Search me, LORD

King David playing the harp.

Been attending a women's Bible study for the past several weeks. This week the author, Beth Moore required that we read two verses from Psalm 139, nine and 10 to be exact. But, I did not stop there. I read the entire 139th Psalm, perhaps you should too. Then, why not take time to ponder what David said about God's place in our daily lives. Here is the New International Version of Psalm 139 -

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.

 

Search me, God, and know my heart. Search me and make me entirely yours. Search me...

 

May God be gracious to [you] and bless [you]
and make his face shine on [you]. Psalm 67 (NIV)

Amen.

Pray with feeling

"When we go before God in prayer with a cold, dull heart, and in a lifeless and listless manner pray to him for eternal blessings . . . we should think of Christ's earnest prayers that he poured out to God, with tears and a bloody sweat. The consideration of it may well make us ashamed of our dull, lifeless prayers to God, [in which] we rather ask a denial than ask to be heard; for the language of such a manner of praying to God is that we do not look upon the benefit that we pray for as of any great importance, that we are indifferent whether God answers us or not. The example of Jacob in wrestling with God for the blessing should teach us earnestness in our prayers, but more especially the example of Jesus Christ, who wrestled with God in a bloody sweat. If we were sensible as Christ was of the great importance of those benefits that are of eternal consequence, our prayers to God for such benefits would be after another manner than now they are. Our souls also would with earnest labor and strife be engaged in this duty." - Jonathan Edwards, 18th century preacher and missionary

This message got me to thinking – do I pray with feeling? Or do I recite a “lifeless and listless” prayer just to get it over with?

Me thinks that, way too many times, I am guilty of the latter.

Now the question is, what to do about these unworthy prayers.

How can I think it’s OK to send lackadaisical prayers up to the One who sacrificed Himself for my sins? How can I offer prayers that are not vigorous and determined?

Just who do I think I am? A sinner, that’s who. A sinner saved by God’s grace. Praise Him.

That’s the key, I think – Praise Him!

Praise Him in prayer. Praise Him in my actions. Praise Him in my love for my fellow man. Praise Him in my servant demeanor. Praise Him as I fill this page with my love of His eternal mercy, grace and forgiveness.

I need to put my heart and soul into my prayers.

Bottom line – praise Him in everything I do, every day in every way about every little (and big) thing – Praise Him, as the psalmist recorded –

Psalm 150 (NIV)
1 Praise the LORD.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
    praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
    praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
    praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Amen and Amen!

Now the question is, what about you?