We have been doing a devotional study of Psalm 139 in recent visits. We’ve now come to the question: Are there any promises to claim in this portion of God’s Word? Though there are no direct promises made there are a couple of promises based on inference.
The Psalm opens: “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.” The inferred promise is that God knows me. He knows everything about me. Since He created me there is nothing hidden from Him. Based on this promise the psalmist closes this psalm with the prayer: “Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
The second inferred promise is that whatever He discovers in searching my heart and ways, He has a plan for me and is ready to lead me in this way throughout time and eternity. With His omniscience He knows that plan and how we will respond to it, and has written out what that looks like “before one of them (that is our responses, thoughts and actions) came to be” (verse 16).
To the psalmist these plans God had for him were precious beyond his ability to comprehend. All he could do is remind himself of them and humbly thank God and praise Him for His promised involvement in his life.
In the light of these inferred promises it would be wise every once in a while to do what the psalmist did in verse 18, “Were I to count them (that is, His knowledge of me and plans for me), they would outnumber the grains of sand.” Reflect on that, and humbly thank Him and worship Him.
