Psalm 139

0 To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
1  O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
2  You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
  you discern my thoughts from far away.
3  You search out my path and my lying down,
  and are acquainted with all my ways.
4  Even before a word is on my tongue,
  O LORD, you know it completely.
5  You hem me in, behind and before,
  and lay your hand upon me.
6  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
  it is so high that I cannot attain it.
7  Where can I go from your spirit?
  Or where can I flee from your presence?
8  If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
  if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9  If I take the wings of the morning
  and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10  even there your hand shall lead me,
  and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11  If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
  and the light around me become night,”
12  even the darkness is not dark to you;
  the night is as bright as the day,
  for darkness is as light to you.
13  For it was you who formed my inward parts;
  you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
  Wonderful are your works;
 that I know very well.
15   My frame was not hidden from you,
 when I was being made in secret,
  intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16  Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
 In your book were written
  all the days that were formed for me,
  when none of them as yet existed.
17  How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
  How vast is the sum of them!
18  I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
  I come to the end—I am still with you.
19  O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
  and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
20  those who speak of you maliciously,
  and lift themselves up against you for evil!
21  Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
  And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22  I hate them with perfect hatred;
  I count them my enemies.
23  Search me, O God, and know my heart;
  test me and know my thoughts.
24  See if there is any wicked way in me,
  and lead me in the way everlasting.

Daily Prayer (based on Psalm 139:23)

Merciful Father, You see me as I am. You see everything about me. My soul is naked before You. Were it not for Your grace given to me in Christ, this would be a terrifying thought. Yet, in Christ, I stand before You unafraid, confident of Your love for me.

Postscript

Of course God doesn't need to search us, because He already knows everything about us. And God surely doesn't need our permission to search our hearts. But in asking Him to search us, we are welcoming, not only His gaze, but His revealing to us what He sees, good and bad. We are inviting His help to become more fully the people He has created and saved us to be.

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Except for the Scripture text, all material of The Daily Psalm Copyright © 2006 by Mark D. Roberts

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The Scripture text used in The Daily Psalm is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved