Slices
Prepare
‘Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts’ (v 23). Sit with these words, in the presence of God. What might God be saying to you as you reflect on them?
Bible passage
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,’
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand –
when I awake, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Explore
The pressure that we sometimes feel to project an image or pretend to be someone whom, deep down, we know ourselves not to be, is relieved by this wonderful psalm. God knows us exactly as we are: our actions (vs 2a,3), our thoughts and desires (v 2b) and every word we speak before we speak it (v 4). We are fully known, and loved, since conception (v 13), through each day (v 16) and beyond death (v 8b).
Such intimate knowledge of all that we are and do can be worrying. What if God doesn’t like what he sees? Like the psalmist, that thought may make us want to run away (v 7). But there is nowhere to hide (vs 8–12)! God never gives up on us despite knowing us so well (v 10).
It’s impossible to outrun God, so praise him for such reckless, passionate love (v 14). There is no freedom like that which comes from knowing oneself to be fully wanted, loved and valued, by someone who knows you inside-out. Cherish it (v 17). Celebrate it (v 14). Welcome more of it (vs 23,24).
Respond
Knowing God’s relentless love is one thing. Passing it on can be another! Do you know someone who would be blessed by the realisation that you love them despite what you know? How might you express this?
Deeper Bible study
‘For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end.’1
What is your God like? This much loved psalm ruminates on three great qualities of God: his omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. His knowledge of us embraces the most trivial of daily details and our innermost thoughts that are inaccessible to others (vs 1–4). Nothing is hidden from him. Some may view this as an oppressive intrusion, but the psalmist views it as a cause of reassuring wonder (vs 5,6). Then the psalmist turns to meditate on God’s inescapable presence. God is present throughout space and time. It’s impossible to avoid God anywhere in his world. I’ve heard some wonderful testimonies of people who’ve tried to do so by travelling to some inaccessible place, only to meet him there and be converted (vs 7,8)! It’s equally impossible to avoid God at any time of day or night (vs 9–11). Why, he even knew us well before we were born, having created our wonderfully complex human bodies (vs 13–18). Again, the thought moves the psalmist not to fear but to worship, as he mulls over God’s ways. The final section of the psalm (vs 19–24) seems to strike a different note. In fact, though, it assumes God’s awesome power and his ability to act justly on behalf of victims.
This final section lends reality to the psalm. It is not a poetic hymn, composed by tranquil waters, but a down-to-earth testimony, wrung out of life’s harsh experiences, written in the heat of the battle for survival. The implications are twofold. It brings comfort. Why worry when we have a God on our side who evokes such wonder? Perhaps less comfortingly, note that the psalm comes full circle. It starts with God having searched our lives (v 1) and ends by inviting him to search the psalmist again (v 23). What reaction does that provoke?
Invite God to examine your inner thoughts, motivations and attitudes today. What do you expect him to find?
1 Ps 48:14
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Deuteronomy 12–14; Romans 2
Pray for Scripture Union
SU in Macau asks us to pray for the video screening of Monthly Bible Talk this year, asking for more volunteers to help in this project and more people to join the talks and be encouraged in their faith by engaging with Scripture.
