Lent- Test me and know my anxious thoughts

I have been told that the sign of good Hebrew literature was to be able to say the same thing twice but in different ways. This happens a lot in the Psalms. I believe David is in this line of the Psalm getting at the same point he was trying to make in the previous one. In it he uses more imagery, again to show the extent of the searching and testing.

Test- examine, try, prove, assay.
What I thought was interesting here was that "test" is the primary root for "watchtower." The type of watchtower is not the kind you might find on a fortress, but rather one that is built on top of a hill. When I think of this kind of watchtower, I am forced to think that their purpose was to give people in the cities plenty of warning of incoming danger. A tower on a mountain has a great overview of the situation of the land. Could it be that David was asking God to take a survey of his inner land and state and give him plenty of warning of incoming danger? I think that is quite possible.

Know- is the same as in "know my heart"

Anxious Thoughts- these two words cannot be separated. They appear to be one word in the Hebrew. There is actually some uncertainty about them. A footnote search in my NIV Study Bible led me to a note about the soul. It is my belief that "thoughts" could be related to soul. The note says that soul is not the spiritual vs. the physical man or even the inner man in distinction to the outer man. Rather, it is "his very self as a living, conscious, personal being." A German translation, says "know my desires and thoughts." Don't desires, anxieties and the like make up a lot of who we are as people?

So maybe in today's words, this verse could be paraphrased as, "Lord, take your satellite and survey my landscape, looking at it all and even zooming in to the details. Know all of me. Know my wishes, desires and what disquiets me and makes me nervous."

I need the Lord to do this in me because there are a lot of desires and a lot of anxieties. Headlines nowadays are very disturbing, and I wonder what is going to happen. I wonder what Joey and my next steps are. We have goals, desires and wishes. Somehow I don't think that this testing by God that David is talking about is only so God can find hidden sins and deep dark secrets. I think that this testing by God also brings comfort and peace to those whose hearts are open to God. Knowing that God knows what makes me nervous and what I desire helps me to trust him more. I don't have to drop subtle hints so he knows how to take care of me.

He knows.