Truth in the Trying

“O LORD, Thou hast searched me, and known me… For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether… 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” (Psalm 139:1-24).  “The ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He pondereth all his goings” (Proverbs 5:21). 

The psalmist knows that, from the start,

The Lord has searched him, yet he prays

That God would search and know his heart,

And trying him, expose his ways.

The psalmist is consistent here   

In this request to search him thus.

Our ways TO GOD are surely clear,

Yet trials make them clear TO US. 

Before our thought becomes a word,

Before our way becomes an act,

The Lord examines and has heard

The attitude before the fact. 

The psalmist recognizes this:

We all fall short of God’s perfection.

The sinful ways we would dismiss,

The Lord exposes for correction.

O Lord, our ways before Your eyes

Are often from our vision hid.

Our heart so often justifies

The sinful things we said and did!

We thank You, Lord, that You expose

Our ways that You so clearly see.

By trying us, You thus disclose  

The truth that also makes us free.