28. God who searches me

Names of God Meditations No.28:  God who searches me

Psa 139:1 “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me.”

Recap: As we commented previously, earlier names focused on the way the Lord comes to us for our benefit – rock, fortress, deliverer, saviour, and so on, but now we have been starting to look again in a more focused way at the Lord’s greatness, in simply who He is, and the effect that should have on us when we really take it in. Earlier we considered Him as ‘the Holy One’ and in the previous study as ‘the Exalted One’, and such words show Him from a different perspective, one that makes us feel uneasy perhaps – and rightly so.

He knows: A number of times when we have been describing God according to what the Bible says of Him – all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-wise – I suspect we have skimmed over those, especially now, the middle one, that He is all knowing. The fact that He knows everything – about everything, why it exists, how it works and so on – can be reassuring for, as we’ve said before, He will never be caught out by circumstances because He also knows what is coming.

He knows us: But then there is this thing that our starter verse hints at, that He knows us through and through, and therefore nothing about us is hidden from Him. I have commented before that it is said that there are always three of us – the person people see, the person I think I am, and the person I really am. Now God sees all three, and the third is of special importance, for He has in His heart what He knows He can achieve with us and has plans to do that (see Eph 2:10). So, as He looks into us, He knows exactly how far along the path we have gone.

Enter Saul, Samuel & David: Samuel was given a specifically pertinent revelation when he was going to anoint Israel’s next king from one of Jesse’s family (1 Sam 16) and was working his way along the line of sons. His starting point had been looking for a big guy to replace big Saul, who had been described as “a head taller than anyone else,” (1 Sam 9:2) but God wasn’t looking for size of body (like big football or big rugby players that we know of) but of size of heart.

Look at the heart: So yes, “When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.” (v.6) Oldest son, big guy, must be the one! No, you have something to learn here Samuel, so the Lord responds, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord   does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (v.7) Ah! And heart refers to the inside of us.

In the Bible, the term “heart”  (that we’ve considered previously) refers to the core of a person’s being, where their deepest thoughts, feelings, desires, and choices are made, i.e. the source of one’s will, attitude, and intentions, and so the source of thoughts, actions, and words. THESE are all the things the Lord looks at when He looks at us and sees right through us. No, it’s not the bones, the skeleton, the physical heart, and other organs, it’s about the mysterious inner life that is ‘us’, it’s ‘me’, the unique individual.

Testing Times: Now there are a number of places in the Bible when we see the Lord testing His individual people to see how they will react. Perhaps the best known was Abraham’s test (Gen 22:1) in respect of Isaac and the writer to the Hebrews tells us how Abraham triumphed in it (Heb 11:18,19). We have to wait for revelation to come through Ezekiel to see how God regards death (Ezek 18:23,32, 33:11). All this we’ve considered before. The other big one was Ex 32:7,8  that required Moses to intercede for Israel in respect of the golden calf incident. Such crisis times reveal our hearts, which so much of the time remain hidden. But God knows.

Facts of my Salvation: It is at this point that, if we are feeling disquieted or anxious, we show how well we have taken on board the facts of our salvation. I am not saved by what I think or do. My only part was to surrender to Jesus as Lord and let him be my Saviour. All the rest is him. Yes, if I want to get the full benefits of his salvation then that does rely, as I have said before, on my availability and my obedience to his leading, but God saved me because a) He loves me (and all of us) and b) He saw I would be open to respond to Him (as not all are). I am saved because Jesus died on the cross for me and when he did so, the Godhead knew exactly what they were getting – failures, sinners, incompetents, walking disasters, (certainly when measured against perfection!) – and they knew that our lives on this planet, having been redeemed, would now consist of years of gradual change, a change that would only be complete once we get to heaven.  

Again, God knows us: So let’s go back to what we said before, God has in His heart what He knows He can achieve with us and has plans to do that (see Eph 2:10), and so as He looks into us, He knows exactly how far along the path we have gone. When He looks into us, He’s not looking to condemn us but to see what more needs doing in this change process. Yes, sometimes it may need a word of correction and redirecting, but isn’t that exactly one of the reasons He’s given us the Bible: “for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” (2 Tim 3:16) or as the JBP version puts it, “for teaching the faith and correcting error, for re-setting the direction of a man’s life and training him in good living,” or the Message version, “showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way.”  So when He looks into me, He knows exactly what I need – and it’s always for my best (even if sometimes it takes a long time for me to realize that!) Hallelujah! Yes, I need Him to be the God who searches me!