Self-Disclosure

A Series on the Psalms – a collection of prayers
Feeling lost or misunderstood
 (Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Psalm 139 

[Life is full of emotions. The book of Psalms is a collection of prayers that express our emotions which are the cry of our soul for hope. In this series, we will be looking in the mirror of the Psalms, to learn more about ourselves and our Lord.]

  

At age sixty, for the first time in almost forty years, I found myself taking an exam. Only this exam wasn’t just to get a grade, it was to keep my job as an insurance agent. My anxiety level was out of sight as my stress increased with each question.

 

After finishing, I went over to the proctor and gave her my answers. She graded it immediately. When she casually told me that I had passed, I wanted to reach across her desk and hug her. But I resisted.

 

Self-disclosure can be a scary experience. And believe me, taking a test is a form of self-disclosure. It shows either how much you know, or don’t know. Truthfully, most people don’t like any form of self-disclosure. But in Psalm 139, David embraced it.

 

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.               NIV

 

Not only did David ask the Lord to search his heart, but he recognized that the Lord had created him and knew him from the inside out. Talk about self-disclosure.

 

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb. NIV

¹⁶ 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.            NLT

 

David also understood that the Lord was with him everywhere he went... more self-disclosure.

 

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.         NIV

 

Self-disclosure can be frightening. Especially if you have skeletons in your closet. I don’t know if David wrote this psalm before or after he slept with Bathsheba and had her husband killed. But either way, David most certainly had skeletons to hide.

 

And yet, he embraced self-disclosure because he took comfort in God’s character: that He is all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful and holy. But also, because even though the Lord knew all of David’s sins – past, present and future - the Lord still loved him.

 

The same is true for you and me.

 

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.        Romans 8 NIV

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Come Coach Me Lord

The Lord is… my coach

A Series from the Psalms

Psalm 139

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20139&version=NIV;NLT

 

When I was in full time urban youth ministry, one of the roles I played was that of a boys’ basketball coach.

 

One particular game still sticks in my mind from forty years ago. It was a tight tournament game and one of my players, Terry, was at the free throw line. Because he was feeling the pressure of the moment, he missed his first shot.

 

Sometime during the season I had told the team a joke where the punch line was a number. Don’t worry, I didn’t quit my day job. When Terry stepped to the line for his second shot, I called out to him and said “Hey Terry… 12”. He laughed; turned to the basket; and calmly sank his free throw.

 

A coach has to know his players. He has to know what’s going on inside of them; what motivates them; when to push and when to joke. A coach teaches, leads, pulls and pushes a player to be the best they can be. A coach has to get inside the player’s head so that in a sense, he is with them all the time.

 

David thought of the Lord as if He was his coach.

 

¹ O Lord, you have examined my heart
    and know everything about me.

⁷ I can never escape from your Spirit!
    I can never get away from your presence!

¹⁴ Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
    Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.      NLT

 

The following prayer is David’s plea for the Lord to keep him accountable; to search his heart; to test him; to know his anxiety; to show him what is offensive and to lead him into what is good; in essence, to come coach him.

 

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.   NIV

 

We would do well to pray the same prayer, “Come coach me Lord”.