(J.R. Miller, 1912) LISTEN to audio! Download audio
“Search me, O 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 everlasting way!” Psalm 139:23-24
It will be worth our while to think seriously of the things in us, that only God can see. Therefore there are sins which are hidden from ourselves, of which our conscience is not aware–our unknown errors. …There are errors and evils in the holiest life on earth, which only God’s eye can detect. Therefore we must ask God to search us, if we would be made clean.
SEARCH ME O GOD
We cannot see our own faults, even as our neighbors can see them. But there is wisdom in the wish that we might see ourselves, as others see us–for it would free us from many a blunder and foolish notion.
We are prejudiced in our own favor,
and are disposed to be charitable toward our own shortcomings.
Additionally, we make all sorts of allowances for our own faults,
and are wonderfully patient with our own weaknesses.
We are blind to our own blemishes
and look at our good qualities through magnifying glasses;
We see our faults and errors with the lenses reversed–making them appear very small.
and only look at the best of ourselves.
SEARCH ME:
If you were to meet yourself on the street some morning–that is, the person God sees you to be, you would probably not recognize yourself!
We remember the little story that the prophet Nathan told King David, about a rich man’s injustice toward a poor man–and how David’s anger flamed up. “This man must die!” cried the king. He did not recognize himself in the man he so despised, until Nathan quietly said, “You are the man!”
We are all too much like David and do not know our real self.
We do not imagine there is so much about us that is morally ugly and foul, that is positively wicked.
But God searches and knows the innermost and hidden things of our heart!
“Search me, O 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 everlasting way!”
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