Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts;
For twenty-two verses, Psalm 139 says that God already knows everything about the writer. Then, at the very end, he asks God to look. That turn is the point of the psalm. The knowledge this man once wanted to escape is now the thing he asks for by name.
From Running to Inviting
The psalm moves from dread of God's presence to asking for it. One writer marks the two ends of that journey. He warns that the change is not comfortable:
The natural man says, "Where shall I flee from Your presence?" But at the end of Psalm 139 he says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart." As far as you know the things of God, is your heart in tune with Him? Could you say, "Search me"? It is a painful process sometimes.
What the Words Are Asking
The two things he asks for are not vague. One commentator looks closely at the word "thoughts." He shows a man asking God for help with knots he cannot untie himself:
He knows about his own sickness too. God's holy presence is not only a refuge for him from the wickedness around him. He seeks it as a refuge from himself too, and welcomes its light, as the place where sin cannot be hidden. "Search me," he cries, "O Mighty One, and know my heart; try me, and know my diverse" — literally, "branching" — "thoughts." He means all those tangles of thought, so confusing to him, which God alone could unravel. Then: "and see if there be any grievous way in me" — anything that is grievous to You.
Self-Examination Is Not the Same Thing
Notice who does the searching. The prayer hands that work to God:
The words we come to Him with are not, "Lord, I have searched and tried myself, and I have seen." They are rather, "Search me, O God, and try me; and see if there be any grievous way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting."
Our own verdict on ourselves is unreliable. The prayer aims at the faults we cannot see:
Is there anything inside me that would grieve You, anything against You? Perhaps I am holding on to something selfish. Something may be deceiving me. I may have wrong thoughts about myself. So I need God to search me and try me, "and lead me in the way everlasting."
Asking for What Is Already True
God learns nothing when you pray this. So the prayer asks not for information but for a way of living:
The fact is, of course, that God knows all about me at all times. He knows whether I am sleeping or awake, and whether I am aware that His eyes are on me or not. But when I grasp the truth that God knows everything, the way the psalmist had, I shall, like him, want to walk in the awareness of it all the time. My heart will cry out to God that day by day I may always walk with the light of His face shining on me.
Why a Sharp Probe Is a Kindness
God's searching sounds threatening. One writer explains what this examination does, and why we can welcome it:
Even an Old Testament saint could say, "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." He did not know the greater power and privilege of the gospel. How much more should we welcome the word that makes it good in us! That word detects and destroys the seeds of trouble. What could be more gracious, even if the probe is sharp?
Where the Searching Is Meant to End
The request does not stop at exposure. It asks for a road, and what marks that road is what it does not contain:
The searchings of God showed him the evil course he was taking. It was a path of his own choosing, but against the guidance of God... But now he wants to be led in the way everlasting. The path that has no death in it is the path he cries out for.
Another writer goes further. He reads that everlasting way as a Person, not only a route:
"Lead me in the way everlasting." Is not this way Christ Himself, the only way, the way everlasting?... All is well that leads us "in the way everlasting," that beats us out of our own ways and brings us there.
Summary
- Searched. God has already searched you. This prayer tells Him nothing new. It asks you to live under eyes that never close.
- Surrendered. The prayer is "search me," not "I have examined myself" — it hands the verdict to the One who cannot be deceived.
- Sharp. The probe may hurt, but it detects and destroys the seeds of trouble before they grow; nothing could be kinder.
- Sorted. He asks God to untangle the branching thoughts he cannot unravel. He asks Him to point out anything that grieves God, not just what shames us.
- Sent. Exposure is never the destination. The prayer ends with God leading you along the way that has no death in it — a way one writer calls Christ Himself.