The Most Dangerous Prayer ~ Psalm 139

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me.”  Psalm 139:1

“Search me, O God, and know my heart!  Try me and know my thoughts!  And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalm 139:23-24

              The adages run deep and abound prolific. Socrates advised to “know thyself, for it is the beginning of wisdom” with him hinting at the idea that you can somehow truly achieve this.  In Shakespeare’s Hamlet he wrote, “to thine own self be true” with him promoting the idea that by better understanding self you will somehow be satisfied with the result.  Oscar Wilde was quoted, “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken”, the idea that we in ourselves are sufficient to satisfy.  Michel de Montaigne's words, "the greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself," describes the idea that you must be true to only yourself in some kind of solo life-dance.  Yes, it is rather obvious that as mankind attempts to understand his world, he spends much time looking inward.  Yet looking inward only reveals a scant of what we should truly be looking for.  And once again, if you care to look, God’s Word takes us miles deeper below the surface of the topic where we find in Psalm 139, it is not what we should be searching for in ourselves, but what we should be inviting God to search out within us.

              Psalm 139 hits at the core of the human condition.  A thousand years before many of the above poets, philosophers, and writers penned their ideas of better understanding themselves, we find King David approaching the search from the opposite direction.  Yes, David, instead of pridefully believing that he could search himself and therefore know himself better, simply relented the search.  That is, he relented the attempt to search himself and instead prayed possibly the most dangerous prayer in all of  scripture.  He simply, in truthful acknowledgement, admitted that the true depth of knowing who you are internally, is not a journey of self-searching, but in allowing yourself to be searched.  And folks, let’s be brutally honest, if you invite a deep personal search of your true motives and desires, you know the dangers of the ugly and horrible stuff that can and will be found.

              A curious note of David’s most dangerous prayer is in how it bookends the Psalm.  Take careful note of the tense in which David employs for verse 1 versus 23.  David opens his poem in the past tense.  David immediately looks in his rearview mirror and draws upon his rich yet hard life experiences of  walking with the Lord.  And from those he extracts a great truth.  “O, Lord you have searched me and known me!”  What a powerfully honest statement.  And one that is, if we can truly attempt to “know ourselves”, rings just as true in our own lives.  Yes, whether you can reach this platuea of honesty or not does not negate its truth…God searches and knows the hearts of the creatures He has placed in His world.

              Yet to conclude the Psalm, David goes somewhere I think no logical human desires to go.  He steps out of the truth that God has searched him in the past and walks into a bold tomorrow and, if you will, goes on the faithful offensive with God.  And in this faithful boldness, David makes a dangerous request of the Lord.  In fact, possibly the most dangerous prayer you could ever utter to the Lord.  David, in his untold belief, faith, and trust in the Lord’s goodness for his life, lets slip a sentence that every mature believer in Christ should attempt to let slip as well.  Lord, I invite you to actively search the deepest desires of my heart, the intent of the words I issue, and the genuine motives for which I do the things I do.  Folks, this is the most dangerous prayer indeed.

              If you ponder the logic of David, it is curious indeed.  For if we are honest, we spend the bulk of our lives defending our thoughts and intentions and then, when they run amuck into the dark and sinful, we spend even more time attempting to hide them from ourselves, from others in our life, and yes, even from the eyes of God.  But for the disciple of Jesus Christ, do you really think that your game of hide and go seek with God can ever succeed?  Do you really think that you hold the power to fool the eyes of your Creator that fully knew you even before He physically fashioned you?  Yes, the power of an abundant life in Christ Jesus lay in the ready, open, and willing splaying open of the heart, asking Jesus to then be the One to inspect it contents and motives fully.

              I pray that as you encounter these verses today that you are willing to be honest with yourself.  Ditch all the flowery prose of the ancient poets and philosophers and simply get honest with yourself.  For only in this absolute honesty can you discover what you truly are at your human core, a sinner in need of a Savior.  For God tells us ever so clearly in His Words to His creation, everyone has sinned and falls short of the perfection that God demands to be in His Holy, perfect presence in heaven for eternity.  But because God is love and out of that love flows His amazing grace and mercy, He made a way for all sinners to be united with Him for eternity.  This salvation costs the sinner nothing but cost Christ His life on a Roman cross.  But, in God’s perfect redemptive plan, Jesus walked out of His tomb three days later and today is alive, seated at the right hand of the Father in the throne room of Heaven.  Friends, as you attempt to peer within yourself, you must face the truth of your human condition, no matter how ugly it looks.

              And as you do realize your desperate need for a Savior, you must no longer attempt the hide and go seek game with your sin.  For recall David’s first profession in verse 1.  He admitted that God has already been peering deep within his thoughts, actions, and words and He already knew all there was to know.  And today, God knows just the same about you.  The question is, will you, embracing this fact, instead of making God search you forcefully or evasively, invite Him in to willingly do His searching?  For friends, it is in this journey that real transformation takes place.  It is in this journey between David’s first verse and his 23^rd verse that the Lord was made real in his life.  A life that is now ready to pray the most dangerous prayer….

My Heavenly Father, I invite you to look deeply into my heart and know all the intents and motives for all I think, say and do.  And God, as you find things in my heart that displease you, correct me and lead me out of those ways in your power, wisdom, and righteousness.

Search me O God.  Amen

Blessings ~ Dan

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9

“Be yourself" is about the worst advice you can give some people.” ~ Tom Masson

sunrise on Playa Estacahuite, Oaxaca, Mexico