Search Me, O God

“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” –Psalm 39:23-24 (KJV).

“Does He not see my ways, and count all my steps?” Job asked his accusing friends in Job 31:4. Both Job and David are implying their own integrity. David asks God to search his heart and to know his thoughts. The implication, by asking for this search-and-find from God Himself, is that David will be judged innocent of wicked ways. Job, too, in pleading his case before his friends, knows that they cannot find him guilty as imagined, even though hard times had fallen upon Job, and in the thinking of that day, adversity was sure evidence of guilt and punishment.

After David’s prayer in Psalm 139:19-22 concerning his enemies, inserted as it was in this marvelous Psalm of praise for God’s omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence and providence, it seems almost as if David is turning again to God in complete reliance and trust, knowing that their relationship is steadfast, immovable, and that David has his heart right and can approach God confidently. In prayer meeting recently, our associate minister of education and youth was talking about the value of our keeping a prayer journal. In his teaching he mentioned that when we read the psalms, we are gaining very intimate glimpses, written down, of how persons sought God and found Him. All of Psalm 139 is a very good example of how a seeking person talks to God. This is a deep-seated, sincere invitation: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.” The assurance on which David ends, “Lead me in the way everlasting,” is reechoed and restated in Proverbs 12:28: “In the way of righteousness is life, And in its pathway there is no death.” There, centuries before Christ’s resurrection from the dead and His teachings about eternal life, the writer of this Psalm and the wise man who wrote Proverbs were thinking in terms of the everlasting way which leads to life, not death.

A poet named J. Edwin Orr (b. 1912-?) was reading and meditating on Psalm 139:23-24. He took his pen and wrote “Search Me, O God,” which was set to music already written by Edward J. Hopkins (1818-1901) to a tune that we call in our hymnals, “Ellers.” I invite you to make the words of Edwin Orr your sincere prayer today. If you know the tune, you might sing it as you pray it:

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

“I praise You, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;
Fulfill Your Word and make me pure within.
Fill me with fire where once I burned with shame;
Grant my desire to magnify Your name.

“Lord, take my life, for I would live for You;
Fill my poor heart with Your great love so true.

Walk in Integrity

" Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’” –I Kings 9:4-5 .”Let me be weighed in a just balance, That God may know my integrity.”-Job 31:6. “Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, For I wait for You.” -Psalm 25:21. “Vindicate me, O LORD, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the Lord; I shall not slip. But as for me, I will walk in my integrity; Redeem me and be merciful to me.”-Psalm 26:1, 11. “The righteous man walks in his integrity; His children are blessed after him.”-Proverbs 20:7 (all references NKJV).

The Hebrew word muna translated integrity has sixteen references in the Old Testament. The word is not given in Greek in the New Testament but when faithfulness is used that means integrity. The word means faithfulness, trustworthiness, steadfastness, uprightness and honesty. It is sometimes pictured as a straight path along which one should walk, veering not to the right or to the left. We find the term integrity used in Genesis 20:5-6 of Abimelech, King of Grerar, to whom Abraham gave Sarah, claiming she was his sister. But in a dream Abimelech learned the truth of Sarah’s relationship to Abraham and he restored her to her husband without taking her into his harem. God commended the king for his integrity. Following the dedication of the Temple built by Solomon, the Lord appeared to Solomon to make a covenant with him. If Solomon would walk in integrity and keep God’s commandments, statutes and judgments, the throne would be established in the line of David as God had promised. God commended Job’s integrity. Job’s wife asked him if he would hold on to his integrity, even after he had lost everything. In defending himself against his friends who thought Job’s dilemma had been brought on by disobedience to God, Job defended himself, affirming that he, indeed, was a man of integrity. In the Psalms and in Proverbs, the righteous is seen as walking in integrity. To walk in integrity is the right path for the Christian. There should be no question of “Should I walk uprightly?” The conclusion each Christian should reach is “I will walk in integrity.”

Corrie ten Boom led a life of immense integrity. Born in Holland on April 15. 1892 to Casper and Cor ten Boom, Corrie ten Boom was destined to save the lives of some 800 Jews during World War II. The ten Boom family members were Christians. Her father, who had inherited his father’s watchmaking shop in Haarlem provided in a secretly-built “Hiding Place” in the family’s living quarters above his watch shop a place of concealment for Jews escaping from the Germans. Corrie (who had become the first certified woman watchmaker in Holland) and her family were faithful in this dangerous mission. On February 28, 1944, her father, her sister Betsie and Corrie were arrested. Her father died soon in a hospital and was given a pauper’s burial. Betsie and Corrie were sent on to Ravensbruck Prison in Germany where they had to toil hard and live in terrible vermin-infested conditions with little food. They got a group together after roll call nearly every night and studied the Bible and prayed together. Betsie died in prison. Through a clerical error, Corrie ten Boom was released on Christmas Day, 1944, went on a train to Berlin, and miraculously got back to her home in Holland. She began a rehabilitation home for released prisoners and helped homeless children. In 1946, she came to the United States, speaking in many churches, extending her ministry through 60 countries. She wrote several books, the most famous of which was The Hiding Place. In 1978 due to poor health she gave up traveling and speaking. She lived in California where she died on her birthday in 1983. The Jews held that dying on one’s birthday showed God’s favor and a life lived in integrity. One of her favorite sayings was, “God does not have problems, only plans.” Her life constantly followed the paths of integrity and she became an inspiration for all who heard her speak and read her books.