2. The Psalmist sets forth in poetry what theology calls the doctrine of the Divine Omniscience. He believes in Jehovah, the God of all the earth, and therefore believes in a Providence so universal that nothing is missed. It is not an intellectual dogma to him, but a spiritual intuition. It is not stated as an abstraction of thought, but flows from the warm personal relation between God and man, which is the great revelation of the Bible. God's providence is everywhere, but it does not dissipate itself in a mere general supervision of creation. It is all-seeing, all-surrounding, all-embracing, but it is not diffused in matter and dispersed through space. It extends — and this is the wonder of it — to the individual : 0 Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me.
3. The practical ethical thought suggested to the Psalmist by such a conception is the question, How can God, the pure and hoJy One, with such an intimate and unerring knowledge, tolerate
»S7
158 THE SEARCHER OF HEARTS
wicked men ? He feels that God cannot but be against evil, no matter what appearances seem to suggest that God does not care. The doom of evil must be certain ; and so the Psalmist solemnly dissociates himself from the wicked men who hate and blaspheme God. And the conclusion is simply and humbly to throw open the heart and soul to God, accepting the fact that He cannot be deceived, praying God to search him and purify him and lead him. " Search me, 0 God, and know my heart : try me, and know my thoughts : and see if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
*fj In the general reform of conventual and monastic life, the Abbey of Port Koyal had set a striking example. Behind its cloistered walls were gathered some of the purest and most devoted women of France, under the strict rule of M^re Ang61ique Arnauld. The spiritual directions of St. Francois de Sales, who loved the Port-Eoyalists, had tempered firmness with gentleness, and given a charm to the pursuit of personal holiness ; the Petites Ecoles of the abbey rivalled the educational establishments of the Jesuits. But St. Cyran, who succeeded Francois de Sales as spiritual director, was suspected of heresy, and Port Eoyal was involved in the charge. Persecution fell upon the community. It was to a psalm that they appealed. "The sisters of Port Eoyal," says Blaise Pascal (and his own sister was one of the first victims of the persecution), " astonished to hear it said that they were in the way of perdition, that their confessors were leadhig them to Geneva by teaching them that Jesus Christ was neither in the Eucharist nor at the right hand of God, and knowing that the charge was false, committed themselves to God, saying with the Psalmist, ' See if there be any way of wickedness in me.' " ^
The Searching of God.
1. "^jg Psalmist -realized-^^hatiie, could not thoroughly search himself. We have all of us tendencies and inclinations which we cannot gauge and do not know the force or the power of. We have depths and abysses in our natures which no human measuring line can fathom. Our souls are so disordered and disturbed by the crossing of many varied feelings, high and low, clashing and 1 R. E. Protliero, The Psalms in Human Life, 214.
PSALM cxxxix. 23, 24 159
fretting against each other, good thoughts mingled with so much that is base, pure high feelings with so much that is low and degraded. Wa_have_Jn3S_i0Jiietimes jp^haps_mor^^ good thaiLW^ r.eiLliza,-or-jnDi£_eviI^ than jwe ever guessed, Xheje, jg in us, not only, our sinfuLacts^but also a deep, spirit oi wickedness, a mystery, of evil, which no human power can comprehend. Said the prophet j trji,ly>^" The-iieart is deceitful above all things, and desperately^y \yicked,: ,wlKL,.ca.n_know it?" !]^,jojae^ can. Not even qux- efilvea, who -think we know jQ.urselye^ well. We do not kno,w what is in us, what powers_.Q£_capabilities we hava for ^npd or for evil.
^Who made the heart, 'tis He alone
Decidedly can try us; [He knows each chord, its various tone,
Each spring, its various bias. y
\ One of the precepts which Thales the great philosopher, who .^_ ^ . lived about the same time as Josiah king of Judali, inculcated V' ^"^'j was, "Knc^w thvself." and it is a precept full of the highest sense ^*^ and wisdom. It was regarded by the ancients as a duty of para- mount importance, and received by them with all the authority of a Divine command. It is not as a matter of curiosity, but of deepest necessity, that we should have a thorough acquaintance with the state in which we are before God, and should try to see ourselves and to estimate ourselves, not as others do, but as God does, for it is a sul^pcJi- on which we are apt to make great and ^(,/r dajiger,Qjas_iaiaiakes,_andit,i§,one_oi which many are in complete^ —-^ ignoiance.^
2. TbftJPRalmiRt is snrp. that Gnd Jia^ pftrfpf^kmWIgd^rft nf hjjp. Hft jR_gg_certainjnf G^pxl as hft ia of^his^ own ftYJshgn^pj indeed it is not too much to say that it is only as he is conscious of being searched and known by God — only as he is overwhelmed by contact with a Spirit which knows him better than he knows himself — that he rises to any adequate sense of what his own being and personality mean. IJe-is-ifiYfialgdJa Jiimseli hj^ God!s 8£ai«h4JiaJknows_him8elL through God. Speaking practically — and in religion everything is practical — God alone can overcome atheism, and this is how He overcomes it. He does not put within our reach arguments which point to theistic conclusions ; He gives