Bible Reading: Psalm 139
“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!” (Psalms 139:23-24)
Our God is all-knowing. He is an all-present God, and He is an almighty God. God knows everything about us. He knows everything about the world. There is no place where we can run from God because God is everywhere. There is not one thing that God does not know.
When we read this psalm, this hymn explores far and wide the depth and breadth of God’s knowledge and omnipresence. Yet, it returns to conclude with a personal plea. The hymn turns and invites us to ask God to search our own hearts. God knows what is in the deepest part of our hearts. He knows our deepest thoughts. He knows our sins. He knows our darkest failures. What should our response be to such a great God?
This psalm invites us to open our hearts to the all-knowing God. Ask God to check our hearts and to point out to us all the ways that grieve Him. Ask God that He would clean them, grace us with repentance and lead us onward towards lives that please Him more and more each day!
God the Source of All Good
Valley of the Vision: Puritan Prayers and Devotions
The heavens declare thy glory,
The earth thy riches,
The universe is thy temple;
Thy presence fills immensity,
Yet thou hast of thy pleasure created life,
and communicated happiness;
Thou hast made me what I am, and given me
what I have;
In thee I live and move and have my being;
Thy providence has set the bounds of my habitation,
and wisely administers all my affairs.
I thank thee for thy riches to me in Jesus,
for the unclouded revelation of him in thy Word,
where I behold his Person, character, grace, glory,
humiliation, sufferings, death, and resurrection;
Give me to feel a need of his continual saviourhood,
and cry with Job, ‘I am vile’,
with Peter, ‘I perish’,
with the publican, ‘Be merciful to me, a sinner’.
Subdue in me the love of sin,
Let me know the need of renovation as well as
of forgiveness,
in order to serve and enjoy thee for ever.
I come to thee in the all-prevailing name of Jesus,
with nothing of my own to plead,
no works, no worthiness, no promises.
I am often straying,
often knowingly opposing thy authority,
often abusing thy goodness;
Much of my guilt arises from my religious privileges,
my low estimation of them,
my failure to use them to my advantage,
But I am not careless of thy favour or regardless of
thy glory;
Impress me deeply with a sense of thine
omnipresence, that thou art about my path,
my ways, my lying down, my end.
