Psalm 139—God’s Omniscience (6)

Why reason ye these things in your hearts? (Mark 2:8b)

The sick of the palsy was carried by four but saved by One. The Saviour knew that the burden of his sins weighed much heavier on him than the burden of his crippled legs. At His feet lay a man in spiritual distress. Everyone looked on the outward appearance; everyone thought that for that man physical healing was the most important. Jesus looked at his heart and understood his thought afar off, and He said to him, “Son, be of good cheer…” And then? Yes, then followed what no one expected but was an unspeakable joy for that man: “…thy sins be forgiven thee” (Matthew 9:2).

Did the scribes who stood by also rejoice? Were they moved by it because they were bowed under their burden of sin also? Did they take courage from His salvation? No, resentfully and full of enmity, they pondered within themselves, “Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mark 2:7).

Jesus immediately perceived in His spirit “that they so reasoned within themselves” (Mark 2:8b). Their inner deliberations were deeply hidden, but He understood them afar off and said to them, “Why reason ye these things in your hearts?” It was as if He wanted to say, “In Psalm 139, would David have spoken to anyone but Me when he confessed, ‘O LORD, Thou hast searched me, and known me’? I and the Father are one. I will also show you that ‘the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (He saith to the sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house’ (Mark 2:10&11).”

Everyone, also the Pharisees, saw that the sick of the palsy immediately was no longer one who was sick of the palsy—“he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all.” By performing a miracle which they could see, Jesus showed them the truth of the miracle of the forgiveness of sins which they could not see. By His omnipotence He proved His omniscience—two of His divine attributes shone with majesty in His words and deeds. Yet who of them said, “Thou art God, Thou art greater than our hearts, and Thou knowest all things”? Who fell at His feet, pleading, “Forgive our guilt also”?

Me… me…, my… my…

“The LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts” (1 Chronicles 28:9b). However, Achan looked around and looked around again, but did he look up…? Gehazi lived close to Elisha daily and had seen and heard the majesty of God in his master, but what did he believe of it? Therefore, he thought he could deceive Elisha, just as he had deceived Naaman, but the man of God said to him, “Went not mine heart with thee…?” (2 Kings 5:26b)—that is, “Has not the Lord acquainted me in the spirit, and showed me in a vision, whither thou wentest, what thou hast spoken and done and received, as if I myself had been there present in person, and had seen all with mine own eyes?” (Dutch marginal note 52). Have you, Gehazi, not considered this, not even thought about it? Levi and Zacchaeus had their own way of bookkeeping. That they were thieves before men did not bother them; that they were thieves before God did not occur to them.

Also, think of this…David did not speak of another, or in general. In the first six verses of Psalm 139 we each time read me and my—David talked about himself. Also, when he said Thou six times, he did not speak to a person or several people, but to his God: “O LORD, Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou…”

This is not how we speak of ourselves. A man can profess God’s omniscience, but by nature he does not experience it. Like Achan, he does not look up; like Gehazi, he does not think that God is not to be deceived; and like Levi and Zacchaeus, we sin as if there is no omniscient God. What is the cause of this? In the state of rectitude, Adam was adorned with God’s image—with true knowledge of God, righteousness, and holiness. In his soul shone bright and sparkling the light of the spiritual knowledge of God. For this child, to know and follow on to know his Father was life, communion, and salvation, but through the deep fall all that light is extinguished, and we are darkened in our understanding, hostile in heart, and full of filthy lusts. In the deepest sense, this is the appalling truth of our wicked existence: “God is not in all his thoughts” (Psalm 10:4b).

Restraining grace

It is a great privilege if a person is held back by the restraining grace of God’s Spirit. It is true that restraining grace is general grace, but it is nevertheless grace. Were it to be withheld, man would undoubtedly break loose into all kinds of unashamed wickedness. He would not only be able to commit it but would also certainly commit it. “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man”—of mankind before the flood—“was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). Also, in this day and age it is clear that common grace is being diminished. The Lord can do that with a person, with a family, with a nation, and—as in the last days (2 Timothy 3)—with humanity worldwide. When given over to self, hardening occurs. It is the worst judgment: being given over by God “to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient…” (Romans 1:28-32).

Ask for deep impressions of God’s omniscience, for the deep realization that the “heart that deviseth wicked imaginations” is hated by the Lord as much as the “feet that be swift in running to mischief” (Proverbs 6:16&18). It would keep you from breaking out into many sins. You would also seek to avoid all kinds of hypocrisy and fight against your secret sins.

Saving knowledge

First and foremost, however, our aim should be saving grace—being renewed after the image of God, having enlightened eyes of understanding, receiving true knowledge of the omniscient and righteous God, of our own heart and life, and of the Name that is compared to an ointment poured forth (Song of Solomon 1:3).

Saving grace terrifies and humbles, teaches to thirst for the most blessed God and to bow before the righteous Judge, works an ardent desire to live for Him, and makes one to beg for mercy like a beggar. Then Psalm 139 becomes true experientially: “Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off…O LORD Thou knowest it altogether.”

Then such a soul says that he must lay his hand upon his mouth. Wilt Thou cast me away—says he—I have deserved it, but may I nevertheless love Thee? My righteousnesses are as filthy rags but teach me to walk before Thee. I can only multiply guilt with guilt, and yet I desire to say to all sin, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” Oh, Lord, can the gulf still be removed? Is there yet a way? To miss Thee is more bitter to me than death. Then God will show that He sees in secret and knows about those tears and those pleas—the omniscient God who says, “Fury is not in Me.” Salvation is from God.

(To be continued)

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