Can’t Get Away with Anything (Psalm 139)

As a child, I always looked younger than my age. When I boarded the public bus to take me to school, I would pay the “kid’s” rate which was cheaper. Then one day, on my 14th birthday, I decided that it was wrong. I knew that after the age of 12 you should pay full fare. I was convinced the bus driver didn’t know so I had pretended to be young. The problem was that I knew how old I was and so did God!

These words from Psalm 139:1-4 could be intimidating—uncomfortable to hear! 

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
    O Lord, you know it completely.

I suspect that I am not alone. We work so hard at keeping our dirty laundry out of sight from others. We believe that if we put a good front up: dress right, go to the right events, plaster a smile on our face, people will be unaware of what is really going on inside of us! We believe we can fool others into thinking we are someone we really aren’t!

Then we read our Psalm—and we discover that though we may fool others, God knows it all!  God knows our thoughts, our dreams, our fears and hatreds, our failures as well as our successes.  God knows where I go—there can be no sneaking around—out of God’s knowledge. God knows my good intentions as well as my not-so-good intentions. The Psalmist is right (vs. 7) “Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?”

So, what do we do?  We pray, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.”  These words remind us that the God who has created us and knows us so intimately, also forgives us of any falsehood and pretense, of wrong-doing and wrong attitudes.  It is only in that way that we can truly “walk in the path of Jesus.”  

So today we sing this prayer, 

Take O take me as I am; summon out what I shall be;

Set your seal upon my heart and live in me.” Amen.