Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! Psalms 139:23 (ESV)

Would you really want to invite someone to examine your mind, to read your every thought and feeling? “Come on in, poke around, see what you can find.” It would be appalling to me to have anyone see the “real me”, to expose myself to such an unrestricted exploration.

Fortunately, our neighbors, friends, and family lack the ability to read minds. (Save for my wife who seems to have the ability when it comes to me.)

God can read minds, 

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. Psalms 139:2-4

If we try to hide, He is there,

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. Psalms 139:7-12

God even knew us before we were born and had any thoughts at all,

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalms 139:13-16

If God already knows us, then why would we ever feel the need to invite God to know what He already knows? The answer is found in verse 24, …lead me in the way everlasting! We want God to know because we desire to change. We want God to lead us in the everlasting way.

Why should we trust God enough to have Him know us completely? It is because He made us. He is a loving Father, He means to heal us, not harm us. By voluntarily exposing ourselves to God’s thorough examination, we declare our trust in His grace, and plead for transformation.

It is only by being open to God, confessing our wickedness, that we can experience the fullness of His grace and mercy toward us. And by His loving leading into the way everlasting, we can be mended and transformed.

The anthem recording below, “Know My Heart”, is based on Psalm 139. My friend and fellow choir member at the time, Diane Wilcox, sang this song during a summer worship service, when the choir was on break for the season. I apologize for the quality of the recording; we did not have the finest of sound systems. Diane died last year. At her funeral service, I ask the presiding pastor to play this recording. It was the first time many of Diane’s relatives had heard her sing. After the service, they told me what a blessing it was to hear her for the first time. I hope you will be blessed as well.