1 You have searched me, Lord,

and you know me.

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3 You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue

you, Lord, know it completely.

5 You hem me in behind and before,

and you lay your hand upon me.

6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them,

they would outnumber the grains of sand—

when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!

Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!

20 They speak of you with evil intent;

your adversaries misuse your name.

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,

and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?

22 I have nothing but hatred for them;

I count them my enemies.

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

This is a really beautiful psalm and it really reveals how much is God’s love for his people. God is so generous with his love and it’s so amazing to see his love for his people displayed in the psalm. If we really believed the statements in this psalm, it would truly transform our lives! 

God knows us. He searches for us wherever we are and even searches our hearts in our inner being. When we sit, walk, stand, or even think — our God knows it. This describes one of the most important characteristics of God: his omniscience or all knowingness. Our God knows everything about us, so intimately. Even before we speak a word, God knows us. That certainly can be scary to know that God knows our thoughts even before we think it, but is also really incredible to know in our deepest pain, sadness, loneliness, and trouble that God knows what we feel. People may not know what we feel, but God certainly does. And that really is wonderful! 

Verse 13 is one of the most beautiful verses, giving human beings purpose and a uniqueness in that even in a mother’s womb, it is God that forms our unformed body. What a wonderful God that creates us! Verse 16 says that all of our days and events in our were ordained by God. This certainly speaks of God’s control. Every event whether good or tragic were known by God and allowed by God. Nothing is outside of God’s control!

Verse 24 is David’s confession of anything in his heart that is offensive to God, that God may lead him to the correct path. That should be the prayer for all of us that we would all be lead to the true path.