One day David was going about his business, carrying on like always before. But on this day, he had an encounter that immeasurably changed his heart and perspective. He was taken into the throne room, where he saw God… he saw His holiness, His righteousness, His Sovereignty, and His divinity. Psalm 139 has become a popular chapter that we have often quoted. But here’s the thing… we often stop at the last two verses – the verses where David asks God to search his heart. As David looked upon the One sitting on the throne, he offered Him his heart… O Lord… search my heart and show me what’s in there that is offensive to You.
Jeremiah says that our hearts are desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). I’m thinking that one of the reasons for this is because this is the place we hide things. Hence, our hearts have become a hiding place for sin… judgment, impatience, addiction, unkindness, impure thoughts, selfishness, lack of compassion, pride, rebellion, and doubts. All of these things are offensive to God because He has given us the resources to break loose from them… Jesus’ blood broke the control of sin over our lives. But instead of breaking free from these things, we’ve hidden them in our hearts.
In Psalm 139, David speaks of an important truth… God sees everything, even, and especially, those things we think are hidden. Or the things we don’t even realize are hidden. David says in this Psalm… You know my thoughts even when I’m far away (v. 2); You know everything I do (v. 3); You know what I’m going to say even before I say it (v. 4); I can never escape from your Spirit (v. 7). That means that nothing in my heart is hidden from God. Oh, how desperately we need to realize that. How desperately we need our hearts cleansed.
You may think… but it’s hard giving God access to my heart. Yes, it is. But if we spent some time just staring into the glory of God, giving Him access is a natural response. His holiness should reveal to us our unholiness. His divinity should unmask our humanness. Gazing into these things and staying there for a while, should bring us to surrender everything to Him, including the hidden things. The things that others may not see but the things God sees. We should pray as David did… O Lord, point out anything in me that offends you. Let’s go to the only place where these things can be brought out into the light… in the presence of the Light Himself. I want my heart cleansed. I hope you do too.