God sees us before we are born

By Jim Killebrew

[February 10, 2015]  Psalm 139 is a revelation in today's society. When a person reads through the words given to us from the ancient King David of Israel, we are clearly taken with his words and the understanding he had through the leading of the Holy Spirit. King David seems to understand that the God of the universe knows each of us completely. He opens with the words, "O LORD, you have searched me and known me!" (Verse 1) In fact, God knows everything about each of us, even before we are born.

We read an amazing thing beginning in verse 13: "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when i was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 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 ther was none of them." (Psalm 139:13-16)

Psalm 139:16 says, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment laid out before a single day had passed.” Think about that, God knew us even before we were born.

This is one of those verses that causes a person to think. Of course, when it comes to God's ways it is always dangerous to begin thinking about it because we can never really know for sure since His ways are above our ways. However, when we read a verse like this one in Psalms it turns the mind to thinking about how powerful God really is, what His love means for us and how gracious He is when we place ourselves under His Will. Think about it though, God saw us even before we were born. He can see our conception, womb development (argument against abortion) and our day of birth. Not only that, He records each day of our life in His book. He knows how many years of days we live on this earth, even before we live a single day.

For me, hidden within this statement is the Grace and Will of God. In the final analysis, in the very end He can record the number of days we lived. But what about in between? That time when we were an infant and had an asthma attack and would have surely died except for a loving Mother or Dad who intervened with prayer that God answered with healing that resulted in extending our years of days. That time we wrapped our car around a tree and should have been taken. And would have except for the last breath used to call on the name of God to save us...another extension. The point is, how many times has the number of days recorded in that record that God keeps been extended because God willed it so because He answered a prayer prayed on our behalf?

Through the words of David the King, we learn that God knows us so completely there is no hiding from Him in any way. Our submission to Him brings freedom by knowing that there is nothing we have to fear because we have already been examined by Him; He already knows us better than we know ourselves. Yet, even with all that, we have the assurance as David tells us we are safe in God's hands when we place our faith in Him. We can pray, as David wrote, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! An see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" (Psalms 139:23-24)

Just a thought.

[By JIM KILLEBREW]