Lesson 1 · Unit 1 · God & Me
Known and Loved
Before you ever knew God, God already knew you.
Open
There is a particular kind of fear: the fear of being seen through. We keep a decent-enough version of ourselves on display, while inside there is a room no one is allowed to enter — the failures, the shame, the thoughts we would rather not admit even to ourselves. We quietly assume that if anyone ever saw all of us, they would turn and leave. So we both long to be known and dread being known.
Psalm 139 says something almost breathtaking: there is One who has already seen everything behind that door — and he did not leave.
Scripture
David did not write this psalm to argue a doctrine; he wrote it in astonishment. Read it slowly, and where it says *you*, hear God speaking to you. (Psalm 139:1-18, ESV — abridged)
1耶和华啊，你已经鉴察我，认识我。
2我坐下，我起来，你都晓得；你从远处知道我的意念。
3我行路，我躺卧，你都细察；你也深知我一切所行的。
4耶和华啊，我舌头上的话，你没有一句不知道的。
5你在我前后环绕我，按手在我身上。
6这样的知识奇妙，是我不能测的；至高，是我不能及的。
7我往哪里去躲避你的灵？我往哪里逃、躲避你的面？
8我若升到天上，你在那里；我若在阴间下榻，你也在那里。
9我若展开清晨的翅膀，飞到海极居住，
10就是在那里，你的手必引导我；你的右手也必扶持我。
11我若说：黑暗必定遮蔽我，我周围的亮光必成为黑夜；
12黑暗也不能遮蔽我，使你不见，黑夜却如白昼发亮。黑暗和光明，在你看都是一样。
13我的肺腑是你所造的；我在母腹中，你已覆庇我。
14我要称谢你，因我受造，奇妙可畏；你的作为奇妙，这是我心深知道的。
15我在暗中受造，在地的深处被联络；那时，我的形体并不向你隐藏。
16我未成形的体质，你的眼早已看见了；你所定的日子，我尚未度一日，你都写在你的册上了。
17神啊，你的意念向我何等宝贵！其数何等众多！
18我若数点，比海沙更多；我睡醒，仍和你同在。
See
He knows you completely
Psalm 139 does not open with an abstract "God is all-knowing." It opens with something intimate: he knows when I sit and rise, my going out and lying down, and my thoughts "from afar" — before a word reaches my tongue (vv. 1-4). This is not surveillance; it is closeness. The Hebrew word for "know" (*yada*) is the word a shepherd uses for his flock, a friend for a friend. He does not know a file about you. He knows *you* — including the locked room. That same word is what Scripture uses for the deepest relationship: it does not mean God has you figured out; it means he draws near. He understands you more truly and more deeply than you understand yourself — and loves you no less for it.
Nowhere to flee, nowhere to be lost
Verses 7-12 read like an attempted escape: up to heaven, down to Sheol, out to the far sea, into the dark — and in every place, "you are there." You might hear a threat. It is a promise. Because the very next line is, "your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me" (v. 10). That you cannot flee him also means this: however far you fall into the dark, you cannot fall out of his hand. To someone running, that is bad news. To someone drowning, it is the only good news there is. Many people spend a lifetime running — from their past, from themselves, from God. Psalm 139 tells the runner, gently: the One you can neither outrun nor shake is already waiting in the place you are running to.
He loved you before you could love him
At verse 13 the camera pulls back in time. He does not only know the present you; he was there when you were "in the womb," "unformed" — knitting you, seeing you, writing your days in his book (vv. 13, 15, 16). Your existence is not an accident; it was counted. Notice the order: all of this happened before you could know him or respond to him. You are loved, not because you first did something lovable. His knowing and his care come before any response of yours. This is the word every later lesson will keep meeting: grace.
Deeper
Omniscience
God's knowledge of you is complete and intimate, down to the unspoken thought (Ps 139:2, 4).
Omnipresence
no place lies outside him; his presence is both impossible to flee and impossible to fall out of (139:7-10).
The dignity of being made
in the womb you were formed, seen, and counted by God; your life has a source and a purpose (139:13-16).
Grace before response
God's knowing and care come before any response of yours; love was never earned (139:16-18; cf. 1 John 4:19).
Story
A woman walked into a church for the first time in her late thirties. She said she had spent her whole life "performing well enough" — good student, good employee, good daughter — because underneath she believed the real her was not worth loving, and that if anyone saw through her, they would leave. When she read Psalm 139 she wept for a long time, stuck on verse 1: "You have searched me and known me."
Later she said: "I always thought being completely seen was my greatest fear. It turns out that with God, being completely seen — and having him stay anyway — is not the thing I should hide from. It's the thing I've been waiting for my whole life."
（Composite; details changed.）
Respond
Reflect — alone, or talk it through together
1What is kept in that room inside you where no one is allowed? Are you willing to admit that God has, in fact, been in there all along?
2"He knows me completely and has not left" — right now, does that land as comfort or as threat? Why?
3If you truly believed that he loved you before you could respond to him, what would be different about today?
Saved on this device only — visible to no one but you.
Pray together
Lord, you have searched me and known me. I have been afraid of being fully seen. Thank you that you already saw all of me — including what I hide — and did not turn away. Help me stop earning love by performing, and rest instead in the love you have already given. Before I knew you, you knew and loved me; today I begin to respond. In Jesus' name, amen.
Walk
This week's actionabout 10 min
Find a quiet moment and read Psalm 139:1-18 slowly; at each *you*, pause and take it as God speaking to you. Afterward, write one sentence: the one thing I most want him to know right now.
Mark it when it happens — this week, at your pace.
Spiritual practice
This week, let the first words each morning be, to God: "Before I do anything, I am already known and loved by you."
Memory verse · Psalms 139:14
Ipraiseyou,forIamfearfullyandwonderfullymade.
Walk further
David's life, the story of creation, the theme of grace, and a Psalms reading plan to begin praying.