O LORD, You Have Searched Me And Known Me
Devotional
Companion to the Psalter
A Devotional Guide to the Psalms
Object:
You discern my thoughts from far away ...
and are acquainted with all my ways.
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there ...
Search me, O God, and know my heart ...
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
-- Psalm 139:2b, 3b, 8, 23a, 24
Theme: God: all-knowing, ever-present, powerful!
Outline
1-6 -- You know, Lord, my every thought and action!
7-12 -- You are there -- present wherever I go!
13-18 -- You created me -- planned for me before I was born!
19-22 -- Why do you tolerate evil? I want to hate it like you hate it.
23-24 -- Keep on searching and testing my heart and my ways, root out all wickedness and lead me your way.
Notes
• Wisdom
• One of the greatest of the psalms. "This is one of the most profound statements of personal religion in the Psalter."1
• God's power extends over Sheol, the abode of the dead! Why not also the hells we can make in our lives here? God can bring us out of their darkness into his light (v. 8).
• "The depths of the earth" = the womb, dark, and mysterious (v. 15).
• "As yet there were none of them" -- no pre-existence (v. 16).
• "Precious" = incomprehensible, overwhelming (v. 17).
For Reflection
• How are the evildoers described? (vv. 18-21). These throw a monkey wrench into God's marvelous works of creation, bringing sorrow and ruin. He wants God to get rid of them. Should not a Christian feel a burning indignation against evil?
• Pondering this, the psalmist recognizes, as we must too, his own complicity in it all. God has prepared a way to be rid of his enemies in a way yet unknown to the psalmist: to reconcile them in Christ and make them into friends who love him. This is the way God will lead his people in answer to the prayer of verses 23-24: searching the heart in all its sinfulness, convicting of sin with tests and trials, bringing the sinner to faith in the one crucified for us all, and to reconciliation through his cross.
Prayer
Lord God, you know all about us; even our subconscious is open to you. You descend into the hells of our sinful making, and you can lead us out of them. Which is more difficult for you -- to create us or to re-create us in Christ? Our grateful praise goes to you for your entering into our woe, sharing it with us, and bringing us forgiveness and life through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
____________
1. Arnold Rhodes, Psalms -- The Layman's Study Bible, Vol. 9 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1962), p. 181.
and are acquainted with all my ways.
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there ...
Search me, O God, and know my heart ...
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
-- Psalm 139:2b, 3b, 8, 23a, 24
Theme: God: all-knowing, ever-present, powerful!
Outline
1-6 -- You know, Lord, my every thought and action!
7-12 -- You are there -- present wherever I go!
13-18 -- You created me -- planned for me before I was born!
19-22 -- Why do you tolerate evil? I want to hate it like you hate it.
23-24 -- Keep on searching and testing my heart and my ways, root out all wickedness and lead me your way.
Notes
• Wisdom
• One of the greatest of the psalms. "This is one of the most profound statements of personal religion in the Psalter."1
• God's power extends over Sheol, the abode of the dead! Why not also the hells we can make in our lives here? God can bring us out of their darkness into his light (v. 8).
• "The depths of the earth" = the womb, dark, and mysterious (v. 15).
• "As yet there were none of them" -- no pre-existence (v. 16).
• "Precious" = incomprehensible, overwhelming (v. 17).
For Reflection
• How are the evildoers described? (vv. 18-21). These throw a monkey wrench into God's marvelous works of creation, bringing sorrow and ruin. He wants God to get rid of them. Should not a Christian feel a burning indignation against evil?
• Pondering this, the psalmist recognizes, as we must too, his own complicity in it all. God has prepared a way to be rid of his enemies in a way yet unknown to the psalmist: to reconcile them in Christ and make them into friends who love him. This is the way God will lead his people in answer to the prayer of verses 23-24: searching the heart in all its sinfulness, convicting of sin with tests and trials, bringing the sinner to faith in the one crucified for us all, and to reconciliation through his cross.
Prayer
Lord God, you know all about us; even our subconscious is open to you. You descend into the hells of our sinful making, and you can lead us out of them. Which is more difficult for you -- to create us or to re-create us in Christ? Our grateful praise goes to you for your entering into our woe, sharing it with us, and bringing us forgiveness and life through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
____________
1. Arnold Rhodes, Psalms -- The Layman's Study Bible, Vol. 9 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1962), p. 181.