Searchlight
Today's "hungry prayer" is found in a beautiful psalm that has an awkward ending...Our passage comes from Ps.139 and it's a much loved Psalm.
The two thirds are comforting and inspiring
- Lord you have searched me and know me
- You know my words before I speak them
- You're behind me and before me
- There's nowhere I can go that You can't find me
- Even the darkness can't hide me - You change darkness to light
- You created and knit me together in the womb
- You've written up all my days in Your book
- Your amazing thoughts outnumber the grains of sand
- You're with me when I sleep and when I'm awake
But then David takes a sharp turn: He speaks out angrily against the wicked and those who misuse God's name and act wrongly. It's a strong and harsh denunciation and hatred of evil in the light of the comforting thoughts we've had thus far.
Commentators suggest that this is a "loyalty declaration". We find examples of this in contemporary literature: "With my friend you shall be friend, and with my enemy you shall be enemy..."
BUT having contemplated the extremes of evil, David takes his loyalty even further when he invites God to shine a searchlight into his life. "Search me, know me, test me." David knows that the path to wickedness can have small beginnings. He doesn't want to become one of God's enemies. So he prays: "Search me!"This is a hungry prayer - knowing that God already knows all of him, he asks God to intensify the search. He wants a life fully committed to God.
| If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! 20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. 23 Search me, O 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. (Psalms139:19-24) |
