During a recent conversation on the Gospel Truth channel about open theism, technical issues prevented my participation. Yet, I managed to pose some questions to Chris Fisher afterward. His stance suggests an inconsistency in God’s knowledge, particularly regarding understanding the human heart: sometimes depicted as easily known, at other times requiring testing.

Fisher asserts that while God knows the heart by searching it, this process involves rigorous testing due to human changeability. However, texts like Psalm 44:20-21 seem to indicate God’s immediate knowledge of the heart, challenging Fisher’s perspective.

Psalm 44

²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God
    or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
²¹ would not God have discovered it,
    since he knows the secrets of the heart?

Even OT scholars who are more willing to think God is learning seem to take that latter part of the verse as in conflict with the rest of it:

As traditionally rendered, the second colon then gives a different account of the way God knows things, implying that God does “automatically” know matters such as what people are thinking in their inner beings. It may be that we should leave in tension the two descriptions, that God discovers and that God knows. Both make significant statements (like the statement that people do see God and the statement that seeing God is impossible). The first preserves the dynamic nature of God’s relationship with us; the second safeguards the supernatural nature of God’s knowledge. But elsewhere in Scripture, the first of these statements (that God discovers things) is more common than any declaration that God knows everything without discovering things, so we should hardly dismiss that first statement as anthropomorphism. The translation above reconciles the two statements by seeing “searching out” as the way God “gets to know,” a feasible meaning for yādaʿ (e.g., 79:10; 119:152; Jer. 38:24).

John Goldingay. Psalms : Volume 2 (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms): Psalms 42-89 (Kindle Locations 1110-1117). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

It seems like God does have this immediate knowledge of human hearts without testing them. The issue of searching the heart isn’t necessarily in conflict with my point because it just could mean that God does have the ability to access our deepest inner life. The issue is that Fisher seems to deny that God is portrayed with different abilities to know things.

While some scholars, like Goldingay, propose tensions in the texts, I find that God’s access to human hearts isn’t contradictory. Rather, it’s a rhetorical device emphasizing God’s discernment without necessitating ongoing testing.

The people were not being irreverent in the way they prayed; they were frustrated and anxious because there was no answer to the difficulty of suffering without a cause, and no resolution for their increasingly desperate situation. There is no evidence in the psalm of God’s anger with them, and there is no evidence of their despair—they continue to pray. The language of verse 23 is anthropomorphic: “Awake (71111:), why do you sleep (11411171), 0 Lord? Wake up (mppm! Do not cast us off (11311-1; s.v. Ps. 43:2) forever.” The idea that God may be asleep is a figurative description that he is not aware or attentive to their plight. Significantly, these are things that Israel had said about the gods of the pagans who did not respond (e.g., Elijah’s mocking of the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18). Of course the people knew that the God of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps (see Ps. 121:4). But in this case it did seem to them that he was inattentive, as the rhetorical question implies. And the call for God to arise is a call for him to spring into action on their behalf, for it did seem to them that he had cast them off. Their bold appeal continues in verse 24 with another rhetorical question, “Why do you hide your face and forget our affliction and our oppression?” Here we have two more figures (both anthropomorphisms): hiding his face would mean withholding favor or deliberately doing nothing for them, and forgetting their afflictions would also mean not acting on their behalf. The appeal for God to come to their assistance is urgent, and there is no reason whatsoever for him not to do so. The mention of affliction and oppression at the end of verse 24 adds a motivation for God to respond—they were suffering apparently for no known reason.

Allen Ross – A Commentary on the Psalms: 42-89 (Kregel Exegetical Library) (Page 49-50).

Another reason to think God has this access is that he has access to know our evil desires. Take for example lust (Matthew 5:27-30) or covetousness (Colossians 3:5). Those are things that come from having improper desire rather than committing the acts themselves. How could God lack access to one’s inner mental life and know when someone commits these things? I know there is some debate over the nature of lust in the referenced passage:

I agree with Keener, Carson, and Guelich that Mt 5:28 is blended commentary on both the seventh and tenth commandments. On that interpretation, the issue is one of adulterous sexual covetousness.

https://triablogue.blogspot.com/2007/01/lusting-in-ones-heart.html

The issue still remains that it is about inner mental states. I can cut your head open and look at every molecule and never see your thoughts. Clearly, to know someone has violated such a rule, you would need to know their mind. How else is God going to judge the deeds of men (John 5:26-27, Rom. 2:6-7)

1 Sam. 16

⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

I think even one of Chris Fisher’s favorite commentators agrees that God is looking at his heart and knowing his moral character. This acts as the impetus for why God chooses David, rather than one of the other sons of Jesse.

There is something wondrously ironic about the first words of the narrator upon the appearance of David. Samuel was under firm instruction from Yahweh not to pay any attention to David’s appearance (v. 7). What is valued and sought is a right heart, not appearance and stature. … Yahweh does a quick heart examination and renders the verdict, “This is he” (cf. 9:17)..

Walter Brueggemann, First and Second Samuel, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1990), 122-123.

I don’t think he is alone on this verse. Many commentators take it the same way:

God first affirmed his fundamental “otherness”: “the LORD does not look at the things man looks at” (v. 7). Neither the Lord’s considerations nor his abilities are the same as those of humans; whereas “man looks at the outward appearance” (lit., “the eyes”), “the LORD looks at the heart.” The Lord alone has the capacity to observe and judge a person’s “heart” (Hb. lēb), that is, one’s thoughts, emotions, and intents.29 On God’s scales these matters outweigh all other aspects of a human life.

1, 2 Samuel: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition of Holy Scripture (Volume 7) (The New American Commentary) (Page 153).

Jer. 17

⁹ “The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?
¹⁰ “I the Lord search the heart
    and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct,
    according to what their deeds deserve.”

I take this to fit with Fisher’s point, but I think it also assists in mine. I think there is a purposful contrast between God and mans abilites to know the inner issue with humans. Human beings can test other to see whether they are going to do something. I don’t think merely testing is the only idea here.

The heart of man (lēḇ) in the psychology of OT times refers frequently to the mind, the source of a man’s thinking and action.5 It is here described as deceitful above all.6 A picturesque translation is “The heart is rougher than anything and incurable; who understands it?”7 It is certainly a mystery to mankind, who does not understand (yāḏaʾ) it. Yahweh, however, “explores” or searches (ḥāqar] the human heart.

Thompson, J. A.. The Book of Jeremiah (New International Commentary on the Old Testament) . Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.

1 Kings 8:39
then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive and act and render to each according to all his ways, whose heart You know, for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men,

1 Chronicles 28:9
As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

Scriptural instances further support this view: passages in Samuel, Jeremiah, and Kings affirm God’s direct understanding of human hearts, not reliant on continuous testing. Fisher’s suggestion of exaggerated ANE language seems unwarranted, given the consistent portrayal of God’s immediate knowledge in various contexts.

In essence, the biblical text indicates God’s profound insight into human hearts without necessitating constant testing or a lack of immediate understanding.

Furthermore, God can look at everyone and foils the plots of men, at least to Joe Sabo’s article:

This sounds like God is looking down on Earth and considers all that they do. How this is a prooftext for God knowing “all that ever will be”, again, I do not see. If anything, this shows the opposite.

https://godisopen.com/2019/01/17/re-why-i-am-not-an-open-theist/

Here is the video in question: