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I’m excited to be here today, and to share encouragement from God’s Word. I love the theme of your series: Great Outdoors. My wife and I have had the opportunity to do a little traveling and the Smoky Mountains is a special place for us. We first visited the Gatlinburg area on our honeymoon (more than 25 years ago). We spent a couple of days touring the city. But what we really enjoyed was getting away from it all, and enjoying the beauty of God’s creation. We took the scenic drive to Cades Cove, the valley that was home to many of the early settlers. Then we visited the viewing area at Clingman’s Dome, the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We walked to Laurel Falls and we started to hike the Chimney Top Trail.
According to the visitor's guide, there is a gorgeous view when you reach the summit. You can see for miles in every direction on a clear day. I wouldn’t know, because we never made it to the top. The trail was listed as a moderately difficult hike, a little over 4 miles round trip. We told ourselves, “we can do this.” The trouble is, we didn’t start the trail until later in the day and before we knew it, the sun was already beginning to set. A group of hikers passed us, on their way down. When we asked, “how much further,” they told us “you’er halfway there.” Only halfway? What do we do? Should we press on, and risk stumbling down the mountain in the dark, or do we turn back and try again another day? Considering we were just married, and didn’t want to hasten the part of our vows: “till death do us part,” we decided to head back down the mountain. I guess we’ll have to enjoy the scenic photographs of others.
I’m sure you can see for miles from that summit, but you can’t see everything. It doesn’t matter how tall the mountain or how clear the view, our earthly view will always be limited because we are finite creatures. That’s not only true for the vision of our eyes but also the understanding of our minds. We can make all kinds of amazing discoveries, and we can learn about the wonders of the earth, but there is always going to be a limit to our human comprehension. No one can see everything, except for the all-knowing, all-seeing God.
J.I. Packer writes,
Omniscient is a word that means “knowing everything.” Scripture declares that God’s eyes run everywhere. He searches all hearts and observes everyone’s ways—in other words, he knows everything about everything and [he knows] everybody all the time. .[i]
This reminds us that God’s vantage point is infinitely greater than ours. This was a source of comfort for the psalmist in our passage, in Psalm 139. Even though there may be questions we cannot answer, and problems we cannot solve, we can place our trust in the God who knows all things.
We find comfort in the God who knows us. He not only knows your name, and where you live, and what you’re up to in this world. But he is acquainted with all our ways. “When I sit down and when I rise up, you understand my thoughts from afar” (v.2). It can be difficult for us to keep track of our busy schedules. One moment you might be having lunch in the cafeteria and the next you are sprinting across the quad to get to class. But wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, God never loses sight of us.
In another passage we are told that he has even numbered the hairs on our head. This is how thorough his knowledge of us is. You’re not just a face in the crowd or a number on the page, but you are special to him. God takes a personal interest in our lives, and he knows us better than we know ourselves. It is extraordinary to consider how the God of the universe, who created solar systems and galaxies, would bother to care about someone so small and insignificant as me.
I felt special, as a student in college, because the president of the college knew me by name. He knew where I had grown up, and he knew many of the people in my family. I found out years early my uncle was the associate pastor at the church where he served. It made sense that he would know a lot about me. Scripture tells us that we are known and loved by God.
God knows about the circumstances we face. He is there on good days and bad, when you’re on top of the world and when the weight of the world is pressing down on us, in all of our joys and in all of our sorrows. You don’t have to wonder if he can understand what you’re going through. He knows and has compassion for us.
He knows our future. Verse 4 says, “Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold O Lord, you know it all.” He is never surprised or startled. There is nothing that catches him off guard. He sees the past, present, and future with equal clarity. We don’t even know things that are going to happen tomorrow, let alone a year from now. But God knows what is waiting for us around the corner.
That’s an encouraging thought. There are so many times we find ourselves worrying about the future, asking ourselves “what if?” “What if this happens?” “What if that happens?” There is always some potential problem lurking out there to cause us anxiety. But we can rest secure when we realize that God is holding our future in his hands. I may not know what tomorrow will bring but God knows.
God knows what he’s doing. He is wise and all his ways are perfect. That may not always be easy for us to accept. Sometimes life doesn't make sense to us. We might wonder why God chooses to answer our prayer in a different way than we had asked, and sometimes we find ourselves thinking that we know better. We need to remember that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts and his ways are higher than our ways. He sees the whole picture when we can only see a small part.
Isaiah 40:13-14 (NASB) asks
“Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has informed Him? 14 With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge And informed Him of the way of understanding?”
The answer, of course, is that God doesn’t need anyone to advise him. His understanding is perfect and his knowledge is infinite. We can place ourselves in his hands, even in the moments when we don’t understand.
I am constantly reminded that I don’t have all the answers. There are things that don’t make sense to me, problems I can’t figure out. But that’s okay, because God understands all things, and I can trust him with my life.
Some people are unsettled by the thought of God’s omniscience. He knows everything we’ve ever said or done. There are probably things in our past that we find embarrassing, things of which we are ashamed. We can’t hide any of that from God. He knows our hearts. But God doesn’t want us to run from him. He wants us to run to him, to experience his mercy and grace. He knows our fallen state and that is why he sent his Son to save us.
It’s not a matter of whether or not God knows us (he does!). It’s a question of whether or not we know him. He is a God who wants to be known, which is why he made this amazing creation, so we would seek him. Scripture tells us to “seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near… return to the Lord…for he will abundantly pardon (Is. 55:6)
The omniscience of God is a wonderful doctrine. You are never hidden from his sight. You aren’t just a number to him but he knows you by name. So the next time you find yourself standing at the peak of a mountain, like the Chimney Tops trail in the Smokies, looking out at the incredible view, remember that this is nothing compared to God’s perspective. He can see everything. That includes you and me. So let us worship the all-knowing God.
[i] Packer, J. I. (1993). Concise theology: a guide to historic Christian beliefs (p. 31). Tyndale House.