Psalm 139:23,24 – Room in the Inn

Here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

²³Thoroughly search me, O God, and know my heart. Examine me and know my disquieting thoughts, ²⁴and see if [there be any] troubling way in me and personally lead me in [the] way of [the] ages.

Interestingly, here is one of those Bible passages where it pays to dig in to the Hebrew word meanings. As always, it is not that they mean something different than typical English translations, but rather that they mean so much more. Hebrew in particular was a picture language. They painted pictures even as they spoke. I have often found it virtually impossible to translate Hebrew passages and express in English the depth and width and color of what they are saying. Such is profoundly the case here.

English translations of this Psalm invariably begin with “Search me, O God, and know my heart…” which is a perfectly accurate translation. But the Hebrew word for “search” “always connotes a diligent, difficult probing” (TWOT#729). In its noun form, it even borders on the impossible! So, understanding the Hebrew, David is not asking for just a superficial searching. He is saying to God, “Open every door, look under every book, literally turn my heart upside down searching its every corner.”

Then he adds “Try me …” The word “try” means “to examine” where interestingly, in the OT, God is usually the subject and He is specifically examining spiritual or religious things. Then it is “Try me and know my thoughts,” where again it is more than just thoughts. It is particularly my “disquieting thoughts.” One can almost hear Jesus saying, “They that are whole need not a physician, but them that are sick.” David is not asking God to just know his thoughts in general. He wants God to particularly know his disquieting thoughts – the ones that cause him trouble, the ones that need a physician! They that are whole need not a physician – but the rest of us and our beleaguered hearts need the Physician!

This idea carries on to verse 24 where He particularly asks the Lord to “See if there be any wicked way in me.” Once again, “wicked” way is a perfectly accurate translation, but the word means more. The word yabetz comes from a root meaning “to hurt, to trouble.” K&D describe it as “the way that leads to pain, torture, … the inward and outward consequences of sin.” It is wickedness but not just in the sense of wrong but in the sense of bringing into one’s life torment, regret, shame, sorrow, and all the pain and trouble that sin incurs. It is the same root word that is used in the name of Jabez and his prayer which is a play on his name and the word: Now Jabez (Yabetz) … prayed, “O that Thou wouldst bless me indeed … and keep me from pain (yabetz) that it might not pain (yabetz) me” (I Chron 4:10). Though so often alluring, sin and its effects always bring pain and trouble.

Like Jabez, David longed to be delivered from the self-inflicted way of trouble and pain, so here he asks the Lord instead to “lead me in the way everlasting.” Once more, the word “lead” is much more personal than simply “lead.” It pictures someone actually personally conducting another along a path. TWOT #1341 says, “[It is] far more than guidance. It is that God be before them showing the way.” It is used of the Lord leading Israel through the desert, where His presence actually went with them as the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. David is asking for the Lord’s very present and personal guidance. The Lord’s leading is in fact so personal, He calls it “carrying” us – “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4).

Now, what to make of all this? Gracious! I think I could write a book from these two verses. I’ll try to restrain myself to a few paragraphs.

Several commentators noted how brave David is to invite the All-Seeing Eye into a heart he knew to be “desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.” On the one hand, I see what they’re saying, but on the other hand I don’t think it was a matter of bravery at all. We’re back to how we see God. If we see Him as rumbling thunder looking for sinners to blast with divine judgment, then yeah, it would be brave (probably foolish) to invite such a God in. But I like what William Arnot said, “…the eye of the compassionate Physician I shall gladly admit into this place of disease; for He comes from heaven to earth that He may heal such a sin-sick soul as mine.” As quoted above, Jesus said, “They that are whole need not a physician,” but those who truly see their heart would, like Arnot, implore the Great Physician come. As Donald Cargill said, “Those who know themselves best fear themselves most.” To me He is the gentle Shepherd, who “restoreth my soul.” I’m glad to my sin He is the infinitely powerful conquering King! Marantha! Come, Lord Jesus. “Adam’s image now efface, Stamp Thine image in its place!” I think truly knowing Him it is not bravery to invite Him in. Why wouldn’t I long to crawl into His inviting lap, burrow my face into His big chest, and hide from it all wrapped in His big strong arms?? He alone can save me. He alone can deliver me.

I think it quite clear this is where David’s heart is going in this Psalm. Earlier (v.17) he said, “And to me how precious are Your thoughts, O God. How great is the sum of them”. Now he invites Him in to “see if there be any troublesome way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” David wants to be healed. He didn’t see God’s presence as a threat but rather as the only hope for his sin-sick heart. Am I brave to ask the doctor to remove the tumor from my side? Then neither do I think it bravery to invite in El Rapha – God the Healer, Him who comes “with healing in His wings”.

I need Him to search me, know my heart, and examine me. And to what end? To make sure my way is the right one. I have many times run across this matter of my “way.” “There is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is the way of death” (Prov 14:12). “Thus saith the Lord: Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk in it, and ye shall find rest for your souls” (Jer 6:16). I need Him to help me see where in my life I am choosing the ways of trouble and to show me instead that good old way, the way everlasting, that in fact I might walk in it. Jesus asked Bartimaeus, “What would you have me do for you?” and he replied, “Lord, I would have my sight.” And so it remains. In His light we see light. I want to go the right way. But sin darkens my eyes, allures me down bypath meadow, and leaves me to die in the dungeon of despair. William Howels said, “Every sin is a devil and may say, ‘My name is Legion, for we are many.’” But there is a Savior! He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life …” (Jn 14:6). The angel told Joseph to name the baby Jesus, “…for He shall save His people from their sins.” (Mt 1:21).

It’s probably no coincidence that tomorrow is Christmas day. Once again we’ll celebrate the birth of the One mighty to save. May we all not see Him as rumbling thunder but as the Great Physician. May we all find room in our hearts for Him who would come to search out the demons of our sins, cast them out, deliver us from ourselves and lead us in that everlasting way, that, rather than the pain of sin, we might know love and joy and peace.

Merry Christmas! Lord lead us.

Psalm 139:19-22 – The Delicate and Difficult Subject of Hate

Here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁹O God, if [only] You would kill the guilty ones, and, men of blood, turn aside from me, ²⁰who speak to You to plots. Your enemies lift up arrogance. ²¹[Do] not I hate ones intensely hating You, LORD? And I loathe ones rising up against You. ²²[With] consummate hatred I hate them. They become enemies to me.

Well now. Hate. As I have studied the Bible and thought over it, I would suggest this is one of the most delicate and difficult subjects to ponder. I personally don’t struggle with the idea of God’s hatred, although I would still consider it a delicate matter. In Psalms 11:5,6 we learn, “His soul hates the wicked and those who love violence. On the wicked He will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot.” When in Revelation 19:5 Jesus returns as King we read, “Coming out of His mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.” One could immediately object, “But I thought ‘God so loved the world …!” In short, I have come to the conclusion that God can both love and hate at the same time. It is part of the infinite perfection of His being. On the one hand I can say I’m certainly glad He loves. He’d better or I am hopelessly doomed. On the other hand I can say I’m glad He hates. It is only fitting for a good king to hate anything or anyone that threatens or harms His people.

For me the problem is not reconciling love and hate in the heart of God, but rather reconciling it in the heart of me! I know people throw out the cliché, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” But I don’t think it is that simple. Read the passage again. David says, “… I loathe ones rising up against You. ²²[With] consummate hatred I hate them. They become enemies to me”. He does not say, I loathe their sins. He says, I loathe them. That is what I mean, I don’t think it’s as simple as the old cliché.

I would suggest this passage is calling us to rise to some higher level of maturity, some higher level of understanding, some more precise conformity to the image of God. He can both love and hate the person and in some way we may practice the same virtue, even though it be beyond our present comprehension.

On the other hand, here is a thought: David is the king over a theocracy. That is a very different place and situation than where we find ourselves. In a theocracy, everyone is expected to conform to righteousness, and David’s job as king is to enforce righteousness. The world outside Israel’s borders and where we find ourselves today was and is patently not a theocracy. We live in a world with essentially no standard of righteousness. We live in a Gentile world. And we are not kings and we have no charge nor authority to go around enforcing righteousness on the people around us. Perhaps we need to keep David’s context in mind as we ponder how to apply this passage in our own lives. I at least would suggest this would allow us to temper his words as we apply them to ourselves.

Here’s another thought: I have concluded that it is okay for me to hate a sinner in a sense. For instance, take a murderer or a child molester. I not only hate what they did but it is right and actually good for me to hate them, in the sense that I think they should be punished and punished to the full extent they deserve. At the same time I can love them in the sense that I know I too am a guilty sinner and grace is my (and their) only hope. It is not my place to punish them. I support my justice system as it inflicts the punishment while I can still pray for the man and his soul. I can hate them in a judicial sense but still love them as a person.

However, short of vicious crimes and cruelty, I feel I am still in the place of the old cliché, loving the sinner and hating the sin. I like what George Horne said, “We are neither to hate the men, on account of the vices they practice; nor to love the vices, for the sake of the men who practice them.”

What it all comes down to is how I think about people and how I treat them. I am not the government. I do not “bear the sword.” Apart from the appropriate exercise of authority, I don’t see how I can treat people with anything but love. It may have to be love in firmness, but it still has to be love. I can’t think of any situation where I could express the kind of sentiments David here expresses. Again, I can hate the sins, I can hate the people in the sense of their being the vessels of those sins, but as I express myself to them, I don’t see how I can ever lose my grasp of love, without losing God’s desire for me.

Hmmmm. Delicate and difficult. It still is. I’m not sure I’ve learned anything. But it is good to ponder over these things occasionally. Lord, help us get it right.

Psalm 139:17,18 – Love Divine, All Loves Excelling

 Here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁷And to me how precious are Your thoughts, O God. How great is the sum of them.

¹⁸[If] I count them from sand, they are many. I awaken and [I am] still with You.

These verses follow upon everything said so far in verses 1 through 16. (Note that verse 17 starts with “And”). David is here worshipping the God Who sees when he sits and when he rises, Who formed his inmost being, Who wove him together in his mother’s womb, and Who wrote down all his days before one of them came to be.

David here pauses to reflect on the incomprehensible loving parental attention that God gives to His children and specifically to David himself. “My Lord,” says David, “I am amazed at how much You think about me, care about me, watch over me, plan for me.”

Anyone who is a parent, of course, has little trouble comprehending at least the essence of this truth. One’s children fill their mind continually, do they not? Even if, as limited humans, we are called away to focus our attention on other matters, yet our minds are still filled with our children. Their happiness is our happiness. Their successes are our joys. Their pain is our sorrow. Their needs and even wants are our heart’s yearnings. Ever since I knew they were conceived, my soul has been inextricably bound up in theirs.

But from whence did I gain such a noble quality? It is in no way of my own making. It is the very image of God in me. David here turns such thoughts around and realizes he is the child here. He is the object of such parental affection, attention, and commitment; and, of course, since God Himself is the parent in view, that affection, attention, and commitment sheds even the possibility of limit or short-coming. Here it goes beyond admiration and becomes worship.

Matthew Henry said, “We cannot conceive how many God’s kind counsels have been concerning us, how many good turns He has done us, and what variety of mercies we have received from Him … [and they are] constant at all times.”

Charles Spurgeon also commented on these verses, and his thoughts are so to the point, I think they’re worth quoting here, even at length:

Verse 17. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! He is not alarmed at the fact that God knows all about him; on the contrary, he is comforted, and even feels himself to be enriched, as with a chest of precious jewels. That God should think upon him is the believer's treasure and pleasure. He cries, "How costly, how valued are Thy thoughts, how dear to me is Thy perpetual attention!" He thinks upon God's thoughts with delight; the more of them the better is he pleased. It is a joy worth worlds that the Lord should think upon us who are so poor and needy: it is a joy which fills our whole nature to think upon God; returning love for love, thought for thought, after our poor fashion. How great is the sum of them! When we remember that God thought upon us from old eternity, continues to think upon us every moment, and will think of us when time shall be no more, we may well exclaim, "How great is the sum!" Thoughts such as are natural to the Creator, the Preserver, the Redeemer, the Father, the Friend, are evermore flowing from the heart of the Lord. Thoughts of our pardon, renewal, upholding, supplying, educating, perfecting, and a thousand more kinds perpetually well up in the mind of the Most High. It should fill us with adoring wonder and reverent surprise that the infinite mind of God should turn so many thoughts towards us who are so insignificant and so unworthy! What a contrast is all this to the notion of those who deny the existence of a personal, conscious God! Imagine a world without a thinking, personal God! Conceive of a grim providence of machinery!—a fatherhood of law! Such philosophy is hard and cold. As well might a man pillow his head upon a razor edge as seek rest in such a fancy. But a God always thinking of us makes a happy world, a rich life, a heavenly hereafter.

Verse 18. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. This figure shows the thoughts of God to be altogether innumerable; for nothing can surpass in number the grains of sand which belt the main ocean and all the minor seas. The task of counting God's thoughts of love would be a never ending one. If we should attempt the reckoning we must necessarily fail, for the infinite falls not within the line of our feeble intellect. Even could we count the sands on the seashore, we should not then be able to number God's thoughts, for they are "more in number than the sand." This is not the hyperbole of poetry, but the solid fact of inspired statement: God thinks upon us infinitely: there is a limit to the act of creation, but not to the might of Divine love. When I awake, I am still with Thee. Thy thoughts of love are so many that my mind never gets away from them, they surround me at all hours. I go to my bed, and God is my last thought; and when I wake I find my mind still hovering about His palace gates; God is ever with me, and I am ever with Him. This is life indeed.

Yes, this is life indeed!

It is one thing to realize God loves me. I think it another thing to go on and realize that love means He thinks about me constantly, that His affection and attention never leave me. The very air I breathe is the love of my God. Again, I will say that I think no parent should have any trouble understanding such love. But it is another thing to turn it around and see that I am the child.

No wonder Paul prayed, “… that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, … to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that passes knowledge …” (Eph 3:17-19).

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope” (Jer 29:11).

In a cold, hurtful world, such thoughts warm a Holy Spirit joy in your heart, yes?