O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. (Psalm 139:1-6)

How well do you know your best friend? Or your spouse? Or your children? Even if you do have an excellent relationship with the person to whom you are the closest, there are still things you don't know about him or her. While you might know each other well enough to finish each other's sentences, you can't always be sure what words are about to come out of that person's mouth or what that person is thinking--especially when he or she isn't with you.

But our God does know us that well. He's like a mind-reader. He knows us without limits, as David the psalmist declares in these verses from Psalm 139. Because the LORD knows us completely, the LORD knows even the most minute details about us. He knows when we sit down, when we get out of bed in the morning, where we go and what we do. He knows our thoughts from afar, David tells us. Though we can't see the LORD and he may therefore seem far away, he knows the thoughts going through our minds and hearts and he knows the words which are about to form from those thoughts.

How does it feel to know that God knows your every thought and word even before those thoughts and words have crystallized in the mind and on the tongue?

For us sinners, that's a shameful, even terrifying, concept. If God knows what I'm about to think before I think it, he knows the evil that I'm planning in my heart. He knows if I'm going to think up a way to strike back at someone who hurt me. He knows if I'm going to think indecent thoughts about the lusty images I see on television. He knows that I think there are things I'd love to do more than spend with him in his word. He knows the words I'm about to hurl in anger at my spouse or behind the back of my coworker. God knows all of our thoughts and words before they come into being, and he's not pleased with all of them. Since those thoughts and words are so often laced with evil intent, the LORD as a just God cannot put up with them. Those hidden thoughts and secret words of which we ought to be ashamed will not remain hidden from him because he knows us without limit. And he knows how to give us the unending torment we deserve for such sins.

But for repentant sinners who struggle with sin and guilty consciences, the fact that God knows us so thoroughly is great news! He knows the agony in our hearts as we look back on the sins of our past with regret and remorse. He knows when we wish we had not disobeyed him and when we long for him to have mercy on us. He knows how we want nothing more than to be cleansed of our sins in the blood of Jesus Christ so that we can stand before the LORD and joyfully call him our God.

And what a joy it is to know that our God knows every other thought in our troubled hearts as well! He knows when I lie awake at night, frustrated over the mess that sins have made in my life. He knows my fears about the report I'm going to get from the doctor or about my job which is on the line. He knows how dim the future looks to me as I get older. Not one of my problems or concerns goes unnoticed to my heavenly Father, who knows how to respond to all of them in love and for my eternal good.

The God who reads our minds knew exactly how to deal with our greatest fear--the fear of spending eternity separated from him in hell. God knew what it would take in order to save us from that punishment. And he was willing to pay that price. He punished his Son Jesus for us and took his sinless life as the payment for our sins at the cross of Calvary. Our risen Lord Jesus is now ruling over all things and does everything for our good. In Christ we are holy and blameless before our maker. And now we rejoice to call ourselves children of a heavenly Father who knows everything about us and knows to help us in our troubles.