This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon. This except comes from Chapter 7: All My Days Were Written: Psalm 139:16.

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In the previous post, we were introduced to Psalm 139:16: “Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.” Now, we turn our attention to God’s eternal attributes revealed in this verse.

God’s eternal attributes

Let’s see how David builds a case for God’s eternal attributes, in groups of six verses at a time.

You know all about me

LORD, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I stand up; you understand my thoughts from far away. You observe my travels and my rest; you are aware of all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know all about it, LORD. You have encircled me; you have placed your hand on me. This wondrous knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to reach it (Ps. 139:1-6).

David marvels that God knows everything about him and is always with David. The psalmist brings divine omniscience and omnipresence down to a deeply personal level. The Lord has searched and known “me.” He knows when “I” sit down and stand up. He understands “my” thoughts, observes “my” travels and “my” rest, and knows the words the psalmist speaks before they roll off “my” tongue. The Lord has encircled “me,” and placed his hand on “me.” This wondrous knowledge is beyond “me,” that is, beyond David’s comprehension. 

The psalmist praises Yahweh, understanding that the Lord has personal knowledge of him. In David’s day, idol worshipers often thought their gods were hostile or indifferent toward people. David knows the true God cares enough to search out and know each person. As David Guzik puts it, “It’s not just that God knows everything – He knows me. It’s not just that God is everywhere – He is everywhere with me. It’s not just that God created everything – He created me.”

Finally, David remarks that God has encircled him, or built a hedge around him. The normal sense of a hedge in Scripture is that of a protective barrier. God surrounds David with his divine presence so that nothing may approach this shepherd and king until it first passes through God’s permissive will.

Darkness and light are alike to you

Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I fly on the wings of the dawn and settle down on the western horizon, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night” — even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you (Ps. 139:7-12). 

Because God is all-knowing and always present, David asks rhetorically, “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” (v. 7). Even if David transcends the physical confines of earth, God is with him in heaven, or in sheol, the abode of the dead. 

East and west cannot limit the omnipresent Lord, nor can darkness hide his servant from the creator’s watchful eye. God is sovereign over earth and sky. In the same moment, he abides in heaven and the underworld; no place in the physical or unseen realms are off-limits to his knowledge, power, and presence. 

David is so certain of Yahweh’s constant companionship that not even death and the grave are able to separate him from God’s love – a comforting truth the apostle Paul confirms:

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39).

Your works are wondrous

For it was you who created my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise you because I have been remarkably and wondrously made. Your works are wondrous, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began. God, how precious your thoughts are to me; how vast their sum is! If I counted them, they would outnumber the grains of sand; when I wake up, I am still with you (Ps. 139:13-18).

Now, David personalizes the effects of God’s attributes. It is God who created David, who knit the psalmist in his mother’s womb. It is God’s eyes that saw the “formless” future king of Israel. The Hebrew word translated “formless” in verse 16 is golem, which refers to a shapeless mass or incomplete vessel and sometimes indicates an embryo or fetus. 

What David and others can’t see, God sees perfectly. Thomas Aquinas reportedly expressed the belief that our glorified bodies will feature transparent skin, through which our blood vessels, sinews, and internal organs are forever on display as a testimony to God’s creative genius. Surely, the Lord sees these parts of the body knitted together in the womb.

In this psalm, David worships God as creator of, and sovereign over, all. Yahweh not only spoke everything into existence, but he also continues to oversee the intricate details of every creature’s life. God knows all of David’s days – the defeat of Goliath and the murder of Uriah – as if they are written in a book. This truth is too breathtaking for David to grasp. 

Since the direct creation of Adam and Eve, God gave our first parents the charge to be fruitful and multiply – the honorable duty of procreation (Gen. 1:28). But Adam and Eve fell into sin before their first child was born. And now, like David, all who descend from the first man and woman are conceived in sin (Ps. 51:5). That means each of us possesses a sin nature, the innate tendency to live independently of God.

Even so, God still oversees the lives of all people. He witnesses their formation in the womb. He guides the natural processes of conception, gestation, birth, and post-natal life. He knows every detail of every life. And he knows all people better than they know themselves. 

At this point, we might ask: If every person is a special creation of God, through the secondary means of human parents, why does he allow so much evil to ravage the innocent? Why are so many unborn children aborted? Why do some emerge from their mothers’ wombs with deformities, addictions, or disabilities? Why do some die as children, or suffer at the hands of abusive parents? Why do some seem destined to self-destructive or psychotic behaviors? If God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere-present, why isn’t he doing a better job of knitting model citizens in the womb?

These are deep questions that call for careful answers. While an extensive pursuit is beyond the scope of this study, we might scratch the surface with a few simple observations. 

First, while God is sovereign over all, he does not rule according to tempestuous mood swings. He doesn’t create blind children because their parents made him mad (see John 9:1-5). Nor does he celebrate the neglect or abuse of children, whom he joyously blesses and tells us to emulate for their trust in him (Luke 18:15-17). 

Second, the Lord glorifies himself in every person, regardless of disabilities or other limitations. When Moses argues against God’s call to lead the Israelites, in part because the former prince of Egypt suffers from a speech impediment, the Lord replies, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say” (Exod. 4:11-12). 

Third, while God created Adam and Eve perfect, they willingly fell into sin, and humans have suffered the consequences of their rebellion ever since. Every deformity, disease, defilement, and death are the natural result of our original human father’s conscious decision to live on his terms rather than God’s, thus inviting the curse under which the entire creation groans (Rom. 8:22). 

Every human being is a natural-born sinner. Every person bears imperfections of some kind. And every one of us is born in bondage to sin, which manifests itself in countless ways in accordance with genetics, pre- and post-natal care, environment, nurturing, and the cumulative effect of countless individual choices. Simply put, we suffer because we sin, and we never sin in isolation; our sin radiates outward.

Fourth, God is neither the author of sin, nor the cause of sin in our lives (Jas. 1:13-15). Put another way, God does not commit or approve of sin. As the Westminster Confession states, God “neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.”

The Bible is clear that the entire creation initially was “very good indeed” (Gen. 1:31). It didn’t take long, however, for the serpent’s lie and Adam’s rebellion to plunge humanity under God’s wrath, and the ground under his curse (Gen. 3:14-19). As Henry Morris III writes, “The thrice-holy God (Isa. 6:3) takes no delight in wickedness (Ps. 5:4), does not tempt any man with evil (Jas. 1:13), and loves righteousness and hates wickedness (Ps. 45:7).”

Therefore, God does not cause evil. Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44), the source of deception (2 Cor. 11:3), and the master of disguise (2 Cor. 11:14). For his part, he awaits final judgment and banishment to hell, where he is tormented night and day forever (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 20:10). 

As for Adam, he’s the author of his own rebellion, which brought sin and death into the creation (Rom. 5:12). And for all people who reject the self-revelation of God in creation, conscience, the canon of Scripture, and the person and work of Christ, they stand before God one day and are held accountable for their sins. All those who cast their lots with Satan come to experience the same outer darkness prepared for him (Rev. 20:11-15). In contrast to human and angelic depravity, “God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him” (1 John 1:5). 

Fifth, we must acknowledge that God does utilize sinful human actions. By that, we don’t mean God commits sin or causes it. Nor do we mean he forces anyone to commit sin. Rather, God knows in advance the rebellious activities of fallen humanity, permits them, and directs them for his own good purposes. 

For example, he allows slavery and idolatry to oppress his chosen people in Egypt, yet he miraculously delivers them from bondage while defeating every false god that Pharaoh and his people worship. And he permits corrupt Jewish leaders, pagan Roman politicians, and spiritually blinded Israelites to nail the Son of God to the cross to accomplish our redemption. As Peter tells his fellow countrymen on the Day of Pentecost, “Though he [Jesus] was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him” (Acts 2:23).

Finally, we should joyously anticipate the day of Christ’s return, when he sets everything right. All people are resurrected and judged. Satan, evil spirits, and unrepentant wicked humans are repaid for their malevolence and cast away from the light and warmth of God’s banquet table, while the redeemed feast at the marriage supper of the Lamb. 

Every wrong is made right. Justice, grace, and mercy play their roles in final judgment. And then, those who have placed their trust in the creator and savior of the world – the Word who became flesh (John 1:14) – witness the creation of new heavens and a new earth (2 Pet. 3:10-13; Rev. 21 – 22). 

For now, we may rest assured that God’s attributes include more than omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. They also embrace justice, grace, holiness, truth, patience, wisdom, goodness, and much more. And because God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere-present, he holds time, space, energy, and matter in his hands. He knows every detail of every life, including every free choice people make. And he holds us accountable for how we invest the gifts he has placed in our care (Matt. 25:14-30; Luke 19:11-27).

In the child with cerebral palsy, God reveals his love through the tender care of parents, family, friends, and medical professionals. In the youngster who dies of leukemia, God grieves with the family over the wrongness of it all, and he promises to banish all illness one day. In the psychopath, God demonstrates the raw villainy of humanity, and he reminds us that something is terribly wrong with all of us. Through the genocidal dictator, the Lord casts a shadow of the ultimate usurper – the serpent – and reminds us that a place of punishment in the lake of fire has been prepared for him.

We’re not able to sort all the details of ubiquitous suffering, pain, rebellion, sorrow, grief, sickness, and death. We groan beneath the weight of sin for a variety of reasons – our own rebellion, the sin of others, the consequences of living in a fallen world, divine discipline, and other reasons known only to God. But we take comfort in knowing that one day, the Savior wipes every tear from our eyes and banishes sin and its stain to outer darkness (Rev. 21:4). 

Search me, God

God, if only you would kill the wicked — you bloodthirsty men, stay away from me — who invoke you deceitfully. Your enemies swear by you falsely. LORD, don’t I hate those who hate you, and detest those who rebel against you? I hate them with extreme hatred; I consider them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way (Ps. 139:19-24).

Finally, David introduces an imprecatory element to his prayer, beseeching God to “kill the wicked” (v. 19). As we learned in the previous chapter about imprecatory psalms like Psalm 69, David is zealous for God’s reputation more than his own. He cries out for the destruction of “bloodthirsty men,” those who invoke God deceitfully and swear falsely by his name. David hates the men and women who hate God, and he detests those who rebel against the Lord.

“I hate them with extreme hatred,” David pines. “I consider them my enemies” (v. 22).

David closes this psalm with a request that God examine his heart. He longs to be found innocent as he hates what God hates and loves what God loves. “[T]est me and know my concerns,” he writes, desiring the Lord to shine divine light even on the psalmist’s anxious thoughts. “See if there is any offensive way in me” (vv. 23-24). David wants assurance that his cries for punishment of the wicked are based on an embrace of holiness, not personal vendettas. 

Next: Whoever Remains in Zion: Isaiah 4:3