“You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.” Psalm 139:1-4
A recent study concluded that good relationships do not depend on how alike we are as much as how well we know each other. This would certainly be true of marriages as well as other friendships. Couples married many years can spend a day communicating with each other and seldom speak a word. They know each other’s thoughts and feelings.
Such intimacy between husbands and wives is a beautiful thing. Likewise, God’s children share an intimacy with the Father. For that intimacy to grow, we need to ask ourselves how well do we know God and how well does he know us? Psalm 139 is a prayer about our intimacy with God. “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely”.
The picture painted here is that God knows everything about us. The psalm says God searches us and watches our every movement. He knows our habits. He knows what we are about to say before we speak. He knew every strand of our DNA before we were conceived. There is nothing we have done, nothing we have been, and nothing we have thought or said that God did not witness. He truly knows us well.
That might seem intimidating. Do we really want God to know us that well? Do we want every thought and deed exposed? David ends the psalm with a bold answer: “Yes! Lord, I want you to know me because that shows your love for me. Then I am convinced that you know my struggles and my downfalls, and you can point me in the right direction.” David wrote, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps. 139:23,24).
But what about the other half of this intimate relationship? How well do we know God? We can learn about him in his Word, and we can talk with him in our prayers. Make it your goal to daily get to know God better. That will result in a lasting and intimate relationship!
Ask God to search you and know your heart today.
Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one’s heart.
It means rather to find the way to God and speak with him,
whether the heart is full or empty.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer