God is Omniscient (Psalm 139)

When we say that God is omniscient, we mean that he knows everything. But what do we mean when we say that he knows everything? For example, does he know things from afar or does he know things because he is near, or both? We can know things in both ways. Or does he know some things because he brought them about and other things because he guesses correctly? After all, we can have both of those means as sources of our knowledge. Or does it mean that he has the capacity to know everything, but does not bother to consider some things? We know less than we can know and we don’t bother with many aspects of knowledge.

The problem with all those suggestions is that we are comparing God to ourselves whereas what we should be doing is realising that God is very different from us, indeed infinitely different. He knows things that we can never know, even if we combine all human knowledge together. So what does God know? Here are some features of his knowledge.

God knows God

Jesus said on one occasion that no one knows him but the Father, and no one knows the Father but the Son, and that the way for a creature to know the Father was through the revealing of him by the Son (Matt. 11:27). This means that Jesus could speak authoratively about God and do so with a competency that would be effective.

Paul reminded the Corinthians that the Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:9-12). The present tense of the verb indicates it is a constant activity. In the context, the Spirit does this in order to reveal God’s plans to his people. So we can expect the Spirit to speak about God in a way that is faithful and accurate.

God knows everything in his eternal plan 

What is in that plan? Everything that occurs. We do not understand how that can be the case. Since it is eternal, it means that he has always known what is in it. His plan includes everything that comes to pass. This means that no event is a surprise to him. It means that he can make accurate predictions about the future, the first of which he gave in the Garden of Eden when he said that One would come who would destroy the work of the devil. Since then, he has through prophets given many accurate predictions, but nothing of what he says about the future is a guess.

God knows the creation

Here are some examples. This is the case with the whole range of solar systems. At this moment, he knows everything that is happening on the earth, he knows everything that is happening on all the other planets in our solar system, and he knows all that is taking place throughout the entire cosmos. At this moment, he knows how many blades of grass there are, he knows the height and width of each blade, and he knows how long each will survive.

We can extend this to every kind of creature. How many species of animals are on the earth and how many species of sea creatures are there? We do not know, but God does. He knows when each animal was born and he is aware of when it dies. In the closing chapters of the Old Testament book of Job he is given a tour of the animal creation by the ultimate Guide, the Lord himself, and all Job can do is worship.

God knows how many people are on the earth at this moment and he knows how many people will be on it in five minutes time. He also knows how many were on it on the 20th of June 1862 and how many will be on it on the 21st of June 2040, and on any date or time we choose to mention. He knows how the birth and death rate affects the world’s population at every second of time. There is nothing about the population of earth that is hidden from him.

With regard to each individual in the human race, he knows how many hairs they have on their heads, he knows how much they eat on any given day, he knows when they were born and when they will die, he knows what jobs they will engage in, he knows what problems they will go through, he knows if they will marry, he knows what their children will do.

God knows all things actual – these are the details of his eternal plan. He also knows all things possible. In the prophecy of Isaiah, he says to Israel that if they had obeyed his commandments their peace would have been like a river and their righteousness as the waves of the sea. Imagine what life would have been like for them. That is all we can do. But God knows what it would have been like. He knows the blessings that we have missed out on because of our wrong decisions.

Jesus told the inhabitants of Jerusalem that often he would have gathered them as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings for protection. But they would not accept his invitation. Their choice denied them his protection and they had no idea what they had lost. But the Lord knew what they had missed out on and what they had received in judgement because of their refusal to trust in him.

God knows all things constantly. Sometimes, we have knowledge of events and we know that they are somewhere in the back of our minds. When we want to think about them, it can take a few seconds for us to recollect that knowledge. That use of knowledge never happens with God. Instead, he is constantly aware of all his knowledge.

God knows everything about the life of Jesus

We are told by Luke about the growth of Jesus as a teenager, that he grew in favour with God and man. The more that people saw of him, the more they esteemed him. Of course, their knowledge was based on external contemplation and interaction. But how did God appreciate the growth of Jesus? Obviously, God knew the external behaviour of Jesus. But he also fully knew the mind and affection and choices of Jesus. And the Lord was delighted with everything about the growth of Jesus. We get a vivid insight into this delight at the baptism of Jesus when God the Father declares from heaven that he is delighted with Jesus and the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove to rest upon Jesus. The Bible does not tell us much about the thirty silent years in which Jesus lived in Nazareth. But the omniscient God knew everything about it.

God knows everything about the cross

Another location and period in the life of Jesus that we know very little about is the cross. We are told some details of what occurred there, but we are looking on, as it were, from the outside. Calvary is the ultimate mystery. What all took place there in the experience of the Saviour when he was made sin? How strong was the penalty that he bore? What were his inner responses through those long hours as he endured the judgement of God against our sin? We cannot tell, although we do know that he responded perfectly throughout it all as he paid the penalty. What is the penalty for one sin? Only God knows. What is the penalty for all the sins of one person? Only God knows. What is the penalty for all the sins of all of God’s people? Only God knows. Only the omniscient God knows what it was like for the Son to be forsaken in his human nature on the cross when he was made a curse instead of his people.

God knows what happened at the ascension

We can imagine the scene as Jesus arrives in heaven. Gathered there would be the angelic host and the spirits of perfected saints as well as a few believers who have their bodies. God knew the thoughts of each angel as Jesus made his way to the divine throne. God knew the thoughts of each of the redeemed as they celebrated his arrival and saw the evidence that the work of salvation had been completed. The responses of those sinless creatures were all known to God. Moreover, the omniscient God knew what was the inner response of Jesus as he heard the invitation, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ The omniscient God knew at that moment what the enemy kingdom thought as they realised further evidence of their defeat by Jesus.

God knows what will happen in the new world

We can move ahead to a world that does not yet exist, the new heavens and new earth which Jesus will create at his second coming. It will be a new beginning, a beginning of an experience of ongoing blessing that will never end for the people of God. What will their experiences be like? We are given pictures of it in the Bible, such as being led by Jesus to the fountains of the waters of life. But what it will be like to drink those waters, who can say? God can, because he knows everything about the eternal state. Everything is already arranged, even although it has not been created yet. There will not be one second that will be empty of a divine blessing or one inch that will not be the location of divine abundance and glory. Our God knows all this, even although as yet it is all unknown to us.

God knows everything about us

This is our final thought today. All of us reveal something of ourselves to one another. It is a common saying that we use when we say that we know someone well. Yet in the ultimate sense we don’t know anyone fully. Husbands and wives don’t know everything about one another. They may see some defects that others don’t see or some good points that others don’t notice. But there is One who knows everything about us. God knows our past, present and future. God knows what you think of him. He knows each thought that you have. Your real desires are not hidden from him. He knows your evaluation of the gospel. He knows whether or not you believe in Jesus.

Our response

What can we do in response to the God who knows everything? Here are three? First, we can borrow the prayer of the psalmist and ask the Lord to search us and see if there is any wicked way in us, and lead us in the way everlasting (Psalm 139:18). Who better to search us than the omniscient God! We can ask him to search the depths of our hearts that we cannot penetrate.

Second, we can bring to him the things about life that we do not understand. Doing so will not mean that we will be given an answer. They may remain beyond our grasp, but we have given them to the One who does understand and know all things. Whenever we have a Why about life, we should place it into the hands of the omniscient God.

Third, we can rejoice in the existence of the omniscient God. We have competent leaders but since they don’t know everything they cannot deal with everything. We have competent scientists and doctors, but since they don’t know everything they cannot deal with everything. Computers can tell us a lot, but they cannot tell us the most important detail of our hearts, which is what do we think of the omniscient God. Do we want to worship him and rejoice in him? If I had a perfect mechanic to fix my car, I would be happy about that detail in life. We have a God who knows all about us, who knew we needed a Saviour, who provided such a Saviour in Jesus, who knows all our sins and can forgive them, who knows every inch of the walk to heaven, and who knows everything about the life to come. Surely we should rejoice in him.