Known by God

Psalm 139 begins with the intriguing reality that God knows us. “O Lord, you have searched me 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 know it completely, O Lord.” (139:1-4) Verses  1-18 of Psalm 139 speak to God’s omniscience  at every turn – leading some to describe these words as the most detailed text in Scripture about omniscience and God.

At one level this is all very comforting. Later in the text the psalmist declares “even the darkness will not be dark to you.” (12) Those words are, in part, the answer to the great question posed in Psalm 139, “where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” ((7) Apparently there isn’t a place I can go that is beyond God’s reach. That’s a comforting reality.

But on another level, it could be a bit disturbing. Our tendency to compartmentalize life into public and private categories breaks down at every level when it comes to what God knows about us. What I ought to see as comforting, becomes daunting and intimidating when my life is focused on the compartment that I assume God doesn’t know about. The psalm ends with words that I remember from an old hymn in the old, blue Great Hymns of the Church that was the standard fare in my little home church. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thought. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (23,24) More than a request, these words seem to be saying that the psalmist will pass the test – the Lord will find nothing offensive in his heart.  Can I truly pray these words to the Lord with confidence? Or do the words seem to be a bit disturbing?

All of this is a part of why Paul’s words in Galatians 4:9 seem to leap off the page every time I read them. They are a part of a paragraph that begins back in chapter 3 with the reminder that “you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”   (3:26)   That is followed by “you are one in Christ Jesus” (3:28) because having clothed ourselves with Christ through baptism, the old gender, geography, and group distinctions disappear. But as is so often the case in Galatians, Paul quickly warns his readers of the danger that comes when somehow gender, geography, and group distinctions reenter the picture. “But now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles?” (4:9)

What is the difference in “knowing God” and “being known by God?” Could Paul possibly be thinking of the words of Psalm 139, reminding his readers that having become a part of God’s kingdom – “Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise” – God knows us in ways that are not true in the normal course of God’s omniscience? Should we think that because we are the sons and daughters of God, He pays more attention to our hearts? Did anyone every tell me that when I came to point in life where "I know God," it could mean that I am "known by God" in ways beyond the norm?

In some ways that really is comforting; but in other ways it can be disturbing. It gets me right back to the question asked earlier, “Can I truly pray these words to the Lord with confidence?” If I ask God to “search my heart” will He discover a public heart that people pat on the back and a private heart that would embarrass me?  

I learned in my first theology class that one of the big “o” words to describe God was that He is omniscient. We probably read words from Psalm 139 to show that the Bible teaches that to be true. What I don’t remember learning back then was that it could be possible that God knows my heart as a Christian in ways that go beyond “just knowing” – whatever that is.

“Known by God” is a daunting reality and, when recognized in the context of who God is, could be the impetus we all need to leave the compartmental approach to life behind in the name of “having this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)