What God Knows

O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. 2 Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. 3 Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, And art intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, Thou dost know it all (Psalm 139:1-4 NASB)

There are those today known as open theists who believe God does not know the future. They have drawn this conclusion from their position that God is most committed to His creatures freedom. For a summary of this position with their own arguments you could read The Openness of God by Clark Pinnock and others (IVP 1994). Their view of freedom cannot permit God to know what will happen because then man is not truly free to chose anything, but only that which God foreknows. I do not subscribe to their view of freedom nor their view of God. More importantly, the Scriptures do not even permit such a limited view of God's knowledge and power. Though we could easily build plain arguments based upon clear precepts in the Word of God, today we have evidence of different sort in the Psalm. The open theists clearly want "freedom" more than they want God's foreknowledge. However, would David, the Holy Spirit inspired author of Psalm 139, want a god who does not know the future? Would you prefer an ignorant god?
David takes great comfort in the fact that God knows him, inside and out. God knows where he goes and what he does, even when he sits and stands. God knows his ways, that is to say, his plans. Up to that point the open theist might actually agree, but then David goes further and confesses that God knows his words before they are spoken. God cares so much about David's needs that God has thought of them before David expresses them. (cf Matthew 6:8) Later in the Psalm, David, with praise, confesses that God knows all of his days, for they are written in his book, even before there is one of them. This the open theist cannot admit and be true to his position. This (God's glorious foreknowledge) David could not deny.
The fact that God knows me now, something I know only in part, and knows me tomorrow, something I cannot know, is of great comfort to me. I need not fear the future, even if it be darkened by shadows. I much prefer that God knows my future, even to my sitting down and rising up, even to the very words on my mouth, even to the extent of my days and my appointment with death, than to beleive that it is all in my hands. I rejoice that I am wrapped up (encompassed before and behind) in the hands of God instead of having my "fate" in my own hands. So which do you prefer? Do you want a god who is ignorant of the future and leaves you to have your own way, or will you joyously rest in the hands of the Potter who fashions your life according to His design?