words:
“You go before me and follow me”; “Thou hast beset me behind and before”; “You have hedged me behind and before”; “You have encircled me behind and in front”; “You have enclosed me behind and before”
I see it now as an overall picture of just how much our God is ‘familiar’ with us; or, just how much God cares for us – He sees our thoughts and our ways, He sees our words, as they are spoken behind us and before us; We are each of us who are in His care, surrounded by His presence this way, cared for this much.
And what’s more is that in spite of the many inconsistencies and conflicts He would definitely see from behind and before us, in all our unspoken communication and our spoken actions, He STILL would choose to lay His hand upon us, to bless us.
Indeed, how else can any of us respond, but in awe?
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
Sure, we have a glimpse of how our God cares for us through these words graciously shared to us from so many generations ago… But even here, as I assume we’re drawing assurance and confidence from His word, I would have to check myself by saying that my finite eyes will never see the full, infinite picture. Our goal in all this is not for us to know the heart of our God, more than it ought to inspire us and to drive us to have faith in Him – That is, to trust in Him, even if we know we cannot know everything there is to know about Him.
But are we to be merely brought to awe? Friends, the faith we have, the faith authored into us through Christ – it also has us hoping. Hebrews 11:1 reminds us that faith is not only the conviction of things not seen, but it is also the conviction of things HOPED for.
Long story short, we have a God who knows all there is to know about us, and loves us anyway. Our great and infinite Creator cares so much for us, His creation, that He is that mindful of us. And as such, we are not only brought to be amazed, but to draw literal hope for the future. This Truth that sets us free is apparently the same Truth that holds us together.
Glory to God in the highest.
Now it seems I’m going to be writing about Psalm 139 in length, and to see how it all comes together with Psalm 140, and even Psalm 141. Stay tuned.
Until the next post, God bless you.
JB's Personal Brain Defragmenter 
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