Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts. – Psalm 139:23
A few international search and rescue events have occurred in recent years. Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared; a politician, his son, and nephew found themselves stranded in the Arctic tundra; twelve scouts were lost in a flooded cave in Thailand; and a Titan research submarine lost contact with its mother ship. The politician and his family were rescued, the scouts were brought out of the cave in a daring rescue, and the submersible had a catastrophic implosion and searchers later recovered human remains. The mystery of the airliner remains, although researchers have recently said they have detected a signal that might finally lead them to answers.
King David knew God and His presence in his life very well. He was open and transparent before God, trusting Him so completely that he dared to pray, “Search me.” Theologian James Montgomery Boice writes, “When prayed sincerely, this is something of a dangerous prayer – worthy, yet dangerous. It is a serious thing to pray, because it invites painful exposures and surgery, if we truly mean it. Still it is what every wise believer should desire.”
Do you desire holiness in your life to the extent that you would offer the same invitation for God to search you? When you do, you can also trust that His search plan also involves a rescue component! In the next verse, David says, “Lead me in the way everlasting.” God leads you to adopt His perspective on what is true and righteous so that you avert poor choices. A full and abundant life is available through Jesus Christ. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1 Peter 5:6).
Today’s Verse: Psalm 139:23
Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Psalm 139:1-18, 23-24
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
