“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns. See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalms 139:23-24)
Because of our sin nature, every one of us has a skewed view of our selves. Sin is what is familiar to us, which blurs what’s important. Because of our sin nature, we excuse the wrong we do and lessen our guilt for doing it. This is what is normal to us. The result of this is that we see ourselves very differently than others do, and even how God does. There could be, in each one of us, an evil habit, or a strong pull to do what is wrong in God’s eyes, which, if not dealt with, can overpower and destroy us. Not only that, there could also be something in our hearts or lives, that causes us to think less of ourselves, nullifying our ability to be an influence for good. Here’s the thing, we may not even be aware of all this. Look at what God tells us about ourselves, through the Prophet Jeremiah:
“The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9).”
The very next verse (verse 10) aught to cause us to tremble, and to be grateful at the same time:
“I, Yahweh, examine the mind, I test the heart to give to each according to his way, according to what his actions deserve Jeremiah 17:10).”
- “Tremble” because He is going to judge us and punish us according to whether we live our lives according to His will, or our will.
- “Grateful” because He loves us enough to warn us and give us the opportunity to drop our own way of living and live according to His ways.
The reality is that we do not know ourselves as well as we portray ourselves to. Therefore, the wise thing to do on our part, is to ask our Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent God to do for us what King David begged Him to do for him in today’s passage of Scripture. King David asks God to do four very important things for Him:
- “Search me, God, and know my heart;” – He asks God to search the very depths of his heart – that God would search every part of his being, leaving nothing about him unstarched.
- “test me and know my concerns.” – He asks God to test and see that he is not representing himself as a God loving, God fearing man, when he is not.
- “See if there is any offensive way in me;” – He asks God to make sure there is nothing in himself that is offensive to God. He does not want to offend God in any way.
- “lead me in the everlasting way.” – King David asks God to put him on the path to, and lead him on the way to eternal life. In others words, He wants to live according to God’s will, which will lead him to an eternal life in heaven with God.
King David was afraid of breaking God’s heart again, and becoming useless to Him. How well do you know yourself? Is there anything hidden in your life that is hindering you from being an instrument of God for good?
Will we all have the courage to ask God for what King David asked Him?
In Christ’s love,
Phil Covone
Phil Covone's Blog 