God Knows All About Me

Scripture quotations are from the EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2018, 2024 – UK Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.easyenglish.bible 

Psalm 139:1-6

This is a Psalm * that King David wrote. It is for the music leader.

1 Lord, you look deep inside me,

and you know all about me.

2 You know when I sit down,

and you know when I get up.

Even when you are far away,

you understand what I am thinking about.

3 You see me when I go out,

and you see me when I stay at home.

You know everything that I do!

4 Yes Lord, before I open my mouth to speak,

you know what I will say.

5 You are all around me, in front of me and behind me.

You put your hand on me to help me.

6 You know so much about me, it is wonderful.

I cannot understand it.

My thoughts cannot reach as high as that!

7  Is there anywhere that I can go

to run away from your Spirit?

Anywhere that I go, you are already there.

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Important Vocabulary to Learn 

(Some of these words are from the reading above, and some of these words are from the learning questions and the story below.)

1. Words from the first 1000 high frequency General Service Word List

already, around, (far) away, behind, bodies, character, enemies, everything, exists, however, humans, inside, kind (of), know, leader, mouth, power, qualities, reason, reach, safe/safely/saved, share, spirit, thinking/thoughts, threw, trusted, understand, wonderful

(And all the other words in the reading and the story below that are not listed in numbers 2 and 3 below.)

2. Words from the second 1000 high frequency General Service Word List

afraid, forgive, hated, inside, message, punish, storm, stomach

3. Glossary of Special Terms (These words are marked with a *.)

Adjective - Adjectives are words that describe a person (people), thing (things), or a place (places). (E.g. big, good, tall, old etc.)

Eternal - Has no beginning or end. Lasts forever.

Psalm -  A special song, poem, or prayer to God. David wrote many psalms. You can read them in the Old Testament in the Bible.

Verb/verbs - Verbs are words that describe the things that people do. (E.g. run, talk, sleep, eat).

 

Learning Questions and Activities 

1. Remembering - Who did David write this psalm for? (Who was he speaking to?) Write your answer here… 

 

In this psalm, the English word ‘Lord’ is used for the Hebrew word ‘Yahweh’. Yahweh means “I Am Who I Am." (In the Bible, God has many different names. The different names help us think about the different ways God shows Himself to us.) This name (Yahweh) makes us think about how God has always been present (He was always there, before time began), how He is present now, and how He will always be present. He is outside space and time. He has no beginning and no end. He is eternal*.)

Which verse in the psalm tells us that we can never fully understand how well God knows us? Learn this verse by heart. 

2. Understanding - In this psalm, David tells us how much God knows about us. Where does God look when He thinks about us? (Check your answer in verse one.) Does this mean that God looks at the inside of our bodies (e.g. at our body parts, such as our lungs, kidneys, or stomach etc.)? What does David really mean?

3. Applying - What does this reading from Psalm 139 teach us… Is there any part of you, or anything about your life, that God does not know about? 

How did King David feel about the fact that God knew everything about him?  (Look at verse 6.) How does it make you think and feel, to know that Yahweh (the eternal God) knows everything about you?  

David knew that God is very great, but he was not afraid to speak to the eternal God, because he knew and loved Him, and he trusted in Him. David knew that God also loved him and cared for him. Do you feel afraid to speak to God the way David did? Why or why not? Write your answer here…

 

How do you feel when you hear or read that we humans can know and love God (just as David knew and loved Him)? When David wrote this psalm, he felt very close to God. Do you feel close to God, or do you feel far away from Him? Why? 

When David spoke to God, he said  'You put your hand on me to help me.' Do you think that God has put His hand upon you to help you in your life? If you say ‘Yes’, how has God helped you? Write an example here...

 

4. Analysing - Look at these words… 

look, know, see, think, understand, put

Find them in the reading and put a circle around them.

These words are all verbs. They tell us about things that God does. 

The word ‘are’ comes from the verb ‘to be’ (I am, you are, he/she/it is, we are, you are, they are). Can you find it in the reading? Put a circle around it in each place you see it. This verb tells us how or where God exists. 

When we talk about who someone is, we often talk about the things they do, but we also describe their character (the kind of person they are. (E.g. strong, loving, happy etc.) These words are adjectives *, not verbs.

Can you think of three or four adjectives (not from this reading) that describe the wonderful qualities of God’s great character? Write them here.

 

Tell someone why you chose these words. 

Why do you think it is useful to think about the qualities of God? Why do you think David used the name of God (Yahweh) in this psalm, and not another word (e.g. master, king, helper, teacher)? Go back to question one (‘Remembering’) above. Check again to see what it says about this special name for God.

5. Evaluating - David says of God, “ Even when you are far away, you understand what I am thinking about.” If you think about the whole message of this reading from Psalm 139, is God ever really ‘far away’ from us? Why might David say that God was sometimes ‘far away’? If we feel ‘far away’ from God, what might that tell us about ourselves? How can we be close to God?

6. Creating - Telling a story in your own words.

In verse seven of the Psalm we read “Is there anywhere that I can go to run away from your Spirit? Anywhere that I go, you are already there!” 

Do you know the Bible story about Jonah? Here it is…

(You can read this yourself, or your teacher, or someone else can read it to you while you listen.)

The man who tried to run away from God

God told Jonah to take a message to some people in another city. God wanted Jonah to tell the people of that city to stop living in the wrong way, and to turn to Him. The people in the city were enemies of God’s people. However, God wanted to save them. 

Jonah didn’t want to tell the  people of the city God’s message. He hated them because they were enemies of God’s people. In fact, he wanted God to punish them. Jonah didn’t want to be the person to share the message of God’s saving power with his enemies, so he tried to run away. 

Jonah got onto a ship and tried to go to another place far away. He thought he’d be so far away from God that God could not find him. He thought that if he ran away, he would be safe because God would not be able to find Him and tell Him again that He wanted to save the enemies of God’s people who lived in the other city. 

Of course, God knew where Jonah was all the time. When Jonah was on the ship, God sent a big storm. The men on the ship were afraid. They threw Jonah off the ship and into the sea because they knew Gad sent the storm. Because Jonah was on the ship, that was the reason for the storm. The men on the ship thought they would die in the storm if they didn’t throw Jonah into the sea. 

God sent a big fish to catch Jonah and save him. The big fish took Jonah through its mouth and into its stomach. Jonah was inside the big fish for three days! 

At last, Jonah understood that God had saved him by sending the fish. He knew that God always knew where he was, and that he could never run away from God. 

Jonah was very sorry for not doing what God told him to do. Jonah prayed and asked God to forgive him for not doing what He asked him to do. 

After Jonah prayed, God made the fish throw up and put Jonah safely onto land again.

Then, Jonah went to the city and gave the people who lived there the message God told him to give. When the people in the city heard Jonah’s message from God, they were very sorry. They asked God to forgive them. God heard their cries. God knew they were sorry for living in the wrong way. He knew they were sorry for not knowing and trusting Him. 

God was so kind. He saved the people, even though they were the enemies of His people. God turned them from being enemies to being people who loved and trusted Him. 

1.Tell this story to a friend or a group. Tell it your own words. Do not just read it from the story above. 

2. Next, explain the most important things you learned from Psalm 139 about how God knows everything about us. 

3. Describe the good and loving qualities of God. (Try to use your adjectives from question four above if you can.)

4. Explain how knowing God and His good qualities can help us to trust Him, just as David did.

5. Explain how God loves us so much, even when we don’t love Him, even if we are His enemies. Explain that He wants to save us too. Romans 5:8 explains this by saying that “even while we were still God’s enemies, He saved us and made us right with Him through the death of His Son…” (author’s paraphrase). In other words, God came to earth Himself, in the form of Jesus, to show us the way back to Him. 

6. Don’t forget to say how wonderful it is when we know and believe this in our hearts, just as David did. To be saved by our wonderful God really is Good News!

Next, you could print out the pictures below and stick them on pieces of card. (You may need to make them bigger.) Put some notes on the back of each picture to help you remember what to say. Use the pictures to help you tell the story about Jonah, and say how King David’s psalm also shows us how God knows everything about us. You can explain how, when we trust in Jesus to save us, God turns us from being His enemies into people who love and know Him, and whom He loves and knows. How wonderful!

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Answer (question one, ‘Remembering’): Verse 6 

"You know so much about me, it is wonderful. I cannot understand it. My thoughts cannot reach as high as that!”