Psalm 139:11-12 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

It is one thing to be able to physically hide from someone you want to avoid and that is usually easy enough. But the very idea that even if you succeeded at that, they could still read your every thought and anticipate your actions would be totally intimidating. Yet, here in this 139^th Psalm David is coming to grips with the reality that it is impossible to hide from God in any way because he is Lord both of the darkness and the light. So David allows himself to become completely unraveled before God as he writes:

“O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in – behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” (Psalm 139:1-10)

David exposes himself to God’s searchlight as it were, acknowledging that God knew him even before he was formed in his mother’s womb and that every day of his life was already ordained by God. He is not out of touch with the realities around him by any means because he acknowledges that he does feel threatened by his enemies. Still, his greatest desire is to be right with God, so he concludes his prayer:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead in the way everlasting.”  (Psalm 139:23-24).

When I grow up spiritually, I want to be like David!