6.2 Psalm 139 and God's Knowledge

Let me skip a little forward in my Science and Scripture writing to the next topic: Quantum Indeterminancy and Free Will. My last post of these breadcrumbs was here. Earlier ones are here.
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6.2 Psalm 139 and God's Knowledge
Psalm 139 is the locus classicus or "classic text" on God's omniscience and omnipresence in Scripture. Here are some of the key verses to that end:

"You know my thought from afar... Before a word is on my tongue, behold Yahweh, you know it all." (139:2, 4)

"To what place might I go away from your spirit? And to where from your face might I flee?" (139:7)

"You formed my inside parts; you wove me in the womb of my mother."  (139:13)

These are perhaps the closest statements in Scripture to a claim that God knows everything. Certainly, if God knows what I am about to say before I say it -- and God knows my very thoughts -- then God's knowledge is thoroughgoing. It would seem that God is everywhere and knows everything there is to know. 

It is worth noting, however, that the Bible is not very explicit about God's omniscience. It would be nice to have a crisp statement. Psalm 147:5 says that God's understanding is without measure, which indicates that God's comprehension of the world is extremely vast indeed. In John 21:17, Peter indicates that Jesus "knows all things" in relation to his heart. 1 John 3:20 says the same thing about God the Father in relation to our hearts. If we take the words out of their context, we might take them to indicate God's omniscience.

It is a reminder that there is at least a distinction between some of the core beliefs we have as Christians and the actual words of Scripture. Belief in the omniscience of God is eminently reasonable and, as we have argued, is a natural inference of ex nihilo creation. But to some degree, it represents a systematization of biblical thinking more than an explicit teaching of Scripture. Perhaps it is the assumption of the New Testament and the later parts of the Old Testament. It is not clear that it was the assumption of the earliest parts of the Old Testament.

2. Psalm 139 is also the clearest biblical statement of the belief that God is everywhere present. In fact, perhaps the psalm implies that God knows everything precisely because he is everywhere present to observe everything. Does he gain knowledge in the psalm in part from what he sees as he observes everything everywhere?

If the psalmist could ascend up to the skies, God would be there (139:8). [1] If he would go to the farthest reaches of the earth, God would be there (139:9). What about the darkness, might I hide myself in the night? No, God sees in the darkness as if it were light (139:11-12). God is everywhere present.

God is also in our past, present, and future. God knew the psalmist when he was still in the womb. The psalm pictures God knitting the psalmist together as his body was being formed in the womb. We can also assume that God was fully aware of those who never made it out of the womb as well. The point is God's thorough knowledge of everything and his presence everywhere.

3. Why does the psalmist say all these things? We begin to get a sense of the purpose of the psalm when we get to verse 19. God knows everything. God is everywhere present. God knows the heart of the psalmist thoroughly. Will not God destroy the wicked? The evil pursue the psalmist, desiring his blood. 

These wicked individuals are not only after the psalmist, but they have rebelled against God himself (139:20). They have risen against God and set themselves against him. These verses suggest that Psalm 139 is ultimately a psalm of individual lament, calling on God to take action against his enemies, who are more significantly God's enemies.

The bottom line is that God knows that the intentions of the psalmist are pure. "Search me, O God. Know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts" (139:23). The psalmist is convinced that God will see that he is God's faithful and fully committed servant. Therefore, his enemies are in the wrong. They are God's enemies too and should be stopped.

4. We are blessed to have this psalm in Scripture, occasioned as it were by the struggles of a leader -- perhaps King David -- in a narrow window of history. Its message reaches far beyond that moment. This relatively short text more than any other place in Scripture proclaims that God is everywhere present and it gives us the most vivid picture of God's thoroughgoing knowledge of everything that goes on in the world. This knowledge extends to our very thoughts.

It does not, however, picture God determining our thoughts or actions. It portrays God as the weaver of the psalmist's inward parts in the womb but it does not extend that level of determinism to the psalmist's daily life. That is to say, it does not picture God dictating everything that happens. For the most part, God's knowledge in the psalm seems a matter of observation and participation rather than orchestration. The psalmist treats the future of his enemies as a matter as yet undecided. Indeed, the psalm aims to influence God's decisions toward them.

[1] A quick reminder that the headings of the psalms were added later. This is a "psalm of David" by heading, but this is later tradition and is not certain. Additionally, the New Testament never quotes the psalm. We cannot confirm that the psalmist was a "he," but it is by far the most likely option.