Skip to main content

Search Me

             If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.

            Search me, 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. (Psalm 139:19-24)

 

            The first paragraph of today’s passage sounds like David was plucking away at his harp, praising God, and opened his eyes to see a group of evil men skulking about. It’s an ugly interruption to something beautiful. Yes, we’re supposed to hate evil, but it seems as if David got majorly triggered.

            It’s sort of like my previous Shiba, Honey. If you touched her without speaking to her or otherwise letting her know you were there, she was likely to attack. After a few seconds, you would see her mind switch on with an “Oh, it’s you. OK.” Only Honey didn’t think she’d done anything wrong. I’m not sure she even remembered what she’d done. David, on the other hand, seemed to doubt. Instead of returning to the lofty heights of his praise, he seems to gaze into the murky depths of his soul.

            But isn’t this the way we all are? We begin to worship and praise and suddenly find ourselves lecturing someone who isn’t God and isn’t there. Our minds drift to something that excites an emotion other than love: lust, fear, anger, anxiety, self-centeredness, self-pity, etc. After a time, we realize how quickly and how far our minds have traveled from where we wanted them to be. We return to God, penitent and pensive, perhaps swinging from one extreme of arrogance (How good I am and bad they are!) to the other (I’m a worm!)

            David didn’t do either in this passage. Instead of beating himself up for his detour, he simply invites God to search him and guide him. This is a lesson that Brother Lawrence also taught in Practicing the Presence of God. If he found that his thoughts had wandered, he simply confessed to God that God could change in him what he could not, and he returned to the subject from which his mind had strayed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more