“O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me…
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.”
Psalm 139:1-5, 16-18
To be fully known and fully loved. Isn’t this what we all want? To be known so thoroughly that nothing is hidden; no mistakes or sin or quirks will ever come to light and change someone’s view of us, because they already know it all and have chosen to love you without question, without wavering?
How amazing it is, then, that the God who owns all the universe loves us this completely. Psalm 139 beautifully captures how well our God knows us. And how intentional He is in caring for us. He searches us. He seeks out our path. He is actively paying attention to your life and your details. Which could strike fear into our hearts as we realize the darkness He must see, the failures that are so glaringly apparent, all the doubt and the questions and the guilt. But He comes to us with perfect love. A love so perfect, so complete, so unchanging that it drives out all our fear.
The Lord of glory saw you, knew you and all your details, when you were still in the womb. Each day you experience was written in His book before you had even lived one of them. So before you had a chance to prove to Him whether or not you were worth loving, worth giving His life for, worth choosing as one of His own, He chose to love you. He chose to save you. He chose to pursue you, surrounding you with faithfulness and steadfast love. He chose to be the One you could count on, the One who would never leave you and would keep you forever in grace.
Even now, He thinks of you. Not with disappointment, but with that perfect love. A love that encompasses all of you. You don’t need to worry about how much of you to reveal or fear that one day He’ll decide you just aren’t worth it. That day will never come. He knows it all. He knows more than even you do. Each day you awake, and you are still in His presence, His favor covering you as a shield.
“Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.”
Deuteronomy 10:14-15
In Pleasant Places 