Knowledge and Perception

All right. As y'all know, the last post on this chapter (Psalm 139) was on the first verse, showing us how God knows us. Now it's time to look at the next part.

"You(the LORD) know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar." (Psalm 139:2, NIV)

Similarly to the last verse, this piece also talks about the Lord's knowledge of us. Let's take a look at some word meanings!

The word "know" is the exact same word as was in the first verse: "recognize, understand, observe, cares for".

Actually, every time the the word "know" is used in this particular chapter it is this same word. You'll want to keep this in mind because I probably won't put the definition for this word in the following posts. :)

Though the word "sit" does mean "sit" (I know-that was profound!), it also means "live" or "dwell".

From this we see that the LORD observes when we live, or where we dwell. Not only that, but if you think about it, recognizing when someone is sitting is rather detailed, wouldn't you say? Yet this is what the LORD cares about! He is so aware of what's going on in our lives that He knows when we sit. And in addition to that, He knows when we rise.

'Rise': "to get up, arise, stand, establish, restore".

Again, this shows how detailed God is about us and how involved He is in our lives! He is aware of when we sit and when we rise! Imagine that!

Now we come to an interesting part: 'perceive': "to understand, discern, realize, to care for, consider with full attention".

I thought that the last definition was neat. The Lord considers our thoughts, or intentions(word meaning), with His full attention! The God of the entire universe is not a distant God. No! He is a Being that penetrates us and knows us completely! How amazing!

Our last word for now is 'afar': "far, distant, future, beyond".

Another awesome thought! He knows our thoughts from the future, before we ourselves think them. Incredible!

I hope that you will remember and constantly be reminded of God's love and knowledge of you. Don't let the fact that He knows everything about you be scary! No, this fact shows just how personal God really is!


~Princess Gloria




NOTE: The word meanings from this post were taken from "The Strongest NIV Exhaustive Concordance" by Edward W. Goodrick and John R. Kohlenberger III