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

I remember singing “Search Me” from our hymnal when I was a kid. I preferred the melody to the popular “Just As I Am.” Edwin Orr’s hymn was based on these verses in the 139th Psalm:

Search me, O God and know my heart today 
Try me, O Savior and know my thoughts I pray; 
See if there be some wicked way in me; 
Cleanse me from ev'ry sin and set me free. 

David ends his Psalm as it began, acknowledging God’s intimate knowledge of every man, but here David is requesting that God reveal to David “any grievous way” David may be unaware of. We often gradually become desensitized just by living in the world around us and our hearts sometimes harden as a result.

I remember watching a television show in prime time with a friend many years ago and I was convicted of my own hardness of heart as my friend recoiled at the scene of my tv. I should have been appalled, but over time I was conditioned by what I say on a weekly basis. It can happen to any of us. It probably already has, don’t you think?

God knows our secret thoughts. He knows what separates us from His kindness and so it is important to recognize and repent of our hardness of heart.

Even though David is known as a man who pursued God with all his heart, he had many failings. Yet, as we can read in the following verses, following Nathan’s confrontation of David’s very public personal sin, David responded with a penitent heart –

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Psalm 51:10-12