My dear readers,

Search Me, O God!

Psalm 139:23-24: “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”

Arguably, Psalm 139:23a is one of the most challenging four words for a believer to ask God in prayer. He needs to be very sure of his soul, and every aspect of his life, for God will surely use His immutable, omniscient attributes to search our hearts. Yet every believer must pray this prayer because it is the right and scriptural thing to do!

God has already searched -- The word “search” means “to search intimately with perception.” God’s search includes every word spoken and deed done and the motive, and every thought. Was not David afraid of God’s penetrating scrutiny? The context of David’s prayer began with the fact that God had already searched every aspect of His life. Psalm 139:1-6: “¹To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. ²Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. ³Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. ⁴For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. ⁵Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. ⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” David knew that whether he searched his own heart or prayed for God to search his heart, God had already searched his heart. David acknowledged God’s absolute knowledge of who he was and everything he did inwardly and outwardly. His intimate relationship with God was the basis of this prayer to God. David was not being facetious or seeking God’s praise for personal glory and pride. It was a sincere, genuine desire for God to search his soul to correct any area of his life that was not right with God. With this godly desire, he prayed to God to scrutinise his life.

The scope of God’s search was David’s heart and thoughts. The heart and mind are the two hidden recesses of every man, woman and child that only God can penetrate and examine closely. The heart is where our motives originate. Our mind is where our will and desires begin. Before any word is spoken or deed is done, the heart and the mind dictate the direction we take and when and how we take it. Outwardly, the words heard and deeds seen may be pleasing to others around us, but God may reject them all because the heart or the mind is sinful. All forms of man-centred motives and thinking are sinful in God’s eyes. They must be rejected at all costs, no matter who has them! The immediate context of verse 23 reveals David’s perfect hatred against God's enemies. He did not want to sin against God even when he hated God's enemies justly. He prayed for God to search his heart and mind to ensure that.

The yardstick of God’s search -- God will search according to the Holy Scriptures. Knowing that the holy standard is God’s holy Word that He will use to judge after He has searched with penetration, the believer can derive much comfort when he asks God to search him. He can obey the Word of God daily with God’s help through the Holy Spirit who dwells in him. With the Holy Scriptures filling his mind and the love of God in his heart, he can live a life that is according to the Bible and has nothing to fear when God searches his inner being. However, if he is not sincere and deceives himself by living in hypocrisy, this prayer for God to search will be impossible! But why would a genuinely born-again believer behave in hypocrisy? The Holy Spirit within him will convict him daily until he repents. He will be miserable all his days until he repents. He must cry to God to search his heart and thoughts for his own good and God’s glory. When the believer prays to God to search his heart and mind, he protects himself from the crippling sin of hypocrisy. He ought to first search his own heart and mind to ensure they are clean and holy before he asks God to search them. After he searches his own heart and mind, he may ask God because he is afraid that he did not search thoroughly enough and does not want any hidden, unconfessed sin residing in his heart. 

The blessings from God’s search -- However, the believer must repent if God finds something amiss in his heart or thoughts. There is no other way. To ask God to search and then not repent is to mock God. David wanted to walk right with God to ensure his relationship with Him was very close, and he would repent sincerely and with all his heart. He asked God to lead him in the everlasting way, i.e. the way of true salvation. His heart wanted to obey all of God’s Word perfectly, including a genuine repentance before God in Christ, once his sins were made known to him. He made no excuses to mitigate and diminish his culpability for sins committed. He would not dare to justify himself but would simply admit from his heart that he had sinned!

In this way of acknowledging sins, the believer will experience true forgiveness from God. The departed peace from God will rush back into his inner man to keep his heart and mind in Christ Jesus, his Lord. When God's peace returns, he will experience the result of his prayer to God to search his heart and mind. He draws strength from God to live more for Christ. He serves with renewed zeal and fervency before his God, knowing that what he is doing will last for eternity, like God’s fire to test the purity of gold, silver and precious stones. The more they are heated, the purer they become. Therefore, he constantly prays for God to search his heart and mind because he delights in walking with a pure and biblically clean conscience after God has searched him with His omniscient power and found him pleasing and because of Christ Jesus, his Lord.

The believer knows he needs God's leading to live holily according to the Holy Scriptures. The word “lead” means “to lead by transporting a person to another place.” In this context, it is the way everlasting. The way is a path that is frequently walked. He has been walking this way since Christ saved him from sin. He will not stop walking this way of everlasting because he knows it will lead to heaven. The way of everlasting is the holy life he lives. He loves this life, for it brings peace and joy to his soul to walk this heavenly way on earth before he arrives home to his God with the same holy walk in heaven! He loves to worship with God's people and keep the Lord’s Day holy. He looks forward to hearing and studying God’s Word, for he hears his heavenly Father’s voice teaching, guiding and helping him to live rightly. He fellowships with God's children who are like his own flesh and blood because he knows they are all chosen by God and sealed by the blood of Christ as an eternal family that begins on earth, leading to heaven and without end. He is true to himself with God's people, without guile and pretence, and he never needs to be on guard when he shares his life. He loves to pray and asks God to search his heart and mind.

Application -- The year 2024 is becoming a memory. What spiritual and blessed memories do we have of 2024 that encourage our hearts to walk closer to God in Christ? Has it been a good and faithful walk with God in Christ? Dare we, like David, pray and ask God to search our hearts and minds if there be any wicked way in us to lead us in the way everlasting?