Psalm 139—God’s Omniscience (2)

God’s knowledge is one of His attributes; He is the omniscient God. He has never obtained His knowledge as a human being obtains knowledge. On the contrary, He knows everything in Himself. He knows everything from everlasting to everlasting. His knowledge is perfect; nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it.

That God would come to know something is as impossible as that He would forget something. His knowledge is changeless, without shadow of turning (James 1:17). Never will anyone be able to make known to Him anything that He does not know. Never shall an angel or man be able to be His counselor, for the All-sufficient One is independent in His knowledge, also.

The omniscient God, unsearchable in His glorious Being, is Understanding (Proverbs 8:14). “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33).

A communicable attribute

God’s knowledge belongs to His communicable attributes, which means that man has this attribute, also. However, it is in such a way that this attribute is divine in God and human in man, so there is only a slight, distant similarity. Compared to the indescribable glory of God’s knowledge, there is only an extremely faint hint of knowledge in man.

• The knowledge we have does not come from ourselves. It is not a knowledge that was in us when we were born. What did we know in the early beginning of our lives? Have we not over the years learned all that we know from others or through experience? Did it not often take us much effort to make that knowledge our own?

• Our knowledge is far from being perfect. On the contrary, it is very partial. Even if someone could speak all the languages of men and possess all the knowledge that can be found on earth, would he not have to say that there is much more he still does not know?

Between his knowledge and God’s knowledge there would only be the barest hint of equality.

• Our knowledge is changeable. We accumulate knowledge, and we forget. What remains at times when a person has grown old? Moreover, our knowledge is exceptionally limited. What do we know of the world outside our immediate surroundings? What do we know of our neighbor’s heart? Who can say what will happen tomorrow? We regularly err and make big mistakes due to ignorance or because we forgot something.

Much more importantly, who has an understanding of God and divine matters? By nature, our mind is darkened; we have lost all spiritual knowledge through our own fault.

Also, if grace reigns, what is the fruit when our ignorance is enlightened by God’s Spirit? Then the highness of the Lord is seen, and that is accompanied by great reverence as with David when he confessed, “O LORD, Thou hast searched me, and known me.” When I contemplate Thy knowledge of me, I cannot get beyond the fact that it is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I can by no means attain unto it.

• There is a knowledge that puffs up. Should you sometimes know a little more than another, do not exalt yourself because of it. It is hateful to men and especially an abomination to God. “What hast thou that thou didst not receive?” “And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know” (1 Corinthians 4:7; 8:2).

• There is also a knowledge that edifies, a knowledge that is received by Word and Spirit through which one comes to know God in His all-sufficiency, Christ in His preciousness, and himself in his damnable condition. Eternal wonder: “But if any man love God, the same is known of Him” (1 Corinthians 8:3).

Take a bullock (Judges 6:25)

Scripture is of God and full of God. That is why David’s confession shines like a golden thread throughout Scripture: “O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether” (Psalm 139:4b).

God said to Gideon, “Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old” (Judges 6:25). Those oxen are known to Me, and I also know that they are not yours but your father’s. Yet, take a bullock—not the first, third, or fifth bull, but the one of seven years old that is second in the stable.

Would God not know what animals a farmer has in his stable, barns, and pastures? Would He not know about his cows, horses, pigs, sheep, all his poultry, etc.? A righteous man regards the life of his beast; the great God knows the life of every beast. He knows their downsitting and uprising, compasses their path and their lying down, besets them behind and before.

The government wants every beast one owns to be registered. How much work that involves is known by everyone who must deal with it, but God knows perfectly well what all animals are like, how old they are, and where they are. Gideon, go to the stable where your father’s oxen are and take the second one, the one of seven years old!

Would God know those animals and not the owner? Does He put His hand on his cattle and not on him? O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether and rulest everything. Thou knowest everything, not as one who stands by idly but as one who determines and executes everything. Health and sickness are in Thy hand; prices are set by Thee; profit and loss are not by chance. That is what Thou doest, without whose will we cannot so much as move.

O LORD, such knowledge is wonderful. Let it also be too wonderful for me. Turn me unto Thee.

All the beasts—the cattle upon a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10&11)

The Lord knows both domestic cattle and wild animals. He says, “For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are Mine” (Psalm 50:10&11).

The number of animals on the earth is very large and countless to us. From the smallest to the largest, there are multitudes on the land, in the waters, and in the air, but God knows all the beasts, where they are, and what they do, and He sustains each one in particular. For ourselves, we hardly dwell on it; also in that respect we are without impressions. It is a wonder if things are different and if by faith something may in principle be understood and admired of the providence of God. Of this the confessional writings (Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 10—Ed.) say that the Lord by His almighty and everywhere present power, as it were by His hand, upholds and governs heaven and earth as well as all creatures. The greatest thing is if we may believe that this hand of God is the Father’s hand for my good.

(To be continued)

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