Psalm 139

For years I've been told to read the Psalms.  There have been a few times that I've tried to incorporate them into my devotionals with limited success.  I am currently on one of those attempts.  I keep hearing phrases that are familiar only now I read/ hear them in context.

There is an song from the 60's / 70's and can't remember who sings it.  My google search did not help either, but one of the verses goes like this. "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."


I knew this was scripture, but I never really knew where.  Tuesday, while listing to Psalms on my ipod I heard them again and decided to go back and study it.

Psalm 139 NIV

¹ You have searched me, LORD,
   and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar.
³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways.
⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely.
⁵ You hem me in behind and before,
   and you lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.

Here the writer acknowledges the truth that God knows us completely.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.

Here the writer acknowledges that one cannot go anywhere that God is not there.  Comfort for those that seek God.  Not good news for those that want to go and sin in "secret".

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be.
¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ Were I to count them,
   they would outnumber the grains of sand—
   when I awake, I am still with you.

God knew us from the beginning.  When I was a mere fertilized egg He knew me completely.  Everything I would say, do and everything that would happen to me was right before Him.

¹⁹ If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
   Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
   your adversaries misuse your name.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
   and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
   I count them my enemies.


Here the writer petitions God and he pleads his case that he is on God's side.

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.

In the first sentence of this Psalm the writer said "You have searched me.."  Here is plea for God to search him again.  However search is not for God's benefit.  It is for the benefit of the petitioner.  He is acknowledging that there may be things in his heart that are not right.  He is asking God to reveal those areas to him.

Are you ready to ask God this?  Are you ready to submit to what he reveals?  I'll admit the thought of praying this prayer is humbling.

1 Peter 5:6-7 NIV

⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

I need to humble myself before God and wait for His timing.  He knows my weaknesses and worries.  I just have to give them up.

God Bless.