Psalm 139

Psalms 139:1-2

The Hebrew title reads To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the same plain ascription as many of David's psalms, though the poem itself is the most searching self-address in the Psalter. O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me opens with the verb search, the same word used of scouting land or examining ore, applied here to a person rather than a place. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off extends the search past action into intention, a thought read before it is finished.

Psalms 139:3-6

Thou compassest my path and my lying down carries the search into every posture, and there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether reaches speech before it is spoken. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me pictures a hand on both sides at once, hemmed in rather than merely watched. The stanza ends where such knowledge always ends for an honest reader, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain unto it, wonder rather than resentment the first response Henry and Spurgeon both note.

Psalms 139:7-10

The question turns outward from knowledge to presence, whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? The two directions tested are heaven and hell, sheol, the abode of the dead, at verse 8, and the two ends of the earth's compass, the wings of the morning east to the sunrise and the uttermost parts of the sea to the far west, at verse 9. Every route ends the same way, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me, presence given as guidance rather than only surveillance.

Psalms 139:11-12

If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me imagines the one hiding place every fugitive tries, night itself, and the psalm answers it directly, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to thee closes the geography of flight begun at verse 7 with the same conclusion reached by a different route, no distance and no darkness change what God already sees. Calvin reads the verse as comfort rather than threat, aimed at a believer with nothing to hide from a God who is already there.

Psalms 139:13-14

For thou hast possessed my reins, the inward parts named by the same word used of a sacrifice's kidneys, states that even the organs no one else can see were formed under God's own hand. Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb roots the whole psalm's search in an act older than birth. The psalm's best known line follows, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, praise as the response to being made rather than to any achievement since, with marvellous are thy works stated as fact about the maker before it is felt as gratitude by the one he made.

Psalms 139:15-16

My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth describes formation in the womb as skilled work witnessed by God from its earliest and most hidden stage, lowest parts of the earth read by most of the bench as a figure for the womb itself, dark and unseen like the ground. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect carries the same claim forward, God's sight reaching the unformed body before it takes shape. In thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them states that a life already had a record before a single part of it existed, the Psalter's strongest statement of a person known before he was formed.

Psalms 139:17-18

The prayer turns from being known to knowing in kind, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, the God who has read every thought now the subject of the psalmist's own wonder. How great is the sum of them stacks the thought onto the same numberless scale Scripture uses elsewhere for stars and sand, verse 18 making the comparison explicit, more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee closes the stanza the way sleep closes a day, presence unbroken by unconsciousness.

Psalms 139:19-22

Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God, depart from me therefore, ye bloody men turns the psalm without warning from wonder to war, and the abruptness itself is part of what the commentators discuss, a God who searches every thought cannot be asked to overlook wickedness that plots murder and takes his name in vain. I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies is read by most of the bench as zeal for God's own name rather than personal grudge, hatred aimed at what God opposes and stated as strongly as the language allows. Others read it as the honest cry of a man under threat, left in Scripture as prayer rather than offered as a pattern to imitate. The verses target no one now living, and both readings keep the imprecation inside its own moment rather than extending it to any person or people today.

Psalms 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart: Search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts returns to the verb that opened the psalm, the same search now invited rather than merely described, the hard verses of 19 to 22 answered by asking God to examine the hater's own heart along with everyone else's. And see if there be any wicked way in me widens the search to include the speaker in the class he has just condemned, a check the imprecation does not exempt him from. Lead me in the way everlasting closes the psalm where it began, in God's presence, now asked for rather than only found.