There is no higher occupation than the contemplation and the worship of God. David says, “My God knows everything; I can’t fool Him. My God is everywhere; I can’t flee from Him. My God can do anything; I can’t fight Him. What should I do? We find His answers in versus 23 and 24. This is one of the most penetrating prayer found in the Bible.

If we can’t fool God, flee from Him or fight Him, the only thing for us to do is surrender to Him—in awe, reverence and worship. Notice the psalmist’s request: “Search me, oh God, I know my heart.” God knows our hearts. He knows us from top to bottom, inside out. But we don’t know our own hearts. Jeremiah said in 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” Only God can know it.

Deep learning:

The Hebrew word for search used in verse 23 means to dig in a mine and find ore. “Search me, O God; I am like a mine. I am deep, but dig out the potential that is in me. Dig out all the treasure you have put into me, even before I was born.” It also means to explore the land. How broad and wide are the horizons of possibility in life. “Search me, O God; bring out of me all that is there for your glory.”

Then David says in v.24, “Try me, and know my thoughts.” Try means to test metal in the furnace. That’s why we suffer sometimes. “See if there is any weekend away in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Here, then, three penetrating request: search me, try me and lead me. Are you asking God to lead you in His will today? If you do, He will bring out of the mine of your life treasures that will glorify His name.

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Can you echo David’s prayer? If not, perhaps you need to surrender to God’s will or ask Him to forgive some sin in your life. Remember, He knows you intimately. Ask Him for the grace to stand up to His scrutiny.