Hebrew Word Study  – Investigate – Chaqar  – חקר Cheth Qop Resh

Psalms 139:23:  “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: 

David gives this statement in Psalms 139:23 right after telling the Lord he hates those who hate God. I did a study on this passage a few years ago and now that I look at that study I am amazed at how my interpretation of this passage expanded.  I wonder what prompted David to ask God to search his heart out. The other day I did a study on Psalms 32:3: “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.”  In this I shared my understanding that David has some sin in his life that was hindering his relationship with God and he did not know what that sin was. 

Remember those high school or college years when you were searching for the right person to marry.  You start dating your dream date and everything is wonderful, birds are singing, flowers are blooming and your time together is magic. Then you start to notice something, it is more of a feeling that something is not right.  Although you still date, you enjoy your talks and your time together there is that nagging feeling that something is not right. Then one day your beloved springs it on you and you find out that you are not only person in that individual’s life, there is someone else. Somehow you knew it all the time and it is almost a relief to find out and talk it out. 

I believe this is what David is feeling.  He enjoyed a close, intimate relationship with God. They enjoyed some wonderful times together just sharing each other’s heart.  Then one day David notices that God seems distant, that something is just not right.  In Psalm 32:3 David likens it to a roaring hunger or a groaning inside of him. David has enough sense to know it is not God’s fault, but he is at a loss as to what he had done to wound the heart of the God he loved.  Perhaps there is another god in his life and he has not resolved that relationship with that god.  I believe this is the occasion for Psalms 139:23.

“Search me Oh God.” God knows his heart He does not need to search it out.  But David needs God to search it out for him. The word search in the Hebrew is chaqar which does mean to investigation examine or to search out.  However, this is in a Qal imperative form so it is a sort of invitation, a request for an internal audit. The letters and position of the letters in this word Chet, Qop and Resh would suggest this invitation or request for an internal audit would be an invitation to merge his heart with God.  This particular verbal form would suggest He is inviting God into his heart take a tour and to clear out any foreign god which might be still lurking in his heart.

Then David invites God to try him. Here the word try could have two possible root words.  Traditionally we use the root word bakan which means to try or put to a test.   However, the root word banak could also be used.  This word expresses the idea of instruction or to train. I think David had both words in mind.  In other words, as this internal audit turns up some real problems David is asking to be trained and instructed in the way rid this foreign god from his heart for good. 

David is basically saying: “God something is wrong in our relationship, I know it is me but I don’t know what it is. Come into my heart, do what you have to do to clean it up and then instruct me in the way I should go so this breech in our relationship does not happen again.”  Now tradition teaches the root word for try is bakan.  Ok I will accept that and if that is the case what David is saying is: “Put me to the test, do a biopsy of my heart and if you find a cancer that is another god then get rid of it. Even if it means chemotherapy or radiation treatment which will be discomforting and painful just get this foreign god out of me.”  David is saying: “I am ready to endure what I must to re-establish our relationship. 

Then David asked God to know his thoughts. I mean come on, doesn’t God know his thoughts already, why does he need to give God permission to know his thoughts? That word to know is yadah which is an intimate knowing.  David is well aware of the fact that God knows what he is thinking. What David is asking is that God will become intimate with His thoughts.  He is asking that he only think thoughts that are compatible with God. He wants to think only thoughts that will make God comfortable.

Ask my study partner, she will tell you how I hate to waste any time, even a minute. This evening as I approached the end of my shift on my disability bus I was told to go to a clinic and wait for my passenger.  My passenger would be out in ten minutes. Ten minutes of waiting for someone. Ten minutes of my life, ten minutes of doing nothing. I could not stand that. So ,I started a conversation with a pigeon. He told me some wonderful things about God and before long my passenger arrived and my feathered friend took flight. I believe this is what David meant in asking God to be intimate with his thoughts. To be a part of his thoughts whenever or wherever he had moments of idleness. 

As David walked through the fires of life, he wanted God to be comfortable in his heart. To search it out and remove anything that would suggest there was another god in his life. He wanted to know and confirm that God was the only god that he had in his life. If another god was found he wanted it removed, even if it meant some measure of pain he wanted it out of his life. 

If you are finding your relationship with God to not be what it once was, like something is wrong and you just can’t put your finger on it. Maybe you have a little affair with another god on the side, a little hanky panky, eh?  No harm you say. But it is affecting your relationship, your intimacy with God.  Perhaps like David you can invite God in for an internal audit and boot out any gods that may be infiltrating into your heart, no matter how painful it might be or how much you don’t want to admit to this little tryst with another god. 

when sharing their wedding vows.  They are committing themselves, their lives, their whole being to each other for the rest of their lives, they are promising to forsake all others, to always be there for each other, to open their hearts to each other and bare no secrets from each other.  A single English word for chor would be transparency. It is to look at each other with transparency.

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