Daily Devo: January 23, 2025

The Most Dangerous Prayer

Psalm 139

LORD , you have examined me. 
  You know me. 
You know when I sit down and when I stand up. 
Even from far away, you comprehend my plans. 
You study my traveling and resting. 
  You are thoroughly familiar with all my ways. 
There isn’t a word on my tongue, LORD , 
  that you don’t already know completely. 
You surround me—front and back. 
  You put your hand on me. 
That kind of knowledge is too much for me; 
  it’s so high above me that I can’t reach it. 

Where could I go to get away from your spirit? 
  Where could I go to escape your presence? 
If I went up to heaven, you would be there. 
  If I went down to the grave, you would be there too! 
If I could fly on the wings of dawn, 
  stopping to rest only on the far side of the ocean— 
   even there your hand would guide me; 
  even there your strong hand would hold me tight! 
If I said, “The darkness will definitely hide me; 
  the light will become night around me,” 
even then the darkness isn’t too dark for you! 
Nighttime would shine bright as day, 
because darkness is the same as light to you! 

You are the one who created my innermost parts; 
  you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb. 
I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart. 
  Your works are wonderful—I know that very well. 
My bones weren’t hidden from you 
  when I was being put together in a secret place, 
   when I was being woven together in the deep parts of the earth. 
Your eyes saw my embryo, 
   and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me, 
  before any one of them had yet happened. 

God, your plans are incomprehensible to me! 
   Their total number is countless! 
If I tried to count them—they outnumber grains of sand! 
   If I came to the very end—I’d still be with you. 

If only, God, you would kill the wicked! 
  If only murderers would get away from me— 
 the people who talk about you, but only for wicked schemes; 
   the people who are your enemies, 
  who use your name as if it were of no significance. 
   Don’t I hate everyone who hates you? 
  Don’t I despise those who attack you? 
Yes, I hate them—through and through! 
  They’ve become my enemies too. 

Search me, God! Know my heart! 
  Put me to the test! Know my anxious thoughts! 
Look to see if there is any idolatrous way in me, 
  then lead me on the eternal path!'

The Psalms are the prayer and songbook of scripture. As the Israelites would pilgrimage to Jerusalem for high holy days, the psalms of ascent would be on their lips. They would sing and pray psalms of lament and examination when nations pressed in around them. Today, the Psalms provide us a lens through which to honestly pray to God through the best and worst of life.

Psalm 139 is a centering, sobering Psalm. It contains, I believe, the most dangerous prayer we could pray. “Search me and know me!” We tend to pray prayers of protection, guidance, and comfort when days are difficult. We want God to be our shield and our sword. The Psalmist gives us a glimpse of these types of prayers in verses 19-22. We could easily make a list of people that fit the descriptions laid out here: the wicked, the bloodthirsty, enemies of God, and those who use God’s name for selfish gain. It’s easy to pray a prayer against other people. If we stop there, we miss the most dangerous (and often times the most transformative) prayer we could pray.

Praying against other people’s sins is one thing; have you ever prayed to feel the weight of your own sin? Pain is often ground zero for transformation, but if we constantly run from the reality of our sin and refuse to acknowledge its presence, we will remain unchanged. Confronting the sin of the world begins with confronting the sin in us.

“Lord, help me to feel the weight of my sin. Search me and know me. Help me to accept the freedom I have in you to confess and repent of anything in me that is not of you. Lead me in your good and perfect way.”