Does God know our thoughts?
Few things unsettle people more than the idea that their inner life is on display. Scripture says plainly that it is — not only what we do and say, but what passes silently through the mind — and the commentators treat this both as the most searching truth about God and, for the believer, one of the most comforting.
Nothing Hidden
The question is not whether God will one day find out, but that He already has. One writer draws the weight of the verb: the psalmist does not say God is searching him now or will later.
J. N. DarbyEvery human being has been searched by Omniscience, whether he is conscious of it or not. This will be made clear "in the day when God will judge the secrets of men." The searching of "the thoughts and intents of the heart" by the word of God now is the means of bringing God's knowledge into application to our conscience before that day. And when this is the case, then we are conscious that our thoughts are understood from far away… He has "beset us behind and before." He can look backward, and He can look forward also. All our history is before Him, as if it had been written after we had run our course.
Understood Better Than We Understand Them
God's knowledge of a thought is not a bare recording of it. It goes further than our own grasp of what we think, and it covers everyone at once.
L. M. GrantThe psalmist felt himself searched out fully in the presence of God — such a searching that he himself had been unable to accomplish. Every movement was known by God, whether sitting or rising. He not only knows, but understands the thoughts passing through every mind. He understands them better than we do (v. 2). Of course, it is staggering to think that this is so in regard to the untold millions of people He has created!
Before The Word Is Spoken
His knowledge reaches back behind speech to the moment a thought begins, and behind the words to why we chose them.
An Outline of Sound WordsEvery detail of our lives is known to God; every movement of the body, and the thought of the mind and heart the moment it begins… Before the word that has been formed has left the tongue it is known to God. He knows it completely: the motive and spirit behind it, the purpose in saying it. Others may be deceived by how it sounds; we may deceive ourselves about why we said it, but He knows everything about it perfectly.
Thoughts Are Not Harmless
Many quietly assume that as long as an ugly thought stays unspoken, no damage is done. One writer answers that from the way the Lord dealt with people.
William J. HockingBut perhaps we have comforted ourselves with the idea that as long as the objectionable things we would not like others to hear stay as thoughts only, no great harm is done. But is not this argument a delusion? Scripture says "As he thinks in his heart, so is he." (Prov. 23:7) And how often is the Lord's knowledge of men's thoughts recorded! Would He have answered them if they did not matter because they were never spoken?
A Power Belonging To God Alone
When Jesus answered what men had only thought, commentators read it as evidence of who He is. Reading hearts is not a gift lent to a prophet.
The Bible TreasuryBut Jesus was present not only as the One to pardon iniquities and heal diseases (Ps. 103:3), but also as the One who searches the hearts, tries the innermost being and knows the deepest thoughts (Ps. 94:11; Jer. 17:10). He who saw the faith of the five men perceived the reasonings of the scribes in His own omniscient spirit… and not by a power temporarily given to Him, as might have been the case with a prophet. None but God could penetrate the secret workings of man's spirit… and the Lord gave the Pharisees the proof of the nature of His Person by answering their thoughts. Who else could "hear them thinking"?
Not A Terror To The Believer
The same all-seeing eye that exposes is also what makes hiding unnecessary. One writer describes the believer as glad to be seen through.
H. Forbes WitherbyGod knows exactly what we are. He knows every thought, every motive, and nothing is or can be hidden from Him. The child of God walks in this assurance. He knows God is looking into his heart and sees all things. He does not fear the look of God, who is light; rather, he is glad of it. All that he is in himself, his God knows, and he is aware that he can never take God by surprise by what he does, because God knows what he is — though very often he is a wonder of evil to himself.
The Right Response
Since concealment is impossible, the psalm ends by inviting the search rather than dreading it.
William J. HockingThe Lord Jesus when upon the earth displayed His knowledge of the thoughts of men's hearts (Matt. 9:4; Matt. 12:25; Luke 5:22)… And the psalmist, sensing this knowledge, throws open his heart for divine inspection, saying, "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" (Psalm 139:23-24)
Summary
- Searched — God has not begun to examine us; the work is already done, past and future alike open before Him.
- Understood — He does not merely register our thoughts; He reads them more truly than we read them ourselves.
- Early — His knowledge reaches the thought at its birth and the motive behind the word before it is spoken.
- Divine — reading hearts belongs to God alone, which is why Christ answering men's unspoken reasonings showed who He was.
- Welcomed — because nothing can be hidden, the believer stops hiding and prays instead, "Search me, O God."