Devotion 8.23.22

"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!" Psalm 139:23 - 24

There was a man, once a member at Hope Lutheran, who was talking to me about David's psalms. To know this guy was to know a classic West Texan, self-made, very confident in himself but not in a sinful way (that I could tell because he was also humble in many ways), and a great sense of humor. He had held a high position in a global company and had been a Marine in service to his country, so I hope I'm accurately painting a picture of a guy you'd like to hang around.

Anyway, to David's psalms, he asked, "Do you ever just read those and think David is one whiny guy? Of course, he asked 42 or 43-year-old me back when I was full of self-confidence and self-assured as well, so I said I'd never really looked at David as "whiny." Yet, as I read his psalms more in-depth, I can see how he might hear that because David is very much a modern man. By that I mean David is certainly willing to be vulnerable. That was a word my dad's generation never uttered.

David, however, is different. He's king. He is a man after God's own heart. He's been saved by God on several occasions, including the big one when he murdered a faithful servant general in Israel's own army at war for his king, David. Yet, as David writes (on many occasions), he asks God to search his heart.

What's powerful about that for us to read is that David is confessing another modern aspect here: cognitive bias. I am blind to my own biases and should be open to the idea they exist. David isn't taunting God in this passage (the entire psalm is a confession to a God who knows us intimately with familiar passages like, "You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made." (139:13 - 14) David is inviting God for a close and personal examination to not only search his heart, but to see where he is erring and to lead him in the way of the ever lasting.

As we confess on Sundays (and sometime during the week), do we invite God into our own hearts to show us where we stumble? Do we say to Him, "You know what I don't know - my blindness to my own sin - show me those errors and reveal them to me. Correct me, so I can seek forgiveness and have you lead and guide me to a more excellent way through your Son Jesus Christ."?

David's psalms are powerful prayers for us to use to open our eyes and our hearts to God and His Word. They are a "lamp to our feet and a light to our path." (109:105)