The Top Shelf: The All-Knowing God — Monday
Psalm 139:1-4
O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. (NLT)
Today is President’s Day. Pop quiz: How many of our 46 U.S. presidents can you name?
Maybe you can barely crack double-digits, or maybe you effortlessly named them all. Maybe even in order! (I’m sure you love Jeopardy, too!)
Let’s make it a little harder: Can you name all their birthdays? Each of their hometowns? Their eye colors? What about shoe sizes? Their hopes and fears? Their inner thoughts?
Of course not! Astonishingly enough, God knows all those things! And not just for 46 presidents, but for every person who has ever lived… including you! We can emphatically agree with the Psalmist, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!” (Psalm 139:6).
Consider what today’s verse is claiming: God learns nothing because He knows everything.
His knowledge is categorically in a different stratosphere.
His understanding is unlimited and incomprehensible.
The fancy biblical term for this is “omniscience.”
It’s one of those mysteries of God we will never quite figure out. But for God to be sovereign over His creation of all things, He has to be all-knowing. After all, we’re dealing with a Being who is totally unlike any other in the universe.
So this week, we’ll look at the limitlessness of God’s knowledge. I’ll do my very best to guide us, but in the end… well, I’m not God. And even if I was, you would still walk away with questions, just like Moses did. And the poet Job. And the prophet Habakkuk. And the disciple Peter. And pretty much every single person who has ever had an encounter with the God who is… totally Other.
It’s not like you’ll finish reading these devotionals, lean back in your chair, and think to yourself, “I got this… all my questions about God have been explained!” That’s not how it works.
Instead, the invitation this week is to meditate on the limitlessness of God’s knowledge and how that should affect our devotion to Him.
Monday’s Reflection
In theory, most of us “believe” that God is omniscient, but we have likely not meditated on that character quality. Read Psalm 139 and meditate on its truths. This passage is not primarily about doing something, but rather about thinking rightly about God.
