GROUP GUIDE: Psalm 139

One of our biggest fears, if we can be honest, is to be known. We fear if we are really known, we will be rejected by those who discover the real us. Therefore, we live our lives with filters that only allow certain parts of us to be known by others. Tim Keller said the following phrase, “To be fully loved, but not fully known, is comforting but superficial. And to be fully known, but not fully loved, is frightening.” Psalm 139 teaches us to be fully known and fully loved, is to know the love of God.

The first six verses of this psalm highlight what is referred to as “God´s omniscience”, which means that God knows everything. There is nothing that God doesn’t know. He knows everything that has happened, everything that is happening, and everything that will happen. Furthermore, God know what would have happened in every situation if something else would have happened! While man is always learning and obtaining new information, God has nothing new to learn.

David knew the truth of God’s omniscience yet what truly amazed David was that God knew him. God’s knowledge was not only a completely perfect knowledge of all things, it was also an intimately personal knowledge of him. In verse 3 David says that the LORD is intimately acquainted with all of his ways. This knowledge is relational knowledge. David understands that he is fully known by God. His sins are known, his tendencies are known, his ways are known, his fears, delights, thoughts, motives, etc. etc. are all known by God.David is fully known by God. But he also finds delight in the fact that he is not only fully known, but he is also fully loved.

In verse 5 David expresses how God takes all that He knows about David and uses that knowledge to enclose him and lay His hand upon him. What David understands is that God takes this full knowledge of David and uses that knowledge to lead David, protect David, provide for David and develop David. Therefore, David delights in the fact that God knows him so well and takes such a personal interest in him. David doesn’t recoil from God because God knows him so completely. Instead,+9 he delights in knowing that he is fully known by God. And so should we.

God’s knowledge is completely perfect, intimately personal, and lovingly protective in His relationship with His people. Our relationship with our God is a relationship where we are fully known and yet fully loved. Once we believe this truth and it becomes our delight, we can then:

• Stop playing, “He loves me, He loves me not.” What peace and assurance come to our souls when we discover that God not only knows us fully, but He also loves us fully.

• Stop looking for love and acceptance in people and places that it will never come from. God’s love satisfies the human heart in ways that no other love can.

• Start trying to love others as we have been loved by God.