The Eye Outside The Keyhole

Psalm 139:1-6

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

1O LORD, you have examined my heart

and know everything about me.

2You know when I sit down or stand up.

You know my every thought when far away.

3You chart the path ahead of me

and tell me where to stop and rest.

Every moment you know where I am.

4You know what I am going to say

even before I say it, LORD.

5You both precede and follow me.

You place your hand of blessing on my head.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too great for me to know!

When the Russian cosmonaut returned to earth from the world’s first trip into outer space, he said flippantly that he didn’t see God up there. Maybe it would have been better to ask if God saw him up there.

The Marquis de Lafayette, who fought with George Washington during the Revolutionary War, returned afterward to France and led a French army against Austria. Captured, he was confined to a small cell. In the door to the cell was a small hole. A soldier was placed at the hole day and night to watch him. When Lafayette looked out, all he could see was the soldier’s eye. It was dreadful, he said. There was no escape from that eye. It was always there, watching his every movement.

For some, it may be equally terrifying to know that God is all-seeing and all-knowing. But to the Christian it is full of comfort, and that’s the way David meant it when he wrote this psalm. It reminds us of the Twenty-third Psalm with the Shepherd going ahead and goodness and mercy following behind us.

A theologian would say that these verses tell us that God is omniscient, or all-knowing. But these verses show us more than that; they show us that God knows each of us. These verses are warmly personal. In every line is a first person pronoun (I, me, or my). If that Russian cosmonaut were looking for this kind of God, he might have seen him in outer space—or in the inner space of his own heart.

I need thy presence every passing hour;

What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?

Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?

Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

HENRY F. LYTE

Psalm at a Glance

This psalm is divided into four sections of six verses each, and each section focuses on a different attribute of God: 1-6: God’s omniscience (God is all-seeing and all-knowing) 7-12: God’s omnipresence (God is always present) 13-18: God’s omnipotence (God the all-powerful Creator) 19-24: God’s holiness (God is perfectly pure and righteous)

Notable Quotable

“An atheist does not find God for the same reason a thief does not find a policeman. He is not looking for him.”

WENDELL BAXTER