David - "Search Me"

Introduction:

As you go through the Bible you will notice a variety of prayers by God’s people.

“Not only did they pray about things that were incredibly personal—to conceive a child, for instance (1 Sam. 1:27)—but also their prayers were often so practical, for food and provision (Matt. 6:11) and escape from their enemies (Ps. 59:1–2).

Sometimes they seemed to gently whisper to a loving God. Other times they yelled at him in agony and frustration.

They often pleaded with God sincerely. Then later they’d cry out from the depths of their anguish and rail at God like a tired toddler thrashing in the arms of a parent.

They prayed for boldness to share their faith. They prayed for walls, both internally and externally, to fall.

Daniel prayed for the mouths of hungry lions to be shut,

and Jonah prayed for the belly of a hungry whale to be opened.

Gideon prayed for his fleece to be wet one day and dry another.

God’s people prayed whether they were giddy with joy or crushed by sorrow.

Their prayers were honest. Desperate. Fiery. Gutsy. Real.”

And here we are often simply “praying that God would keep me safe and bless my burger and fries.”

- Adapted from Craig Groeschel - Dangerous Prayers

Have you ever considered praying a dangerous endeavor?

One writer notes:

Prayer is perilous. It’s dangerous. It’s utterly unsafe. In fact, if prayer were a substance, the Surgeon General would probably slap a warning label on it. And why not?

Moses asked God for mercy and spent the next four decades coddling God’s people across the desert.

Elijah prayed for fire and found himself on the queen’s list of most-wanted criminals.

The prophet Isaiah cried, “I’m here, send me!” and—according to tradition—his king sawed him in half.

[Jesus] prayed, “Not what I want, but what you want”—and spent six hours on an [old rugged wooden cross].

Get the picture? Prayer is hazardous to personal comfort and safety.

Jones, T. P. (2005). Praying Like the Jew, Jesus: Recovering the Ancient Roots of New Testament Prayer. Messianic Jewish Publishers.

Dr. Caudill was known for his “dangerous prayer” Lord, teach me what I need to be taught, take me where I need to be taken, and use me how I need to be used.

McCoy, L. (2011). Spiritual Warfare for Women. Bethany House Publishers.

Ray Comfort tells the story of how after speaking at a camp, he was shown to his lodging for Sunday night. It was nice beautiful cozy room, with a large window overlooking the harbor below, a huge soft comfortable armchair - he said the whole place was made for Comfort - making a play on the word comfort there -

About that time the hostess came into the room with a cup of hot chocolate and a plate full of fresh home baked goodies. Ray reached out to take one of the goodies from the plate when suddenly, much to his shock and the surprise of the woman, he jumped out of his seat like a terrified cat on a blistering hot tin roof. He turned around and saw a yellow and black bee crawling around the seat of the easy chair. he had been squarely stung on the hindmost part!

He was in too much pain to be embarrassed - he jumped about the room finding consolation only in the thought, “There’s got to be a sermon in this...”

Some years before this Comfort had prayed what he called, “a most dangerous prayer.” He had asked “God to cause things to happen in his life that he could use as sermon illustrations.”

He said - at this point in time he regretted having made that request.

Comfort, R. (1999). How to win souls & influence people. Bridge-Logos Publishers.

Sister Helen Perryman - the story is told by her grandson, my brother-in-law Randy - that she felt one day that she needed more patience and she read in the Bible that patience comes by tribulations - so she prayed that she might have some tribulations - talk about a dangerous prayer - she later testified - she never prayed that prayer again.

I want to take these last few Wednesdays I have with you and talk to you about some Biblical dangerous prayers that are transformative and beyond the safe, comfortable, tepid prayers we are so prone to resort to.

David prays a dangerous prayer in Psalm 139 One writer referred to it as "The Crown of all the Psalms" due to its profound theological and psychological depth - Beacon Bible Commentary

Psalm 139 is David’s worshipful confession that God knows him completely, surrounds him constantly, created him personally, values him immeasurably, and therefore must search and lead him entirely.

Psalm 139 KJV 1900

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. 1 O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. 3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word in my tongue, But, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. 5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, And laid thine hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain unto it. 7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, And thy right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; Even the night shall be light about me. 12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; But the night shineth as the day: The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. 13 For thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Marvellous are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from thee, When I was made in secret, And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; And in thy book all my members were written, Which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. 17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: When I awake, I am still with thee. 19 Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. 20 For they speak against thee wickedly, And thine enemies take thy name in vain. 21 Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

The Psalm flows through five movements

I. The God Who Knows Me (God's Omniscience)

Psalm 139:1–6

Key Statement:

"O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me."

David reflects on God's exhaustive knowledge of his life.

God's Knowledge Includes:

His actions (Ps 139:2a)

“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising,”

David in his trying to explain the idea of God’s omniscience or knowledge of everything he uses extremes to paint a word picture

The Lord is portrayed as knowing David’s life from A to Z.

The Lord knows his private life as he sits

The Lord knows his public life as he rises to go out

God Knows His thoughts (Ps 139:2b)

“Thou understandest my thought afar off.”

Even from “afar off” or “from far away” the omniscient Lord knows David down to the smallest and most minute detail - even his thoughts

The thoughts of David (and for us as well) include what bothers him, he desires, enjoys, longs for, and values, what

His habits and movements (Ps 139:3)

Every detail of David’s life is open to the Lord’s gaze

His words (Ps 139:4)

Even the words

I AM HEMMED IN (Ps 139:5)

Thou hast beset me behind and before...

David is applies all of what has been said before - he says that God “encircles” or “surrounds” or “hems him in” - some even translate it as “besieged”

As I understand what David has said so far - he feels nestled in God’s protective care, safe from assault from every direction.

After contemplating all of this David records his response for us:

"Such knowledge is too wonderful for me" (Ps 139: 6)

We see here: Nothing about me is hidden from God.

Not only do we see The God Who Knows Me (God’s Omniscience)

we see...

II. The God Who Surrounds Me (God's Omnipresence)

Psalm 139:7–12

Here David asks two Key but hypothetical Question:

"Whither shall I go from thy spirit?" (Ps 139:7a)

“Whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (Ps 139:7b)

The assumed answer is “nowhere” David could never escape the Lord’s presence

David then lists five extreme locations:

Heaven - The abode of God and angels (Ps 139:8a)

Hell - Sheol - Where the dead reside (Ps 139:8b)

East ("wings of the morning") (Ps 139: 9)

West ("uttermost parts of the sea") (Ps 139: 9)

Darkness (Ps 139:11–12)

David's point is not geographical but theological: God's presence is unlimited.

The Psalm ties God’s omnipresence directly to His Spirit

David is not talking about an impersonal force spread throughout the universe. He is speaking about the personal presence of God Himself.

This is significant because:

God's omnipresence is personal.

God's omnipresence is relational.

God's omnipresence is not merely spatial.

David is not saying:

"God's power is everywhere."

He is saying:

"God Himself is everywhere."

Not only do we see The God Who Knows Me (God’s Omniscience)

and The God Who Surrounds Me (God's Omnipresence)

we also see...

III. The God Who Made Me (God's Creative Power)

Psalm 139:13–18

David’s Key Statement in this Passage:

"For thou hast possessed my reins." (Ps 139:13)

David moves from God's knowledge of him to God's formation of him.

That word “reins” is a Hebrew idiom

NIV translates it “inmost being” it can refer to “kidneys” but in context here it refers to our conscience - an individual’s most intimate center of emotions and of moral sensitivity - that which God tests and examines when he "searches" a person

David then lists four of God's Works:

Formed his inward parts (Ps 139:13)

Knit him together in the womb (Ps 139:13)

Fashioned his frame (Ps 139:14–16)

Ordained his days (Ps 139:16)

This causes David to respond with:

"I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Ps 139:14)

Theme: I am intentionally created by God.

We have seen The God Who Knows Me (God’s Omniscience)

and The God Who Surrounds Me (God's Omnipresence) as well as The God Who Made Me (God’s Creative Power)

but David is not finished...

IV. The God Who Judges Evil (God's Holiness)

Psalm 139:19–22

David’s Observation:

"Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God."

This section may seem to come out of nowhere, but it is actually the natural result of everything David has been saying about God.

If:

God knows all,

God is everywhere,

God created all,

then God must also judge evil. And David reaches a crossroad:

If this God is truly holy, all-knowing, and worthy of worship, then what should my relationship be to those who openly oppose Him? Verses 19–22 answer that question.

Rejects the wicked (v. 19)

Rejects blasphemy (v. 20)

Aligns himself with God (vv. 21–22)

Theme: Loyalty to God requires opposition to evil.all

All of this:

The God Who Knows Me (God’s Omniscience)

The God Who Surrounds Me (God's Omnipresence)

The God Who Made Me (God’s Creative Power)

The God Who Judges Evil (God's Holiness)

leads David to conclude:

V. The God Who Must Search Me (Personal Consecration)

Psalm 139:23–24

Key Prayer:

"Search me, O God."

The psalm comes full circle.

Verse 1: "Thou hast searched me."

Verse 23:

"Search me."

David moves from doctrine to devotion.

He is praying a dangerous prayer:

Search my heart

Test my thoughts

Reveal anything unChristlike

Lead me in the everlasting way

Laura Ingall’s Wilder tells about in her books a time a neighbor was drilling a well.

Digging a well was dangerous business in Little House on the Prairie. When a neighbor passes out at the bottom while digging, Pa reacts immediately and goes down after him. Topside are Mary and Laura and Ma, who uncharacteristically lets her guard down and sobs once Pa returns with the unconscious neighbor. Seeing her mother cry for the first time, Wilder wrote, “That was a terrible day.” Soon her father turned it around: “’Come along, Laura,’” he said, “’and I’ll show you something.’” He brought her out for a science experiment on how to clear the air for safety in a well. “Pa lighted the end of the string and waited till the spark was crawling quickly along it. Then he dropped the little bundle [of gun powder] into the well. In a minute they heard a muffled bang! and a puff of smoke came out of the well. ‘That will bring the gas,’ Pa said.” Then he let Laura check it with a lit candle down the well.

Man’s inner most being must be tested and checked - but scripture talks about it not being within man to direct his steps or even to know his own heart.

David’s remedy?… He asks God to search him.

This is dangerous praying

Dangerous because it makes us vulnerable

Dangerous because we must be willing to surrender and submit to whatever God says

Dangerous - but not to be avoided

David has just given us a whole litany of verses saying why we can trust God with searching us out -

But how does God search us? One of the tools God often uses is the conscience He placed within us. Solomon described it this way...

Proverbs 20:27 “27 The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, Searching all the inward parts of the belly.”

this verse is like a box of wisdom about to burst open in truth and reality

This word “spirit” is an interesting word and one that scholars have wrangled over for years:

Basically the Hebrew word used here for “spirit” means “wind” or “breathe”

It hearkens back to Genesis 2:7

Genesis 2:7 KJV 1900

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

And Job references this as well when he writes: Job 33:4

Job 33:4 KJV 1900

4 The Spirit of God hath made me, And the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.

This life that God has put into us is seen by many scholars to represent the conscience.

Now there is a difference between conscious and conscience

Conscious is an adjective that means "awake" or "alert",

while conscience is a noun that refers to a person's inner sense of right and wrong.

For example, you might describe someone as "conscious" if they are talking and alert after an accident,

or you might describe someone's conscience if they feel guilty after cheating on a test

The next word we need to notice is “candle” in KJV - a candle probably doesn’t need much explaining - many of us are familiar with candles - but most of us have only used them as accessories or for aromatic therapy -

But the thought of “candle” as the “spirit of man” here has a couple of inferences

A candle’s flame is not self-originating. It doesn’t suddenly burst into flame on its own - if it does you need to get rid of it.

A self-igniting candle - that’s the stuff science fiction is made of

A candle - has what you might call “borrowed light” it gets its source from something else

So with the spirit of man—it is not self-existent and eternal, nor did it kindle itself,

it owes its existence to that God who is the intellectual and moral light of the universe, because He is the source of all knowledge and goodness.

That same Divine Creator, who said “Let there be light and there was light,” who set the sun in the heavens to rule the day, made man in His own image by breathing into the human body that spiritual life which makes man a living soul, and distinguishes him from the animal creation around him.

Another thing to note about candles - is they are not just for decorating birthday cakes and romantic tables, they are for light -

During this era a candle was one of the ways you found your way in darkened rooms, or through the night or even to light a room.

Now the KJV uses the term candle - but their candles were not made of wax like today - they were really flammable liquid like oil of some type poured into a container and a wick dropped in it and lit with fire.

This is why most English translations uses the word LAMP - that is what this is referring to, just like the lamp they had in the tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple

Romans several centuries later would begin to make candles out of rendered animal fat - that later evolved and developed into what we have today.

Another term we need to think about before we go further is the word “belly” when we use that word today we are thinking of our stomach or abdomen.

I was at business lunch several years ago of Christian business owners and the leader of the group was handed her plate of food and was admiring it and suddenly blurted out: “Get in my belly”

But this isn’t what Solomon is referring to when he writes about God searching our belly.

God isn’t going to do a gastroscopy

Belly is a reference to the innermost self - who you are - your affections, desires, what we call today THE HEART

Proverbs 20:27 NKJV

27 The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the inner depths of his heart.

Proverbs 20:27 NIV

27 The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord that sheds light on one’s inmost being.

Dallas Willard a tremendous philosopher and Christian pictured Proverbs 20:27 this way:

Form a picture of God walking through your personality, using your spirit as a candle, directing your attention to one thing after another. Your goal is to cooperate with God and pray, “Bring the light to bear upon my life, please.” Dallas Willard- Hearing God Through the Year: A 365-Day Devotional (Week Twenty)

Haldor Lillenas was a godly dedicated man, committed to serving the Lord. But like all of God’s people, he experienced difficult times, as he did in 1919. He says:

“My wife was very ill, and it was with a heavy heart that I left home that morning [to head to the office]….I was busy writing songs, compiling and editing books, doing what I felt God had called me to do. But I sometimes wondered how many of them [the songs] would be sung. Suddenly as I drove along the avenue, it seemed that Someone quietly opened the car door and sat down beside me. I could feel the warmth of His sacred presence.”

It was with that unusual sense of the Lord’s comforting nearness that Lillenas began, as he drove along, to create and sing the present song of dedication.

1) I have found a deep peace that I never had known And a joy this world could not afford, Since I yielded control of my body and soul To my wonderful, wonderful Lord.

My wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord, By angels and seraphs in heaven adored; I know Thou art mine, my Saviour divine, My wonderful, wonderful Lord.

3) All the talents I have I have laid at Thy feet, Thy approval shall be my reward; Be my store great or small, I surrender it all To my wonderful, wonderful Lord.

This is known as a hymn of dedication - and it seems that Lillenas was capturing David’s prayer of “search me” especially in one verse...

No - not explicitly but see if you hear it there...

I desire that my life shall be ordered by Thee That my will be in perfect accord - With Thine own sov'reign will Thy desires to fulfill My wonderful, wonderful Lord.

OH Lord search me, I willingly invite you to search me because

I desire that my life shall be ordered by Thee That my will be in perfect accord - With Thine own sov'reign will Thy desires to fulfill My wonderful, wonderful Lord.

I want you to search me because you are the only one who can help me