A Deceitful Heart

June 10, 2019

In the Biblical book of 1 Kings, Solomon dedicated the newly-constructed temple with sacrifices and a prayer which included these words: “When each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men),”

I Kings 8:38-39 NKJV

In our self-affirming culture, these are foreign-sounding words to most of us today. “The plague of his own heart” is the kind of language that is being expunged from public discourse. “How can any modern person utter such words?” we wonder. If a public school teacher talked this way, she would be fired. And yet, the evidence is all around us. Violence, corruption, greed, and a host of other ills are not merely the product of society requiring social engineering to eradicate it. History provides us with a steady stream of evidence regarding human depravity. It would be bad enough if our jails and prisons were the only evidence for depravity, but it is as easily found in the halls of justice, in the privileged offices and homes of politicians, media personalities, professionals, and corporate heads who walk the streets freely. Human hearts are home to the plague of many a sin and vice. We won’t learn this listening to CNN, Fox, or in the halls of the Ivy League. We learn it from the Holy Scriptures which lean on thousands of years of human experience.

 Knowing the plague of our own heart is impossible apart from the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, but is absolutely necessary if we are to live faithfully before the Lord. Jeremiah tells us “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” He goes on—“Who can know it?” He answers that question in the next verse: “I, the LORD, search the heart...”

This morning on my way to work, the words of an old hymn echoed through my mind. The melody is haunting, the words are straight from the Bible. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” (Ps. 139:23-24) I am not perceptive nor honest enough to search my own heart; after all, mine is as deceitful as any, so if I am to be even remotely self-aware, this prayer must continually be on my lips and in my heart. Tonight, it is, and I am thankful to belong to a God who cares enough to tell me the truth about myself so I can live in Truth and integrity.