“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties.”
Psalm 139:23

Most of the time when this verse is quoted, verse 24 is quoted alongside it: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” I would like to focus on the word anxieties. This is something most of us do not want to talk about. In fact, we usually try to bury our anxieties and pretend they do not exist. But David asks the Lord to reveal his anxieties—to know them.

The word anxieties is sarappim in the Hebrew. It carries the thought of disquieting, anxious, or conflicting thoughts. Anxieties grow from worries that have not been committed to the Lord. They are worries that have been allowed to grow.

According to the dictionary, worry, as a verb, means “to give way to anxiety or unease; to allow one’s mind to dwell on difficulties or troubles.” As a noun, it is “a state of anxiety and uncertainty over actual or potential problems.” Anxiety is “a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.”

Anxiety can lead to fear, which is “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or is a threat.” Fear is a response to a danger or threat that may or may not occur. Fear can even lead to the more devastating condition of panic. Panic is a deeper, more severe condition in which a person becomes totally overwhelmed by physical and mental distress.

David describes such panic in Psalm 55:4–5: “My heart is severely pained within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me.”

These are all things that many of us do not like to talk about. They may even be difficult for us to understand. But the Word of God speaks to these issues and gives us help as we pass through them. There may be cases where someone needs to seek professional help from a qualified Christian counselor or another trusted professional. But we also need to remember that the Lord Jesus Christ declared, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

Anchor For Today:
All your anxiety, all your care, bring to the mercy seat, leave it there,
Never a burden He cannot bear, never a friend like Jesus!
– Edward Joy