Let's open God's Word this evening to Psalm 139. Psalm 139. We will read the whole of the chapter and the text for this evening's sermon will be those last two verses, verses 23 and 24. Psalm 139. O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue but, Lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from My Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from My presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there. If I make My bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee, but the night shineth as the day, and the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee. Thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee. Thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me, therefore, ye bloody men, for they speak against Thee wickedly, and mine enemies take Thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against Thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies." And now the words of our text. 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. Thus far we read God's Word. The text before us tonight, congregation, is a prayer. A prayer of David. that God would search him. And when we analyze this prayer in light of the context, we can readily understand why David makes this petition. That is, we come to see where this prayer comes from when we look at the psalm as a whole. And what we see is that David, when he wrote this psalm, was deeply aware of God's omniscience and God's omnipresence. David was deeply aware of God's omniscience. The truth that God is all-knowing. That's what we see in verses 2-4. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether." David is confessing, God knows everything there is to know about me. There's nothing that's hid from Him. He is the Omniscient One. And He's also the Omnipresent God. That too was on the forefront of David's mind. We see that, for example, in verses 7 and 8, whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." He's saying there's nowhere in the whole earth that he could go and escape God's presence. So David has been meditating upon these two related truths, God's omniscience and his omnipresence, the fact that he knows everything exactly because he is everywhere present. And David marvels. at the greatness, the glory of God as He contemplates these two truths. He's clearly filled with a sense of awe, and that's evident from verse 6, for example. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. And then he says in verse 17, for example, How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. David is on the mountaintop of faith, enjoying close communion with God. But having considered the truths of God's omniscience, His omnipresence, David transitions beginning at verse 19. And his thoughts go to the wicked. Verse 19, Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. And now when we read this, it might seem like a rather abrupt shift. But it's not. The connection is that David recognizes that since God knows everything about everyone, He therefore knows the sin, the evil of the wicked, though they try to hide it, it's not hid from God. And therefore, as the psalmist confesses, God will slay the wicked in His justice, in His righteousness, in His holiness. God will surely punish them. And therefore, David seeks to distance himself from the wicked. He says, depart from me, ye bloody men. He confesses later, do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? Yea, I am grieved by them. The wicked. And now it's in light of these two truths. The knowledge of God's omniscience, His omnipresence, and what God will do to the wicked as the one who sees their sins. These two truths then lead the psalmist David to make the prayer that we consider tonight. Search me, O God. And this arises out of everything that lies before it because David recognizes, I too am a sinner. And God sees and knows my sin. And if He's going to punish the wicked for their sin, what about me and my sin? And therefore, he makes this petition. that God would search him and show him his sin with a view to being right with God. And we must make this prayer our own as well. Certainly, this is a prayer that's appropriate at all times, but it's especially appropriate during a week of self-examination as we examine ourselves with a view to partaking of the Lord's Supper next week, Sunday morning. And since it's such a deeply personal prayer, we need to understand what it means so that we can truly make it our own and pray it from the heart. At the same time, we must learn to make this prayer with confidence. Not with dread, terror, worried about what God is going to find, but the confidence of faith, knowing that we are in Jesus Christ. So let's consider this evening a prayer for divine examination. A prayer for divine examination. First, we'll look at the request itself. Second, at the purpose of the psalmist in making this petition. And then third, the confidence with which we and the psalmist make it our own. A prayer for divine examination, the request, the purpose, the confidence. Psalm 139 verse 23 begins, Search me, O God. And this first point will be divided along the lines of those few words. Search me, O God. Search. That's the verb here. That's the activity in view. And really, There are four verbs that are used here. There's that first verb. Search me, O God. To search means to examine, to investigate something with a view to finding something out. And this particular word refers to an especially diligent, rigorous, and meticulous examination. And at times, it's used with legal connotations. A search for evidence that will support a case one way or another. Search me, O God. And then the psalmist adds, and know my heart. And then later on, and know my thoughts. Know me. That is, gain a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of me by careful study. and observation, and try me." That is, subject me to a trial. And this is a word that's used, for example, with the trying and the proving of precious metals. And Psalmist David is asking that God would subject him to a similar test. Specifically, the type of test, trial, that determines something's character, the integrity of someone. And finally, see me. Verse 24. Look over the whole of my life. Analyze every little detail under a microscope as it were. Search. Know. Try. See. And it's very significant that the psalmist uses four different synonyms here. And the significance on the one hand is that this indicates the psalmist David is requesting a thorough, a comprehensive exam. We would use an illustration, for example, a medical illustration. This would be like going to the doctor and asking the doctor to perform every available test that he can. I want a PET scan. an MRI, x-rays, I want blood work done, laparoscopy, an electrocardiograph, take tissue samples and biopsy, perform genetic testing, run the whole gamut of tests. That's what the psalmist is asking here, only not physical medical examinations, but spiritual. The point is, the desire is for a thorough, for a comprehensive searching. That on the one hand is the significance that the psalmist uses four different synonyms. On the other hand, the significance is that this underscores the urgency, the importance of this searching. If we were to go to the doctor and ask him to perform all those medical tests, That would indicate there's something seriously wrong with us. And the test results would probably be a matter of life versus death. And thus for the psalmist to ask for this thorough comprehensive exam indicates that this is a critical condition. This is urgent, this is important to him. It's as though it was an emergency situation. So He prays, search, know, try, and see. And search Me. There's the object of the search. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. Thus, the psalmist David is not asking God to search the wicked. He thought about them for a moment, but he's moved on from them. He's no longer looking at the wicked world. Nor is this a prayer that God would search that person sitting in the pew in front of us. But this is a prayer that God would search And standing behind this prayer is the recognition that we are sinners. Elsewhere, the psalmist David acknowledged that I was shapen in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive me. And even as one who has been given new life, I still have that old man of sin. I still have that corrupt nature within. And thus, there are many sinful thoughts and desires. sinful words, sinful deeds that are part of my life. It's our sinfulness that necessitates this prayer. And this is an important prayer to guard us against all hypocrisy. For we can become quite good at seeing, at detecting the sins of others. We're quite adept at identifying the motes in their eyes while we are blind to the beams, to the planks in our own eyes. And so we pray, search me. But it's more specific than that. It's not just search me, but the psalmist goes on to specify and he says, search me and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. So that this is not a prayer that God would perform an external or superficial exam. Anyone can do that. A trusted friend could be relied upon to perform such an exam. Nor is this the prayer of the Pharisee who is simply concerned with an external, outward conformity to the law of God. But this is a prayer that God would know my heart. And my thoughts, my heart being the whole of man's inner being, his mind, his will, his soul, out of which heart flow all of the issues of life. And know my thoughts. The thoughts being the sum total of all that goes on in a man's mind. It includes his ideas, his opinions, his desires, his motives, his intentions. And for the psalmist to pray, no, my heart and my thoughts is for him to ask God, know everything there is to know about me. Know with an all-penetrating knowledge the desires of my heart and the fugitive thoughts of my head. Examine all that is and all that has been in the chambers of my mind. and search every nook and cranny of my heart down to the deepest most recesses. Search me. And this is a prayer directed to God. Search me, oh God. And we lift this prayer to our God, the searcher, because God alone can perform such an examination. No man is capable of doing this. No one can do this on our behalf because no one else has access to our heart and to our thoughts. And we ourselves are not really capable of doing this for ourselves because the heart is so deceitful. And there are those secret sins, those sins that we commit that we are not even aware of and we become blind to our own sinfulness. And thus, we need God to do this. And God is able because of those truths the psalmist was meditating upon. He is the omniscient one. He is the omnipresent one. He knows everything there is to know about me. regardless of where I've been of late. He knows the things that we do behind closed doors, behind the cover of darkness. For as the psalmist confesses in verse 12, Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, But the night shineth as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to Thee." And so we ask God to search us. Because He knows us better than we know ourselves. This is a prayer for divine examination. But do you really want God to do this for you? Because when we stop and think about what we're praying in this petition, we might hesitate. We are asking for a full, complete, penetrating scan and analysis of every thought, motive, desire, affection, word, and deed. We're asking God to plumb the very depths of our hearts, and we're asking God to do this. The everywhere present, the all-knowing God, who's not going to miss anything. He's not going to fail to see that anger that has swelled within our hearts toward our spouse or our sibling. He's not going to overlook the pride that arose when we did something good and others noticed it. He's not going to bypass the lustful desires for another. He's not going to miss the covetousness for the neighbor's possessions or for the neighbor's spouse. And remember, He's also the holy and righteous God, the God of justice who will slay the wicked. Do we really want Him to search us? When we stop and think about it, we might hesitate Because we recognize, really, He does not have to search that hard to find my sin. And perhaps we're worried about finding out just how bad it is in my heart. We certainly would not want anyone else to know the results of this searching Imagine for a moment if just the thoughts and the desires of the past week were exposed for everyone else to see. I dare say not one of us would want to show our face ever again. Be it, we're all sinners. How much more ought we to tremble at the thought of the holy God of heaven and earth performing such a search upon us? So do we really want to expose ourselves to such a search? Well, like it or not, God examines every one of us, believer, or unbeliever, whether we ask God to do this or whether we do not. Because He is the searcher of the heart. He is the one who knows all things about us. But that then raises the question, why then would the psalmist ask God to search him? What's his purpose in making this request? And the purpose It's found in verse 24. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. We have here the two-fold purpose of the psalmist. On the one hand, first, the psalmist's purpose is that God would see if there be any wicked way in me. Here the psalmist is specifying what he wants God to search for and he's interested in seeing if there's some wicked way in him. He speaks of a way. He's using the figure, the illustration of a path, a road that one walks upon. And it refers to how we live our lives so that one's way here is all of our activity both outwardly and inwardly. And the psalmist's concern is about some wicked way. Noteworthy is the idea of that word in the original. The literal meaning of the word translated wicked comes from the verb that means to grieve, to displease, to vex. And the idea is that when one walks on the path of sin, that's offensive to our God. It grieves Him. It's displeasing to Him. And thus the translation of the King James makes sense. See if there be any wicked way in me, because it's that wicked way, especially when we walk on it impenitently, that is an offense, that grieves, that displeases our God. And the prayer of the psalmist is that God would search him to see if there is such a wicked way in him, some well-walked path or habit of sin. and his reason for wanting this, is so that God would show him his sin. There's the stated, the expressed purpose, see if there be some wicked way in me, but we must understand there's a deeper purpose behind this first purpose, and that's that God would show us our sin. Because in asking God to see if there's some wicked way in me, This is not a request to see how much better I am than all the wicked out there in the world, nor is this a challenge. God, I dare you to find something wicked in me. Of course not. This is the psalmist David making this request. He knew very well some of the things God would find. Adulterous desires, murderous thoughts, and sinful pride. So why then does he make this request? Because he wants God to show him his sin. And that has to be the understanding because he's already confessed that God does search him apart from him asking for this. Back up to verse 1. O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. And it's on the basis of that verse that we said what we did a moment ago, regardless of whether we ask for this or not, God is the searcher of our hearts and thoughts. He already knows everything about us. And therefore, in light of that, we come to recognize that when the psalmist prays, search me, oh God, the point is, let me know what you find. Be sure to share the results with me. Tell me the sins that you observe in me. That's what you'd want from a medical doctor? That's the whole point, not so that he can perform these scans and these exams and then keep the results to himself, but the point is he's going to tell you what he found. He's going to share the results and we're asking God to do the same. so that we can then take that sin and in true sorrow of heart bring it to God and ask Him for forgiveness so that we might be right with God. The psalmist has been enjoying close communion with God and he does not want that to be interrupted. He does not want there to be something that stands between him and his God. And so he prays, search me. and implied, is let me know what you find, so that I see once again my need for Jesus Christ, so that I'm broken, humbled to the dust on account of my sin, so that I can confess it and seek forgiveness. That, first of all, is the psalmist's purpose. He would have God to show him his sin so that he might be right with him in the way of repentance and confession of sin. That's only the first purpose that's stated in v. 24. There's a second. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me In the way everlasting. Speaks of the way everlasting in sharp contrast to the wicked way. Here we have the way everlasting. And this, therefore, is the path of obedience. The path that is pleasing to our God when we walk in it. And it's called the way everlasting because it's based on everlasting principles. The truths of God's Word. It's the way everlasting because it's the path that God's people have always walked upon. These are the old paths. It's the way everlasting because this path will never be removed. It will endure to all eternity. And it's the way everlasting because this is the path that God conducts His people along. Which path? Ends in heaven. The psalmist's prayer is that God would lead me in the way everlasting. The psalmist prays this because he recognizes that we enjoy that communion with our God as we walk along the path that's characterized by obedience. The psalmist has been enjoying communion with God. He's on the mountaintop of faith as he considers the truths of God's omniscience in His omnipresence. And he does not want to depart from that path. He does not want to go down the path of sin that interrupts the enjoyment of that covenant communion and fellowship with our God. And so we praise this prayer. Lead me in the way everlasting. Conduct my steps along the good way, O God. Keep my feet from stumbling. Do not let me turn aside down the wrong path. And we do need God's help to do this. For anyone can walk the broad way that Jesus spoke of. No help is needed to do that. Unless there are many who are on that path and left to ourselves, we would join them in walking on that broad way. But that broad way leads to destruction. Because that's the way that we are inclined to by nature. We pray, Lord, lead me in the way everlasting. Grant me the grace to walk in the narrow way. Make Thy way straight before my face. Hold up my goings in Thy path that my footsteps slip not. Lead me by Thy Spirit, by Thy Word, by Thy grace, and in Thy providence. And understand, this is connected to that central prayer that God would search us. Because understand that a part of walking down the way everlasting is doing battle against those spiritual enemies who want to pull us off of that way, who want to lead us astray. And we are better equipped to do so when we have a clear picture of those enemies, when we have a mugshot of them, as it were, that is when we come to see and understand our weaknesses. Search me, oh God, and help me to see the chinks in my armor. Help me to see where I've stumbled again and again and again so that I can take special care moving forward. to avoid those same sins. So David prays, 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. That was David's prayer. And this must be our prayer this week. But congregation, I would not have you to pray this in dread terror. As God's people, we are meant to pray this with confidence. Specifically, the confidence of faith of knowing that we are in Jesus Christ. Which is to say, we are in the one who could pray this prayer in a way that no one else can. For we understand Jesus Christ could make this prayer His own. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. and not one sin could be found. No matter how deeply you dug, no matter how far into the recesses of His heart you probed, you could detect no iniquity. No matter how thorough the exam, no longer how much time you spent scanning His heart, There would be no wickedness in it. Test every word he spoke. Look into every thought that occupied his mind. Examine every desire in his heart. And you will not find even one sin. For Jesus Christ is a spotless lamb, that David the shepherd, was waiting for. No blemish. No imperfection. No wicked way. He lived a life of perfect obedience. That is, he always walked the way everlasting. He obeyed all of God's commandments. Not just outwardly, but inwardly from the heart. And yet, and yet God slew him at the cross of Calvary. for our sins were placed upon Him. And He bore them to the cross to make atonement for our sins. And at the cross, God poured out His wrath, His displeasure against our sin until His justice was finally satisfied. And it's that saving work that then gives us confidence. Because as those who are united to Jesus Christ, this means there's the forgiveness of sins. All of them. Every sin that would come out of this exam, of this searching, all of them were paid for. by the saving death of Jesus Christ so that there is forgiveness for every last one of our sins. And what is more, it's Christ's perfect, spotless obedience that has no impurities mixed into it that is now imputed to us. By faith that becomes the basis, the ground for our justification for God to declare to us that we are righteous in Jesus Christ. And all this means then we can pray this prayer with confidence. It's intimidating, I know, to ask God to search us. But as those who are united to Jesus Christ, our confidence is that As God shows us our sin, He will then forgive us when we bring that sin to Him in true repentance and ask Him to take it away. So, child of God, have you prayed this prayer? Will you pray this prayer? May God work in us to pray it from the heart. And at the same time, may He also work in us to use the means whereby He performs this search, namely His Word. For this searching, this exam that we're asking God to perform, does not take place like many medical tests. That is, we do not simply lie down flat on a bed while this machine scans our whole heart and soul and then pumps out the results. That's not how it works. And therefore, we must not think that we can make this request and then sit back and expect God to just sort of zap into our minds the awareness of our sin. That's not how it works, but God uses means. And the tool, the instrument is His Word. It's by means of the Word as we sit under the preaching, as we read it for ourselves, that the Spirit then illuminates our heart and our thoughts and helps us to see what God Himself sees there. It's the Word of God. that He uses to reveal our sinfulness. It's the means whereby He communicates to us the results of His searching. That means, as we take this prayer in the week to come and make it our own, it must be in conjunction with a believing use of God's Word. It means spending time in the Word of God deliberately with a view to seeing afresh our sins. All the while praying, search me, O God. And know my heart. Try me. and know my thoughts. And when we pray that in true faith, you may be sure, God will answer it. And by the work of the Spirit, He will help us to see that sin in our hearts and our thoughts. And when He shows it to you, child of God, flee to the cross. for it's at the foot of the cross, covered in the blood of the Lamb. There we have close communion with our God. Amen. Let us pray. Search us, O God, and know our hearts. Try us and know our thoughts. Help us to see our sin. Make us truly sorry for it. And forgive us for the sake of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Hear this prayer for his sake. Amen.