The Divine inspection.
"Searched;" the figure is "winnowed" or "sifted." "Before men we stand as opaque bee-hives. They can see the thoughts go in and out of us, but what work they do inside of a man they cannot tell. Before God we are as glass bee-hives, and all that our thoughts are doing within us he perfectly sees and understands" (Beecher). How near the ancient poets of India could get to the thought and feeling of this psalm is indicated in the following hymn taken from the Atharva-Veda: "
1. The great lord of these worlds sees as if he were near. If a man thinks he is walking by stealth, the gods know it all.
2. If a man stands, or walks, or hides; if he goes to lie down or to get up; what two people sitting together whisper,—King Varuna knows it: he is there as a third.
3. This earth, too, belongs to Varuna the king, and this wide sky with its ends far apart. The two seas (the sky and the ocean) are Varuna's loins; he is also contained in this same drop of water.
4. He who should flee far beyond the sky, even he would not be rid of Varuna the king. His spies proceed from heaven toward this world; with thousand eyes they overlook this earth.
5. King Varuna sees all this, what is between heaven and earth, and what is beyond. He has counted the twinklings of the eyes of men. As a player throws the dice, he settles all things.
6. May all thy fatal nooses, which stand spread out seven by seven and threefold, catch the man who tells a lie; may they pass by him who tells the truth!"
I. THE DIVINE INSPECTION IS AN OBSERVATION. All outward things related to us are "naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Illustrate by the regiment inspected by the colonel. Everything—health, bearing, dress, weapons, etc.—is carefully observed. God knows all about us.
II. THE DIVINE INSPECTION IS A SPIRITUAL TESTING. It concerns the inner man. It deals with cherished thought, fixed motive, passing mood, varying feeling. There is so much that never gets expressed in word and act, which nevertheless makes up our real selves; and all this God knows.—R.T.