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The Invitation

To be understood. To be fully known. To be loved despite our faults. All you need to do is search “he doesn’t understand me” in google and you’ll get a host of top tips of how to discern whether the man / woman you are dating really “gets you”. The deep wish of each of our hearts, I believe, is to be truly understood and fully loved.  

This is why I find Psalm 139 so incredible. The psalmist says a number of revolutionary things. Not only is it clear from this psalm that God knows each of us individually, but when you take a step back and consider the manner in which he knows each of us; it’s really breath-taking. According to verse 1, God has “searched” us and he “knows” us. Not only that, he knows each one of our mundane and quotidian activities: “you know when I sit and when I rise.” The psalmist goes further, explaining that God knows his “going out and lying down”, and God is “familiar with all my ways.” Such information does not generally attain the level of social-media-status-material. Nor would most of it find its way into our daily conversation. But God is intimately aware of our habits, our daily routines and activities, and even our rest and sleep patterns.

So he knows what we do. But does he know our deep emotions, thoughts, worries? The psalmist says, “you perceive my thoughts from afar”. This I find fascinating, when you really pause and consider it. How many thoughts do I have in a day? I could not even count them. I suppose if someone was to keep a filing cabinet of my thoughts, even for just a week, it would rival any national archive for its volume and complexity. But now imagine how much data would be generated to equal a lifetime of thoughts. And if one was to create such an archive, who would even be bothered to read it, or deem its content worthy of study?

Yet David (the psalmist) says, “Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord”. Who else can we truly say this about? Even the most intimate relationship on earth between two people cannot boast of this level of knowledge of the other member. Ultimately, within any relationship or marriage, while one may get good at guessing the other’s thoughts, one cannot fully know the other's every thought without an explanation, or anticipate every single word the other speaks. There is simply no one on earth who knows these details about you.

Psalm 139 is not solitary in such revelations. According to Luke 12:7, God knows the very number of hairs on your head. Even in the ‘information age’, where data collection and analysis is so prolific, it would be difficult to find someone willing to take the time to discover that information, or be interested enough to know it.  God is aware of our needs. According to Matthew 6:7 “your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” And guess what else, He knows what you truly, deeply, want and long for. This is clear from Psalm 37:4, which exhorts us to “delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

So to what end? He knows us, those deeply hidden parts of ourselves that we hide from others and even our own consciousness, and those boring and mundane thoughts and day to day activates, which do not warrant mentioning or considering. The final verses of Psalm 139 give us the key. While verse 1 commences with the psalmist’s revelation “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me”, the penultimate and ultimate verses are a paradoxical invitation “search me, O 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.” (NIV) Why does David say this – God already knows his thoughts, his ‘ways’, and has already searched him. But now – David gives God the invitation He is longing for.

I believe there is deeper significance to “the way” that David is referring to. Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me”. Furthermore, He extends an invitation to us. Revelation 3:20 says “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” (NIV)

He already knows you, intimately, and loves you. Now the response is yours. Do you want to invite him in to ‘search’ you? Do you want to be led in His ‘way’? Consider it today. There is no better choice on earth that you can ever make! 

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