Psalm 139: 17 – 24 NLT
17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
18 I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!
19 O God, if only you would destroy the wicked!
Get out of my life, you murderers!
20 They blaspheme you;
your enemies misuse your name.
21 O LORD, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you?
Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you?
22 Yes, I hate them with total hatred,
for your enemies are my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
As I read these last verses in Psalm 139, I wonder why KIng David included those middle verses about the wicked people. What was going through his mind?
This whole psalm is about how God loves us and cares for us every second of each day. “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!”
Those verses sum up what I think about our Heavenly Father. Knowing that God loves me and cares for me no matter what is going on in life, stabilizes my life, gives me calm. But am I calm all the time? Do I worry about my kids, my grandkids, my finances, my health, situations I face …??? Yes, I do. And when I find my stomach tightening, my shoulders aching – I remind myself that God is with me and he cares about all those things I’m worried about.
David had an incredible life. He started out as a shepherd, the youngest in the family. And he experienced some amazing moments as a young man – killing the giant Goliath with his sling. He became the king of Israel after a long time evading King Saul who was out to get him. Then as king, he led many battles to establish Israel as a mighty nation that the surounding countries respected. David wanted to build a temple and started collecting the material for the build, but God told him the temple was David’s son’s task. David’s life was too focused on fighting.
So, it’s not surprising that as David thinks about God’s love and care for him, he also starts thinking about all the fights and wars he’s been in. All the evil men he’s come across as rulers around him did their best to destroy Israel.
But then we have those last 2 verses: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” David stops talking about trying to eliminate the wicked people in his life, and asks for God’s forgiveness. Isn’t that what we should do too?
I suspect that we are all similar to David. We do trust God and we are so thankful for his love and care for us. But we are not perfect. Sometimes we worry about the difficult things in our lives. Sometimes we wonder why God doesn’t do something about a situation we think should be fixed. In those moments when we are challenging God, those last verses speak loudly.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
We are assured that when we speak those words to our Heavenly Father, he does forgive and continues loving and caring for us. “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” (1 John 1: 9) We can rest in the first words of the psalm that we read today:
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!
Our song for today is Jesus Loves Me by Chris Tomlin.