June 17, 2023: Psalm 139:1 - The LORD Knows Me

“O LORD, You have searched me and known me.” - Psalm 139:1

Psalm 139 was written by David, and some believe it to be written when he was made king of Israel (see: https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/parallel/paral18.cfm). This one statement that David wrote is so simple and yet deeply profound. First, David acknowledges who God is and refers to Him by His name, which in Hebrew is “YHWH” (See: https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/god-yhwh/difference-between-lord-Lord-and-LORD.htm, which states, “When the word “lord” is written in all upper-case letters (LORD), the Hebrew behind this word is the name of God, יהוה (YHWH).”) What else do we know about God’s name? Before God used Moses to lead His people, Israel, out of captivity in Egypt, God appeared to Moses in a flame of fire on the mountain of God, called Horeb or Sinai:

“Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:10)

“Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them,”The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is His name?” what shall I say to them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.” ‘ Moreover God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: “The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.” ’ ” (Exodus 3:13-14)

Moses did as God commanded him to do and went to Egypt with his brother Aaron. After meeting with the Pharaoh of Egypt, telling him what God had told Moses, to let God’s people go, Pharaoh not only did not free God’s people but tightened his grip further on them by causing them to make the same quota of bricks but without giving them straw. Moses reported this to God, and feeling deep sorrow for the people, for Moses himself was also an Israelite who had been saved as a baby in Egypt by Pharaoh’s daughter when Pharaoh had given the command to kill all male Israelite babies. Years later, while living in Egypt with his heritage undisclosed, and after seeing his people suffer at the hands of Pharaoh, Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew (Israelite). Fearing for his life, Moses fled Egypt and lived in Midian, which is where he was living at the time he was tending sheep for his father-in-law and had went to Horeb, the mountain of God.

Now, after returning from Pharaoh after he refused to free the Israelites, Moses asked God:

“Lord, why have You brought trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither have You delivered Your people at all.” (Exodus 5:22-23)

How many of us have felt as Moses did at that time? Here he was, faithful to God, doing as He commanded him, and yet the situation did not improve, it did not have the outcome we intended. Not only that, things were now worse. But God was not finished with the work He was doing through Moses for His people Israel:

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.’”

Next, God did something that He had not done before: He would make Himself known to His people by His name, not by His title but by His Divine Name, which allows a very personal connection between them:

“And God spoke to Moses and said to him: ‘I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them. I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, in which they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage and I have remembered My covenant. Therefore say to the children of Israel:

“I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and I will give it to you as a heritage; I am the LORD.” ‘ “ (Exodus 6:2-8)

And God did exactly as He promised. Because of Pharaoh’s hard heart against God, God had to send ten plagues or judgments upon him before he finally let God’s people go. Even when he did let them go, his heart was again turned against the Israelites and he and his army with many chariots and horses chased after them. At this point, God performed another miracle when the Israelites were boxed in with nowhere to go and He opened the Red Sea for all the Israelites to cross through it on dry land. When Pharaoh and his army went into the sea after them, God had Moses stretch out his hand and water of the sea had swallowed up Pharaoh and all his army and everything with them. God had made a promise to His people, and He kept it, exactly as He said He would. How many of us have experienced a time in our lives when God accomplished something miraculous in our own lives in a way that we never expected, at a time when we too felt boxed in, with nowhere to go?

Returning to today’s Scripture from Psalm 139, David knew God as LORD and called out to Him by His name (YHWH). Next, David said that God had searched him known him. Later in this psalm, David would acknowledge that it is God who created him, forming David in his mother’s womb, and knowing all of the days of David’s life before he even took his first breath. Can anyone know us better than the Divine One who created us? God knows absolutely every single thing about us, and God searches our heart. He knows if we truly love him with all our heart, He knows if we are seeking Him, as He sought us. David wrote of this to his son Solomon, whom God chose to build the first Jewish temple:

“As for you, my son Solomon, serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.” (1 Chronicles 28:9)

The book of Romans also tells us that God searches our hearts:

“Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:27)

The passage of Scripture from the book of Jeremiah contrasts the heart of a man whose trust is not in the LORD but in man with the one who trusts in the LORD. It also tells us about the condition of the heart:

“Thus says the LORD: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD, for he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is in the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.’ “ (Jeremiah 17:5-10)

Through the power of the great I AM, the LORD God, Moses did lead God’s people, Israel, out of Egypt, and during their journey to the Promised Land, God gave them the Ten Commandments. The first and the greatest of all commandments was reiterated by Jesus when one of the scribes asked Him what is the first commandment of all:

“Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment.’ “ (Mark 12:29-30)

God searches our heart and knows if we truly love Him and have put all our trust in Him; we cannot fool Him. Yes, we will have our times when we are anxious, when we are scared, when we feel boxed in, as the Israelites did at the Red Sea, with nowhere to go and the Egyptians in hot pursuit of them, when we wonder why certain things are happening to us, but let us never forget that He is God, YHWH, and we know Him by His name. There is nothing that is happening to us that He did not already know. He is still holy, He is still on the throne, and He is still in control. He knows the end from the beginning, and He will never leave us nor forsake us. When we go through those dark times in our lives, let us pray like David did later in this psalm:

“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 139:23-24)

When we are so scared and there is little or no light in our path, let God lead us, for He is our light, walking with us in our Red Sea moments, getting us through them, one trial at a time, leading us in the way everlasting. If we do this, every storm, every trial, every tragedy will be worth it in the end; all of these sorrows will be replaced with joy everlasting:

“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3)

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

“Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” (Jude 24-25) ✝️