A word about checkups

 I went to the doctor the other day for a checkup. I’m not sick, but I don’t want to get sick either. One of the best ways to avoid serious illness that I might feel is sneaking up on me is getting a reasonably regular examination from my trusted doctor. He had a few things to say, but nothing earth-shattering really. I’m grateful for the Lord’s provision and health. One of my very favorite passages of Scripture falls into the category of checkup or examination. For this edition of Classic State of Mind, I decided to invite God’s word to once again examine me. Give me a checkup. Perhaps it would be good for you to. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts, even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I’m going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand. I can never escape from your spirit. I can never get away from your presence. If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there, your hand will guide me, your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me, and the light around me to become night, but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. You made all of the delicate inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex. Your workmanship is marvelous, how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered. I can’t even count them. They outnumber the grains of sand. When I wake up, you are still with me. That’s the 139th Psalm, both a declaration and an invitation to examination, not a checkup from some earthly doctor, but instead a sincere request from a guy who knew of his own vulnerability. He closes that psalm asking for further examination. Search me, says David. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.