Examined

This completes our journey through Psalm 139. Click here to read earlier reflections.

Examine me, O God, and probe my thoughts.

Test me, and know my concerns.

See if there is any idolatrous way in me,

and lead me in the everlasting way.

Psalm 139:23-24

Scripture agrees with scripture throughout the canon. Proverbs 16:9 says, In his heart man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Psalm 107:3 reminds us that the Lord always leads in a right way. His leading comes crooked sometimes, as the Israelites understood, and the wisdom writer of Ecclesiastes reminds.

Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?

7:13, NIV

The Lord leads, if we will let Him. And His way is the best way, be it through twists, turns, or fire. But first He leads us through our own souls, and perhaps that is the most crooked path as He examines our bent ways in order to lead us in His way. And in His leading, He transforms us.

Psalm 139 begins and ends with examination. Oh, Lord you examine me and you know me (v. 1). Examine me, O God, and probe my thoughts. Test me, and know my concerns.

What transformation has happened to our psalmist! From acknowledgement of a hard fact that cannot be avoided, to soul-longing that is so great he is willing to face the cost, our psalmist has grown indeed. He has journeyed from knowledge about God, to experience with God, and the two have alloyed to forge belief.

Knowledge is overrated.

Experience is arguable.

But together, they bond to create an unbreakable force of belief.

Like metal the psalmist is being made into steel. According to experts, steelmaking is a process that involves melting, purifying, and alloying metals at extremely high temperatures (approximately 1600 degrees Celsius/2900 degrees Fahrenheit).

Alloying is the process of mixing a metal with one or more other elements to create an alloy. This new alloy has improved properties, such as increased strength, durability, and resistance to corrosion. The process involves high heat until the metal reaches a molten state. Then the alloying elements can be added. Sounds again like what we already know in Scripture.

Dear friends, do not be astonished that a trial by fire is occurring among you, as though something strange were happening to you.

1 Peter 4:12, NET

Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.) But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:3-8, NET

These are alloying scriptures, beloved. We are God’s metal. And interestingly in the world of metals, each metal has its own melting point or melting range. The Steelmaker tends each individually, eyes riveted on you and me, watching for that precise moment the mixing, the strengthening, can begin. He knows our limits, and He expertly tends to the melting that will make us His instruments.

It is when we are molten that he adds endurance, character, and hope. Hope leads to love. In the end, we are saved.

The psalmist of 139 learned that to be examined was to be strengthened and led in the everlasting way, the One Way that will never perish. His final prayer was a prayer of one who would be made into steel.

Let us surrender to the heat of examination, let us be transformed into His instruments today.

Lord, examine me and probe my thoughts. Test me, and know my concerns. See if there is any idolatrous way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. Amen.

@audreycfrank

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