To the chief musician, a psalm of David
139
📚O LORD, you have searched me, and known 📖 me.
139:1 In this psalm David in beautiful language expresses the truth of God’s omniscience and omnipresence – God is everywhere and knows everything. He is not a cold, impersonal, uncaring, unseeing influence. He is the personal, loving Creator concerned with even the smallest details of His people’s lives. We may divide the psalm as follows:
God knows everything about us (vs 1-6);
He is everywhere and there is no escape from His presence (vs 7 12);
He is the Creator of human beings (vs 13-16);
His thoughts are a source of delight to His people (vs 17,18);
David’s stand against wickedness and for truth and righteousness (vs 19-24).⚜
2 📚You know my sitting down
and my getting up.
You understand my thought
at a distance.
139:2 Not only does God know all of our outer actions He knows our innermost thoughts – Ps 94:11; Deut 31:21; Prov 24:12; Matt 9:4; 12:25; Luke 6:8; 9:47; 11:17; Heb 4:12.⚜
3 📚You discern my path and
my lying down,
and are acquainted with
all my ways.
4 📚For there is not a word
on my tongue,
but, see, O LORD,
you know it altogether.
139:4 Heb 4:13. Notice that God does not simply know this, but knows it perfectly.⚜
5 📚You have hemmed me in,
behind and before,
and laid your hand on me.
6 📚Such knowledge is
too wonderful for me.
It is high; I cannot attain it.
7 📚Where can I go from
your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from
your presence?
139:7 Acts 17:27-28. David does not mean by these words that he wanted to get away from God’s presence. He is only supposing a case to bring out the truth of God’s omnipresence.⚜
8 📚If I ascend into heaven,
you are there.
If I make my bed in the realm
of the dead 📖,
see, you are there.
9 📚If I take the wings of
the morning,
and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea,
139:9 East or west, as far as a man might go, God is there before Him. How foolish then was Jonah’s attempt to escape (Jonah 1:3), or any attempt we might make.⚜
10 📚Even there your hand will lead
me,
and your right hand will hold me.
139:10 David is confident that wherever he is, God’s purpose toward him is good – it is to guide and keep him.⚜
11 📚If I say, “Surely the darkness
will cover me”,
even the night will become light
around me.
12 📚Yes, the darkness will not give
concealment from you;
but the night will shine like the day.
The darkness and the light
are both
alike to you.
13 📚For you have formed
my inner being.
You have knit me together in
my mother’s womb.
14 📚I will praise you, for I am
fearfully and
wonderfully made 📖.
Your works are
marvellous,
and that my soul knows
very well 📖.
15 📚My frame was not hidden
from you when
I was made in secret 📖,
and skillfully knit together
in the lower parts of the earth.
16 📚Your eyes saw my incomplete
body,
and in your book all the days
ordained for me
were written down before
there was any of them.
17 📚How precious also are your
thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 📚If I could count them,
they would be more in number
than the sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.
139:17-18 David was delighted that God was constantly thinking about him and was so intimately concerned with all he was and all he did (Ps 40:5; 92:5; Jer 29:11). The reason for his delight was he had chosen the side of righteousness, holiness, and truth, and had renounced all wickedness. This appears in the following verses.⚜
19 📚Surely you will slay 📖 the wicked,
O God.
So depart 📖 from me,
you bloodthirsty men!
20 📚For they speak against you
wickedly,
and your enemies take
your name in vain.
21 📚Do I not hate them, O LORD,
who hate you?
And do I not feel a loathing
for those
who rise up against you?
22 📚I hate them with perfect hatred.
I count them my enemies.
139:20-22 David would not be friends with those who were God’s enemies (compare Jam 4:4). In fact, he counted God’s enemies his own enemies. His emotions, thoughts, and will were altogether on God’s side. Evil men are an abomination to God – Ps 5:6; 78:59; Lev 20:23; 26:30; Deut 32:19; Prov 22:14. So they were to David also. Is this consistent with the love which believers should have for their enemies (Matt 5:44)? It can be. It is possible to loathe the character, opinions, purposes, and acts of wicked men and yet desire and pray for their highest good, and be delighted when they are converted and made new people in Christ.⚜
23 📚Search me, O God, and know
my heart.
Test me, and know my thoughts;
24 📚And see if there is any
offending 📖 way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
139:23-24 It is not enough to condemn evil in others. We must learn to condemn it in ourselves. We must be on God’s side, not merely outwardly, but inwardly. David has already said God searched him and knew him. His words here mean that he wanted to cooperate with God in this searching and to put away anything that was offensive to God’s holy nature. Compare 2 Cor 6:14—7:1. There is also the suggestion that he is not capable himself to see all that is in his own heart and that he needs God to show him (Jer 17:9-10).⚜
139:24 The everlasting way is God’s one way to eternal life and peace. It is the way of grace on God’s part and sincere faith on man’s part. It is a way of holiness, righteousness, and truth. From the beginning there has been just one way that leads to God and heaven and there will never be another. This way is Jesus Christ Himself (John 14:6).⚜