The Personal God
Paul Stow
Psalm 139
Psalm 139 has been described as ‘one of the summits of Old Testament Theology’, which is a fitting description because as we journey through the Psalm, not only do we discover how God is the one who created us (v13 – 16), but also how God knows us intimately; who cares deeply for us; who accepts us for who we are; and who is the answer to the deepest needs and longing of every human heart (v1 – 10; v23 & 24).
What lies at the heart of the Psalm is how God is a personal God. How God knows each and every single one of us better than we know ourselves – better in fact than our husbands, wives, children, and closest friends – and how he loves us more passionately and more powerfully than we can ever possibly imagine.
Despite all our flaws, all our frailties, all our weaknesses, all our sin, God loves us with an eternal, unchanging, abundant, all consuming love. His love for us is absolute; it is unconditional; and it is very, very, personal.
Reflecting upon the personal love of God, one commentator summed it up this way. He wrote: ‘When I say how God’s love for his people is personal, I am saying that God sets his love on individuals – people with names, histories, and futures. God doesn’t just love generalities, like ‘mankind’ or ‘humankind’, but he loves real, individual people. God’s love is personal because God is a personal being. He is NOT the ‘impersonal force’ of Star Wars fame; He is NOT ‘Karma’; and neither is he the ‘ultimate reality’, or even the ‘ground of all being’. He is, quite simply, personal, and he relates to us in a personal; way – not merely as a part of creation, nor as members of a special group, but as persons’.
What is abundantly evident from this supreme Psalm, is how God’s knowledge and love of us is absolutely comprehensive in every way. He knows exactly where we are; He knows exactly what we are doing; and he knows exactly what is going on in our lives. There is, quite literally, no where you and I can go without God being there and seeing where we are – something which Jonah experienced as he tried to run away and hide from God.
But not only does God know where we are and what we are doing, but He also knows what we are thinking.
In verse 2, King David, the author of the Psalm writes ‘You perceive my thoughts from afar’, which reveals how there is not one single thought you and I think in our minds that God does not know about.
Regardless of whether our thoughts are wholesome or unwholesome, God knows what they are. And as verse 4 indicates, He even knows what we are going to say BEFORE we say it. David also wrote, ‘Even before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord’. There is absolutely nothing God does not know about us. He knows each and every single one of us intimately, and completely. And the reason God knows us so intimately and completely, is because as verses 13 & 14 demonstrate, He was the One who ‘created our inner -most being’; who ‘knitted us together in our mother’s womb’; who ‘fearfully and wonderfully made us’.
As another commentator wrote: – ‘God did not suddenly discover us when we turned 18; or when we got married; or when we were baptized; or even when we were born. Instead, God knew us long before these things – even before our physical Mothers and Fathers knew we existed. From the very beginning, God has been intimately involved in our lives, because He is the One who gave us life and who knitted us together in our Mothers’ wombs’.
But of course, another incredible teaching of scripture is how not only did God create us and give us life, but how He also CHOSE us to be His Sons and daughters, and how He chose us NOT before we were born, but before the world was born. (Ephesians 1 v 3 – 5). Even before the Earth in which you and I live was created by God, and even before Adam and Eve breathed their first breath and walked their first steps upon this Earth, God had already chosen us personally to be His Son and Daughter.
That’s how personal we are to him. And because we are His son’s and daughter’s which of course was realized the moment we confessed faith in His beloved Son and our Savior Jesus Christ, there is absolutely NOTHING you and I can do or say that will separate us from Him and His love for us. (Romans 8 v 35 – 39)
Other passages that reinforce how God’s love is personal and individual, is John Chapter 10 verses 1 – 5 and verses 27 – 29, which center upon the relationship Jesus as the Good Shepherd has with his sheep – His sheep of course being all true believers in Him.
In verses 1 – 5 Jesus said: “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who enters by the gate, is the shepherd of the sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. HE CALLS HIS OWN SHEEP BY NAME, AND HE LEADS THEM OUT’.
And in verses 27 – 29, Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I KNOW THEM, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand”. Jesus knows and loves us personally. He knows us by our personal name; he calls us by our personal name; he has saved us personally; we are personally secure in his hands; and as Philippians Chapter 4 v 3 and Revelation Chapter 3 v 5 reveal, God has entered our personal names into His heavenly Book of Life which will never be erased.
You and I are known by God completely and personally. There is absolutely NOTHING He doesn’t know about us – which leads me to ask the question, ‘What are the implications of God knowing us personally? What does God knowing us personally, mean for you and me in respect of our walk with Him?
Well, very quickly, there are 3 things it means for us, and the first is IT MEANS WE HAVE NO REASON TO HIDE FROM GOD. We have no reason to conceal ourselves from him. In verses 7 – 10 the Psalmist wrote: ‘Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the Heavens you are there; if I make my bed in the depths you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast’.
There is absolutely nothing you and I can say about ourselves or reveal about ourselves that will change His loving attitude towards us. And the reason He won’t change His loving attitude towards us is because He already knows everything there is to know about us.
Again, no matter what you and I do, say or think, his passionate, perfect, unchanging, and unconditional love will always be upon us. Which means we can be completely free, open, and honest with Him, which includes us freely, openly, and honestly expressing our sins, worries, fears, doubts, anxieties, hurts without fear of condemnation or rejection.
The second thing God’s personal knowledge of us means for us is OUR CIRCUMSTANCES ARE AN EXPRESSION OF GOD’S PERSONAL LOVE FOR US. Consider these words of the commentator: – ‘God loves us completely, all the time. It is impossible for him to relate to us in any other way but in love. Because His wrath and anger were poured out upon Christ in our place, He never acts towards us in wrath and anger, only in love. And since his love for us is personal and individual, the only conclusion we can make is that every circumstance, every situation, He allows into our lives, even circumstances and situations involving suffering, heartache, disappointment, must be an expression of His love for us’.
Now of course, we may not see it that way as we go through challenging circumstances and situations – especially if it involves suffering, pain, fear, and heartache. But if we BELIEVE our God IS a God of love who does indeed love us with a passionate, perfect, unchanging, unconditional love, then it cannot be anything else other than an expression of His love. Whilst we may not understand why we go through times of trial and tribulation, or why God allowed them, we can, I believe, take comfort from the knowledge that God’s love for us is behind them, that our loving God will be with us as we go through them, and that our loving God will bring us through them.
And the third thing God’s personal knowledge of us means for us, is it means MY LOVE AND YOUR LOVE FOR GOD MUST ALSO BE PERSONAL. In John Chapter 14 verses 9 – 13, Jesus stresses to His Disciples how His love for us is to be the model for our love both for him and one another. He said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this; Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends”.
Similar to Jesus’ all-inclusive love for us, my love and your love is to also be all-inclusive. It’s not enough to love people we are related to, or who we regard as our friends, or who we have a good relationship with. Instead we are to love ‘one another’ – which includes loving those who we may struggle with, or who we may have had a problem with, or who we may even consider ‘unlovable’. We can’t just love those who we CHOSE to love, but rather we are to seek to love those God places across our path, or brings into our lives, including those who may be challenging or difficult.
Because God loves us despite our sins, we in turn are to mirror His love in our relationship with those around us who are sinners just like us. Jesus said, “This is my command. Love one another as I have loved you”. If we truly love Jesus, then it is a command we must be willing to obey.
Psalm 139 is an incredible Psalm that leaves us in no doubt how our God is a God who loves and cares about us personally and unconditionally; who knows us personally by name; who is intimately involved in our personal lives; who knows our inner most personal thoughts, and who is leading and guiding us personally in the way of everlasting (v24) which, ultimately, will one day involve Him welcoming us personally into His glorious everlasting Kingdom. That is who God is. And it is to our loving, faithful, gracious, compassionate, merciful, forgiving, personal God that we give all the thanks, praise, worship, glory, and honor. AMEN.
Prayer
Loving Father, we thank you for David’s Psalm and for the incredible truth contained within of how you are a close, intimate, personal God who fearfully and wonderfully created us personally, who knows everything about us personally, and who unconditionally loves us personally. Because you know us so intimately and personally, you also know our personal struggles, worries, and fears, especially during these days of uncertainty, so in your abundant love, grace, mercy, and compassion, we ask Father that you will help us to personally trust in you and in the promise of your beloved Son and our personal redeemer Jesus who said, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”. AMEN.
Lyrics
And can it be
And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died he for me, who caused his pain?
for me, who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
‘Tis mystery all: the Immortal dies!
Who can explore his strange design?
In vain the first-born seraph tries
to sound the depths of love divine.
‘Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
let angel minds enquire no more.
He left his Father’s throne above –
so free, so infinite his grace –
emptied himself of all but love,
and bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free;
for, O my God, it found out me!
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
thine eye diffused a quickening ray –
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light,
my chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in him, is mine!
alive in him, my living head,
and clothed in righteousness divine,
bold I approach the eternal throne,
and claim the crown, through Christ, my own.
Faithful One
Faithful one, so unchanging
Ageless one, you’re my rock of peace
Lord of all I depend on you
I call out to you, again and again
I call out to you, again and again
You are my rock in times of trouble
You lift me up when I fall down
All through the storm
Your love is, the anchor
My hope is in You alone