Thoughts for another day

May 11, 2006

Today's verse: Ps. 139:23,24. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (NRSV).

Blessed is our God who knows us inside out. A careful study of Ps 139 reveals to us how wonderful and omniscient our God is and it also reveals important aspects of our own form – the way we are made.

David in this psalm, which is one of the best psalms for me, writes about the wonder of our own creation. He waxes eloquent on the magnificence of our beings and the way God has created us. It evokes a picture of a potter who creates his pots lovingly and painstakingly. So would God have made us: Lovingly and painstakingly. He invested a part of Himself in us. Which is why only after creating man did God find His creation very good, Gen. 1:31.

But, then this very good creation, man, faltered and sinned. Disobeying God and in its wake, generating, the basis of sin in every human heart. That is why Cain killed Abel and God told Cain, “if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it." Gen. 4:7. My friend, sin is at the door and anytime it can get its grip on you. Which is why the Son of Man had to make the ultimate sacrifice of coming down and dying for us so that by His blood we could be redeemed. It is only by Him that we can be the master of sin.

Therefore, David, whose heart beat for God, being concerned about his soul condition cries out and says, ‘search my heart O God and see if there be any wicked in me’…for he knew well that the human heart was prone to wickedness. He then tells God, ‘lead me in the way everlasting’…which translated means forgive my iniquities (reminiscent of Ps. 51) for only then can eternal life be a reality!
I invite you my dear reader now to make the same prayer and I assure you that God in His mercy will reach out and touch your soul right now. Amen.