When you know that the Lord knows

You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. —Psalm 139:2 Jesus knew their thoughts. —Matthew 12:25

The Lord knows our thoughts.

You will respond to this in one of three ways: Believe it, ignore it, or scoff.

How you respond affects me. What I do with this affects you. We grace life, or corrupt it, according to how we regard this truth. To respond properly, therefore, is of great importance to the wellbeing of our culture. Let’s see why.

Scoffing sows arrogance

The Bible records instances of all three responses and current events confirm they play out as the Bible says. First, the scoffer.

Probably nothing describes as well as Psalm 10 the conviction that God is incapable. Other Psalms say the fool believes there is no God (Psalm 14:1, 53:1), but in this Psalm is one who believes there is a God, albeit feeble. God forgets, hides, doesn’t see, and holds no one to account (Psalm 10:11, 13). The scoffer has no thought about God and is sure God gives him no thought, either (10:4).

Consider the behavior that results.

• They oppress the poor and exalt the greedy (10:3);
• They prosper and boast they are immune to adversity (10:5, 6);
• They murder the innocent and spy on the helpless (10:8);
• They are proud and deceitful (10:2, 7).

Arrogance dominates the one who scoffs that God knows their doings, arrogance of the kind that Paul saw creeping into the church. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul admonished, “Some of you have become arrogant, as if I were not coming to you (1 Corinthians 4:18, NIV).

The psalmist and the apostle make the same observation: The one who believes God is aloof grooms an arrogance that spawns all sorts of harm.

To ignore is not bliss

Jesus demonstrated more than once that He perceived what those around Him were thinking, and more than once this didn’t even get their attention. They ignored it. This is the second response.

On one occasion friends brought a paralyzed man for Jesus to heal and He surprised them, saying, “Man, your sins are forgiven you” (Luke 5:20). The scribes and Pharisees murmured privately, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Luke tells us that Jesus perceived their thoughts, answered them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts?” and then healed the man (5:22-24).

The crowd marveled—presumably the scribes and Pharisees, too—but no one asked, “Who knows our thoughts but God alone?” Instead, they went their way and we next see them complaining about the company Jesus kept (5:27-30).

Another time, a Sabbath, scribes and Pharisees again were scrutinizing Jesus, hoping He would heal someone and give them a reason to accuse Him of lawbreaking. Again, says Luke, Jesus “knew their thoughts” and He obliged, restoring the right hand of a man in the service.

This time, no one marveled. Nor did anyone ask, “He knew we were watching; why did He do this?” Rather, they were enraged and persisted in their conspiracy.

These responses show me that even when it becomes clear Jesus knows our thoughts, many ignore this and just go about their business.

This reminds me of how Jesus and Peter said it would be. “In the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,” said Jesus (Matthew 24:38). Peter warned, “In the last days mockers will come, saying “What happened to the Messiah’s promise to return? Ever since our ancestors died, everything continues as it did from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:3-4).

It is said that ignorance is bliss, but the Apostle Paul warns that we ignore truth at our peril. “They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10, NIV).

The beauty of belief

Others, however, believe the Lord knows our thoughts. This is the third response, and I see in them a different way of life.

Whereas the scoffer swells with pride and arrogance, the believer is humbled. Whereas the one who ignores this truth goes on about their business, the one who believes goes about God’s business. Knowing that the Lord knows, we do all things as unto Him (Colossians 2:23).

I think of one of the first times Peter met Jesus. Peter, the fisherman, had been at his job all night when Jesus, the carpenter, told him to push out into the lake and fish again. “Master,” he protested, “we have worked hard all night and caught nothing” (Luke 5:5). Nonetheless, Peter fished, and “they caught so many fish that the nets began to tear” (5:6).

The carpenter knew more than the fisherman! And Peter responded, prostrate and confessing, “Leave me, Lord! I am a sinful man!”

Another comes to mind—the Samaritan woman who quickly learned that Jesus knew her seedy life, although they had never met. “You have had five husbands,” Jesus said, “and the man you have now is not your husband.” “Sir,” she blurted, “I see that you are a prophet!”

Her next act astounds me. She raced into town, calling to others, “Come, see a man who told me everything I’ve ever done!” (John 4:18, 29).

Like this woman who had skulked just moments before to the well to avoid her prying neighbors, I grew up keeping to myself, convinced no one who knew me would like me. The thought of someone knowing “everything I’ve ever done” is frightening, yet the truth that Jesus knew this woman’s life tore her fear away.

The truth freed her to face those around her. The One who knew her would not shame her; the Lord does not humiliate.

So I see that the ones who believe the Lord knows them are so much different. The Lord sent the woman and the fisherman to live in new ways. The woman turned her town upside down and Peter, with other believers, “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6).

A truth to turn our world around

Our world needs to be turned on its head. Who will do it, if not those who know the Lord knows our thoughts and ways? Current events convince me we are under the spell of scoffers and those who ignore God altogether.

• The Psalmist saw the oppression of their ways. The rage of Black Lives Matter and the clamor of Diversity and Inclusion testify to our own oppression.
• The Psalmist saw the murder of the innocent. Every night our news reports shootings in the streets and mass shootings in public spaces. Every day unborn children die in abortion clinics.
• The Psalmist saw pride and deceit. Our lawmakers and judges mock marriage and gender as the Creator established them and corporations, celebrities and even churches are proud to embrace PRIDE.

Indeed, our generation believes the Lord neither knows nor cares. The arrogance is smothering.

May the Lord convict us once again that He knows. May He raise up those who not only believe this, but who also live by the transforming truth of the Gospel and make us salt in these unsavory times (Matthew 5:13).