Psalm 139: Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent
Introduction: For those of you who don’t know, I’m an English teacher, and I love, love, love
breaking words down into their parts. The root omni means all; sci means know; potent means
power, and present means existing in a place. David’s “Psalm 139” exalts God as omniscient
(all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnipresent (all present/everywhere). He is our
omni, indeed, our all in all!
I. Verses 1-4: “1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and
when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying
down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it
completely.”
A. It is one thing to accept that God is omniscient, all-knowing, but have you applied that in
as personal a way as David has here? Take note of the 1st person pronouns that I
underlined in the first four verses of the psalm. Our God is intimately interested in the
most private parts of our lives.
B. David had an intimate encounter with God’s omniscience after committing adultery with
Bathsheba, which is recorded in 2 Samuel 12: Nathan, God’s mouthpiece, comes to
David and tells him the story of two men; one is incredibly rich with an abundance of
cattle and sheep, and the other is so poor that he only owns one little ewe lamb that he has
grown to love like his own child. When a traveler visits the rich man’s house, the rich
man steals the poor man’s beloved lamb, butchers it, and feeds it to the traveler. David is
horrified by Nathan’s story: “5 David burned with anger against the man and said to
Nathan, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for
that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.’ 7 Then Nathan
said to David, ‘You are the man!’” God knew that the rich man, David, had stolen the
poor man’s only beloved lamb (Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba). God knew David’s going out
and when he rose to that rooftop where he first saw Bathsheba. God knew when David’s
tongue sent the king’s command for Bathsheba to come to him, and God knew about
David’s lying down with her. Nathan goes on to point that David “did it in secret,” and
only an omniscient God knows our hidden sins (2 Samuel 12:12). Most importantly, God
had, indeed, searched David and knew him, because after being confronted by God’s
knowledge of his sin, David’s instant response is a repentant “‘I have sinned against
the Lord.’ Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.’”
C. Romans 5:8 sends us the same message as 2 Samuel: “God demonstrates his own love for
us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God loves us, even though he
knows every dirty little secret about us! His love is certainly not affected by our failures.
II. Verse 5 “You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.”
A. Not only is our God omniscient, He is also omnipotent, all-powerful. I can’t read this
verse without thinking about God’s people leaving Egypt’s slavery with God’s presence
going before them in the desert, in the form of a cloud by day and fire by night, leading
them 24 hours a day; then, when the armies of Egypt came up behind them, God
protected them: “Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army,
withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood
behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel” (Exodus 14:19-20).
Numbers 10:34 adds, “The cloud of the LORD was over them by day when they set out
from the camp.”
B. God goes before us in our journey of life, leading us if we’ll follow, and if the enemy
wants to launch a frontal assault, he has to make it through our omnipotent, all-powerful
leader first. If the enemy wants to launch an air raid or a sneaky rear attack, our mighty
warrior appears anywhere the enemy attacks. As you face this day, walk confidently
knowing that anything that comes at you can only do so if the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords has stepped aside in order to allow it to get to you. (Remember that Satan had to
ask God’s permission to go after Job.) And, if He allows it to come your way, He’ll equip
you with His powerful weapons to fight the battle in a manner that will give Him the
glory for the victory. With that knowledge, we can face each day fearlessly,
understanding “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved
us” (Romans 8:37).
III. Verses 6 and 17-18: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain…
17 How precious to me are your thoughts God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count
them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.” This
should be the humble response from anyone who hears God’s Word. It also reminds me of Isaiah
55’s declaration from God: “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”
IV. Verses 7-12: “7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If
I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on
the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide
me, your right hand will hold me fast.11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light
become night around me,’ 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like
the day, for darkness is as light to you.”
A. David previously spoke of God’s omniscience and His omnipotence, and here in verses
7-12, he points to God’s omnipresence. As mentioned earlier, David learned in the school
of hard knocks that he couldn’t go anywhere where omnipresent God would not see what
he did.
B. Jonah also learned this lesson the hard way; God had a specific plan for Jonah to preach
to the Ninevites, but Jonah couldn’t think of anything worse, so he attempted to flee from
God’s presence. He ran as far in the opposite direction as he could fathom, only to be put
back on God’s track in the strangest of manners. No doubt Jonah thought his life was
over when he was swallowed by a giant fish, but during those three desperate days in its
belly, that toughest-of- all-tests became a one-way ticket to Nineveh…right where God
meant for Jonah to be.
C. Folks, you may believe you’re too far gone for God to ever find you, but rest assured, you
have never once been out of his sight. There is nowhere you can run that He will not
already be there…waiting.
V. Verses 13-16: “13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s
womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret
place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed
body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”
A. Perhaps the most awe-inspiring thoughts related to God’s omniscience, omnipotence, and
omnipresence are pointed out by David here in these human creation verses. His creative
power knit us together in our mothers’ wombs, He knew us intimately as He created our
inmost being, He saw us before he formed our bodies, and if all of that isn’t mindblowing enough, He already had our histories recorded before any one of them started in
our space-time continuum.
B. Say the following right now: I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE…and
allow yourself a few minutes to marvel at all that He is and all that He has done. We’re
not supposed to wrap our miniscule minds around it all…we’re to remain in wide-eyed
wonder!
VI. Verses 19-22: “19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are
bloodthirsty! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I
not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? 22 I have
nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.” This may seem harsh at first, but note
David’s motive: God describes David as “a man after my own heart,” so David simply hated
those who hated his beloved God (Acts 13:22 and 1 Samuel 13:14). It was God’s name they were
misusing, not David’s. He describes these enemies as people who “are in rebellion against you,”
and therefore, David counts them as his own enemies because they have made themselves God’s
enemies.
VII. Verses 23-24 need no commentary, and they serve as the perfect prayer to begin each day
the Lord allows us to wake up:
“Search me,
God,
and know my heart;
test me
and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way
everlasting.”
Amen and Amen