'Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts;
24. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting.'--PSALM cxxxix. 23, 24.
This psalm begins with perhaps the grandest contemplation of the divine
Omniscience that was ever put into words. It is easy to pour out
platitudes upon such a subject, but the Psalmist does not content
himself with generalities. He gathers all the rays, as it were, into one
burning point, and focusses them upon himself: 'Oh, Lord! Thou hast
searched _me_, and known _me_.' All the more remarkable, then, is it
that the psalm should end with asking God to do what it began with
declaring that He does. He knows us each, altogether; whether we like it
or not, whether we try to hinder it or not, whether we remember it or
not. Singular, therefore, is it to find this prayer as the very climax
of all the Psalmist's contemplation. It is more than the 'searching'
which was spoken of at the beginning, which is desired at the end. It is
a process which has for its issue the cleansing of all the evil that is
beheld. The prayer of the text is in fact the yearning of the devout
soul for purity. I simply wish to consider the series of petitions here,
in the hope that we may catch something of their spirit, and that some
faint echo of them may sound in our desires. My purpose, then, will be
best accomplished if I follow the words of the text, and look at these
petitions in the order in which they stand.