Psalms 139:3
in Psalms 139You search out my path and my lying down; You are aware of all my ways.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways.
KJV
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
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This verse in Psalms 139
Commentary
7 notes on this verseThou compassest my path and my lying down,.... The Targum adds, "to study in the law.'' His walk in the daytime, and every step he took, and his lying down at night. It denotes his perfect knowledge of all his actions, day and night; he surrounds every path of man, that they cannot escape his knowledge. Or, "thou winnowest", as some render the word (c); he distinguishes actions; he discerns and separates the good from the bad, or the goodness of an action from the evil and imperfection of it, as in winnowing the wheat is separated from the chaff.
This site's exposition
You search out my path and my lying down
on Psalms 139:3-6
A word is known before it is on the tongue. Verse 5 draws the picture of a man hemmed in with a hand laid on him, so the knowing is close enough to touch. The man's answer is that such knowledge is too high to reach.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"Thou hast understood my thoughts from afar; Thou hast tracked out my path and my limit" (ver. 3); "and all my ways Thou hast seen beforehand" (ver. 4). What is, "from afar"? While I am yet in my pilgrimage, before I reach that, my true country, Thou hast known my thoughts. ...The younger son went into a far country. After his toil and suffering and tribulation and want, he thought on his father, and desired to return, and said, "I will arise, and go to my father." "I will arise," said he, for before he had sat. Here then thou mayest recognise him saying, "Thou hast known my down-sitting and up-rising." I sat, in want; I arose, in longing for Thy Bread. "Thou hast understood my thoughts from afar." For far indeed had I gone; but where is not He whom I had left? Wherefore the Lord saith in the Gospel, that his father met him as he was coming. Truly; for "he had understood his thoughts from afar." "My path," he saith; what, but a bad path, the path he had walked to leave his father? ...What is, "my path"? that by which I have gone. What is, "my limit"? that whereunto I have reached. "Thou hast tracked out my path and my limit." That limit of mine, far distant as it was, was not far from Thine eyes. Far had I gone, and yet Thou wast there. "And all my ways Thou hast seen beforehand." He said not, "hast seen," but, "hast seen beforehand." Before I went by them, before I walked in them, Thou didst see them beforehand; and Thou didst permit me in toil to go my own ways, that, if I desired not to toil, I might return into Thy ways. "For there is no deceit in my tongue." What meant he by this? Lo, I confess to Thee, I have walked in my own way, I am become far from Thee, I have departed from Thee, with whom it was well with me, and to my good it was ill with me without Thee. ...
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
Thou compassest my path and my lying down. My path and my pallet, my running and my resting, are alike within the circle of thine observation. Thou dost surround me even as the air continually surrounds all creatures that live. I am shut up within the wall of thy being; I am encircled within the bounds of thy knowledge. Waking or sleeping I am still observed of thee. I may leave thy path, but you never leave mine. I may sleep and forget thee, but thou dost never slumber, nor fall into oblivion concerning thy creature.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down. My path and my pallet, my running and my resting, are alike within the circle of thine observation. Thou dost surround me even as the air continually surrounds all creatures that live. I am shut up within the wall of thy being; I am encircled within the bounds of thy knowledge. Waking or sleeping I am still observed of thee. I may leave thy path, but you never leave mine. I may sleep and forget thee, but thou dost never slumber, nor fall into oblivion concerning thy creature. The original signifies not only surrounding, but winnowing and sifting. The Lord judges our active life and our quiet life; he discriminates our action and our repose, and marks that in them which is good and also that which is evil. There is chaff in all our wheat, and the Lord divides them with unerring precision. And art acquainted with all my ways. Thou art familiar with all I do; nothing is concealed from thee, nor surprising to thee, nor misunderstood by thee. Our paths may be habitual or accidental, open or secret, but with them all the Most Holy One is well acquainted. This should fill us with awe, so that we sin not; with courage, so that we fear not; with delight, so that we mourn not.
Thou compassest my path - זרית zeritha thou dost winnow, ventilate, or sift my path; and my lying down, רבעי ribi, my lair, my bed. And art acquainted - Thou treasurest up. This is the import of סכן sachan. Thou hast the whole number of my ways, and the steps I took in them.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Thou compassest my path ... - Margin, “winnowest.” The Hebrew word - זרה zârâh - means properly “to scatter,” to cast loosely about - as the wind does dust; and then, to winnow - to wit, by throwing grain, when it is thrashed, up to the wind: Isa 30:24; Jer 4:11; Rth 3:2. Then it means “to winnow out;” that is, to winnow out all the chaff, and to leave all the grain - to save all that is valuable. So here it means that God, as it were, “sifted” him. Compare Isa 30:28; Amo 9:9; Luk 22:31. He scattered all that was chaff, or all that was valueless, and saw what there was that was real and substantial. When it is said that he did this in his “path and his lying down,” it is meant that he did it in every way; altogether; entirely. And art acquainted with all my ways - All the paths that I tread; the whole course of my life. All that I do, in all places and at all times, is fully known to thee.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אָרְחִ֣י | ʾarechi | traveling I | H732 → | |
| וְרִבְעִ֣י | verivi | and lying down my | H7252 → | |
| זֵרִ֑יתָ | zerita | you sift | H2219 → | 39 times |
| וְֽכָל־ | vekhol | and all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| דְּרָכַ֥י | derakhai | ways my | H1870 → | 707 times |
| הִסְכַּֽנְתָּה׃ | hiskantah | you know intimately | H5532 → |
אָרְחִ֣יtraveling I
ʾarechiH732 →
וְרִבְעִ֣יand lying down my
veriviH7252 →
זֵרִ֑יתָyou sift
zeritaH2219 →39 times
וְֽכָל־and all
vekholH3605 →5413 times
דְּרָכַ֥יways my
derakhaiH1870 →707 times
הִסְכַּֽנְתָּה׃you know intimately
hiskantahH5532 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 23:24“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.
it leads to
- Proverbs 15:3
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, observing the evil and the good.
- Psalms 139:7
Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?
- Psalms 90:8
You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
- Isaiah 29:15
Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”
- Proverbs 15:3
Through
Job 31:4Does He not see my ways and count my every step?
it leads to
- Job 34:21
For His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees his every step.
- 2 Chronicles 16:9
For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him. You have acted foolishly in…
- Proverbs 5:21
For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
- Job 14:16
For then You would count my steps, but would not keep track of my sin.
- Job 34:21
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Psalms
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 139; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 7; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.