SEARCHED (Psalm 139)

Distributed by a right-to-life group, this represents a baby at about 11 to 12

weeks in the womb. He already squints, swallows and makes a fist. He has

fingerprints and can kick. He sucks his thumb. He weighs about one ounce

and all body systems are working. "Knit by God" in a mother's womb!

 (Psalm 139:13-16)

  

(Part of an ongoing series of psalms to study when "feeling down," from pastor-counselor David Seamand's book, Healing for Damaged Emotions.)

A 24-year-old Irishman, J. Edwin Orr, had gone to the north island of New Zealand in 1936 to preach at evangelistic services. Revival broke out. People publicly confessed their sins.  Believers were reconciled. So many wanted to come that midnight services were added. As Orr prepared to leave the island, four Maori girls sang him a native song of farewell. He couldn’t forget the tune nor what he’d experienced in his ministry there. As he stood in a New Zealand post office, he jotted on the back of an envelope verses to a hymn inspired by the words of Psalm 139. A brilliant man, Orr would go on to earn several doctorates and write many well-known books on revival. But this simple hymn with its haunting melody, inspired by Psalm 139, has left its mark on worship. It begins:

Search me, O God, and know my heart today;
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray.
See if there be some wicked way in me;
Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.

DIVINE DIMENSIONS
Psalm 139 has no match in its comforting assurance that God is everywhere-knowing (“omniscient”), everywhere-present (“omnipresent”), and everywhere-powerful (“omnipotent”). It’s the psalm I go to when I need assurance that nothing, absolutely nothing, escapes God.

ALL KNOWING: God knows us. Nothing is hidden. What we do, what we say, what we think, where we go—He’s on top of it all. He’s behind and before the events of our lies. Scary. Yet comforting. His perfect knowledge and awareness defies comprehension. But, He is God.
ALL PRESENT: God is with us, everywhere, all the time. Verse 7 asks, Where can we go from His Spirit or presence? Nowhere. No place in heaven, earth, in dark or light. “Darkness is as light to you,” David said (v. 12).
ALL POWERFUL:We live in scary times of complex scientific efforts toward health and reproduction. Yet the mystery of sperm and ovum becoming a complete human being remains God’s work. “Fearfully and wonderfully made,” David described each of us being “knitted” in our mother’s womb. Those first kicks, the moving “bump,” the crush of labor, the excitement of new life squawking as air expands lungs for the first time. It’s God-work, and always will be.  
GOD-MATH
I’m glad God isn’t afraid of superlatives:

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. (vv. 17-18)

When you think about it, “infinity”—symbolized by something like the number “8” on its side—cannot be thought about. It is too huge, too unfathomable, too "out-there.” Infinity needs “God” in its definition. Try counting to “infinity” to get to sleep! Maybe David did, thus his remark, “When I awake, I am still with you.”

GOD-DEFENSE 
From praise to perturbed: David expresses a little righteous anger over the hateful actions of non-believers. Are we any different? Does not a lot of hurt originate with those who deny or distort a holy God? Turn back to Psalm 11:4-6 for a description of the destination of those who oppose God-followers.

EXPLORATORY SURGERY
 A well-known minister of our times remarked that a lot of contemporary worship omits an important element of approaching God: confession of sins. This is where the ending verses fit in:Search me. O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (vv. 23-24)

David’s willing to undergo “exploratory spiritual surgery” to make sure all is right between him and God. Can we expect any less as we stand before a God who is all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful?  

Psalm 139 is not for the arrogant believer. It’s not a bandage for times we feel beat up. It’s a reminder that we bow at the feet of a holy and all-present God who knows our weaknesses and yet has loved us lavishly since the egg and sperm joined to become “us.” 

For those reasons, yes, this is a psalm to study, dwell in, pray over in “times of feeling down.”  As Orr’s hymn declared, God can set us free.