May 30, 2024

Psalm 139.23, 24 (NIV)
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

It is only by invitation that he comes in and cleanses us.*

Psalm 139 began with David proclaiming that God has searched him and knows him; so now why is he asking God to search him? Perhaps the previous search was for the sake of God’s information; now David wants to know for himself what God has found.

David is fully aware that he can’t fool God and so he is willing to surrender his disguises and let God reveal his hidden sins to himself. But knowing isn’t enough. Once his offensive ways have been exposed, he pleads for God’s direction.

When my first marriage was crumbling, I talked my husband into going with me to a Christian counselor. To friends and family, I had confided some of what we were going through but I feared they weren’t being objective in their advice – of course they would take my side! I believed that a counselor would be fair and unbiased. I wanted him to search me; to tell me what I was doing wrong in my marriage and to tell me what I needed to do to fix it. I was willing to do whatever he recommended that I do. Good practise for opening myself up to God!

Can we allow God to show us our offensive ways? He wouldn’t have to search long or hard as our sins are surely not few or small or unobtrusive. And those anxious thoughts – is it possible that he wants us to let go of them as well?  

Until we know how sinful we are in God’s eyes, we will never be able to be as good as God wants us to be.*