January 29, 2014
Psalm 139:23, 24
(All scripture is from the New King James Version unless otherwise indicated.)
Now we come to the last two verses of Psalm 139. And these verses are one of the most challenging scriptures in the Bible! David – having considered God’s attributes…
• Omniscience means that God knows everything!
• Omnipresence means that God is everywhere in His fulness at once!
• Omnipotence means that God is all powerful and can do anything!
…he now applies these attributes in making a bold request in verses 23 and 24:
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties;
and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way ever-
lasting.
God knows everything – including all about me – my actions, my words, and even my thoughts! God is always with me – I can never be out of His all-knowing presence! Considering these first two attributes of the Lord, and knowing that God can always and ever see him deeply and completely, David asks of God a request that will be life-changing. The request is in three parts:
• Search me, O God, and know my heart…. – Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence; for out of it spring the issues of life.” And Jesus taught in Matthew 15:18 through 19:
…those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart,
and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies….
So in searching the heart, David is asking God to examine his life at its deepest
roots. That’s a bold request indeed – and dangerous, if you don’t want all
your secrets exposed!
• …try me, and know my anxieties…. – Try means to ‘test’. And the only way to bring out anxieties in one’s life is to put that one in the pressure cooker of testing. Then anxieties will come to the surface, we will become aware of them, and God can deal with them with our knowledge and cooperation.
Paul puts it this way in Romans 5:3 through 5:
…we…glory in tribulations [testings], knowing that tribulation produces
perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now
hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
• …see if there is any wicked way in me…. – Sometimes wickedness – disobedience to what God wants for us – is so subtle that we aren’t even conscious of it. David wrote in Psalm 19:12 and 13:
Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep
back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have
dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent
of great transgression.
Two kinds of sins – secret and presumptuous. And sometimes the secret sins
are so secret we aren’t even aware of them!
What about the third attribute we listed above – omnipotence? That has to do with the final statement of David’s prayer in Psalm 139:23 and 24: “…lead me in the way everlasting.” You see, God’s everlasting way is for us – His children – to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ (see Romans 8:29). To accomplish this is a big job – so big, it can only be done by our all-powerful God!
It is a bold prayer! Do We Dare Pray It? If we do – and if we are sincere about such a prayer – it will mean our life will change! We will no longer be in control and make our own descisons. God will take charge as you yield to Him! And the result will be wonderful!