In Psalm 139, we read; “Search me, God, and know my heart; Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there is any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.”

For the next few months I would like to take a closer look at the form and content, as well as the syntax and language used in scripture. For me, the most important aspect of this examination is determining the original meaning and intention of the author. We know scripture is the Word of God, written in the inspiration of the moment by the hand of man. We know no work of man can be done perfectly, however, this is not a serious consideration when bringing the content out of the context, and I will not use this idea of perfection as an excuse when drawing conclusions. We are believers or we wouldn’t be spending our time in dialog on these pages loving and learning. I will return to these lead in thoughts from time to time. I am a “new age” kind of guy who believes the past is the path to the future. There is much to be learned from a traditional mind set, two thousand years of accumulated knowledge has produced a storehouse of wisdom. There is also much to be understood by complementing Holy Scripture with modern language and today’s academic disciplines. It is our intention as twenty-first century Christians to understand the original timeless message of Scripture written to first-century believers.

Jesus said in His genius that right worship is both vertical and horizontal; our praise to God coupled to our love for our neighbor. There is only one way to heaven and that is through our Lord and Savior. By defining right worship for us, He gave us permission to journey on our path learning how to open our hearts to receive His gifts. I believe this is the purpose of Scripture, and the mystery as well, to receive Him in ways we can understand and expanding our love for Him beyond our imagination.

So when reading Psalm 139, “Search me, God, and know my heart; Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there is any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.” Here we see the beautiful combination of the psychological and spiritual nature of Scripture, as it is presented to us time and time again. We petition God to search us and know us, realizing full well that God knows us better than we know ourselves, having created us, knitted us in the womb, and knowing our true needs before we ask Him. Yet we petition Him nonetheless, because laying ourselves before God in our humanity is humbling ourselves in the majesty of His goodness which is the right vertical worship He described. God does not test us; the world tests us. My anxious thoughts are a reaction to the world. “Put me to the test,” is not a request made to God or a reaction to anything He has done, it is a statement of supplication and surrender to His will. We live in a cause-and-effect world, filled with the rules of physics, as well as random causal energy. Of course we have anxious thoughts given the uncertainty of the world. “Put me to the test,” is an acknowledgment that the Lord created the world and allows the world to be created. Just as He allows us to create through our free will. He has given us the power to make bad choices. So, “see if there is any hurtful way in me,” is an appeal to our egotistical human condition; letting ourselves off the hook so to speak. Sort of hoping against hope that we are not as bad as we think we are. Of course, we are broken. If we didn’t realize our brokenness we wouldn’t be making this appeal in the first place. The prayer is for cleansing, so our thoughts are not obstacles. What we want is to live as we were created, predestined to follow His eternal way, not our temporal confusion.