Psalm 139
Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
139:1 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 afar.
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,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall 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 dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it 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 saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.
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 complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
(ESV)
God On the Run
For much of his life, King David was on the run. His enemies pursued him relentlessly. At times David found himself stumbling, sprinting, scrambling across one side of a mountain, hopping over cracks, hiding in crevices, praying, hoping—while just on the other side of the mountain, Saul and his army pursued him with deadly persistence. If they caught him, they would kill him.
In God’s providence, David escaped. Every time.
But when it came to God, David found God inescapable. Wherever David turned, there was God. He says it this way in Psalm 139,
“O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
> you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
> and are acquainted with all my ways.
You hem me in, behind and before,
> and lay your hand upon me.
God knew David. And God’s knowledge of David, his personal compassionate, intimate knowledge was vast. But God’s presence was just as vast. David couldn’t escape the consuming presence of God. Even on the run. David writes,
Where shall I go from your Spirit?
> Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
> If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
> and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
> and your right hand shall hold me.
We can’t escape God either. Why? He has come to earth.
Our promise this Christmas, a promise of comfort, is not just that God is inescapable, but that God is among us. He pursues us. At Jesus’ incarnation, an angel gives Jesus a new name. What is it? Emmanuel! “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).
Think of it. God among us.
A Hasidic rabbi of the 18th century, Levi Yitzchek of Berditchov (1740-1810), didn’t know or believe in Jesus as a Messiah. But he wrote a stunning poem meditating on God’s presence. It goes like this:
Where I wander—You! > Where I ponder—You!
Only You everywhere, You, always You. > You. You. You. When I am gladdened—You! > When I am saddened—You!
Only You, everywhere You! You. You. You. > Sky is You! Earth is You! You above! You below! In > every trend, at every end, Only You, everywhere You!
The truth of Christmas is this. When we were on the run, stumbling, scrambling away from his presence, hiding and hoping, he came. And he came to save. And now:
Where we wander—Jesus! Where we ponder—Jesus!
Christ is among us. He knows our sitting and our rising. He himself, the infant king is now the one hemmed in, behind and before.
Jesus is God on the run—to save us. May we praise him this Christmas season.
Jon Dennis