What a blessing it is to have someone who really knows you and accepts you for who you are—and sometimes in spite of who you are. Isn’t that what we need most in our lives? We try to make a place for ourselves based on what we can do, how successful we are at doing it, what we look like, how we present ourselves. Often we feel we do not measure up to what others require for acceptance. We need to have someone accept us for who we are.

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know me when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar (v 1-2). Psalm 139 is a celebration that God himself is the one who knows us completely. David is reveling in the fact that God knows him. God knows him just as he is. God knows all of him. The Lord has searched out his heart. He knows all of his travel plans. He is with him on the journey. He knows all of his thoughts and all of his patterns. The Lord knows his routine and the exceptions. The Lord even knows what David is going to say before he says it.

Have you thought about God knowing you completely? God knows what you are thinking right now. God knows what you did last night. God knows what you are planning on doing today and he knows what you actually will do today. Sometimes that thought is a little scary, isn’t it? There are things we would like to keep hidden from people, things we have done or have happened to us. God knows it all already.

My grandpa had an old chest of drawers. It was in bad shape. My dad took it off Grandpa’s hands and had it restored. It is now beautiful enough to sit in the living room. In the drawers are tapes and papers and things, but of course no one looks in them.

Are we not like that chest of drawers? We get beat up and worn over the years, so we refinish the outside. We look good enough to sit in the living room where company comes. But inside there are tapes and papers, some of which we don’t want anyone to open up and see. We may not like what is inside and we don’t want people to see them because then they may not like us.

This psalm is telling us that God already knows everything in every drawer. The Lord does not have to open them. He is already in there and knows it all. He knows our dreams and hopes and he does not laugh. He knows our fears and sins and does not reject us. He knows past and even our future and he loves us.

We need to be known and accepted. God has done that in Christ. Jesus did not come because we deserved it. Jesus did not die for us because we were beautiful and lovely. He did not rise again because we were able to polish up the outside of the chest of drawers. He loves us because he loves us. And he knows us.

God knows you, just as you are. Where do you have to go to find that sort of acceptance? In the psalm we are reminded that there is no where you can go to get away from God’s presence. Everywhere you are, everywhere you could go, God is there.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence (v7)? David does not want to get away from God. He is marveling that there is no way he can be separated from God. If I go up to the heavens, you are there. That is obvious. If I make my bed in the depths (that is the grave), you are there. What a hope that is. Not even death can separate us from the presence of God. What a comfort that is as we grieve the loss of our loved ones. And as we grieve with those who have lost loved ones. God is there with us in grief and even in death.

Do you know God’s presence? Do you know his affirming love? This psalm is the testimony of one who was in covenant relationship with God. It is the testimony of God’s people. If you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you can know this presence and powerful love. If you don’t, seek him as your Lord and Savior. Receive his work and love for your self.

This psalm begins with the affirmation that the Lord has searched the psalmist and knows all about him. The psalmist really matters to the Lord. And the Lord cares for him and loves him. It ends with a request for the Lord to search him. Go ahead Lord. Keep on searching my heart. Know even the anxieties I have. Know the good along with the bad. And lead me the way you would have me go.

It almost sounds too simple. Trust in the Lord. Find your rest and affirmation in the Lord. Look to the Lord to be able to love. Stop struggling and let the Lord love through you. It is the key to having real unity within our own hearts. It is the key to having union with one another. Let go of other things and lean on the Lord and his love in Christ. He will lead you in the way everlasting.