The God Who Knows

What we know, God knows, and much more

By Don Ruhl

The God of the Bible is the God who knows. What we know, He knows, and so much more. He knows us and all things fully, but what we know of Him and of all other things does not begin to compare to His knowledge. Yet, we can know Him.

Psalm 139.1–6 The Wonders of God’s Knowledge 

David knew that God knew him, “O LORD, You have searched me and known me” (Psa 139.1–6).

The Lord searches and knows us as we cannot even do to ourselves. He knows us from the trivial to the deep. He knows something as seemingly trivial as our sitting down and our rising up as though He were right there with us.

He knows things as deep as our thoughts, even if He is not seemingly close at hand.

He can be far away and know what we are thinking. He can comprehend our path and our lying down, truly, He is acquainted with all our ways, including our words. He does not merely know every word we speak, but He knows every word we shall speak, that is, before any word is even on our tongues, He already knows what we will say.

He has hedged us behind and before, and has laid His hand upon us, that is, He has determined the beginning and ending of all parts of our lives and of life itself.

When David contemplated such knowledge, he concluded, that it was too wonderful for him, meaning that attaining such ability to know was out of his reach. As humans we can certainly think many wonderful things, but to compare our ability to know with God’s ability to know is like comparing a worm’s ability to know with our ability to know.

You just cannot compare the thinking of a worm with the thinking of a human, if a worm even thinks! (See Isa 55.8, 9; 1Co 1.25.)

While David spoke these things of himself, you know that Psalm 139 is in the Bible that we might apply it to ourselves. What David said of God’s knowledge of David can be said of God’s knowledge of all humans.

Knowing one person so intimately astounds us, but God has such knowledge of not merely one person, but of every person and of everything in creation. He even knows when a bird dies (Matt 10.29–31). He knows all the stars by name (Psa 147.4, 5; Isa 40.26).

Like Paul we burst out with this wonderful praise of God, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Rom 11.33–36).

Not just the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God, but the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

Just how deep are those riches? Can we search out completely His judgments and ways? No, they are both unsearchable. They are past the ability of humanity to discover and calculate.

What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of His knowledge of each person, including everyone’s heart, soul, spirit, and body, of all world affairs, of all animals, of the connections between all living things and the list never ends.

He knows us not to condemn us, although that can happen, but He wants to help us, and He wants us to know Him.

Do you know Him? You cannot know Him as He knows you, but you can know Him well, because He shows Himself in the word of God, known as the Bible, and in the Word, known as Jesus Christ.

Know both forms of the Word and you shall know God. Do you want to know God? Why not know Him who knows you so intimately? Submit to His Son as your Teacher, but that requires dying to self and living for your New Teacher.