Consider this: pleasures never lie. We can verbally fool others, and try to be as convincing as possible, but ultimately pleasure is the whistle-blower of the heart, because “pleasure is the measure of our treasure.” With this being said, John Piper puts it in an amazing way, it’s “not what we dutifully will but what we passionately want [that] reveals our excellence or evil.” And while it’s important that we recognize our own mistakes, shortcomings, and sinful nature there’s a hard truth to be realized here in this passage: our own introspection and self-evaluations are not enough. When we rely on our own self-diagnoses of the soul, we tend to treat the symptoms and not the root causes. You may be following along with me when I say that for me, I often will think far too highly of myself one second, and then drastically swing to beating myself down with condemnation the next.
The great thing is that I don’t have to search my soul by myself.
Similar to when Jesus knew the sin and heart of Peter in John 21:15-20, He too knows our hearts, sins, and failure to love Him. The beautiful thing, however, is that His death and subsequent resurrection purchased the full forgiveness of all of our sins. These are words that should never be far from our thoughts (including v. 24). “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” Sin, by its nature, dulls our hearts and minds to God’s grace. It blurs our vision. When we come to God with this prayer of David, we can have the diagnosis and treatment provided by the Lord instead of ourselves.
Sources:
Bloom, J. (2018, January 16). Lord, Revive My First Love. Retrieved September 05, 2020, from https://www.desiringgod.org/art…/lord-revive-my-first-love
Hamilton, I. (2015, September 1). When I Don’t Feel Forgiven by Ian Hamilton. Retrieved September 05, 2020, from https://www.ligonier.org/…/when-i-dont-feel-forgiven/
Piper, J. (2012). The pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s delight in being God. CO Springs, CO, Multnomah Books.
