The final question to answer in a devotional study is: Are there any warnings to heed? In reading over Psalm 139 I concluded one warning to heed is inferred in verses 19-24.
Here it is in the words of Jesus, found in Matthew 7:1-5: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
In Psalm 139:19-22, the psalmist is judging others and building up his own righteousness. Even though his observations regarding the wicked around him might have been correct, while he was rebuking God’s inaction in judging them, he became increasingly aware of the plank in his own eye. That’s why the tone of his remarks to God took a turn from accusation of his and God’s enemies to a humble request to thoroughly examine his own heart.
Listen to his plaintive cry: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me.” He had anxious thoughts about the probability of offensive ways lurking in his own heart. First, deal with this. Then “lead me in the way everlasting.”
Let God handle His enemies.
