Psalm 139 — Search Me O God
Introduction: This Psalm has some verses that are often quoted by those who draw great comfort from individual statements about God’s intimate knowledge and love for those who love him. The praise to the LORD can become even more abundant if the entire Psalm is read with an attempt to place oneself personally into the sum of all thoughts expressed throughout the Psalm to gain a balanced view of the great mercy of the LORD.
NOTE: Scripture passages are from the King James 21st Century Bible.
A — The Lord Knows Me Without Limit
Psalm 139 “1 O LORD, Thou hast searched me and known me. 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; Thou understandest my thought afar off. 3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, but lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether. 5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.”
Comments: The LORD examines every minute detail of each person’s life and nothing can be hidden from him. Job 31:4 “Doth not He see my ways, and count all my steps?” He knows where our thoughts will lead us before we act upon them. Even the smallest deviations from righteous living that we may conceal from the closest person to us, will always be seen within the depth of our heart by the LORD. Jeremiah 17:9–10 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart; I try the inmost being, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Isaiah 55:8–9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Romans 11:33–36 “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!”
B — There Is No Way to Escape the Presence of the Lord
Psalm 139 “7 Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,’ even the night shall be light about me. 12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee, but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee.”
Comments: The truth that there is no place where the presence of God cannot reach us can be a comfort to the believer who is bearing fruit before the LORD, but it is also a reminder not to be tempted to sin. Proverbs 3:11–12 “My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD, neither be weary of His correction; for whom the LORD loveth, He correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” Job 34:21–22 “For His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.” Jeremiah 23:23–24 “Am I a God at hand… and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him?” Hebrews 4:13–16 “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed into the Heavens… let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
C — The Lord Knew Me Before I Existed
Psalm 139 “13 For Thou hast possessed my inmost parts. Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret, and intricately wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuity were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them.”
Comments: Job was aware that all people without exception are made by God and fashioned as individuals in the womb. Job 31:15 “Did not He that made me in the womb make him? And did not One fashion us in the womb?” The LORD specifically appointed Samson for a special purpose before he was even conceived (Judges 13:3–5), and stated a clear calling to Jeremiah before his birth. Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Malachi 3:16–17 speaks of a book of remembrance written before the LORD for those who feared him. The New Testament verifies the tremendous blessing that God has chosen each believer to be His adopted child by Jesus Christ, even before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:3–6 “He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. He hath predestined us to be His own adopted children by Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.”
D — Lead Me on to Eternal Life
Psalm 139 “17 How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with Thee. 19 Surely, Thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. 20 For they speak against Thee wickedly, and Thine enemies take Thy name in vain. 21 Do I not hate them, O LORD, that hate Thee? And am I not grieved with those that rise up against Thee? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them mine enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts. 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Comments: If the thoughts of the LORD are so precious to us that we value nothing higher, and they are infinitely past all possibility of numbering, then it should be little wonder that every day the believer should awake with some thoughts of the LORD and his Word. As the psalmist had reviewed that the LORD knows every detail of the life of every person, he considered how he should align his attitude with the LORD toward those who reject God. Psalm 7:9–11 declares that God is righteous and angry with the wicked every day. But God also has great mercy and patient restraint. Exodus 34:6–7 “The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Jesus taught that we need to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, even as the Father sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:44–45). David stated in the opening of the Psalm that the LORD searches every detail of our lives, and then he closed this Psalm by asking the LORD to search his own heart to purge any wicked way that might still be in him. His foremost desire was that the LORD would lead him along that narrow path to eternal life. 1 Peter 5:8–10 “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith… the God of all grace… make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you.”
Reflections in Prayer
LORD, I thank you for revealing through your Word that everything about me is open and bare before your eyes. This is a very sobering thought to me for I know that I have often been far from the ways you desire for those who are called by your name. I cannot truly comprehend the way you know where I have been and where I will go in the future, but I accept that it is a small matter for you. You know even my innermost thoughts to the most minor detail with none of them hidden from you. By your Word, your complete knowledge of my life goes so far as to be true even before I was brought into existence through the reproductive line of all mankind that you established through Adam and Eve.
LORD, I am overwhelmed as I struggle to contemplate just how I should be opposed to those who reject you, especially as I consider that your grace was the only thing that separated me to have a place in your kingdom. Guide my thoughts and my actions so I will take a strong stand against those who bring reproach to your name, while being willing to be a light to your truth in whatever way you have planned for me. I want to be willing to submit to any needed redirection in my path of life because I want to be steadfast in my faith and I know that is only possible by your hand upon me. To Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Published 19 October 2014