Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me.
You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue, but, behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether.
You hem me in behind and before. You laid your hand on me.
This knowledge is beyond me. It’s lofty. I can’t attain it.
Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!
If I take the wings of the dawn, and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me. The light around me will be night,”
even the darkness doesn’t hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness is like light to you.
For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.
My frame wasn’t hidden from you, when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is their sum!
If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.
If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain.
Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you?
I hate them with perfect hatred. They have become my enemies.
Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 1. O Jehovah! thou hast searched me David declares,…
1. O Jehovah! thou hast searched me David declares, in the outset of this Psalm, that he does not come before God with any idea of its being possible to succeed by dissimulation, as hypocrites will take advantage of secret refuges to prosecute sinful indulgences, but that he voluntarily lays bare his innermost heart for inspection, as one convinced of the impossibility of deceiving God. It is thine, he says, O God! to discover every secret thought, nor is there anything which can escape thy notice, He then insists upon particulars, to show that his whole life was known to God, who watched him in all his motions — when he slept, when he arose, or when he walked abroad. The word רע, rea, which we have rendered thought, signifies also a friend or companion, on which account some read — thou knowest what is nearest me afar off, a meaning more to the point than any other, if it could be supported by example. The reference would then be very appropriately to the fact that the most distant objects are contemplated as near by God. Some for afar off read beforehand, in which signification the Hebrew word is elsewhere taken, as if he had said — O Lord, every thought which I conceive in my heart is already known to thee beforehand. But I prefer the other meaning, That God is not confined to heaven, indulging in a state of repose, and indifferent to human concerns, according to the Epicurean idea, and that however far off we may be from him, he is never far off from us.
The verb זרה, zarah, means to winnow as well as to compass, so that we may very properly read the third verse — thou winnowest my ways, Piscator, Campensis, Pagninus, Luther, and our English Version, read “thou compassest.” This no doubt gives the meaning, of the original, though not the precise idea, which is noticed on the margin of our English Bible to be “winnowest.” The verb זרה, zarah, employed, signifies to disperse, to fan, to ventilate, to winnow; and here it denotes that as men separate the corn from the chaff, so God separates between, or investigates, the good and the bad in the daily conduct of men. Hence the Septuagint reads ἐξιχνίασας, “thou hast investigated.” Bishop Hare, who renders “thou dost compass,” supposes it to be a metaphor taken from hunting. “Winnowing,” says Archbishop Secker,” would sound uncouth But Mudge hath hit on the word siftest, which, though an idea somewhat different, suits very well.”
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“Fecisti assuescere vias meas.” — Lat.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 24 He confesseth that neither our actions, thoughts, or any…
He confesseth that neither our actions, thoughts, or any part of our life can be hid from God, though he seem to be far off.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–24 Psa 139:1 « To the chief Musician, A Psalm…
Psa 139:1 « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. » O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known [me].
A Psalm of David] There is not in all the five books of psalms so notable a one as this, saith Aben Ezra, concerning the ways of God and the workings of conscience. It was penned, saith the Syriac interpreter, upon occasion of Shimei’s railing upon him for a bloody man and a Belialist, 2Sa 16:5-13 Here, therefore, he purgeth himself by an appeal to God, and delivereth up his false accusers to God’s just judgment, Psa 139:19.
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Ver. 1. O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me] Even mine heart and reins, Jer 17:10, hast thou searched as with lights, Zep 1:12, by an exact scrutiny, by a soul searching inquisition, whereby thou art come to know me through and through; not only me natural, as Psa 139:15-16, but also me civil and moral, as Psa 139:2-3, &c.; neither stayeth thy knowledge in the porch or lobbies (my words and ways), but passeth into the presence, yea, privy chamber; for
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv2–24 Known me, i.e. known me exactly, as men do…
Known me, i.e. known me exactly, as men do those things which they diligently search out.
My downsitting and mine uprising; all my postures and motions, my actions and my cessations from action.
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My thought; all my secret counsels and designs.
Afar off; before they are perfectly formed in my mind. Thou knowest what my thoughts will be in such and such circumstances long before I know it, yea, from all eternity.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 17 David here lays down this great doctrine, That the…
David here lays down this great doctrine, That the God with whom we have to do has a perfect knowledge of us, and that all the motions and actions both of our inward and of our outward man are naked and open before him.
I. He lays down this doctrine in the way of an address to God; he says it to him, acknowledging it to him, and giving him the glory of it. Divine truths look fully as well when they are prayed over as when they are preached over, and much better than when they are disputed over. When we speak of God to him himself we shall find ourselves concerned to speak with the utmost degree both of sincerity and reverence, which will be likely to make the impressions the deeper.
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II. He lays it down in a way of application to himself, not, "Thou hast known all," but, "Thou hast known me; that is it which I am most concerned to believe and which it will be most profitable for me to consider." Then we know these things for our good when we know them for ourselves, Job 5:27. When we acknowledge, "Lord, all souls are thine," we must add, "My soul is thine; thou that hatest all sin hatest my sin; thou that art good to all, good to Israel, art good to me." So here, "Thou hast searched me, and known me; known me as thoroughly as we know that which we have most diligently and exactly searched into." David was a king, and the hearts of kings are unsearchable to their subjects (Pro 25:3), but they are not so to their Sovereign.
III. He descends to particulars: "Thou knowest me wherever I am and whatever I am doing, me and all that belongs to me." 1. "Thou knowest me and all my motions, my down-sitting to rest, my up-rising to work, with what temper of mind I compose myself when I sit down and stir up myself when I rise up, what my soul reposes itself in as its stay and support, what it aims at and reaches towards as its felicity and end. Thou knowest me when I come home, how I walk before my house, and when I go abroad, on what errands I go." 2. "Thou knowest all my imaginations. Nothing is more close and quick than thought; it is always unknown to others; it is often unobserved by ourselves, and yet thou understandest my thought afar off. Though my thoughts be ever so foreign and distant from one another, thou understandest the chain of them, and canst make out their connexion, when so many of them slip my notice that I myself cannot." Or, "Thou understandest them afar off, even before I think them, and long after I have thought them and have myself forgotten them." Or, "Thou understandest them from afar; from the height of heaven thou seest into the depths of the heart," Psa 33:14. 3. "Thou knowest me and all my designs and undertakings; thou compassest every particular path; thou siftest (or winnowest) my path" (so some), "so as thoroughly to distinguish between the good and evil of what I do," as by sifting we separate between the corn and the chaff. All our actions are ventilated by the judgment of God, Psa 17:3. God takes notice of every step we take, every right step and every by-step. He is acquainted with all our ways, intimately acquainted with them; he knows what rule we walk by, what end we walk towards, what company we walk with. 4. "Thou knowest me in all my retirements; thou knowest my lying down; when I am withdrawn from all company, and am reflecting upon what has passed all day and composing myself to rest, thou knowest what I have in my heart and with what thought I go to bed." 5. "Thou knowest me, and all I say (Psa 139:4): There is not a word in my tongue, not a vain word, nor a good word, but thou knowest it altogether, knowest what it meant, from what thought it came, and with what design it was uttered. There is not a word at my tongue's end, ready to be spoken, yet checked and kept in, but thou knowest it." When there is not a word in my tongue, O Lord! thou knowest all (so some read it); for thoughts are words to God. 6. "Thou knowest me in every part of me: Thou hast beset me behind and before, so that, go which way I will, I am under thy eye and cannot possibly escape it. Thou hast laid thy hand upon me, and I cannot run away from thee." Wherever we are we are under the eye and hand of God. perhaps it is an allusion to the physician's laying his hand upon his patient to feel how his pulse beats or what temper he is in. God knows us as we know not only what we see, but what we feel and have our hands upon. All his saints are in his hand.
IV. He speaks of it with admiration (Psa 139:6): It is too wonderful for me; it is high. 1. "Thou hast such a knowledge of me as I have not of myself, nor can have. I cannot take notice of all my own thoughts, nor make such a judgment of myself as thou makest of me."? 2. "It is such a knowledge as I cannot comprehend, much less describe. That thou knowest all things I am sure, but how I cannot tell." We cannot by searching find out how God searches and finds out us; nor do we know how we are known.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–23 O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.…
O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. The omniscience of God reaches to all persons and things; but the psalmist only takes notice of it as respecting himself. God knows all men in general, and whatever belongs to them; he knows his own people in a special manner; and he knows their particular persons, as David and others: and this knowledge of God is considered after the manner of men, as if it was the fruit of search, to denote the exquisiteness of it; as a judge searches out a cause, a physician the nature of a disease, a philosopher the reason of things; who many times, after all their inquiries, fail in their knowledge; but the Lord never does: his elect lie in the ruins of the fall, and among the men of the world; he searches them out and finds them; for be knows where they are, and the time of finding them, and can distinguish them in a crowd of men from others, and notwithstanding the sad case they are in, and separates them from them; and he searches into them, into their most inward part, and knows them infinitely better than their nearest relations, friends and acquaintance do; he knows that of them and in them, which none but they themselves know; their thoughts, and the sin that dwells in them: yea, he knows more of them and in them than they themselves, Jer 17:9. And he knows them after another manner than he does other men: there are some whom in a sense he knows not; but these he knows, as he did David, so as to approve of, love and delight in, Mat 7:23.
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Psalms 139:2
psa 139:2
psa 139:2
psa 139:2Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising,.... Here the psalmist proceeds to observe the particular circumstances and actions of his life, which were known to God; as his "downsitting", either to take rest, as weary persons do. Schultens (a) explains it of the quiet rest in sleep; this the Lord knew when he betook himself to it, and to whose care he committed himself and family; under whose protection he laid himself down, and on whom he depended for safety, Psa 4:8. Or, since lying down to sleep is afterwards mentioned, this may respect sitting down at table to eat and drink; when the Lord knows whether men use the creatures aright, or abuse them; whether they receive their food with thankfulness, and eat and drink to the glory of God: or else this downsitting was to read the word of God, and meditate upon it; so the Targum paraphrases it,
"my sitting down to study the law.''
When men do this, the Lord knows whether in reading they understand what they read, or read attentively and with affection; whether it is to their comfort and edification, and for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness; whether their meditation on it is sweet, and is attended with profit and pleasure. "Uprising" may respect either rising from bed, when the Lord knows whether the heart is still with him, Psa 139:18; what sense is had of the divine protection and sustentation, and what thankfulness there is for the mercies of the night past; and whether the voice of prayer and praise is directed to him in the morning, as it should be, Psa 3:5; or else rising from the table, when the Lord knows whether a man's table has been his snare, and with what thankfulness he rises from it for the favours he has received. The Targum interprets this of rising up to go to war; which David did, in the name and strength, and by the direction, of the Lord;
thou understandest my thought afar off; God knows not only his own thoughts, but the thoughts of men, which none but themselves know; by this Christ appears to be truly God, the omniscient God, being a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, Mat 9:3, Heb 4:12. God knows what thoughts his people have of him, and of his lovingkindness in Christ; what thoughts they have of Christ himself, his person, offices, and grace; what thoughts they have of themselves, their state, and condition: he knows all their vain thoughts, and complains of them, and which also they hate; and all their good thoughts, for they come from him. And he knows them "afar off", or "of old" (b), even before they are; so Aben Ezra interprets it, a long time past, and compares it with Jer 31:3; where the same word is rendered "of old": God knows the thoughts of his people, as well as his own, from all eternity; see Isa 25:1; as he knew what they would say and do, so what they would think; he knows thoughts that are past long ago, and forgotten by men, or were unobserved when thought; how else should he bring them into judgment? or though he is afar off in the highest heavens, yet he sees into the hearts of men, and is privy to all their thoughts.
(a) Animadv. Philol. p. 181. (b) "q. d. dum illa longe abest", Piscator; "longe ante quam incidat in animum meum", Gejerus, & Campensis in Ibid.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 22 This psalm is, by many of the Jewish doctors,…
This psalm is, by many of the Jewish doctors, esteemed the most excellent in the whole book. The omniscience of God is here asserted, ver. 1-6. Proved by two arguments; That he is everywhere present, ver. 7-12. And that he made us, ver. 13-16. This may fill us with pleasing admiration of God, ver. 17, 18. With an holy hatred of sin, ver. 19-22. And with an holy satisfaction in our own integrity, ver. 23, 24. To the chief musician, A psalm of David.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 A fine account of the omniscience of God, 1-6;
PSALM CXXXIX
A fine account of the omniscience of God, 1-6;
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of his omnipresence, 7-12;
of his power and providence, 13-16.
The excellence of his purposes, 17, 18.
His opposition to the wicked, 19, 20;
with whom the godly can have no fellowship, 21, 22.
NOTES ON PSALM CXXXIX
The title of this Psalm in the Hebrew is, To the chief Musician, or, To the Conqueror, A Psalm of David. The Versions in general follow the Hebrew. And yet, notwithstanding these testimonies, there appears internal evidence that the Psalm was not written by David, but during or after the time of the captivity, as there are several Chaldaisms in it. See Ps 139:2-3; Ps 139:7; Ps 139:9; Ps 139:19-20, collated with Da 2:29-30; Da 4:16; Da 7:28; some of these shall be noticed in their proper places.
As to the author, he is unknown; for it does not appear to have been the work of David. The composition is worthy of him, but the language appears to be lower than his time.
Concerning the occasion, there are many conjectures which I need not repeat, because I believe them unfounded. It is most probable that it was written on no particular occasion, but is a moral lesson on the wisdom, presence, providence, and justice of God, without any reference to any circumstance in the life of David, or in the history of the Jews.
The Psalm is very sublime; the sentiments are grand, the style in general highly elevated, and the images various and impressive. The first part especially, that contains so fine a description of the wisdom and knowledge of God, is inimitable.
Bishop Horsley's account of this Psalm is as follows: -
"In the first twelve verses of this Psalm the author celebrates God's perfect knowledge of man's thoughts and actions; and the reason of this wonderful knowledge, viz., that God is the Maker of man. Hence the psalmist proceeds, in the four following verses, Ps 139:13-16, to magnify God as ordaining and superintending the formation of his body in the womb. In the 17th and 18th Ps 139:17-18 he acknowledges God's providential care of him in every moment of his life; and in the remainder of the Psalm implores God's aid against impious and cruel enemies, professing his own attachment to God's service, that is, to the true religion, and appealing to the Searcher of hearts himself for the truth of his professions.
The composition, for the purity and justness of religious sentiment, and for the force and beauty of the images, is certainly in the very first and best style. And yet the frequent Chaldaisms of the diction argue no very high antiquity.
Verse 1. O Lord, thou hast searched me] חקרתני chakartani; thou hast investigated me; thou hast thoroughly acquainted thyself with my whole soul and conduct.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23 Psa 139:1-3. O Lord, thou hast searched me, and…
Psa 139:1-3. O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me — That is, known me exactly, as men know those things which they diligently search out. Thou knowest my down-sitting, &c. — All my postures and motions; my actions, and my cessation from action. Thou understandest my thoughts — All my secret counsels, designs, and imaginations; afar off — Before they are perfectly formed in my own mind. Thou knowest what my thoughts will be in such and such circumstances, long before I know it, yea, from all eternity. Thou compassest my path — Thou watchest me on every side, and therefore discernest every step which I take. The expression is metaphorical, and seems to be taken either from huntsmen watching all the motions and lurking places of the beasts they hunt, and endeavour to catch; or from soldiers besieging their enemies in a city, and setting watches round about them. And my lying down — When I am withdrawn from all company, and am reflecting on what has passed during the day, and am composing myself to rest, thou knowest what I have in my heart, and with what thoughts I lie down to sleep; and art acquainted with all my ways — At all times, in all places, and in all situations and circumstances. Thou knowest what rule I walk by, what end I walk toward, and what company I walk with.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–24 O Lord, thou hast searched me - The word…
O Lord, thou hast searched me - The word rendered searched, has a primary reference to searching the earth by boring or digging, as for water or metals. See Job 28:3. Then it means to search accurately or closely.
And known me - As the result of that search, or that close investigation. Thou seest all that is in my heart. Nothing is, or can be, concealed from thee. It is with this deep consciousness that the psalm begins; and all that follows is but an expansion and application of this idea. It is of much advantage in suggesting right reflections on our own character, to have this full consciousness that God knows us altogether; that he sees all that there is in our heart; that he has been fully acquainted with our past life.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 139
Psalms 139
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David
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O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising;
Thou understandest my thought afar off.
3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down
And art acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word in my tongue,
But, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.
5 Thou hast beset me behind and before,
And laid thine hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me:
It is high, I cannot attain unto it.
7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there:
If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me,
And thy right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me;
Even the night shall be light about me.
12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee;
But the night shineth as the day:
The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
13 For thou hast possessed my reins:
Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made
Marvellous are thy works;
And that my soul knoweth right well.
15 My substance was not hid from thee,
When I was made in secret,
And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect;
And in thy book all my members were written,
Which in continuance were fashioned,
When as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand:
When I awake, I am still with thee.
19 Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God:
Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men
20 For they speak against thee wickedly,
And thine enemies take thy name in vain.
21 Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?
And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred:
I count them mine enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts:
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—The depth of religious feeling, the weightiness of thought, and the force and beauty of expression, which characterize this Psalm, may be readily acknowledged without praising it, in an excess of admiration, as the crown of Psalm-poetry (Aben Ezra). On account of some words and word-forms incontestably Aramaic, the correctness of the superscription is brought into question, and the composition of this poem, which otherwise might well be justly held as David’s, must, on linguistic grounds, be assigned to a period subsequent to the exile. The Cod. Alex. of the Sept. has also the addition: of Zechariah, and besides, by a second hand: in the Diaspora.
[Few of the German commentators hold to a Davidic authorship. Ewald, Hupfeld and Del. pronounce against it for the reasons cited above. Hengstenberg clings to it firmly, and accounts for the Aramaisms as he does in Psalms 6, 17, 18, by supposing that the Psalmist “penetrated by the loftiness of his subject, shuns also in the form what is of common and daily use.” He also remarks that a late writer could have no motive for prefixing the formula: “to the chief musician.” Perowne seems inclined to the opinion of a late origin, but in this he may have been influenced by his erroneous supposition that in the Hebrew the Psalm is anonymous, which error he repeats in his last edition. He however feels the force of the view that linguistic anomalies may be due to the use of another dialect within Palestine. The English commentators generally are unwilling to give up the Davidic authorship.—J. F. M.]
There are four clearly distinguishable strophes, each consisting of six verses, although the latter are not all of equal length. The Psalmist declares his persuasion that he is intimately and completely scanned and proved by Jehovah, the omniscient God (Psa_139:1-6), that he is surrounded by His illuminating presence, as the omnipresent God (Psa_139:7-12), that he is perfectly known and understood by Him as his almighty and eternal Creator (Psa_139:13-18), and feeling this profoundly and truly, is thereby admonished and comforted. Then, after strong asseverations of his abhorrence of men who act wickedly against God and are thus deserving of punishment, he prays that he may be preserved from self-deception by the revelation of the true condition of his soul, and that he may be led in the way which excludes the danger of destruction (Psa_139:19-24).
[Perowne: “Nowhere are the great attributes of God—His omniscience, His omnipresence, His omnipotence—set forth so strikingly as they are in this magnificent Psalm. Nowhere is there a more overwhelming sense of the fact that man is beset and compassed about by God, pervaded by His Spirit, and unable to take a step without His control; and yet nowhere is there a more emphatic assertion of the personality of man as distinct from, not absorbed in, the Deity. This is no pantheistic speculation. Man is here the workmanship of God, and standsin the presence and under the eye of Him who is his Judge. The power of conscience, the sense of sin and responsibility, are felt and acknowledged, and prayer is offered to One who is not only the Judge but the Friend; One who is feared as none else are feared; One who is loved as none else are loved.”—J. F. M.]
Psa_139:1-2. And known. It is scarcely conceivable that no special object is to be understood here (Stier, Köster, Hengstenberg). For the connection by vav conversive shows that knowing is regarded as a consequence of searching, and it is as natural to supply “me” from the preceding here, as it is in Exo_2:25. The word רֵעַ (Psa_139:2), here is not the familiar term denoting: a friend, but an Aramaic one, with the signification: willing, wishing, striving, and also, as in Syriac and Arabic: thinking. The expression: afar off is, as in Psa_138:6, to be understood as contradicting the delusion (Job_22:12-14) that God’s dwelling in heaven prevents Him from observing mundane things (Calvin, Hengst., Hupfeld), comp. Jer_22:23. It is hardly intended to be expressed that God knows the thought when it is only in process of conception (Del.).
Psa_139:3-6. The translation in Psa_139:3 : Thou art around me (Luther), results from a false derivation of זרה from זֵר: a garland, which was held by some of the Rabbins. But the word in question signifies: to winnow, to sift; poetically: to prove, try. [Translate accordingly Psa_139:3 a: Thou triest my walking and lying down. The translation of 6b in E. V. is rather ambiguous. Literally it would be: I am not able for it, not capable of it, that is, of comprehending it.—J. F. M.]
Psa_139:7-10. From thy Spirit, namely, in His power over the universe (Psa_104:30) and not in His all-comprehending vision of it. [Psa_139:8. If I make my bed in Sheol—the unseen world.—J. F. M.]—The wings of the morning (Psa_139:9) denote, like the wings of the sun (Mal. 3:20), and of the wind (Psa_18:11), extreme swiftness in a long flight (Psa_139:8), as also do the wings of a dove (Psa_55:7). The morning is here the starting in the East, in a flight to the uttermost part of the sea, the extreme West. None can escape from the hand (Psa_139:10) of the Omnipotent and Omnipresent God (Amo_9:2; comp. Jer_23:24; Job_34:21) and before the light of His eyes no darkness can exclude His power of vision. Hence the righteous may trust in God even in darkness (Isa_50:10).
Psa_139:11-12. The translation in Psa_139:11 : yea darkness will crush me (Hengst.) accords with the reading in the Text, for שׁוּף means only conterere, contundere (Gen_3:15; Job_9:17). But the meaning obvelare corresponds perfectly with the context (Chaldee, Symmachus, Jerome, Saadias, et al.); and if it is preferred here it is better to make a slight change in the Text in order to gain a suitable word (Ewald). The best word to insert is עוּף, after Job_11:17 (Böttcher, Hupfeld, Del.). This is preferable to giving to the word as it stands the meaning: to fall upon (Hitzig) or, by comparing with שׁאף, the sense of inhiare, insidiari, invaders (Umbreit, Gesenius) or, by comparing with נֶשֶׁף: to becloud, darken (the Rabbins, Geier, and most). The apodosis begins not in Psa_139:11 b, (Luther), but in 12a (Calvin). And in that verse it is not a state of darkness (Luther) that is mentioned, but a making dark (Psa_105:28). [Dr. Moll accordingly translates Psa_139:11-12, And if I say: only let darkness cover me, and let night be the light about me; even the darkness, etc.—J. F. M.]
Psa_139:13-16. Formed my reins.—According to the context קנה here does not mean: to possess, hold in one’s power (Hengst., with Sept., Vulg., Luth., and most of the ancients) but: to fashion, as Deu_22:6, comp. Gen_14:19; Pro_8:22 (most of the recent expositors since Clericus with the Syr., Arab., and Ethiop. Versions). And סכך does not mean: to cover, (Hengst., with the ancients), but, as Job_10:11 shows: to plait, to weave, in allusion to the body framed and interwoven with bones, sinews, and veins (Chald., and the recent expositors). In Psa_139:15 it is said to be wrought or embroidered with various colors [E. V.: curiously wrought], on account of its seemingly elaborate formation from parts of different forms and colors. [Translate Psa_139:15 : My frame-work (lit., bones) was not hidden from Thee when I was formed in secret, curiously wrought (as) in the depths of the earth. On the last clause Perowne: “Elsewhere the phrase denotes the ‘unseen world,’ comp. Psa_63:9; Psa_86:13. Here, as the parallelism shows, it is used in a figurative sense to describe a region of darkness and mystery.”—J. F. M.] The choice of the word גֹּלֶם (Psa_139:16), was probably connected with the phrase just discussed. It signifies something rolled up (2Ki_2:8) a mantle (Eze_27:24), a crude and unformed mass, as designating the human embryo (Sept., Aquila, Symmachus, Rabbins). But if we study the word in connection with the remaining clauses of the verse, it will appear probable that the conception of an undeveloped complex mass of members (so most), passes over into that of a skein of life, in which the threads which are to form the web of human existence and destiny (Isa_38:12), are not yet unrolled (Hupfeld). For the simplest way of construing כֻּלָּמ is to refer it to “days” [E. V.: in continuance] which, with the future they enfold, are formed [E. V.: fashioned], i.e., planned, predetermined in the Divine counsel, when not a single one of them had come into the sphere of actual existence. Yet they were beheld by God even then, and so were entered (imperfect) in His book (Psa_56:9; Psa_69:29). This view, at all events, gives a sound sense, agreeing with the accents and with grammatical rules. Others refer the כֻּלָּמ to the members of the body forming in the embryo (Kimchi, Geier, et. al.), which were being fashioned through the course of days, i.e., gradually, and not at once. But it would not then be said of them that they were recorded in the book of life. [Hupfeld says that this would be an absurdity.—J. F. M.] Another interpretation refers “all of them” to all men as embryos (Clericus, Hitzig); but this is very forced. The reading of the Masorites, also, וְלֹו instead of the written וִלֹא, leads to the explanation either that all the days formed by God are to Him only a single day (Rabbins) which is over-subtle, or that, among those days, there was one at hand for him, that is, for the undeveloped mass of the embryo, namely, the day of his birth, (Hitzig, Del.), which appears strange in the connection. Such a simple thought would not be expressed in such a curious manner. Vav in the adverbial clause might have the sense: while or as, and לֹא be used for אֵין, incorrectly indeed, but not without example (comp. Lev_15:25; Job_15:32). It is against the accents to construe, according to a view opposed already by Geier, the suffix in כֻּלָּמ pleonastically as referring to the following יָמִים (De Wette and most of the recent expositors). In Psa_139:15, according to the pointing, the word is not עֶצֶם which denotes directly the bones and also the body, but עֹצֶמ: strength, power, from which notion the bones receive their Hebrew name. The place where the human body is formed before birth is called secret (Ecc_11:5). It appears as if the parallel expression: in the depths of the earth. were only intended to serve as a poetical comparison (Hupfeld, comp. Isa_45:19). At all events there is no reference to a pre-existence in the realm of shadows (as in Virg. Æneid V. 713 f.) or to a laboratory in the under-world (J. D. Michaelis, Knapp, Muntinghe). It may possibly be, however, that there is some more special reference to man’s origin from the dust (Delitzsch, Hitzig), in this comparison of the depths of the earth with the maternal womb (Job_1:21; Job_33:6; Jon_2:3; Sir_40:1; Sir_51:5) even if not in the form disputed by Hupfeld (Quæsliones in Jobeidos locos vexatos). [Alexander agrees exactly with Hupfeld and Moll. Hengst. agrees also in the main. So also do Perowne and Wordsworth. Noyes translates generally: and in Thy book was everything written.—J. F. M.]
Psa_139:17-18. How weighty are thy thoughts.—[E. V.: How precious, etc.] The primary notion: heavy, may be transferred to that of value, costly, precious (Del. and most), or with reference to mental judgment or comprehension it may have the sense of: difficult of conception (Kimchi, De Wette, Maurer, Olshausen, Hupfeld), or weighty, important (Hitzig), Job_6:2; Dan_2:11. The context appears to favor the latter. The sum, the total amount of these arriving through different channels, is so overpowering (Psa_40:6) that if they were to be reckoned up (fut. hypoth.) they would be shown to be as the sand of the sea. He does not reach the end of them, although his wakeful heart (Sol. Son_5:2) busies itself even in sleep with these thoughts, which he ponders over by night upon his couch (Job_4:13) and, wearied with the effort, falls asleep. When he wakes he finds himself still attended and occupied with the same thoughts concerning God, His counsels, and dealings. The Text says nothing of any hope or belief that after death, in his communion with God, he shall still be reckoning up that sum of thoughts more numerous than the sand (see Hofmann).
Psa_139:19-20. Depart from me.—The transition from the optative [if thou wouldst slay the wicked!—J. F. M.], to the imperative is harsh, especially on account of the Vav copulative. Yet there is no ground for a change of סוּרוּ into יָסוּרוּ (Olshausen). A change in the text of Psa_139:20 would be more justifiable. For יֹמְרוּ is, it is true, not meaningless (Hupfeld), but the expression: they say, with thee as an object, is harsh, and can only by extreme necessity (2Sa_19:24; Isa_26:13) be explained as equivalent to: they mention Thee (Del.) they pronounce Thy name (Chald.) or: they speak against Thee as plotters. The correction into יַמְרוּ: they embitter (the Fifth Greek version),1 they provoke Thee (Olsh.), they excite rebellion against Thee (Hupf. after Jerome, Ven, De W.), is very readily suggested, and, since it changes only the vowel, is preferable to the conjecture זַמְּרוּ which affords the sense: they sing praises to Thee with deceit (Hitzig). In the following member of the verse, also, עָרֶיךָ occasions some difficulty. The meaning properly is: Thy cities (Sept., Vulg., Arabic Vers., Cocceius). But there is no suitableness in the thought: Thy cities have risen in vain, or for wickedness, or faithlessly. But if we translate: Thy enemies (Aquila, Symmachus, Chald., Rosen., De Wette) the doubt of the correctness of this sense is scarcely removed by Dan_4:16; for in 1Sa_28:16 the reading is suspected. [The word occurs in the Chald. of Dan. in the place referred to. Hupfeld remarks that it is unknown elsewhere, even in the Aramaic, in that sense.—J. F. M.] The conjecture עָלֶיךָ (Hupfeld, Kamphausen): against Thee, is then naturally suggested. But נשׂא means not only to raise (Psa_24:4) and to arise (Hab_1:3) but also to utter (Exo_20:7). Now if we follow that passage where the connection with לַשָּׁוְא also occurs we would be tempted to change the doubtful word into שְׁמֶךָ, thus giving the sense: utter thy name to falsehood, swear falsely (Olsh., Böttcher), or into זִכְרֶךָ thy remembrance (Hitzig formerly) or עֵדֶיךָ, thy testimonies (Ewald). The last conjecture agrees very nearly at least in the consonants with a reading עָדֶיךָ: to Thee, in seven Codices of Kennicott and twenty of De Rossi. So also does the reading עֶדְיְךָ which would lead to the rendering: they wore Thy robe with deceit (Hitzig now). We may, however, hold to the Text and retain the signification: enemies. This, as Delitzsch shows, is gained by means of the intermediate notion: ardent persons, zealots. [Delitzsch illustrates this sense of the root עור from the Arabic, as well as from the passages referred to above, and considers the use of the word in the Text as in keeping with the Aramaisms in which it abounds.—J. F. M.] But assuming this, we are still not to regard the enemies as the subject of the wicked rising (most), for a subject has already occurred in the relative, and a thought parallel to that of the preceding clause would be expected, or of false swearing (Hengst. after Chald. and Rabbins). Nor are they the object of an exaltation, by which God’s enemies are said to be brought to honor through deceit and wickedness (Rudinger, Geier). They are in apposition to the last. [That is, in apposition to the subject of the preceding member of the verse. This view is expressed in the following translation: Who mention Thee in craftiness (and) speak with deceit, Thine enemies. For the peculiar form of the verb in the second member see Green, Heb. Gr., § 164, 3.—J. F. M.]
Psa_139:21-22. Should I not hate,etc.?—[E. V.: Do I not, etc.] This question does not express uncertainty or doubt in the mind of the Psalmist, but the most unshaken assurance that he is right in feeling thus. [Dr. Moll thus translates the verse: Should I not hate thy haters, Jehovah, and abhor thy adversaries?—J. F. M.] The extent of this feeling of hatred is expressed by a word which denotes the extreme end of an object [With perfection of hatred.—J. F. M.]
Psa_139:23-24. In Psa_139:24 the phrase which we translate: way of suffering, Psa_16:6; Isa_14:3 [E. V.: wicked way], is, according to our view, the way of provoking and arousing God to anger (Kimchi, Amyrald, Bött.), Isa_63:10. According to another, it is the way of the idol-image, i.e., to the idol (Isa_48:5) as contrasted with the way of Jehovah, Psa_25:4 (Rosenm., Gesen., Maurer), identical with the way of opposition to the law (Sept.), of falsehood (Syr.), of the erring (Chald.). It is best to regard it as the way which causes both inward and outward pain. [See the different significations of the Heb. word.—J. F. M.]. Whether this is endured only in time or in eternity also, is not stated here. And the way which is contrasted with this by the Psalmist is not that which leads to bliss in eternity (Flaminius, Geier, Hengst., et al.), or that of former or ancient times, Jer_6:16; Jer_18:15 (Rosenm., De Wette, Maurer, Olsh.), but the one which endures forever. The idea is therefore not to be limited to that of an unchangeable purpose, followed out during the whole life, even to the end (Calvin, Clericus), comp. Psa_1:6; Psa_27:11. In Psa_139:23. thoughts are represented by the term branches (Eze_31:5) as ramifying thoughts and cares (Psa_94:19). The demand is not the challenge of a confident and vain man, conscious of his own purity, but it is a prayer for divine help and illumination, for the proving of the conscience and the searching out of the soul.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Men are not to suppose that God’s omniscience is an attribute in repose, and standing in exclusive relation to Himself. They must ever keep in remembrance that He gives proof of it by constant exercise, and that in relation to the person of man; not as being cognizant of certain individual facts, but of the whole sum of inner and outer circumstances, actions and needs, and likewise of their whole range and significance. Its transcendent superiority to human possibilities of knowing, imagining, and comprehending is a fact of the divine nature, whose salutary truth becomes fruitful certainty when viewed in its proper connection with the fact of the divine omnipresence.
2. For it is in the omnipresence of God that we are able and bound to trace the proofs that He does not, like a limited human creature or an isolated being, move through the perpetual change of place, circumstances, and employment, by which alone nearness and distance, repose and action, suffering and influencing, receive their significance. And if we hold fast to the truth that God is completely and indivisibly Spirit, Life, and active Energy, we can understand the close relation of His omnipresence, with His omniscience, on the one hand, and with His omnipotence, on the other, and also their practical bearing upon human life, especially in its moral and religious aspects.
3. From this point of view, even the natural life of man, from its miraculous origin in the mysterious depths of the laboratory of creation, and onwards through its whole course in the world’s history, receives a highly increased significance. It is not merely unfolded under the eye of God; it even assumes its outward form in conformity to divine pre-determination. Of so much the greater moment does it become, that such a life should be regulated religiously and morally in accordance with the divine will, that its relation to eternity and to its divinely-appointed destiny should ever be kept in mind, and be deeply impressed upon the spiritual nature.
4. To realize this end, it is necessary that men should continually yield themselves up to God; especially that they should give themselves up to meditation upon His “thoughts,” though they cannot sum them up, even if they should be busied with their contemplation in their wakeful hours and in their dreams, by day and by night, as in the noblest and sweetest employment (Jer_31:25-26); that they should give themselves up to obedience to His holy will in opposition to transgressors and hypocrites, in order to overcome evil; that they should give themselves up to love, believing in God’s gracious guidance, in order to obtain real and abiding salvation.
[5. Hengstenberg: The more glorious the formation of man is, so much the stronger is the proof of God’s absolute omniscience and omnipresence, so much the more striking the testimony it furnishes against those who abandon themselves to sin, under the idea that God does not see or judge, or those who surrender themselves to despair, saying: My way is hidden from God, Job_10:9-11.—J. F. M.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
What avails all knowledge of God’s nature, words, works and ways, if it is not improved according to His will?—We should impress upon our conscience what we hear, experience, and learn to know of God, so that we shall not only meditate upon His counsels, but consider what shall promote our peace.—We cannot comprehend God; all is wonder and mystery; but we can apprehend what He has ordained and revealed and communicated to us for our salvation.—When shall the time arrive when we shall not only cease to have outward fellowship with the wicked, but shall also have no inward and private connection with them?—God is ever round about us; oh that we were ever with Him!
Starke: Blessed is that soul which can appear before God, the omniscient God, with joy and confidence. But to do this it must have been continually controlled by conscience.—God’s omniscience is terrible to the wicked, but comforting to the pious.—Continue in what is good, and God will behold it, and so behold it as to further it.—God can press upon a man so closely that he will acknowledge at last that the hand of God is there.—It is foolish and unavailing for a man to try to measure the divine mysteries by the short standard of the understanding. Mirari licet, non rimari. Anything that is done in darkness lies as clear before God as if it were done in mid-day and in the bright sunshine.—Men can inflict no greater injury upon themselves than to imagine that the Spirit of God is far away from them. This persuasion of Satan makes them daily more presumptuous.—If great earthly rulers can reach so far that it is often very difficult to escape from them, how is it possible to flee from the Lord of all lords who fills heaven and earth?—If there is so much that is wonderful and incomprehensible in the natural birth, what shall we say of regeneration? Oh that all might know and experience it truly!—Be not so insensible and indifferent towards God’s wonderful works and the dealings in which thou also dost share. Be thou able to say: And that my soul knoweth well!—If a soul has not communion with God, it cannot be said to be surrendered to Him. In heavenly contemplation the soul is with God. The anchor of its hope and desire is cast in heaven.—A true Christian can and must pray against those enemies of God and His Church who oppose themselves, not through ignorance or weakness, but from wickedness; yet he must do it in such a way as not to prescribe to God the time, mode, or place of punishment.—We must hate the wicked, yet not their persons, for we should seek their conversion, but on account of their wickedness.—The noblest hatred is that which is directed against wickedness.—The first effect of divine illumination is to make men learn the folly of their hearts.—The reason why so many awakened souls relapse again into slumber and even fall away from every good thing, is chiefly because they neglect to prove themselves.—Man carries the Judge and the judgment in his own breast, even in the smallest actions. This is conscience, implanted within him by God.—There are only two ways leading to eternity, the narrow and the broad. Let no one think that he will reach heaven by an intermediate road. All such by-ways lead into the broad road.
Frisch: Do not fancy that your demeanor, posture, dress, or deportment are not under God’s providence. You deceive yourself. Do not think that your thoughts pass free from inspection. The Lord understands them afar off. Think not that your words are dissipated in the air before God can hear. Oh, no! He knows them even when still upon your tongue. Do not think that your ways are so private and concealed that there is none to know or censure them. You mistake. God knows all your ways.—Give thyself up to God as guilty, and seek His mercy. Flee not from Him, but to Him. It is always better to fall into the hand of God than into the hands of men.—If the heart is not well kept, it goes astray and becomes lost from God.—Rieger: We learn how well it is with that soul which has been withdrawn away from sin by the word of truth, and brought to a just hatred of all wickedness; when it has, and desires to have, no secrets from God, who is so near, and no secret connection with evil, but can behold reflected in conscience all that God knows of us, and rejoice in the comfort it gives.—Stier: Why would David flee from Him who is so near on every side of him? Or why does he say first that he cannot do so, even if he were to fly over the whole creation in its height and depth, from east to west? Because as soon as he reflects with wonder upon God’s omnipresence, the terrors of conscience are awakened with the consciousness of unrighteous courses and sinful words and thoughts, which are manifest to the sight of the Eternal and Holy One.—Tholuck: Who can embrace or touch that Spirit by whom he is every where embraced and touched?—Richter: The unconverted fear to search their hearts earnestly, to try them and judge themselves, and much more to pray God that He would enlighten them.—Guenther: God is everywhere, even in the realms of death, and therefore men can never rid themselves of His presence; if they do not follow Him willingly, they must submit themselves to His omnipotence unwillingly.—I must love my enemy and hate God’s; but it is hard to make the distinction. How easily does self-love deceive us, desire of revenge lead us into error, and anger make us sin! Yet I must decide between them. Who helps me to judge aright?—Diedrich: To know the truth when it is presented, and yet to slight it, and come to terms with falsehood, is an act worthy of double stripes.—The seeing and knowing which are attributed to God were nothing but loving and caring, helping and delivering, leading and blessing, so as to crown with blessedness.
[Matt. Henry: Divine truths look as well when they are prayed over as when they are preached over, and much better than when they are disputed over.—Those that are upright can take comfort in God’s omniscience as a witness to their uprightness, and can with humble confidence beg Him to search and try them, and discover them to themselves; for a good man desires to know the worst about himself, and to discover them to others; he that means honestly could wish he had a window in his breast, that any man may look into his heart.—All the saints desire to be led in the way everlasting, that they may not miss it, turn out of it, or tire in it.—Bp. Horne: The same consideration which should restrain us from sin should also encourage us to work righteousness, and comfort us under all our sorrows; namely the thought that we are never out of the sight and protection of our Maker.—The reformation of our corrupted and dissolved bodies, which is to be wrought at the last day in the womb of the earth, in order to their new birth, will crown the works of the Almighty.—We are neither to hate men on account of the vices they practise, nor love the vices for the sake of the men who practise them. He who observeth invariably this distinction fulfilleth the perfect law of charity and hath the love of God and of his neighbor abiding in him.—Scott: We should inquire what the Lord would have us to do, and whither we ought to remove, and pray that His gracious presence may always attend us; and then we shall have everything to hope, and nothing to fear, in life, in death, and in the eternal world.—Barnes: Search me thoroughly; examine not merely my outward conduct, but what I think about; what are my purposes; what passes through my mind; what occupies my imagination and my memory; what secures my affection and controls my will.—J. F. M.]
Footnotes:
[1][The fifth of the versions collected by Origen in the Hexapla, author unknown, like those of the Sixth and Seventh. They are called respectively the Quinta, Sexta, and Septima versions.—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23 1. Searched me—The psalmist begins with self-application of the…
1. Searched me—The psalmist begins with self-application of the doctrine of omniscience. It is more to know the human heart than to know distant worlds and laws of matter.
Known me—Hebrew, simply, Thou hast known, comprehending not me only, but all things relating to me, as in next verse.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 1. searched me] Cp. Psa_139:23; Jer_17:10.
1. searched me] Cp. Psa_139:23; Jer_17:10.
and known me] Or, and knowest me, for nothing can be hid from that omniscient scrutiny.
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1–6. God’s perfect knowledge of all the Psalmist’s life and thoughts.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–24 (1) Searched . . .—Comp. Psa_44:21, “shall not God…
(1) Searched . . .—Comp. Psa_44:21, “shall not God search this out.” The word is used of mining operations, Job_28:3; of exploring a country, Jdg_18:2.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 A song of praise to God for his omniscience,…
A song of praise to God for his omniscience, his omnipresence, and his marvelous powers, ending with a prayer for the destruction of the wicked, and for the purifying from evil of the psalmist"s own heart. The psalm divides into four stanzas of six verses each the first (vers. 1-6) dealing with the omniscience of God; the second (vers. 7-12), with his omnipresence; the third (vers. 13-18), with his omnipotence; and the fourth (vers. 19-24) containing the supplication.
O Lord, thou hast searched me; rather, hast searched me out; i.e. examined into all my thoughts and feelings. (comp. Psa_17:3) And known me; i.e. arrived at a full knowledge of my spiritual condition.
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Vers. 1-6. God"s knowledge of us.
1. We sometimes say that "we know" a certain man who is a neighbor. By this we may mean nothing more than that we can distinguish him from his fellows, and give him his proper name. That is a slight acquaintance indeed.
2. Sometimes when we make such an affirmation we mean that we have a general knowledge of his occupation and his more outward and formal habits. That goes a very little way.
3. Sometimes we mean more than this we intimate that we know what a man"s principles are, what he believes, after what manner he worships, what are his tastes and his companionships. Here we may think that we have arrived at something very definite and solid.
4. We do not really know what a man"s spirit is, and what is his real character, until we have seen him (as the apostles saw our Lord) both in public and in private at those times when he is conscious of our observation, and when he is perfectly unrestrained, and expresses himself with unchecked freedom.
5. Even then, how imperfect is our knowledge of one another! how often and how greatly we mistake one another! how frequently we ascribe to one another deeds that were not done, or words that were not spoken, or feelings that were not cherished! how different we know ourselves to be in character, in spirit, in motive from the conception of ourselves which our neighbor has formed of us!
6. And, yet again, how far from being absolutely true is the estimate we form of ourselves! how possible and how practicable it is for us to overestimate our virtues and under-estimate our weaknesses, our follies, our guilt! So much so that it is a question whether a man knows himself as well as his discerning neighbor does. We are convinced that it is often the case that the verdict of a man"s intimate friend is much nearer the mark of truth than is his own.
7. The conclusion to which we are driven is that One, and only one, "knows us altogether." Only God knows us as we are. Guided by the text, we think of God"s knowledge of us thus.
I ALL THINGS ARE OPEN TO HIS VIEW. (Ver. 1) He "searches "us through and through. There are inward recesses and remote points that escape our eye, but not one that escapes his penetrating, his far-reaching glance. We may conceal some things from man and elude his keenest search; we can hide nothing from God; he searches and knows all things, even the most secret chambers of the soul.
II HE OBSERVES ALL OUR WAYS. (Vers. 2, 3) From morning till evening, from evening till morning, everything is done before him. He is the Lord "before whom we stand," as the old prophets used to say. There is no action of ours that is too slight for his notice; he is the Infinite One, and infinity reaches downwards as well as upwards.
III HE IS FAMILIAR WITH EVERY UTTERED WORD AND UNUTTERED THOUGHT. (Vers. 2, latter part, and 4) It is not difficult to think of our shouted sentences or of our formal addresses being heard and noticed by God; it requires some effort of thought to realize that the casual conversation, the interjected remark, the whispered secret, that these are heard and heeded by him. Yet it becomes us to remember that they are. This is the thought of Christ when he said, "Of every idle casual word shall men give account," etc. (Mat_12:36, Mat_12:37) Nay, the unspoken sentence, the half-formed thought, the rising feeling, that has not found expression, the "thought afar off," is understood by that omniscient Spirit! What reason here for purity of mind, for the "clean heart and the right spirit!
IV HE TOUCHES US AT EVERY POINT, "Thou hast laid thine hand upon me." It has been the unseen and unfelt touch of the Divine hand that has:
1. Preserved our spirit in being from moment to moment; for all earthly forces have been the working of his power.
2. Restored us every night, and renewed to us the vigor of body and mind we have needed for the labor and endurance of another day.
3. Quickened our mind and enabled us to think, to reason, to reply, to invent, to devise, to direct.
4. Brought us back from sickness and the shadow of death to life and health again.
5. Made our souls to be refilled with love and hope and sacred joy, so that we have lived the life of holy service and of spiritual growth. The explanation of all our power, our excellency, our success, is found in the simple words, "Thou hast laid thine hand upon me.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-24. "Lord, thou knowest altogether.
This psalm, one of the most sublime of them all, is of unknown authorship. It seems to be the composition of some saint of God who lived after the Captivity. If so, what proof it gives of the blessing of sanctified sorrow! (cf. the probably companion psalm, Psa_119:67, Psa_119:71, Psa_119:75) The furnace of the Exile, the husks of the far country, did bring prodigal Israel to himself; and this psalm is one clear evidence thereof. And so, we believe, God will do with all like prodigals. They may seem set against him they very often are; but his resources are not exhausted, and he will find ways and means to bring them to a better mind. The psalm is divided into four stanzas, of which
I THE FIRST TELLS OF THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF CONCEALING ANYTHING FROM GOD. (Vers. 1-6.)
1. Here is a fact asserted. "Lord, thou hast searched me," etc. The word originally means "to dig," and is applied to the searching for precious metals (Alexander). God had penetrated far below the surface of the psalmist"s acts and words, so that he knew him perfectly. And he knows our time of rest and of going forth to active work (ver. 2). He winnows or fans such the meaning of the word rendered "compassest so as to sift our whole life, separating the evil in it from the good, as the chaff is separated from the wheat. And this is true of the night-life as well as of the day (ver. 3). He knows not only the words that we do speak, but those that we are going to speak (ver. 4). The past and the future that which is behind and before are all known to him, and under the control of his hand (ver. 5). We cannot understand all this, but so it is (vers. 5, 6). Thus emphatically is the truth asserted.
2. And altogether credible.
(1) For reason would infer it. (comp. Psa_94:9) The maker of a machine would surely know how his machine would work! Much more must the Lord know our nature and the workings of man"s mind and will. He knows our nature (twice) as one knows the dwelling in which he has lived, for he tabernacled in it and dwelt among us. (Joh 1) He was the Son of man, and he knows what is in man.
(2) And there is the testimony of conscience. The very etymology of that word implies the knowledge of some one with us; and what we call "conscience" is our recognizing that God sees and judges all we are and do. "Thou God seest me" is not a mere text, but the confession of every soul.
(3) And then there is the testimony of our Lord"s life on earth. He revealed God in his holiness, power, and love; but he revealed this also God"s knowledge of our inmost heart. Again and again do we meet with statements that assert this superhuman knowledge of our Lord. See how he knew Nathanael, Peter, Judas. Others did not thus know themselves or their fellow-men, but he knew them perfectly. This also was a revelation of what is ever in God.
3. And blessed. For it shows that we are not under the rule of a stranger. The rule of a stranger is ever a hard and irksome rule. And it shows how gracious he is; for, though he knows all about us, yet this does not stay his blessing. And how holy; for, though with us the knowledge of evil and the continual contact of it defiles, or at least tends to deaden our sense and horror of evil, and so to lessen our own holiness, it is not at all so with God. See this in Christ. He was surrounded always by sin, but yet was himself holy, harmless, and undefiled." And because he thus knows us, he must know what is best for us, so that we may be well content with his ordering of our lot. What a holy restraint this truth exercises upon the believing soul! Indeed, it is only to such soul that this truth is or can be welcome; to the ungodly it is all unwelcome, and they seek to cast it out of their minds. God forbid that we should do this!
II THE SECOND DECLARES THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF ESCAPING FROM THE PRESENCE OF GOD. (Vers. 7-12) The height of heaven cannot transcend him; the depth of hell cannot hide from him; flight, rapid as the rays of the morning sun, cannot outstrip him; distance, like that of the uttermost parts of the sea, cannot separate from him; darkness, deep as midnight, cannot conceal from him. It used to be said of ancient Rome that the extent of her empire rendered it impossible for any one who had incurred the displeasure of her emperors to escape their vengeance; yet more truly is it impossible for us to do what Jonah vainly tried to do to flee from the presence of the Lord. But this perpetual presence is a perpetual joy to the people of God. Our Lord cheered his disciples ere he left them, by promising that he would be with them always. He had said before that "wherever two or three are gathered together in my Name, there," etc. He is a God "at hand, and not afar off." "At thy right hand, therefore, I shall not be moved." But this perpetual presence, inescapable, is the terror of the wicked man, for he knows he cannot get away from God. How needful that we should acquaint ourselves with God, and so be at peace! So shall the terror be turned into joy.
III THE THIRD SETS FORTH THE GROUND OF GOD"S PERFECT KNOWLEDGE OF US. (Vers. 13-16) "The mysterious beginnings of life which none can trace, the days all of which are ordered before the first breath is drawn, these are fashioned and ordered by the hand of God." How, then, can it be otherwise than that he should know us altogether? And how reassuring is this truth of God"s knowing us from the very start of our being, because he is the Author of that being!
IV THE FOURTH SHOWS THE EFFECT OF THIS TRUTH ON THE DEVOUT SOUL. (Vers. 17-24)
1. It gives rise to a vast throng of precious thoughts within Him. He calls them (ver. 17) "thy thoughts," which may refer either to God"s thoughts about us, or to our thoughts about God. Probably both are meant; for God"s thoughts about us are precious, for they are thoughts of good, and not evil. And how great and undeserved and freely given is that good! And our thoughts about God are precious also, if indeed we be reconciled to God. None others can think about God and find delight in such thoughts. But if we be his servants, we think of what God is in himself, of what he has done and will do, in things temporal and in things spiritual, for ourselves, for others dear to us. How vast the sum of these thoughts, and how precious!
2. His soul is filled with a holy hatred of the ungodly. Not because of what they had done to him, though that was bad enough, and could not but wake up the spirit of resentment, but because they were the enemies of God (vers. 19-22). It is good to hate evil, first in ourselves, then in others; and if those others will cleave to it, then they and their sin cannot be separated, and we must "count" both our "enemies." "Ye that fear the Lord hate evil." Would to God we all did! (cf. homily on Psa_97:10)
3. An intense longing after entire holiness. (Vers. 23, 24) The psalmist yearned to be free from all sin, not only from some sins. Therefore he would lay bare his soul before God would come into the full light of God, that the Divine scrutiny might be thorough and complete. He knew that after all his own search sin might yet lurk in unthought-of places, and hence he prays God to search, and try, and know, and see, and show him the wrong, and then lead him "in the way everlasting." Such is the effect of this faith: "Lord, thou knowest me altogether. S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK Ver 1. 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.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–24 One of the most notable of the sacred hymns.…
One of the most notable of the sacred hymns. It sings the omniscience and omnipresence of God, inferring from these the overthrow of the powers of wickedness, since he who sees and hears the abominable deeds and words of the rebellious will surely deal with them according to his justice. The brightness of this Psalm is like unto a sapphire stone, or Ezekiel's "terrible crystal"; it flames out with such flashes of light as to turn night into day. Like a Pharos, this holy song casts a clear light even to the uttermost parts of the sea, and warns its against that practical atheism which ignores the presence of God, and so makes shipwreck of the soul.
To the Chief Musician. The fast time this title occurred was in Ps 109:1-31. This sacred song is worthy of the most excellent of the singers, and is fitly dedicated to the leader of the Temple Psalmody, that he might set it to music, and see that it was devoutly sung in the solemn worship of the Most High. A Psalm of David. It bears the image and superscription of King David, and could have come from no other mint than that of the son of Jesse. Of course the critics take this composition away from David, on account of certain Aramaic expressions in it. We believe that upon the principles of criticism now in vogue it would be extremely easy to prove that Milton did not write Paradise Lost. We have yet to learn that David could not have used expressions belonging to "the language of the patriarchal ancestral house." Who knows how much of the antique speech may have been purposely retained among those nobler minds who rejoiced in remembering the descent of their race? Knowing to what wild inferences the critics have run in other matters, we have lost nearly all faith in them, and prefer to believe David to be the author of this Psalm, from internal evidences of style and matter, rather than to accept the determination of men whose modes of judgment are manifestly unreliable.
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Ver. 1. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. He invokes in adoration Jehovah the all knowing God, and he proceeds to adore him by proclaiming one of his peculiar attributes. If we would praise God aright we must draw the matter of our praise from himself"O Jehovah, thou hast." No pretended god knows aught of us; but the true God, Jehovah, understands us, and is most intimately acquainted with our persons, nature, and character. How well it is for us to know the God who knows us! The divine knowledge is extremely thorough and searching; it is as if he had searched us, as officers search a man for contraband goods, or as pillagers ransack a house for plunder. Yet we must not let the figure run upon all fours, and lead us further than it is meant to do: the Lord knows all things naturally and as a matter of course, and not by any effort on his part. Searching ordinarily implies a measure of ignorance which is removed by observation; of course this is not the case with the Lord; but the meaning of the Psalmist is, that the Lord knows us as thoroughly as if he had examined us minutely, and had pried into the most secret corners of our being. This infallible knowledge has always existed "Thou hast searched me"; and it continues unto this day, since God cannot forget that which he has once known. There never was a time in which we were unknown to God, and there never will be a moment in which we shall be beyond his observation. Note how the Psalmist makes his doctrine personal: he saith not, "O God, thou knowest all things"; but, "thou hast known me." It is ever our wisdom to lay truth home to ourselves. How wonderful the contrast between the observer and the observed! Jehovah and me! Yet this most intimate connection exists, and therein lies our hope. Let the reader sit still a while and try to realize the two poles of this statement, the Lord and poor puny man and he will see much to admire and wonder at.
Whole Psalm. Aben Ezra observes, that this is the most glorious and excellent Psalm in all the book: a very excellent one it is; but whether the most excellent, it is hard to say. John Gill.
Whole Psalm. There is one Psalm which it were well if Christians would do by it as Pythagoras by his Golden Precepts, every morning and evening repeat it. It is David's appeal of a good conscience unto God, against the malicious suspicions and calumnies of men, in Ps 139:1-24. Samuel Annesley (1620-1696), in "The Morning Exercises."
Whole Psalm. This Psalm is one of the most sublime compositions in the world. How came a shepherd boy to conceive so sublime a theme, and to write in so sublime a strain? Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. What themes are more sublime than the Divine attributes? And which of these attributes is more sublime than Omnipresence? Omniscience, spirituality, infinity, immutability and eternity are necessarily included in it. George Rogers.
Whole Psalm. Let the modern wits, after this, look upon the honest shepherds of Palestine as a company of rude and unpolished clowns; let them, if they can, produce from profane authors thoughts that are more sublime, more delicate, or better turned; not to mention the sound divinity and solid piety which are apparent under these expressions. Claude Fleury, 1640-1723.
Whole Psalm. Here the poet inverts his gaze, from the blaze of suns, to the strange atoms composing his own frame. He stands shuddering over the precipice of himself. Above is the All encompassing Spirit, from whom the morning wings cannot save; and below, at a deep distance, appears amid the branching forest of his animal frame, so fearfully and wonderfully made, the abyss of his spiritual existence, lying like a dark lake in the midst. How, between mystery and mystery, his mind, his wonder, his very reason, seem to rock like a little boat between the sea and sky. But speedily does he regain his serenity; when he throws himself, with childlike haste and confidence, into the arms of that Fatherly Spirit, and murmurs in his bosom, "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God; how great is the sum of them"; and looking up at last in his face, cries "Search me, O Lord. I cannot search thee; I cannot search myself; I am overwhelmed by those dreadful depths; but search me as thou only canst; see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." George Gilfillan (1813-1878), in "The Bards of the Bible."
Whole Psalm. The Psalm has an immediately practical aim, which is unfolded near the close. It is not an abstract description of the Divine attributes, with a mere indirect purpose in view. If God is such a being, if his vital agency reaches over all his creation, pervades all objects, illumines the deepest and darkest recesses; if his knowledge has no limits, piercing into the mysterious processes of creation, into the smallest and most elemental germs of life; if his eye can discern the still more subtle and recondite processes of mind, comprehending the half formed conception, the germinating desire "afar off"; if, anterior to all finite existence, his predetermining decree went forth; if in those ancient records of eternity man's framework, with all its countless elements and organs, in all the ages of his duration, were inscribedthen for his servant, his worshipper on earth, two consequences follow, most practical and momentous: first, the ceasing to have or feel any complacency with the wicked, any sympathy with their evil ways, any communion with them as such; and, secondly, the earnest desire that God would search the Psalmist's soul, lest in its unsounded depths there might be some lurking iniquity, lest there might be, beyond the present jurisdiction of his conscience, some dark realm which the Omniscient eye only could explore. Bela B. Edwards (1802-1852), in H.C. Fish's "Masterpieces of Pulpit Eloquence."
Whole Psalm.
Searcher of hearts! to thee are known
The inmost secrets of my breast;
At home, abroad, in crowds, alone,
Thou mark'st my rising and my rest,
My thoughts far off, through every maze,
Source, stream, and issueall my ways.
How from thy presence should I go,
Or whither from thy Spirit flee,
Since all above, around, below,
Exist in thine immensity?
If up to heaven I take my way,
I meet thee in eternal day.
If in the grave I make my bed
With worms and dust, lo! thou art there!
If, on the wings of morning sped,
Beyond the ocean I repair,
I feel thine all controlling will,
And thy right hand upholds me still.
"Let darkness hide me", if I say,
Darkness can no concealment be;
Night, on thy rising, shines like day;
Darkness and light are one with thee:
For thou mine embryo form didst view,
Ere her own babe my mother knew.
In me thy workmanship display'd,
A miracle of power I stand:
Fearfully, wonderfully made,
And framed in secret by thine hand;
I lived, ere into being brought,
Through thine eternity of thought.
How precious are thy thoughts of peace,
O God, to me! how great the sum!
New every morn, they never cease:
They were, they are, and yet shall come,
In number and in compass more
Than ocean's sands or ocean's shore.
Search me, O God! and know my heart;
Try me, my inmost soul survey;
And warn thy servant to depart
From every false and evil way:
So shall thy truth my guidance be
To life and immortality.
James Montgomery.
Whole Psalm. The Psalm may be thus summarized Ps 139:1. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. As though he said, "O LORD, thou art the heart searching God, who perfectly knowest all the thoughts, counsels, studies, endeavours, and actions of all men, and therefore mine." Ps 139:2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. As if he had said, "Thou knowest my rest and motion, and my plodding thoughts of both" Ps 139:3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. As if he had said, "You fan and winnow me", that is, "You discuss and try me to the utmost." Ps 139:4. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. As if he had said, "I cannot speak a word, though never so secret, obscure, or subtle, but thou knowest what, and why, and with what mind it was uttered" Ps 139:5. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. As if he had said, "Thou keepest me within the compass of thy knowledge, like a man that will not let his servant go out of his sight. I cannot break away from thee" Ps 139:6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. As if he had said, "The knowledge of thy great and glorious majesty and infiniteness is utterly past all human comprehension." Ps 139:7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? As if he had said, "Whither can I flee from thee, whose essence, presence, and power is everywhere?" Ps 139:8. If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. As if he had said, "There is no height above thee, there is no depth below thee." Ps 139:9. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea. As if he had said, "If I had wings to fly as swift as the morning light, from the east to the west, that I could in a moment get to the furthest parts of the world." Ps 139:10. Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. As if he had said, "Thence shall thy hand lead me back, and hold me fast like a fugitive." Ps 139:11. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. As if he had said, "Though darkness hinders man's sight, it doth not thine." In a word, look which way you will, there is no hiding place from God. "For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves": Job 34:21-22. Therefore, Christians, do nothing but what you are willing God should take notice of; and judge in yourselves whether this be not the way to have a good and quiet conscience. Samuel Annesley.
Whole Psalm. In this Aramaizing Psalm what the preceding Psalm says (Ps 138:6) comes to be carried into effect, viz.: For Jahve is exalted and he seeth the lowly, and the proud he knoweth from afar. This Psalm has manifold points of contact with its predecessor. Franz Delitzsch.
To the Chief Musician. As a later writer could have no motive for prefixing the title, "To the Chief Musician", it affords an incidental proof of antiquity and genuineness. Joseph Addison Alexander.
A Psalm of David. How any critic can assign this Psalm to other than David I cannot understand. Every line, every thought, every turn of expression and transition, is his, and his only. As for the arguments drawn from the two Chaldaisms which occur, this is really nugatory. These Chaldaisms consist merely in the substitution of one letter for another, very like it in shape, and easily to be mistaken by a transcriber, particularly by one who had been used to the Chaldee idiom; but the moral arguments for David's authorship are so strong as to overwhelm any such verbal, or rather literal criticism, were even the objections more formidable than they actually are. John Jebb.
Ver. 1. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known (me). There is no "me" after "known" in the Hebrew; therefore it is better to take the object after "known" in a wider sense. The omission is intentional, that the believing heart of all who use this Psalm may supply the ellipsis. Thou hast known and knowest all that concerns the matter in question, as well whether I and mine are guilty or innocent (Ps 44:21); also my exact circumstances, my needs, my sorrows, and the precise time when to relieve me. A.R. Fausset.
Ver. 1. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. The godly may sometimes be so overclouded with calumnies and reproaches as not to be able to find a way to clear themselves before men, but must content and comfort themselves with the testimony of a good conscience and with God's approbation of their integrity, as here David doth. David Dickson.
Ver. 1. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. David here lays down the great doctrine, that God has a perfect knowledge of us, First, in the way of an address to God: he saith it to him, acknowledging it to him, and giving him the glory of it. Divine truths look full as well when they are prayed over as when they are preached over: and much better than when they are disputed over. When we speak of God to him himself, we find ourselves concerned to speak with the utmost degree both of sincerity and reverence, which will be likely to make the impressions the deeper. Secondly, he lays it down in a way of application to himself: not thou hast known all, but "thou hast known me"; that is it which I am most concerned to believe, and which it will be most profitable for me to consider. Then we know things for our good when we know them for ourselves. Job 5:27... David was a king, and "the hearts of kings are unsearchable" to their subjects (Pr 25:3), but they are not so to their sovereign. Matthew Henry.
Ver. 1. O LORD, thou hast searched me. I would have you observe how thoroughly in the very first verse he brings home the truth to his own heart and his own conscience: "O LORD, thou hast searched me." He does not slur it over as a general truth, in which such numbers shared that he might hope to escape or evade its solemn appeal to himself; but it is, "Thou hast searched me." Barton Bouchier.
Ver. 1. Searched. The Hebrew word originally means to dig, and is applied to the search for precious metals (Job 28:3), but metaphorically to a moral inquisition into guilt. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Ver. 1-5. God knows everything that passes in our inmost souls better than we do ourselves: he reads our most secret thoughts: all the cogitations of our hearts pass in review before him; and he is as perfectly and entirely employed in the scrutiny of the thoughts and actions of an individual, as in the regulation of the most important concerns of the universe. This is what we cannot comprehend; but it is what, according to the light of reason, must be true, and, according to revelation, is indeed true. God can do nothing imperfectly; and we may form some idea of his superintending knowledge, by conceiving what is indeed the truth, that all the powers of the Godhead are employed, and solely employed, in the observation and examination of the conduct of one individual. I say, this is indeed the case, because all the powers of the Godhead are employed upon the least as well as upon the greatest concerns of the universe; and the whole mind and power of the Creator are as exclusively employed upon the formation of a grub as of a world. God knows everything perfectly, and he knows everything perfectly at once. This, to a human understanding, would breed confusion; but there can be no confusion in the Divine understanding, because confusion arises from imperfection. Thus God, without confusion, beholds as distinctly the actions of every man, as if that man were the only created being, and the Godhead were solely employed in observing him. Let this thought fill your mind with awe and with remorse. Henry Kirke White, 1785-1806.
Ver. 1-12.
O Lord, in me there lieth nought
But to thy search revealed lies;
For when I sit
Thou markest it;
No less thou notest when I rise;
Yea, closest closet of my thought
Hath open windows to thine eyes.
Thou walkest with me when I walk,
When to my bed for rest I go,
I find thee there,
And everywhere:
Not youngest thought in me doth grow,
No, not one word I cast to talk
But, yet unuttered, thou dost know.
If forth I march, thou goest before;
If back I turn, thou com'st behind:
So forth nor back
Thy guard I lack;
Nay, on me, too, thy hand I find.
Well, I thy wisdom may adore,
But never reach with earthly mind.
To shun thy notice, leave thine eye,
O whither might I take my way?
To starry sphere?
Thy throne is there.
To dead men's undelightsome stay?
There is thy walk, and there to lie
Unknown, in vain I should assay.
O sun, whom light nor flight can match!
Suppose thy lightful flightful wings
Thou lend to me,
And I could flee
As far as thee the evening brings:
Ev'n led to west he would me catch,
Nor should I lurk with western things.
Do thou thy best. O secret night,
In sable veil to cover me:
Thy sable veil
Shall vainly fail:
With day unmasked my night shall be;
For night is day, and darkness light,
O Father of all lights, to thee.
Sir Philip Sidney, 1554-1586.
Ver. 1 and 23. A matter of fact made a matter of prayer.
Ver. 1.
1. A cheering thought for sinners. If God knew them not perfectly, how could he have prepared a perfect salvation for them?
2. A comfortable truth for saints. "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things."
G.R.
Ver. 1-5. In these verses we have God's Omniscience,
1. Described.
a) As observing minute and comparatively unimportant actions: "My downsitting and uprising."
b) As taking note of our thoughts and the motives behind them: "Understandest my thought."
c) As investigating all our ways: "Thou compassest", etc.; better rendered, "Thou triest my walking and lying down", i.e., my activities and restings.
d) Accurately estimating every word at the instant of its utterance: "For there is not a word", etc.
e) As being "behind" men, remembering their past, and "before" men, acquainted with their future: "Thou hast beset me", etc.
f) As every instant holding men under watchful scrutiny: "And laid", etc.
2. Personally realized and pondered: "Thou hast searched me." Me and my run through the whole set of statements. Thus felt and used, the fact of God's omniscience,
a) Begets reverence.
b) Inspires confidence.
c) Produces carefulness of conduct.
J.F.
Psalms 139:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24 O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me.
Psa_139:1-24
O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me.
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Gods exhaustive knowledge of man
This lyric has always been the subject of praise. Aben Ezra said there was none like it in the five books. Lord Brougham spoke of it as that singularly beautiful poem Herder said that language utterly failed him in its exposition. Erskine of Llinlathen wanted this to be before him on his death-bed. The title ascribes it to David, an ascription corroborated by its originality and majesty and its correspondence with psalms undoubtedly Davidic. Probably the Aramaic colouring is a mere dialectic variation, existing during the whole period of Hebrew history, and occasionally coming to the front as circumstances suggested it.
I. The Divine omniscience (verses 1-6). The poet multiplies expressions to indicate how complete is Gods knowledge of him. Whether he be at rest or in motion, in every posture and state, God knows him. Not only his outward acts, but the thoughts from which they spring are at once discerned. Nothing can escape Jehovahs eye, for He is behind and before, i.e. on all sides of man, and His hand is upon him to restrain and control. The strophe closes with a frank confession of the writers impotence and awe. He cannot comprehend it, which is not strange, for how is the finite to comprehend the infinite? But he knows it and bows in reverence before the sublime truth.
II. The Divine omnipresence (verses 7-12). God is everywhere; not only above all as transcendent, but also through all and in all as immanent in nature. This thought is expanded and enforced by its application to all measures of space. Were man to scale the azure vault overhead, it would only confront him with the Divine personality; were he to sound unimaginable depths in the other direction, the result would be the same. H a man mounted on wings, not those of the sun (Mal_4:2), nor of the wind (Psa_18:10), but of the dawn, and pursued the farthest flight westward, if he should fly with the same swiftness as the first rays of the morning shoot from one end of the heavens to the other, still he would not get beyond the Divine presence. Beyond the sea, and far out of the sight of man, Gods hand would lead him, and Gods right hand grasp him.
III. Omnipotence in the creation of man (verses 13-18). The singer revolves in mind the secret processes of mans birth and development, and gratitude overflows into praise. He sees how he has been made to differ from the inferior creation in constitution and destiny. It is a fearful distinction (Gen_28:17). Any signal manifestation of Jehovahs presence, however favourable, inspires awe. The consideration of this single ease leads to the general statement that all Gods works are marvellous, a statement which the writer reaffirms as from an experimental conviction of its truth. In the next verse the curious growth and unfolding of the embryo is referred to. It goes on in secret, as far from human vision as if it were deep down in some subterraneous cavern, but God sees it and directs the mysterious and complicated tissue, as if it were a piece of delicate embroidery. Even in its most rudimental form, invisible to any other ken, it is still open to His eyes, and He determines all its subsequent development, recording in His book the days to come, i.e. the various events and vicissitudes of life, even before one of them existed. Struck by this view of Gods omniscience as embracing the beginning, the unfolding and the completion of all things, the singer bursts out into a recognition of its value. To him Gods thoughts, i.e. His plans and purposes as displayed in these miracles of creation, are precious beyond measure. Nor are they few or slight, but amount to a vast sum, more numerous than the sands of the sea. They are ever before David as an object of adoring wonder, not by day only, but by night; not merely in the watches of the night, but even in his sleep. His meditations are continuous. His communion is unbroken.
IV. The practical application (verses 19-24). The greater any mans nearness to God, the more intense is his abhorrence of the impiety which disowns or despises the living God. Nor does such a feeling indicate malevolence. When a foul crime has been perpetrated, tender-hearted Christian women who would not harm a hair of the enemys head, but would rather feed him, will express keen resentment, and will be disquieted in mind till they hear that the perpetrator has been convicted and duly punished. The conclusion of the strophe is striking. The poet returns to the opening words of the psalm, and prays for a new experience of Jehovahs searching scrutiny, that he may not be given over to self-conceit. The petition is a proof of humility. Although he had averred so strongly his aversion to the wicked, he prays that this may be no mere outward separation. The All-seeing Eye may detect in him some way that leads to sin and sorrow, though he is unconscious of it. Hence he entreats God to see and disclose it, and then taking his hand to lead him in a way which, unlike the way of the wicked (Psa_1:6), does not perish, but ends in everlasting life. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.)
Gods omniscience and omnipresence
I. Some Scriptural views of the Divine omniscience and omnipresence. God is everywhere present--
1. By His presence.
2. By His power or agency.
3. In the immensity of space.
4. In highest heaven.
5. In hell.
6. We cannot get away from Gods presence.
7. Human inspection is very limited. But Gods eye penetrates the darkest abode, the deepest cell, the obscurest corner, the blackest night.
8. Men only see what a man says and does; God sees all that a man is. To Him all hearts are open, all desires known. God knows us, not relatively, but personally.
9. Specially with His people. Where are you going? said Collins, the infidel, to a poor but pious man. To church, sir, was the reply What to do there? To worship God. And can you tell me, said the infidel, whether your God is a great or a little God? He is both, sir. How can He be both? He is so great that the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, and so little that He can dwell in my heart.
II. Lessons.
1. If God is omniscient and omnipresent, then the moral character of His creatures is unveiled to His gaze, and clearly and distinctly known to Him.
2. If God is omniscient and omnipresent, then the final judgment will be a time of full and complete revelation, as well as a time of righteous retribution (Sir_11:14; Rev_20:12). Will the disclosures of that day fill us with joy, or cover us with shame?
3. The importance of an interest in Christ.
4. Try to cherish an abiding sense of Gods presence.
5. Pray at all times and in all places.
6. Be comforted in every time of trouble. (H. Woodcock.)
The all-seeing God
I. Is there an all-seeing God? If not, whence our own existence? Whence our expectations of reward for doing right, of punishment for wrong-doing? Whence the material universe? Whence the original plan, stupendous beyond conception, more minute than the most powerful microscope can reveal, which must have preceded the first act of creation? Whence the march and trend of history, always revealing a power not ourselves, which makes for righteousness, and which sweeps away opposition like dust before the oncoming storm? Who conceived the character of Christ, in an age overlaid and penetrated through and through with error? Whose works of grace, in that same earth, have steadily built up a kingdom of love, of peace, of righteousness? If there is a creator of the universe, He must also be its sustainer: He cannot press material forces into service and go and leave them, as we do a windmill to draw water, for all force depends upon Him for its existence. He who superintends all must be all-seeing, and He who presides over all history must take cognizance of every event.
II. What concern has our life, here and hereafter, with the omniscience of God?
1. That exquisite pleasure in sin, which comes from its fancied concealment, is utter folly.
2. God is patient with wrong and sin, because He sees the end from the beginning.
3. Patience under trial and strength in adversity thrive under the all-seeing eye.
4. The friends of God are glad in the sure hope of being more and more consciously under His eye.
5. Corresponding judgments await those who, shrinking from that all-seeing eye, with a repugnance predominant and increasing, must abide its searchings for ever.
6. How priceless the blood of Calvary, in which the saints have washed their robes and made them white! (Monday Club Sermons.)
The all-seeing and all-present One
I. The all-seeing One.
1. He sees the whole of an object. At best we can only see the outside of a thing, the curve, the angle, the colour.
2. He sees the whole of every object. How few are the objects we see even thus externally and partially! Some are too small and some too distant. But He sees all, His eye takes in the immeasurable universe.
3. He sees the whole of everything at the same time.
II. The all-present One.
1. He is present everywhere, in the entirety of Himself.
2. He is present in all things, yet distinct from all things.
Practically, this subject serves three important purposes.
1. To refute some popular errors of human life.
(1) There is the error that supposes that formal worship can be of any real worth. God is a Spirit, etc.
(2) There is the error that imagines that death will make some fundamental alteration in their relation to God.
2. To reprove some prevalent impieties in human conduct.
(1) Atheism.
(2) Indifferentism.
3. To reveal the supreme interest of human life. Cultivate a loving affection for Him. (Homilist.)
God and ourselves
This psalm sings of--
I. God.
1. His omniscience.
(1) He knows our actions, ways, words, thoughts.
(2) His knowledge of us is entire, complete.
2. His omnipresence. He is in--
(1) Heaven.
(2) Unseen world.
(3) Everywhere.
(4) In the dark as well as the light.
3. His omnipotence (Psa_139:13-16).
4. The separate, personal thinking of God toward every one of us.
(1) Innumerable.
(2) Constant.
II. Ourselves. Our relation toward such a God should be--
1. That of adoring and constantly thoughtful reverence (verses 17, 18).
2. That of siding with Him against evil (Psa_139:19-22).
3. That of welcoming the Divine searching (verses 23, 24). Said Milton, speaking of his travels abroad when a young man: I again take God to witness that in all places where so many things are considered lawful, I lived sound and untouched from all profligacy and vice, having this thought perpetually with me, that though I might escape the eyes of men, I certainly could not the eyes of God.
4. That of a prayerful seeking of the Divine guidance (verse 24). (W. Hoyt, D. D.)
Gods knowledge of man
One of the most remarkable characteristics of a rational being is the power of self-inspection. Like the air we breathe, like the light we see, it involves a mystery that no man has ever solved. Self-consciousness has been the problem of the philosophic mind in all ages; and the mystery is not yet unravelled. But if that knowledge whereby man knows himself is mysterious, then certainly that whereby God knows him is far more so. That act whereby another being knows my secret thoughts and inmost feelings is most certainly inexplicable.
I. God accurately and exhaustively knows all that man knows of himself. He may be an uncommonly thoughtful person, and little of what is done within his soul may escape his notice; nay, we will make the extreme supposition that he arrests every thought as it rises, and looks at it; that he analyzes every sentiment as it swells his heart; that he scrutinizes every purpose as it determines his will; even if he should have such a thorough and profound self-knowledge as this, God knows him equally profoundly and equally thoroughly. Nay, more, this process of self-inspection may go on indefinitely, and the man grow more and more thoughtful, and obtain an everlastingly augmenting knowledge of what he is and what he does, so that it shall seem to him that he is penetrating so deeply into those dim and shadowy regions of consciousness where the external life takes its very first start, and then he may be sure that God understands the thought that is afar off, and deep down, and that at this lowest range and plane in his experience he besets him behind and before.
II. God accurately and exhaustively knows all that man might, but does not, know of himself. Though the transgressor is ignorant of much of his sin, because, at the time of its commission, he sins blindly as well as wilfully, and unreflectingly as well as freely; and though the transgressor has forgotten much of that small amount of sin, of which he was conscious, and by which he was pained, at the time of its perpetration; though, on the side of man, the powers of self-inspection and memory have accomplished so little towards this preservation of mans sin, yet God knows it all, and remembers it all. He compasseth mans path, and his lying down, and is acquainted with all his ways. And here let us look upon the bright as well as the dark side of this subject. For if Gods exhaustive knowledge of the human heart waken dread in one of its aspects, it starts infinite hope in another. If that Being has gone down into these depths of human depravity, and seen it with a more abhorring glance than could ever shoot from a finite eye, and yet has returned with a cordial offer to forgive it all, and a hearty proffer to cleanse it all away, then we can lift up the eye in adoration and in hope. The worst has been seen, and that too by the holiest of beings, and yet eternal glory is offered to us! It is perfectly plain from the elevated central point of view where we now stand, and in the focal light in which we now see, that no man can be justified before God upon the ground of personal character; for that character, when subjected to Gods exhaustive scrutiny, withers and shrinks away. Before the Searcher of hearts all mankind must appeal to mere and sovereign mercy. Justice, in this reference, is out of the question. Now, in this condition of things, God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. The simple question, then, which meets us is, Wilt thou know thyself here, and now, that thou mayest accept and feel Gods pity; or wilt thou keep within the screen, and not know thyself until beyond the grave, and then feel Gods judicial wrath? The self-knowledge, remember, must come in the one way or the other. It is a simple question of time; a simple question whether it shall come here in this world, where the blood of Christ freely flows, or in the future world, where there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. (W. G. T. Shedd, D. D.)
Gods presence
The fact that God is always present and knows every minute trifle in our lives, and that His unerring judgment will assuredly take count of every detail of our character and our conduct, neither exaggerating nor omitting, but applying absolute justice; this truth is one of those which lose force from their very universality. God has made us so. We become unconscious of everything by long use. We could never discharge our duties properly if we were to be perpetually distracted by the consciousness of what was around us: and, above all, we might be daunted by the perpetual thought of the presence of God, and so be paralyzed instead of helped. There is, therefore, nothing wrong in our forgetting that we are in the presence of God any more than there is anything foolish in our forgetting that we need air to breathe or light to see by, or that if we fall we may hurt ourselves: just in the same way as we very often, and quite rightly, forget that we are in the company of men who will take notice of our faults. The right state of mind plainly is to have the thought of Gods presence so perpetually at hand that it shall always start before us whenever it is wanted. So that whenever we are on the point of doing or saying anything cowardly, or mean, or false, or impure, or proud, or conceited, or unkind, the remembrance that God is looking on shall instantly flash across us and help us to beat down our enemy. This is living with God. This is the communion with Him, and with Christ, which unquestionably helps the struggling, the penitent, the praying, more than anything else. And this perpetual though not always conscious sense of Gods presence would, no doubt, if we would let it have its perfect work, gradually act on our characters just as the presence of our fellow-men does. We cannot live long with men without catching something of their manner, of their mode of thought, of their character, of their government of themselves. Those who live much in a court acquire courtly manners. Those who live much in refined and educated society acquire refinement insensibly. Those who are always hearing pure and high principles set forth as the guides of life learn to value and to know them even faster than they can learn to live by them. From the just we learn justice; from the charitable we catch an infection of charity; from the generous we receive the instinct of generosity. So, too, by living in the presence of God and, as it were, in the courts of heaven, we shall assuredly learn something of a heavenly tone, and shake off some of that coarse worldliness, that deeply ingrained selfishness, that silly pride and conceit which now spoils our very best service. In short, to live with God is to be perpetually rising above the world; to live without Him is to be perpetually sinking into it, and with it, and below it. And lest the presence of God should be too much for us, Christ has taken human nature on Him, and has provided that He will be always with us as long as the world shall last. How shall we learn to walk by His side? The daily prayer in the closet, the endeavour to keep the attention fixed when praying with others, either in our regular services or in family worship the regular habit of reading the Bible at a fixed time, the occasional reminders of ourselves that God is looking on,--these are our chief means of learning to remember His presence. But yet there is another, not less powerful than any, which deserves special mention. Our hearts will put us in mind of Gods eye being upon us every now and then involuntarily. The thought will flash across us that God sees us. And this will generally be just when we are tempted to do wrong, or perhaps just when we are actually beginning to do it: some secret sin of which no one knows or dreams perhaps, some self-indulgence, which we dare not deny that God condemns. Then is the moment to choose whether or not we will live in the presence of God; then when the finger of conscience is pointing to Him and saying, He is looking at you. (Archbishop Temple.)
God all-seeing
In the mythology of the heathen, Momus, the god of fault-finding, is represented as blaming Vulcan, because in the human form, which he had made of clay, he had not placed a window in the breast, by which whatever was done or thought there might easily be brought to light. We do not agree with Momus, neither are we of his mind who desired to have a window in his breast that all men might see his heart. If we had such a window we should pray for shutters, and should keep them closed.
God omniscient
While the Americans were blockading Cuba, several captains endeavoured to elude their vigilance by night, trusting that the darkness would conceal them as they passed between the American war-ships. But in almost every case the dazzling rays of a searchlight frustrated the attempt, and the fugitives vessel was captured by the Americans. The brilliant searchlight sweeping the broad ocean and revealing even the smallest craft on its surface is but a faint type of the Eternal Light from which no sinner can hide his sin. (Weekly Pulpit.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 139
Psalms 139
THIS is the noblest utterance in the Psalter of pure contemplative theism, animated and not crushed by the thought of Gods omniscience and omnipresence. No less striking than the unequalled force and sublimity with which the psalm hymns the majestic attributes of an all-filling, all-knowing, all-creating God, is the firmness with which the singers personal relation to that God is grasped. Only in the last verses is there reference to other men. In the earlier parts of the psalm, there are but two beings in the universe-God and the psalmist. With impressive reiteration, Gods attributes are gazed on in their bearing on him. Not mere omniscience, but a knowledge which knows him altogether, not mere omnipresence, but a presence which he can nowhere escape, not mere creative power, but a power which shaped him, fill and thrill the psalmists soul. This is no cold theism, but vivid religion. Conscience and the consciousness of individual relation to God penetrate and vitalise the whole. Hence the sudden turn to prayer against evil men and for the singers direction in the right way, which closes the hymn, is natural, however abrupt.
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The course of thought is plain. There are four strophes of six verses each, -of which the first (Psa_139:1-6) magnifies Gods omniscience; the second (Psa_139:7-12), His omnipresence; the third (Psa_139:13-18), His creative act, as the ground of the preceding attributes; and the fourth (Psa_139:19-24) recoils from men who rebel against such a God, and joyfully submits to the searching of His omniscient eye, and the guidance of His ever-present hand.
The psalmist is so thoroughly possessed by the thought of his personal relation to God that his meditation spontaneously takes the form of address to Him. That form adds much to the impressiveness, but is no rhetorical or poetic artifice. Rather, it is the shape in which such intense consciousness of God cannot but utter itself. How cold and abstract the awestruck sentences become, if we substitute "He" for "Thou," and "men" for "I" and "me"! The first overwhelming thought of Gods relation to the individual soul is that He completely knows the whole man. "Omniscience" is a pompous word, which leaves us unaffected by either awe or conscience. But the psalmists God was a God who came into close touch with him, and the psalmists religion translated the powerless generality of an attribute referring to the Divine relation to the universe into a continually exercised power having reference to himself. He utters his reverent consciousness of it in Psa_139:1 in a single clause, and expands that verse in the succeeding ones. "Thou hast searched me" describes a process of minute investigation; "and known [me]," its result in complete knowledge.
That knowledge is then followed out in various directions, and recognised as embracing the whole man in all his modes of action and repose, in all his inner and outward life. Psa_139:2 and Psa_139:3 are substantially parallel. "Down-sitting" and "uprising" correspond to "walking" and "lying down," and both antitheses express the contrast between action and rest. "My thought" in Psa_139:2 corresponds to "my ways" in Psa_139:3, -the former referring to the inner life of thought, purpose, and will; the latter to the outward activities which carry these into effect. Psa_139:3 is a climax to Psa_139:2, in so far as it ascribes a yet closer and more accurate knowledge to God. "Thou siftest" or winnowest gives a picturesque metaphor for careful and judicial scrutiny which discerns wheat from chaff. "Thou art familiar" implies intimate and habitual knowledge. But thought and action are not the whole man. The power of speech, which the Psalter always treats as solemn and a special object of Divine approval or condemnation, must also be taken into account. Psa_139:4 brings it, too, under Gods cognisance. The meaning may either be that "There is no word on my tongue [which] Thou dost not know altogether"; or, "The word is not yet on my tongue, [but] lo! Thou knowest," etc. "Before it has shaped itself on the tongue, [much less been launched from it], thou knowest all its secret history" (Kay).
The thought that God knows him through and through blends in the singers mind with the other, that God surrounds him on every side. Psa_139:5 thus anticipates the thought of the next strophe, but presents it rather as the basis of Gods knowledge, and as limiting mans freedom. But the psalmist does not feel that he is imprisoned, or that the hand laid on him is heavy. Rather, he rejoices in the defence of an encompassing God, who shuts off evil from him, as well as shuts him in from self-willed and self-determined action; and he is glad to be held by a hand so gentle as well as strong. Thou God seest me may either be a dread or a blessed thought. It may paralyse or stimulate. It should be the ally of conscience, and, while it stirs to all noble deeds, should also emancipate from all slavish fear. An exclamation of reverent wonder and confession of the limitation of human comprehension closes the strophe.
Why should the thought that God is ever with the psalmist be put in the shape of vivid pictures of the impossibility of escape from Him? It is the sense of sin which leads men to hide from God, like Adam among the trees of the garden. The psalmist does not desire thus to flee, but he supposes the case, which would be only too common if men realised Gods knowledge of all their ways. He imagines himself reaching the extremities of the universe in vain flight, and stunned by finding God there. The utmost possible height is coupled with the utmost possible depth. Heaven and Sheol equally fail to give refuge from that moveless Face, which confronts the fugitive in both, and fills them as it fills all the intervening dim distances. The dawn flushes the east, and swiftly passes on roseate wings to the farthest bounds of the Mediterranean, which, to the psalmist, represented the extreme west, a land of mystery. In both places and in all the broad lands between, the fugitive would find himself in the grasp of the same hand (compare Psa_139:5).
Darkness is the friend of fugitives from men; but is transparent to God. In Psa_139:11 the language is somewhat obscure. The word rendered above "cover" is doubtful, as the Hebrew text reads "bruise," which is quite unsuitable here. Probably there has been textual error, and the slight correction which yields the above sense is to be adopted, as by many moderns. The second clause of the verse carries on the supposition of the first, and is not to be regarded, as in the A.V., as stating the result of the supposition, or, in grammatical language, the apodosis. That begins with Psa_139:12, and is marked there, as in Psa_139:10, by "even."
The third strophe (Psa_139:13-18) grounds the psalmists relation to God on Gods creative act. The mysteries of conception and birth naturally struck the imagination of nonscientific man, and are to the psalmist the direct result of Divine power. He touches them with poetic delicacy and devout awe, casting a veil of metaphor over the mystery, and losing sight of human parents in the clear vision of the Divine Creator. There is room for his thought of the origin of the individual life, behind modern knowledge of embryology. In Psa_139:13 the word rendered in the A.V. "possessed" is better understood in this context as meaning "formed," and that rendered there "covered" {as in Psa_140:7} here means to plait or weave together, and picturesquely describes the interlacing bones and sinews, as in Job_10:11. But description passes into adoration in Psa_139:14. Its language is somewhat obscure. The verb rendered "wondrously made" probably means here "selected" or "distinguished," and represents man as the chef doeuvre of the Divine Artificer. The psalmist cannot contemplate his own frame, Gods workmanship, without breaking into thanks, nor without being touched with awe. Every man carries in his own body reasons enough for reverent gratitude.
The word for "bones" in Psa_139:15 is a collective noun, and might be rendered "bony framework." The mysterious receptacle in which the unborn body takes shape and grows is delicately described as "secret" and likened to the hidden region of the underworld, where are the dead. The point of comparison is the mystery enwrapping both. The same comparison occurs in Jobs pathetic words, "Naked came I out of my mothers womb, and naked shall I return thither." It is doubtful whether the word rendered above "wrought like embroidery" refers to a pattern wrought by weaving or by needlework. In any case, it describes "the variegated colour of the individual members, especially of the viscera" (Delitzsch). The mysteries of antenatal being are still pursued in Psa_139:16, which is extremely obscure. It is, however, plain that a sets forth the Divine knowledge of man in his first rudiments of corporeity. "My shapeless mass" is one word, meaning anything rolled up in a bundle or ball. But in b it is doubtful what is referred to in "they all." Strictly, the word should point back to something previously mentioned; and hence the A.V. and R.V. suppose that the "shapeless mass" is thought of as resolved into its component parts, and insert "my members"; but it is better to recognise a slight irregularity here, and to refer the word to the "days" immediately spoken of, which existed in the Divine foreknowledge long before they had real objective existence in the actual world. The last clause of the verse is capable of two different meanings, according as the Hebrew text or margin is followed. This is one of a number of cases in which there is a doubt whether we should read "not" or "to him" (or "it"). The Hebrew words having these meanings are each of two letters, the initial one being the same in both, and both words having the same sound. Confusion might easily therefore arise, and as a matter of fact there are numerous cases in which the text has the one and the margin the other of these two words. Here, if we adhere to the text, we read the negative, and then the force of the clause is to declare emphatically that the "days" were written in Gods book, and in a real sense "fashioned," when as yet they had not been recorded in earths calendars. If, on the other hand, the marginal reading is preferred, a striking meaning is obtained: "And for it [i.e., for the birth of the shapeless mass] there was one among them [predestined in Gods book]."
In Psa_139:17-18 the poet gathers together and crowns all his previous contemplations by the consideration that this God, knowing him altogether, ever near him, and Former of his being, has great "thoughts" or purposes affecting him individually. That assurance makes omniscience and omnipresence joys, and not terrors. The root meaning of the word rendered "precious" is weighty. The singer would weigh Gods thoughts towards him, and finds that they weigh down his scales. He would number them, and finds that they pass his enumeration. It is the same truth of the transcendent greatness and graciousness of Gods purposes as is conveyed in Isaiahs "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My thoughts than your thoughts." "I awake, and am still with Thee,"-this is an artless expression of the psalmists blessedness in realising Gods continual nearness. He awakes from sleep, and is conscious of glad wonder to find that, like a tender mother by her slumbering child, God has been watching over him, and that all the blessed communion of past days abides as before.
The fiery hatred of evil and evil men which burns in the last strophe offends many and startles more. But while the vehement prayer that "Thou wouldest slay the wicked" is not in a Christian tone, the recoil from those who could raise themselves against such a God is the necessary result of the psalmists delight in Him. Attraction and repulsion are equal and contrary. The measure of our cleaving to that which is good, and to Him who is good, settles the measure of our abhorrence of that which is evil. The abrupt passing from petition in Psa_139:19 a to command in b has been smoothed away by a slight alteration which reads, "And that men of blood would depart from me"; but the variation in tense is more forcible, and corresponds with the speakers strong emotion. He cannot bear companionship with rebels against God. His indignation has no taint of personal feeling, but is pure zeal for Gods honour.
Psa_139:20 presents difficulties. The word rendered in the A.V. and R.V. (text) "speak against Thee" is peculiarly spelt if this is its meaning, and its construction is anomalous. Probably, therefore, the rendering should be as above. That meaning does not require a change of consonants, but only of vowel points. The difficulty of the last clause lies mainly in the word translated in the A.V. adversaries; and in the R.V. "enemies." That meaning is questionable; and if the word is the nominative to the verb in the clause, the construction is awkward, since the preceding "who" would naturally extend its influence to this clause. Textual emendation has been resorted to: the simplest form of which is to read "against Thee" for "Thine adversaries," a change of one letter. Another form of emendation, which is adopted by Cheyne and Graetz, substitutes "Thy name," and reads the whole, "And pronounce Thy name for falsehoods." Delitzsch adheres to the reading "adversaries," and by a harsh ellipsis makes the whole to run, "Who pronounce [Thy name] deceitfully-Thine adversaries."
The vindication of the psalmists indignation lies in Psa_139:21-22. That soul must glow with fervent love to God which feels wrong done to His majesty with as keen a pain as if it were itself struck. What God says to those who love Him, they in their degree say to God: "He that toucheth Thee toucheth the apple of mine eye." True, hate is not the Christian requital of hate, whether that is directed against God or Gods servant. But recoil there must be, if there is any vigour of devotion; only, pity and love must mingle with it, and the evil of hatred be overcome by their good.
Very beautifully does the lowly prayer for searching and guidance follow the psalmists burst of fire. It is easier to glow with indignation against evildoers than to keep oneself from doing evil. Many secret sins may hide under a cloak of zeal for the Lord. So the psalmist prays that God would search him, not because he fancies that there is no lurking sin to be burned by the light of Gods eye, like vermin that nestle and multiply under stones and shrivel when the sunbeams strike them, but because he dreads that there is, and would fain have it cast out. The psalm began with declaring that Jehovah had searched and known the singer, and it ends with asking for that searching knowledge.
It makes much difference, not indeed in the reality or completeness of Gods knowledge of use but in the good we derive therefrom, whether we welcome and submit to it, or try to close our trembling hearts, that do not wish to be cleansed of their perilous stuff, from that loving and purging gaze. God will cleanse the evil which He sees, if we are willing that He should see it. Thoughts of the inner life and "ways" of the outer are equally to be submitted to Him. There are two "ways" in which men can walk. The one is a "way of grief or pain," because that is its terminus. All sin is a blunder. And the inclination to such ways is "in me," as every man who has dealt honestly with himself knows. The other is "a way everlasting," a way which leads to permanent good, which continues uninterrupted through the vicissitudes of life, and even (though that was not in the psalmists mind) through the darkness of death, and with ever closer approximation to its goal in God, through the cycles of eternity. And that way is not "in me," but I must he led into and in it by the God who knows me altogether and is ever with me, to keep my feet in the way of life, if I hold the guiding hand which He lays upon me.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 “Nowhere,” says Perowne, “are the great attributes of God—His…
INTRODUCTION
“Nowhere,” says Perowne, “are the great attributes of God—His omniscience, His omnipresence, His omnipotence, set forth so strikingly as they are in this magnificent Psalm. Nowhere is there a more overwhelming sense of the fact that man is beset and compassed about by God, pervaded by His Spirit, unable to take a step without His control; and yet nowhere is there a more emphatic assertion of the personality of man as distinct from, not absorbed in the Deity. This is no pantheistie speculation. Man is here the workmanship of God, and stands in the presence and under the eye of One who is his Judge. The power of conscience, the sense of sin and of responsibility, are felt and acknowledged, and prayer is offered to One who is not only the Judge but the Friend; to One who is feared as none else are feared, who is loved as none else are loved.
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“Both in loftiness of thought and in expressive beauty of language the Psalm stands pre-eminent, and it is not surprising that Aben Ezra should have pronounced it to be ‘the crown of all the Psalms.’ The Psalm both in the Hebrew and the LXX is ascribed to David.
“The rhythmical structure is, on the whole, regular. There are four strophes, each consisting of six verses; the first three strophes containing the proper theme of the Psalm, and the last the expression of individual feeling.
“I. In the first strophe the poet dwells on the omniscience of God, as manifested in His knowledge of the deepest thoughts and most secret workings of the human heart, Psa_139:1-6.
“II. In the second, on His omnipresence, inasmuch as there is no corner of the universe so remote that it is not pervaded by God’s presence, no darkness so deep that it can hide from His eyes, Psa_139:7-12.
“III. The third strophe gives the reason for the profound conviction of these truths of which the poet’s heart is full. No wonder that God should have so intimate a knowledge of man, for man is the creature of God: the mysterious beginnings of life, which none can trace; the days, all of which are ordered before the first breath is drawn,—these are fashioned and ordered by the hand of God, Psa_139:13-18.
“IV. In the last strophe the Psalmist turns abruptly aside to express his utter abhorrence of wicked men—an abhorrence, no doubt, deepened by the previous meditation on God and His attributes, and called forth probably by the circumstances in which he was placed; and then closes with a prayer that he himself may, in his inmost heart, be right with that God who has searched him and known him and laid His hand upon him, and that he may be led by Him in the way everlasting, Psa_139:19-24.”
GOD’S PERFECT KNOWLEDGE OF MAN
(Psa_139:1-6)
Our purpose is not to write on the omniscience of God in general, or to make an attempt to set it forth with completeness and show its relations and bearings; but to call attention to those aspects of it which are mentioned by the Psalmist, and to indicate the practical bearing of these aspects upon human life. The poet sets forth in this strophe the omniscience of God as related to human life.
I. God knows all men. David does not write of himself alone. That the Psalm is addressed “to the chief musician” is a proof that it was intended to be set to music for use in public worship. The entire congregation was to use the Psalm. Its utterances were to be adopted by every member of the congregation. Every person in the world may say with truth, “O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me,” &c. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”
II. God knows all men thoroughly.
1. He knows all their words and actions. “Thou art acquainted with all my ways, for there is not a word on my tongue, but lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it altogether.” The entire course of every human life, and every step in every individual course, are perfectly known to God, and not a word that is uttered by human tongues escapes His ear.
2. He knows all their thoughts. “Thou understandest my thought afar off.” However great the distance between God and man may seem to be, yet He is “a discerner of the thoughts and intents of his heart.” Calvin: “God is not shut up in heaven, as if He delighted in an idle repose (as the Epicureans feigned), and neglected human affairs; but though we live at a great distance from Him, still He is not far from us.” All worthy thoughts and pure and generous feelings He knows, and all evil thoughts and impure and malignant feelings He also knows. “Before men we stand,” says Beecher, “as opaque beehives. 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 beehives, and all that our thoughts are doing within us He perfectly sees and understands.”
III. God knows all men constantly. At all times and under all circumstances He is perfectly acquainted with us. He knows us in work and in rest, in our daily walk and in our nightly repose. ‘Thou knowest my down sitting” for rest, “and mine uprising” for action. “Thou compassest my path and my lying down.” Perowne: “My path and my bed Thou hast examined.” Lit. “Thou hast winnowed,” or “sifted.” Hengstenberg: “זָרָה, properly, to sift, then poetically, to prove, to know.” God knows our “path,” our way of active life, and our “couch” or “bed,” our thoughts and feelings in our place of rest. We are altogether and always perfectly known unto Him. God’s knowledge of us differs from our knowledge of each other not only in its extent and completeness, but in other respects.
First, His knowledge is underived and independent. We receive instruction from tutors and information from books. But He receives not his knowledge from anything without Him. His knowledge is as independent as Himself and His own essence. “Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or, being His counsellor, hath taught Him?” “Our knowledge,” says Charnock, “depends upon the object, but all created objects depend upon God’s knowledge and will: we could not know creatures unless they were; but creatures could not be unless God knew them.”
Second, His knowledge is clear and perfect. “We see through a glass, darkly;” and only “know in part.” He knows all things clearly and distinctly, intimately and thoroughly, infallibly and perfectly. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” “His understanding is infinite.”
Let us endeavour to point out the practical bearing of this knowledge on us and on our life. It ought to prove—
1. An antidote to the pride of intellect. “Such knowlege is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” We cannot comprehend the Divine omniscience. Our attempts to do so end in ignominious failure. We can but cry, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” &c. How vain and ridiculous it is for any man to pride himself in his intellectual attainments or acquisitions! What we know is almost as nothing in contrast to what we do not know. “We have a drop of knowledge, but nothing to the Divine ocean. What a vain thing is it fo a shallow brook to boast of its streams before a sea, whose depths are unfathomable!”
2. An effectual restraint from sins both of heart and of action. The eye of man often imposes a restraint upon the evil-doer; and shall the eye of God, which is ever upon us, be disregarded? Men seek to hide their evil doings by the darkness of night, saying, “How doth God know? can He judge through the dark cloud?” But darkness cannot hide from Him. He knows the evil thought, the dark design, the impure feeling. Secret sin is impossible. Let the fact of God’s omniscience check evil in its first beginnings.
3. A solemn warning to the sinner. Secrecy does not hide from God, hypocrisy does not deceive Him, the lapse of time does not cause Him to forget, all sins are known to Him, and will be visited upon the sinners unless they are pardoned. “What a terrible consideration is it to think that the sins of a day are upon record in an infallible understanding, much more the sins of a week: what a number, then, do the sins of a month, a year, ten or forty years arise to!” Sinner, take warning.
4. The utter impossibility of any man justifying himself in the sight of God. God knows all and everything. “Our secret sins are in the light of His countenance.” He sees defects and imperfections even in our best deeds. “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.”
5. A comfort to the people of God when misjudged by man. Men frequently mistake the motives of their fellow-men and judge them harshly. But how comforting it is to turn from man unto God. “Behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. He knoweth the way that I take,” &c. Our cause is in the hands of the Omniscient and All-Merciful.
6. A guarantee of the well-being of the people of God. God not only knows, but also cares for His people. “As providence infers omniscience as the guide of it, so omniscience infers providence as the end of it.” He knows them in their weakness to sustain them, in their need to provide for them, in their dangers to rescue them, in their sorrows to comfort them, &c. Our Lord Himself set forth the Divine knowledge as an encouragement to His people to trust in God. “Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things,” &c. (Mat_6:31-32).
7. A pledge of the triumph of the Divine government. All the dark and cunning designs of His enemies are known to Him. Their most secret plans cannot surprise Him. Their most subtle plans cannot baffle Him. He will make their counsel of no effect, and frustrate their deepest schemes. His omniscience assures us of the triumph of His cause. All things are under His control. He, and He alone, can say, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.”
GOD’S OMNIPRESENCE
(Psa_139:7-12)
The Psalmist here treats of the omnipresence of God, not as a metaphysical conception, but as a momentous practical truth. This truth he sets forth in language of great force and beauty. In other portions of the Holy Word this truth is clearly and forcibly expressed. 1Ki_8:27; Jer_23:23-24; Amo_9:2-3. According to the representation of David—
I. God is personally present everywhere. The Psalm was not written by a Pantheist. He speaks of God as a Person everywhere present in creation, yet distinct from creation. In our text He says, “Thy Spirit, … Thy presence, … Thou art there, … Thy hand, … Thy right hand, … darkness hideth not from Thee.” God is everywhere, but He is not everything. All things have their being in Him, but He is distinct from all things. He fills the universe, but is not mingled with it. He is the Intelligence which guides, and the power which sustains; but His personality is preserved, and He is independent of the works of His hands, however vast and noble. Charnock: “Where light is in every part of a crystal globe, and encircles it close on every side, do they become one? No; the crystal remains what it is, and the light retains its own nature. God is not in us as a part of us, but as an efficient and preserving cause.” “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” “We live and move in God, so we live and move in the air; we are no more God by that than we are mere air because we breathe in it, and it enters into all the pores of our body.”
II. God is influentially present everywhere. The Psalmist felt that where-ever he was—in heaven, in Sheol, or on the utmost verge of creation—he would be led and sustained by God. “Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.” He is everywhere present in His sustaining energy. “O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast.” “By Him all things consist.” “He upholds all things by the word of His power.” He is everywhere present by His controlling energy. He restrains and overrules all evil. He originates and fosters all good. “This influential presence may be compared to that of the sun, which, though at so great a distance from the earth, is present in the air and earth by its light, and within the earth by its influence in concocting those metals which are in the bowels of it, without being substantially either of them.”
III. God is intelligently present everywhere. The poet felt that, wherever he was and in whatever circumstances, he would be fully known to the Lord.
“And should I say: Only let darkness cover me, and the light about me be night; even darkness cannot be too dark for Thee, but the night is light as the day; the darkness and light (to Thee are) both alike.” “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” “With one single look He beholdeth the whole universe. As I am accounted present in this auditory, because I see the objects that are here, because I am witness of all that passes here; so God is everywhere, because He sees all, because veils the most impenetrable, darkness the most thick, distances the most immense, can conceal nothing from His knowledge. Soar to the utmost heights, fly into the remotest climates, wrap thyself in the blackest darkness, everywhere, everywhere, thou wilt be under His eye.”—Saurin.
IV. God’s presence is everywhere realised by the godly soul. To the Psalmist the Divine omnipresence was not a mere opinion, not a mere article of a creed, but a realised fact. “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?” He felt the presence of God everywhere. At every step and in every circumstance of life he felt himself in that presence. In all the phenomena of nature he recognised that presence. To him all things are full of God, “yet all distinct from Him. The cloud on the mountain is His covering; the muttering from the chambers of the thunder is His voice; that sound on the top of the mulberry trees is His ‘going;’ in that wind, which bends the forest or curls the clouds, He is walking; that sun is His still commanding eye.” The godly soul is possessed by an intense consciousness of the constant presence of God.
“God is a sphere or circle, whose centre is everywhere, and circumference nowhere.” So far is His presence from being bounded by the universe itself, that, as we are taught in our text, were it possible for us to wing our way into the immeasurable depths and breadths of space, God would there surround us, in as absolute a sense as that in which He is said to be about our bed and our path, in that part of the world where His will has placed us. As He is larger than all time, so He is vaster than all space.
Let us now point out the practical bearings of this great truth.
1. It should restrain us from evil. The eye of a child will effectually check the execution of some evil purposes; more the eye of man or woman; yet more the eye of a holy man or woman. Men chose darkness and secrecy for the perpetration of evil. But “there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.” God’s eye sees all things everywhere. He is in the darkness by the side of the worker of iniquity. And He is perfectly holy.
2. It should lead us to hold humble thoughts of ourselves and exalted ideas of God. How small are we to God! Our existence seems almost as non-existence when placed beside His immensity. Let His greatness excite our reverence. Let our littleness lead us to constant lowliness.
3. It should comfort and strengthen the people of God in severe trial, in painful loneliness, and in arduous duty. He accompanies His people into the furnace of affliction, and preserves them from injury. “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee,” &c. (Isa_43:2). When exiled from friends, or forsaken of friends, or bereaved of friends by death, His presence is never withdrawn. If He call us to some difficult task, He assures us, “My presence shall go with thee.” His realised presence is the secret of the success of Moses, Paul, &c.
4. It should be an incentive to holy action. The athletes of Greece and Rome were inspired to run or wrestle by the knowledge of the fact that they were surrounded by a vast assembly of spectators. It is said that, at the battle of Prestonpans, a Highland chief of the noble house of M‘Gregor was wounded by two balls and fell. Seeing their chief fall, the clan wavered, and gave the enemy an advantage. The old chieftain, beholding the effects of his disaster, raised himself up on his elbow, while the blood gushed in streams from his wounds, and cried aloud, “I am not dead, my children: I am looking at you to see you do your duty.” These words revived the sinking courage of the brave Highlanders, and roused them to put forth their mightiest energies; and they did all that human valour could do to stem and turn the dreadful tide of battle. Oh! if we but realised God’s presence, felt Him near to us, our life would become brave and beautiful and holy. God is not only present everywhere, but everywhere present to inspire, and aid, and bless.
5. It is of vital importance to all worshippers of God. The consideration of the Divine omnipresence is calculated to destroy formality, to inspire reverence, and to strengthen faith. “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD AND ITS IMPRESSIONS UPON MAN
(Psa_139:7-12)
There is one circumstance in the text which directs a humble mind how it ought to be treated, and that is with the utmost humility of devotion; for it is a direct address to God Himself. However discursive the imagination might be on other texts, on this it is quite out of character.
If this thought be powerful on the mind of your preacher, there is another which ought equally to affect the minds of the hearers; and that is, that you are now in a place where you ought to feel yourself most exposed to His survey. God indeed is about your bed and about your path; but in the house of prayer you voluntarily expose yourself to His immediate notice, you court His scrutiny. Recollect that God is present; the King is now come in to see His guests: He knows with what motives you have come hither; whether you prayed before you came; whether you listened to the reading of the Scriptures as to the Word of God; whether you prayed in prayer; whether you sung with devotion, “making melody in your heart to the Lord.” Yes, my brethren, even now you are weighed in the balances of the sanctuary. God grant that you may not be found wanting.
I. Let us endeavour to realise the grand sentiment which the text contains.
God is everywhere present. The first thought of the sinner is how he may escape. “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?” &c. How vain! A reflection upon human nature. Grace is wiser; it teaches us to seek His presence. “Let him take hold of My strength,” &c. “When shall I come and appear before God?”
How many present have never reflected upon the subject; and though always surrounded by God, have never derived comfort from His presence! Without hope, without God—awful thought!
1. How great must be the Being who possesses such an empire! These are His attributes; these are not limited. A wing that never tires: an eye that never sleeps.
2. How melancholy the reflection that the great thought that occurs to the sinner is how he may escape Him! “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?” &c. This is not natural: sin is the cause of it. How false the hope! How miserable the condition!
3. How valuable is that religion which teaches us to hope in His mercy; which tells us that over all worlds He exercises a Father’s care; that His fostering wing extends to the minutest object; and that He especially discerns the returning sinner.
II. Let us trace some of the impressions which it ought to produce on individual character.
1. The utter hopelessness of a career of crime or of indifference to God. Wherever you are engaged in guilt, God is there to interrupt, to record, to disappoint, to vex the soul. Think of this in your plans of life, in business, in your families. Examples: Achan (Jos_7:16-26), Gehazi (2Ki_5:20-27).
2. The strong consolation afforded to the humble penitent. He sees every desire, hope, effort. “Why sayest thou, O Jacob?” &c. (Isa_40:27-31).
3. The absolute necessity of making this God our Friend.
4. The glory of heaven, where His presence is felt only to bless.
5. The dreadfulness of that world in which His mercies are “clean gone for ever,” and His influence is felt as an unmitigated and insupportable curse.—Samuel Thodey.
MAN A WONDERFUL CREATION OF GOD
(Psa_139:13-16)
The connection of these verses with the preceding seems to be this—God must needs have a perfect acquaintance with man because He created him. Hengstenberg suggests that Psa_139:13 refers back to Psa_139:2. “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off.… For Thou hast formed my reins,” &c. The Psalmist here states that—
I. Man is a creation of God. “Thou hast formed my reins, Thou didst weave me together in my mother’s womb.”—Perowne’s translation.
Man was created—
1. According to God’s design. “In Thy book all my members were written,” &c. What the architect is to the edifice God is to man. We existed first as an idea in the Divine mind. And if we read, “In Thy book all of them were written, the days which were ordered when as yet there was none of them,” we still have the idea of the Divine design in the life of man. Man’s entire being is prearranged by God.
2. Under God’s inspection. “My substance was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret,” &c. The great Creator superintended the formation of man’s bodily frame in the secrecy and obscurity of the womb.
3. By God’s power. “Thou hast formed my reins, Thou didst weave me together in my mother’s womb.” God is the Author of our being: our parents are but the instruments thereof. Every human being is a creation of the Divine power.
II. Man is a wonderful creation of God. “I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.” This is manifest—
1. In his body. “The frame of man’s body, and the cohesion of its parts,” says Lord Herbert, “are so strange and paradoxical, that I hold it to be the greatest miracle of nature.” “An anatomist, as Dr. Paley observes, who understood the structure of the heart, might say beforehand that it would play; but he would expect, I think, from the complexity of its mechanism, and the delicacy of many of its parts, that it should always be liable to derangement, or that it would soon work itself out. Yet shall this wonderful machine go night and day, for eighty years together, at the rate of a hundred thousand strokes every twenty-four hours, having at every stroke a great resistance to overcome; and shall continue this action for this length of time without disorder and without weariness. Each ventricle will at least contain one ounce of blood. The heart contracts four thousand times in one hour, from which it follows, that there passes through the heart every hour four thousand ounces, or two hundred and fifty pounds, of blood. Now the whole mass of blood is said to be about twenty-five pounds, so that a quantity of blood, equal to the whole mass of blood passes through the heart ten times in one hour; which is once every six minutes. When we reflect also upon the number of muscles, not fewer than four hundred and forty-six in the human body, known and named; how contiguous they lie to each other, as it were, over one another; crossing one another; sometimes embedding in one another; sometimes perforating one another; an arrangement which leaves to each its liberty, and its full play; this must necessarily require meditation and council. Dr. Nienentyt, in the Leipsic Transaction, reckons up a hundred muscles that are employed every time we breathe: yet we take in, or let out, our breath without reflecting what a work is hereby performed—what an apparatus is laid in of instruments for the service, and how many such contribute their assistance to the effect. Breathing with ease is a blessing of every moment; yet of all others, it is that which we possess with the least consciousness.”—Buck.
“The human body is ever changing, ever abiding; a temple always complete, and yet always under repair; a mansion which quite contents its possessor, and yet has its plans and its materials altered each moment; a machine which never stops working, and yet is taken to pieces in the one twinkling of an eye, and put together in the other; a cloth of gold to which the needle is ever adding on one side of a line, and from which the scissors are ever cutting away on the other. Yes: Life, like Penelope of old, is ever weaving and unweaving the same web, whilst her grim suitors, Disease and Death, watch for her halting; only for her is no Ulysses who will one day in triumph return.”—Dr. G. Wilson.
Truly we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
2. In his rational soul. That which thinks, feels, desires, resolves, we call the soul. The soul is wonderful in itself. We do not know what it is; we cannot apprehend it by any of the senses; it has neither shape nor size; it is a mystery. It is wonderful in its powers. How great and marvellous are its powers of memory, reflection, reasoning, anticipation, imagination, &c. And these powers are capable of endless development and increase. How fearfully and wonderfully are we made.
3. In the union of soul and body. How dissimilar they are; yet they are united! Man “is sure that he is distinct from the body, though joined to it, because he is one, and the body is not one, but a collection of many things. He feels, moreover, that he is distinct from it because he uses it; for what a man can use he is superior to. No one can mistake his body for himself. It is his, it is not he.… When two things which we see are united, they are united by some connection which we can understand. A chain or cable keeps a ship in its place. We lay a foundation of a building in the earth, and the building endures. But what is it that unites soul and body? how do they touch? how do they keep together? So far from its being wonderful that the body one day dies, how is it that it is made to live and move at all? how is it that it keeps from dying a single hour?
“Again: the soul is in every part of the body. It is nowhere, yet everywhere. Since every part of his body belongs to him, a man’s self is in every part of his body. The hands and feet, the head and trunk, form one body under the presence of the soul within them. Unless the soul were in every part, they would not form one body; so that the soul is in every part, uniting it with every other, though it consists of no part at all.”—J. H. Newman. This seems contradictory, yet it is true. How mysterious is our being! How fearfully and wonderfully we are made!
III. Because man is a wonderful creation of God he should celebrate the praise of his Creator. “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Man as a creation of God presents many and remarkable illustrations of the wisdom, power, and goodness of his Creator, and these should excite his wonder, admiration, gratitude, and praise.
The highest praise we can offer to our Creator is to fulfil His design in our creation. He who most completely embodies and most clearly expresses the will of God presents to Him the truest and highest worship.
Psa_139:1-16 may be taken as the text of one homily and its teachings developed under an arrangement of this kind:—
I. The Statement of God’s perfect knowledge of man (Psa_139:1-6).
II. The Proof of God’s perfect knowledge of man. This is drawn from—
1. His Omnipresence (Psa_139:7-12);
2. His Creatorship (Psa_139:13-16).
III. The Effect of this knowledge upon the godly man.
1. A deep impression of intellectual limitation (Psa_139:6);
2. An inspiration to celebrate His praise (Psa_139:14).
IV. The Practical uses of this great truth.
THE PRECIOUSNESS AND NUMBER OF GOD’S THOUGHTS
(Psa_139:17-18)
In forming so wonderful a being as man there must have been much thought. Many thoughts and deep are embodied in man. Yet man is only a small portion of the creation of God. Looking at the universe as an embodiment of Divine ideas, we are almost overwhelmed at the number, profundity, and preciousness of God’s thoughts. The thoughts of a being indicate his character. “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.” But in order to be known, thoughts must be expressed. Men express their thoughts by means of speech, writing, and action. Action is embodied thought. God has unfolded some of His thoughts. What a revelation of wisdom, goodness, beauty we have in the universe! God’s thoughts in relation to the human race as sinners are expressed in the Bible. Jesus Christ is a Revelation and Revealer of the thoughts of God. What purity, tenderness, love, righteousness, majesty shine forth in Him! David rejoiced in God’s thoughts. We have more of His thoughts and more precious ones than David had; how much more then should we rejoice! Consider—
I. The preciousness of God’s thoughts. “How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God.” God’s thoughts are precious—
1. Because of their originality. If a man be the originator of some new and useful process or machine, or the author of a clever or able book, he is honoured as a genius and a benefactor of the race. But absolute originality is not in man. The most original thinkers can only make new groupings of old ideas, or bring old thoughts into new associations and applications. But God’s thoughts are absolutely original. The astonishing ideas of the moral restoration of man and the mode of effecting it are God’s own original thoughts. There is originality in God’s thoughts in nature, in the superintendence of human affairs, and in the great redemptive plan and work.
2. Because of their moral excellence. Distinguish between great thoughts and good ones. The devil is a great thinker, but his thoughts are not precious. Thoughts must be good to be precious. God’s thoughts combine the highest intellectual power with supreme moral excellence. All the ideas of the Divine Mind that have been revealed are perfectly true, righteous, and beautiful.
3. Because of their practicableness and utility. Amongst men there are many original and morally excellent thinkers whose ideas are utterly impracticable—they will not work. But God’s thoughts are all practicable. See this in nature, in history, in redemption. Ultimately His every plan will be fully developed, His every thought perfectly embodied. His ideas are useful in themselves, and they stimulate others to usefulness. They arouse men to thought and action.
4. Because of their influence upon our thoughts. God’s thoughts quicken ours. See how His thoughts in the Bible have stimulated the minds of men. Poets and artists have obtained from it their grandest subjects and their mightiest and holiest inspirations. Nature and the Bible are of exhaustless significance. They are replete with germs of thought. God’s thoughts correct ours. Without the thoughts of God ours would be wild, chaotic, conflicting. Our ideas of God, the soul, truth, &c., are regulated by the revealed thoughts of God.
5. Because of their generosity. Forgiveness for the guilty, holiness for the depraved, rest for the weary—these are some of His thoughts. “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil.” “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
II. The number of God’s thoughts.
“How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.” Many of His thoughts are revealed, and we see them. Many others may be revealed, but we have not yet the capacity to perceive them. And many more may be revealed by Him in the future. His mind is infinite, ever active, ever productive, ever revealing. His thoughts are not only multitudinous in number, but profound in meaning. In our present state we have neither the time, the facilities, nor the capacity fully to number and comprehend the thoughts of God. But in the future, with quickened faculties, increased facilities, and everlasting existence, some of the great thoughts of God will probably be perceived in their completeness by us. “Now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face,” &c. If one of God’s ideas is so precious as that of redemption is, how infinitely valuable must be the whole of His thoughts! “Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward,” &c.
III. The realisation of God’s presence. “When I awake, I am still with Thee.” “As often as he awakes from sleep, he finds that he is again in the presence of God, again occupied with thoughts of God, again meditating afresh with new wonder and admiration on His wisdom and goodness.”—Perowne. The poet had an abiding sense of the presence of God with him, which was a comfort, and refreshment, and strength to his soul.
CONCLUSION.—
1. Endeavour to understand God’s thoughts. Examine them, meditate upon them as you find them in nature, the Bible, and Christ.
2. Rejoice in the preciousness of God’s thoughts. Rejoice in them notwithstanding that many of them are mysterious, and perhaps even painful at present. David said, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,” &c. Yet he rejoiced. His thoughts may be too great for us, yet they are all wise and kind. Think of a few of His thoughts. Here is one of His thoughts for the guilty: “Let the wicked forsake his way,” &c. (Isa_55:7). For the suffering: “Our light affliction which is but for a moment,” &c. (2Co_4:17-18). For the perplexed: “In all thy ways acknowledge Him,” &c. (Pro_3:6). For the bereaved: “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,” &c. (1Th_4:13-14).
3. Seek to become embodiments of God’s thoughts. Live them.
THE POET’S VIEW OF THE WICKED
(Psa_139:19-22)
“How strangely abrupt,” remarks Perowne, “is the turning aside from one of the sublimest contemplations to be found anywhere in the Bible, to express a hope that righteous vengeance will overtake the wicked. Such a passage is startling—startling partly because the spirit of the New Testament is so different; partly too, no doubt, because ‘our modern civilisation has been so schooled in amenities’ that we hardly know what is meant by a righteous indignation. It is well, however, to notice the fact, for this is just one of those passages which help us to understand the education of the world. Just because it startles us is it so instructive. The 63d Psalm presents us with a similar contrast. There, however, the feeling expressed is of a more directly personal kind. David is encompassed and hard pressed by enemies who are threatening his life. He has been driven from his throne by rebels, and the deep sense of wrong makes him burst forth in the strain of indignation and of anticipated victory. ‘They that seek my life to destroy it shall be cast into the pit,’ &c. Here, apparently, the prayer for the overthrow of the wicked does not arise from a sense of wrong and personal danger, but from the intense hatred of wickedness as wickedness, from the deep conviction that, if hateful to a true-hearted man, it must be still more intensely hateful to Him who searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins. The soul, in the immediate presence of God, places itself on the side of God, against all that is opposed to Him. Still, the prayer, ‘Oh that Thou wouldest slay the wicked,’ can never be a Christian prayer.”
I. The character of the wicked described. They are—
1. Cruel. “Bloody men.” Perowne: “Bloodthirsty men.” (Comp. Psa_5:6; Psa_26:9; Psa_55:23.)
2. Rebellious. “They speak against Thee wickedly.… Those that rise up against Thee.” Wicked men rebel against the most righteous and benevolent authority.
3. Enemies of God. “Them that hate Thee.” It is a terrible thing to hate a Being of infinite wisdom and truth, righteousness and love. Men may, and sometimes do, grow so wicked that they hate the God whose holy law condemns them.
II. The end of the wicked predicted. “Surely Thou wilt slay the wicked, O God.” We may interpret this in three ways.
1. As expressing the assurance of the Psalmist that God would destroy the wicked, that he would “slay” them, bring them to an utter end. Or,
2. As expressing the assurance of the Psalmist that God would severely punish the wicked. He might perhaps have used the word “slay” figuratively, to denote the punishment which would be inflicted on cruel and rebellious haters of the Lord. Or,
3. May we not say that God will “slay the wicked” by slaying their wickedness? You destroy an enemy when you make him your friend. “He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.”
III. The companionship of the wicked avoided. “Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.” The Psalmist seeks to separate himself from the workers of iniquity. He is moved to this by—
1. Desire for his own safety. Dark and threatening are the prospects of evildoers, and therefore David shunned association with them (Psa_139:19).
2. Sympathy with God. “Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee?” &c. The man who sincerely loves God will find the society of the wicked repugnant to him.
3. The influence of divergent characters. “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
CONCLUSION.—“Let the wicked forsake his way,” &c. (Isa_55:7). “As I live, saith the Lord God,” &c. (Eze_33:11).
A PRAYER OF THE UPRIGHT
(Psa_139:23-24)
We have here—
I. A request for Divine examination. “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts.” This request implies—
1. Consciousness of sincerity. It is not the request of one who was ignorant of his true character and inflated with presumption, but of one who was conscious of his freedom from hypocrisy and of his integrity of heart. To make an appeal like this unto the great Searcher of hearts a man must be thoroughly conscious of his own sincerity, or must have fallen very low indeed.
2. Distrust of self. David felt his liability to error, and to self-deception, and therefore he appealed to the Omniscient and the Infallible.
3. Confidence in God. We would not that our heart should be completely exposed, that all our thoughts should be fully revealed even to our most trusted friend. “That man,” says Calvin, “must have a rare confidence who offers himself so boldly to the scrutiny of God’s righteous judgment.” There are many things we would not disclose to any fellow-creature, and yet we are thankful that God knows them. This thought is beautifully expressed in Keble’s Hymn for the “Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.”
II. A desire for entire freedom from evil. This seems to be implied in the request, “and see if there be any wicked way in me.” The poet was not aware of any wicked way in him. But if any evil tendency or way had escaped his scrutiny, it could not escape that of God. And if God discovered such, the clearly implied desire of the Psalmist was that he might be delivered from it. “Any wicked way.” Margin: “Way of pain or grief.” “The way of pain is the way which leads to pain.” The wicked man causes pain. Fürst says that the idea here is the way of “affliction, injury which one causes.” The wicked man suffers pain. “The way of transgressors is hard.” David wishes to be free from every evil way. One unguarded entrance to the beleagured city may admit the invading hosts; one wicked way may ruin a soul.
III. A request for Divine guidance in the way of righteousness. “Lead me in the way everlasting.” “The one true abiding way which leads to the true and everlasting God.” “The way which leads to everlasting life.” “The way which leads to the blessed eternity.” “The way everlasting” is in contrast to “the way of pain.” The one leads to misery; the other leads to joy. Here are two points—
1. Man’s need of guidance. David felt this. We are exposed to temptation, prone to go astray, &c.
2. Man’s infallible Guide. David sought the Divine lead. The Lord is perfectly acquainted with both the traveller and the way.
“Lead us, O Father, in the paths of right;
Blindly we stumble when we walk alone,
Involved in shadows of a darksome night,
Only with Thee we journey safely on.
“Lead us, O Father, to Thy heavenly rest,
However rough and steep the path may be,
Through joy or sorrow, as Thou deemest best,
Until our lives are perfected in Thee.”
—W. H. Burleigh.
A NEEDFUL PRAYER
(Psa_139:23-24)
This is a very honest prayer—a very practical prayer. The text before us is a very personal text. “Search me, O God, and know my heart,” &c. We will consider—
I. The need there is for such a prayer as this. You have not to travel far to find out the need for such a prayer. You have but to look within,—to consider the motives and the thoughts and the desires and the purposes which are continually working within your own hearts, and you will find out, if you be honest, the need for such a prayer as this. There may be some amongst you who know that you are cherishing sin in the heart, and who have no desire to part with it. Does not that prove the necessity for such a prayer as this, that God would search your heart, and make you so feel your need of repentance and of a Saviour that you might forsake that sin this very night?
But the prayer is rather the prayer of a true servant of God. There may exist in the heart of a genuine Christian much undetected evil. A conviction of the omniscience and omnipresence of God is quite consistent with the presence of evil in the heart. We have no grander description of those great attributes of Jehovah than in this Psalm; and yet the Psalmist recognised the possibility that evil was lurking within. A conviction of the evil of sin, a deep abhorrence of iniquity, is quite consistent with the presence of evil in the soul.… Again, a deep sense of our acceptance in Christ, of our reconciliation to God, of our pardon, and of our blessedness in Christ, is consistent with the presence of evil in the heart. Our acceptance in Christ does not destroy the old nature. That nature remains, and shall be destroyed, but not yet. Once more. We may say also, that an earnest purpose and determination to get rid of all evil is consistent with its presence. The man of God longs for the complete deliverance which shall be the perfect answer to the prayer before us. There is need, then, for such a prayer as this.
II. The manner in which such a prayer as this receives its answer. Let us be well assured that God knows the heart. But the question is, How does God make that known to us which is known so perfectly to Him? How does God search the heart? Take an illustration. After David’s great fall, sin certainly was in his heart. For months, apparently, he lived without confession and without forgiveness.… (See 2Sa_12:1-14.) “Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord God.” It was God’s authoritative word that brought conviction,—which revealed and detected the evil. David confessed his sin, was pardoned, and restored. Peter denied his Lord, &c. “And Peter remembered the word,” &c. (Mat_26:75). That word searched him, and he went forth and wept bitterly. The Word, then, is that instrument which the Lord God uses to search the depths of the human heart; and bringing home that Word by the power of the Spirit, He reveals the sinner to himself, and so teaches him his need of repentance.
There is no one present who has not a history. There are facts in every life, perhaps, which we would not tell to those nearest and dearest to us. There have been sins cherished in the heart, if not practised in the life. There are secrets unrevealed, scarcely, perhaps, remembered, seldom dwelt upon; but there is a history in each one of us. Now, the Word of God has a wonderful power of fastening upon some critical point in that history, so as to detect the evil—to lay bare the secret—to drag it out, as it were, into light, and, letting the light of truth shine in upon it, to lead the man to know himself. Take, for example, the secret of sin. Illustration: Our Lord and the woman of Samaria (Joh_4:1-42).
Or, again, a case the very opposite to the woman of Samaria, a man upright, moral, devout, religious, learned, admired, honoured, respected. You have it in Nicodemus; and how does the Lord meet that man’s conscience? (Joh_3:1-13). Or one who was wedded to one particular idol, though all the rest of his life was fair and good and upright (Mat_19:16-22). And would you have an example of one who was upright, who feared God, and who eschewed evil, and who yet was brought to confess that he was a grievous sinner? You have it in the well-known case of the patriarch Job.… And how are those convictions wrought? By the suspicious silence of his friends? No. By the blunt and open charges of those same friends? No. By the wiser counsel and the more truthful accusations of Elihu? No; but by the solemn word of Jehovah, &c. (Job 38-41). And what is the result? (Job_40:3-6; Job_42:5-6).
There are probably few Christians present who do not feel the pointed application of these words to their own hearts. You know that there is evil lying within. What you want to know is how to get rid of that evil. You must get rid of the evil within by the application of the very same principle of faith as that by means of which you have become established in Christ. We are justified by faith; we are sanctified by faith in the Lord Jesus.—Sir Emilius Bayley.
THE WICKED WAY WITHIN US, AND THE PRAYER PREFERRED
(Psa_139:24)—”See if there be any wicked way in me.”
This a beautiful and impressive prayer for the commencement of every day.
It is, also, a great sentiment to admonish us at the beginning or close of each day.
“The law of sin in our members,” warring against the law of truth, of holiness, and of God, is still very powerful, and often very painfully exemplified.
There is the way of unbelief within, to which we are very prone.
There is the way of vanity and pride, to which we often accustom ourselves—vain of something in connection with the body, the accomplishments of the mind, &c. And then how frequently we show a proud and inflated spirit, instead of the temper of deep humility.
There is the way of selfishness in which we frequently walk. We are sometimes quite absorbed in considerations which relate only to our personal advancement or happiness.
There is the way of worldliness we often pursue. The empty pleasures, the shadowy honours, &c.
There is the way of sluggishness, by which we are often marked, and in connection with which we are sadly injured. What apathy in prayer, in the examination and application of God’s Word, we manifest!
There is the way of self-dependence, by which we often dishonour God and injure ourselves. There is not simple, unhesitating, unbroken reliance on the perfect work, the infinite merits of our Divine Redeemer always unfolded, which we are bound invariably to exercise.
There is, unhappily, the way of disobedience in which we often walk. At any rate, our obedience is cold, reluctant, uncertain—not distinguished by its simplicity, its entireness, its fervency.
Now, each of the “ways” to which reference has been made is radically unsound, radically bad,—to every one of which we are individually prone, and from which we require to be delivered.
How necessary is it, then, to go to God at once, and, with the utmost earnestness, to prefer the petition, “Lord, see if there be any wicked way in me.” Anything dark to enlighten, anything erroneous to correct, anything injurious to remove, anything degrading to elevate, anything impure to cleanse, anything deadening to quicken. Let nothing that is wrong, that is opposed to Thy character, repugnant to Thy Word, or injurious and debasing to ourselves, remain, or be harboured within us.
Can anything be more consistent than this? Anything be wiser than this? Can any prayer issue in a larger, richer, or more abiding blessing?
Let us remember that if there be what is holy within, there will be nothing that is unholy without; if there be irregularity within, there must be irregularity and confusion without. If the heart be unsound, the life must inevitably be unsound also.
Can you prefer, with the utmost sincerity, this fine prayer?—T. Wallace.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Psa 139:1-2
Psa 139:1-2
I. Deep indeed and mysterious, far beyond what we can understand, are our own ordinary sleeping and waking; we know not how it is that the soothing quietness which we call sleep steals over the soul and body, nor how the two wake together and begin to act as before. Our sleeping and our waking are beyond our own knowledge and our own power; God keeps both in His own hand. And if our ordinary taking of rest in sleep and rousing up to our work again—if these are so strange and mysterious, how much more the death and resurrection of our Lord, His slumber on the Cross and His wakening out of the grave.
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II. We know not concerning other men’s death and resurrection; and what is still more awful to each one of us, and comes nearer home to our hearts, we know not, every one for himself, what manner of death and resurrection our own will be. We know not, but God knoweth all. Let us trust Him without asking questions, as little children trust their parents. Surely He has power to order all for our good; else how could He raise Himself again, and in His human soul and body ascend into heaven, and there sit down at the right hand of the Father, all power being given unto Him in heaven and in earth?
J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Easter to Ascension Day, p. 97.
References: Psa 139:1, Psa 139:2.—W. M.Taylor, Preacher’s Monthly; vol. iii., p. 32; J. W. Gleadall, Church Sermons, vol. i., p. 27.
Psa 139:1-3
The fact that God is always present and knows every minute trifle in our lives, and that His unerring judgment will assuredly take count of every detail of our character and conduct, neither exaggerating nor omitting, but applying absolute justice—this truth is one of those which lose force from their very universality. That we should be so little checked, so little awed, in the course of our daily lives, by this perpetual and awful Presence; that we should know God to be looking at every motion and every impulse, and should be so unmoved; that we should do so many things before God’s face which the opening of a door and the entrance of a fellow-creature would instantly stop—this is an instance of that weakness of faith which proves the fall of man.
I. There is no need to exaggerate in this matter. We may recognise to the full that it is a part of God’s own ordinance that we should be, as it were, unconscious of His presence during the greater part of every day of our lives. But that which is quite peculiar in this case is the nature of the forgetfulness. In the presence of father or of mother, or of any one else for whom you care, though you forget, yet the slightest real temptation, still more the slightest open sin, is sure to put you instantly in remembrance. Now I fear there is no such perpetual readiness in us to remember the presence of God. We forget His presence in the absorption of our daily employments and amusements; and forgetting it, we approach some sin which we know that He has forbidden. But our approach to the forbidden path rarely puts us in mind of the awful eye that is ever silently marking our steps. This is a veil which the devil puts before our eyes. It is the blindness of our fallen state.
II. The right state of mind plainly is to have the thought of God’s presence so perpetually at hand, that it shall always start before us whenever it is wanted. (1) This perpetual, though not always conscious, sense of God’s presence would, no doubt, if we would let it have its perfect work, gradually act on our characters just as the presence of our fellow-men does. (2) This habit, beyond all others, strengthens our faith.
Bishop Temple, Rugby Sermons, 1st series, p. 178.
References: Psa 139:1-12.—F. Tholuck, Hours of Devotion, p. 110; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 83; E. W. Shalders, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 328. Psa 139:5.—G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 70; C. S. Robinson, Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 73. Psa 139:7.—A. P. Peabody, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 118. Psa 139:7-10.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 10. Psa 139:9.—A. P. Stanley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 257.
Psa 139:7
I. God is in all modes of personal existence. These are all covered by the contrast between heaven and hell, than which no words would suggest a completer contrast to every thoughtful Hebrew.
II. God’s presence is in the yet untrodden ways of human history. There came sometimes to the untravelled Israelites a perception that the world was very large. The ninth verse of this Psalm gives us an image of the Psalmist, standing by the sea-shore, watching as the rising sun broadens the horizon, and brings into view an islet here and there, which, by catching the sight, serves but to lengthen still more the indefinite expanse beyond. The fancy is suggested, half of longing, half of dread, What would it be to fly until he reached the point where now the furthest ray is resting, to gaze upon a sea still shoreless or to land in an unknown region and find himself a solitary there? But he is not daunted by the vision; one Presence would still be with him. Vast as the world is, it is contained within the vaster God. In a similar mood of not wholly barren dreaming we sometimes look out over the boundless possibilities of human life. Amid all possibilities one thing is sure: go where we may, go the world how it may, we shall find the ever-present God.
III. God’s presence is in the perplexities of our experience. The untrodden ways of life are not the only, nor even the principal, obscurities in life; there are incidents in man’s experience which seem only the more perplexing the more we know of them. There is the mystery of pain, and that strange fluctuation of spiritual emotion which pain often brings; there are the complications of human relations, in which the saintliest seem often the victims of the basest or the sacrifices for the sins of others; there are the conflicts of noble affections, of the purpose of patience with the impulse of indignation, of our love of men in its pleadings against the fear of God. It is by perceiving the fruitful issues of perplexity in our experience that we gain the confidence that God is in the discipline, its Author and Controller. He who believes in God enters into rest; a large faith means a repose which cannot be shaken.
A. Mackennal, Sermons from a Sick-room, p. 85.
Psa 139:11
I. There is the darkness of perplexity. If ever it be worth while to think over what have been our most unhappy moments, we shall find that they have been those when our mind was divided. The language of our hearts at such a time would be, "Lord, give me light; make Thy way plain before my face." But then another Scripture saith—and brings surely the same answer of peace—"The darkness is no darkness to Thee. The darkness and light to Thee are both alike."
II. There is the darkness of shame after relapse into sin. There is scarcely anything so paralysing to the energies of a young soul seeking after God as the sense of shame for sins renewed. But if we could believe the words in their spiritual meaning, "The darkness and light to Thee are both alike," surely we should gather fresh might from our defeat, and learn in the darkness of self-distrust the secret of final victory.
III. The darkness of gloomy, distressing thoughts. Across all the varied phrases which describe the different interpretations that men have put upon their own unrest lies the deep, abiding fact that the heart will have its hours of darkness. In the midst of joy we are in gloom. These are the hours or moments when we are tempted to be unbelievers. The "still, small voice" of conscience is inaudible; and the Lord is not in the gloom. Here again let us listen to the voice of the Psalmist, "The darkness is no darkness with Thee. The darkness and light to Thee are both alike." Once let us grasp the truth that God, who made the light, made the darkness also, and that He wishes us to feel alone that we may at last be alone with Him, from that moment the darkness lifts.
IV. The darkness of sorrow. The darkness and the light are both alike to God. Those dear friends who have gone down into darkness and silence are in light with God. Our darkness is no darkness to Him. Our night is His and their eternal day.
V. The darkness of religious doubt. Those who are tried by even the extreme shadow of this darkness, and groan under its chilly touch, need most of all cling to the central conviction that here too, where full faith is not, God is. "Even here shall His hand lead them, and His right hand shall hold them," if only they will not "cast away their confidence," nor place it anywhere but in Him.
H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons, 2nd series, p. 245.
References: Psa 139:13-24.—E. W. Shalders, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 360.
Psa 139:11
Consider sonic of the thoughts which press upon a mind conscious of its own wonderful nature. It perceives in part an evident likeness, and in part an equally marked unlikeness, to its Maker. (1) We know by instinct and by revelation that God has made us in part like to Himself; that is, immortal. (2) We learn that our nature stands in a marked contrast to the Divine; that the immortal nature which is within us is of a mutable kind, susceptible of the most searching changes.
I. Our immortal being is always changing, for good or evil, always becoming better or worse. All our life long, and in every stage of it, this process, which we vaguely call the formation of character, is going on. Our immortal nature is taking its stamp and colour; we are receiving and imprinting ineffaceable lines and features. As the will chooses, so the man is.
II. This continual change is also a continual approach to, or departure from, God. Heaven and hell are but the ultimate points of the diverging lines on which all are ever moving. The steady and changeless rise and fall of the everlasting lights is not more unerring. It is a moral movement, measured upon the boundaries of life and death.
III. Such as we become in this life by the moral change wrought in our immortal nature, such we shall be for ever. Our eternal state will be no more than the carrying out of what we are now. And if these things be so, with how much awe and fear have we need to deal with ourselves. (1) We must needs learn to keep a keen watch over our hearts. Every change that passes upon us has an eternal consequence; there is something ever flowing from it into eternity. (2) We have need not only to watch, but to keep up a strong habit of self-control. By its own continual acting, our fearful and wonderful inward nature is perpetually determining its own character. It has a power of self-determination, which to those who give over watching and self-control becomes soon unconscious, and at last involuntary.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. i., p. 47.
Psa 139:14
Let us observe some of the mysteries which are involved in our own nature.
I. We are made up of soul and body. Now if we did not know this so that we cannot deny it, what notion could our minds ever form of such a mixture of natures; and how should we ever succeed in making those who go only by abstract reason take in what we meant?
II. The soul is not only one, and without parts, but moreover, as if by a great contradiction even in terms, it is in every part of the body. It is nowhere, yet everywhere.
III. Consider what a strange state we are in when we dream, and how difficult it would be to convey to a person who had never dreamed what was meant by dreaming. These are a few out of the many remarks which might be made concerning our own mysterious state, but this is a very large subject. Let a man consider how hardly he is able and how circuitously he is forced to describe the commonest objects of nature, when he attempts to substitute reason for sight how difficult it is to define things, and he will not wonder at the impossibility of duly delineating in earthly words the First Cause of all thought, the Father of spirits, the one eternal Mind, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable, whom no man hath seen or can see, the incomprehensible, infinite God.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iv., p. 282.
References: Psa 139:14.—J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 321; E. A. Abbott, Sermons in Cambridge, pp. 1, 23, 49, Psa 139:17.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 121. Psa 139:17, Psa 139:18.—A. C. Price, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 171.
Psa 139:19-24
I. There is a peculiarity of expression in this Psalm which we certainly should not find in any Christian hymn, and one which cannot fail to strike us. What can be more remarkable than the contrast between the former part of the text and the sublime meditation which precedes? It startles us thus to be carried from thoughts of God’s omniscience and omnipresence and His superintending providence and watchful love into the midst of a conflict in which human passions are roused, to find their vent in strong invective. It is impossible to disguise the fact that there does run through the Psalter this spirit of intense hatred of wickedness and wicked men. In many instances, no doubt, the sense of wrong, and violence, and persecution stirs it into keener life. The psalmists are always in the minority, always on the weak side, humanly speaking. But they are profoundly convinced that their cause is right. They are sure that God is on their side. They hate evil with all their hearts, because they love God with all their hearts.
II. But now the question forces itself upon us, Are we justified ourselves in using these bitter and burning words? Is it right to pray, "Oh that Thou wouldest slay the wicked, O God"? Are these words in harmony with the Christian conscience? (1) It is quite plain that the general current of the Psalter, the strain and tone of feeling running through it, cannot be antagonistic to our Christian conscience, or the Christian Church throughout the world would not have adopted the Psalter as its perpetual book of devotion. Therefore, though there may be single expressions in the Psalter, imprecations and burning words, which are not suitable in Christian mouths, depend upon it that the whole strain of the Psalter, as sternly set against evil, is not opposed to the Christian conscience. (2) The New Testament is not so entirely opposed to the spirit and teaching of the Old on this point as is sometimes asserted. The chief difference lies here: (a) that in the New Testament we are taught to carry the endurance of wrong much further than was possible or conceivable before Jesus our Master set us an example that we should follow in His steps, and (b) that we are taught by Him and His Apostles what we are not taught distinctly by psalmists and prophets: to distinguish between the sinner and the sin, between the wickedness which a man does and the man himself; that we are to try and root out wickedness without rooting out the wicked from the earth; that, with the patience of God, we are to bear with the evil and seek to reform the evil, even whilst we long to see it come to an end. (3) We may not cherish a personal hatred; we may not seek for a personal vengeance. But it is our bounden duty to hate wickedness and wicked characters with all our hearts.
J. J. S. Perowne, Sermons, p. 68.
Psa 139:21
The Psalmist answers his own question: "Yea, I hate them right sore, even as though they were mine enemies." We should most of us reply quite differently. We should say, Hate them! We hate nothing. We try to obey Christ’s command, "Love thy neighbour as thyself." "There is a way which seemeth right to a man, but the end of it is the way of death." I believe that this plausible, self-complacent language of ours indicates that we are in exceeding danger of wandering into that dark road, if we are not walking in it already.
I. The force of the sentence evidently turns upon the word "Thee." David knew that there was a Divine Presence with him. When he clave to this righteous Judge and Lawgiver, when he acknowledged His guidance and desired that all the movements of his life should be ruled by Him, then did he himself, and his fellow-men, and the world around, come forth out of mist and shadow into the sunlight. Everything was seen in its true proportions.
II. David hated whatever rose up against righteousness and truth in the earth, whatever sought to set up a lie. He felt that there were deadly powers which were working deadly mischief in God’s world. In the inmost region of his being he had to encounter these principalities of spiritual wickedness. His hatred grew just in proportion to the degree in which he believed, trusted, delighted in, a Being of absolute purity and perfection.
III. Can it be that the blessing of our Christian profession consists in this, that we have acquired a patience of whatever hates God and rises up against Him, which David had not? Assuredly our Christian profession then does not mean the following the example of our Saviour Christ and being like Him. He was engaged in a conflict to blood against evil, in a death-struggle whether it should put out the light of the world or whether that light should prevail against it.
IV. Determine to hate that which rises up in you against God—that first, that chiefly—and you will hate, along with your indifference, cowardice, meanness, all your conceit of your own poor judgment, your dislike of opposition to it, your unwillingness to have your thoughts probed to the quick. And so with this hatred, deeply and inwardly cherished, will come the true, and not the imaginary, charity, the genuine, not the bastard, toleration.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. v., p. 309.
Psa 139:23-24
I. These words express an appeal to the omniscience of God in proof of the sincerity of the Psalmist’s love to Him. There is a frank affection and candour about the words to which the heart of our own personal experience readily corresponds. They breathe the quiet repose of one speaking in confidence to another whom he trusts, and whom he is authorised to trust.
II. The words express a single-hearted and undivided desire that nothing whatever may interpose between the soul and God, or interrupt the enjoyment of His presence. This second feeling is a necessary part of the first. Whatever there was in his heart, or in his thoughts, or in his manner and his conduct, displeasing to God, and which prevented his walking in the way of everlasting life—that the Psalmist was prepared to give up, holding nothing back. His prayer implies a desire for holiness at any cost of discipline and chastisement, a wish to learn the lesson even though it should be beneath the rod, to get nearer to God even though the path should tear him away from all he loved below.
E. Garbett, Experiences of the Inner Life, p. 106.
The blessedness of God’s thorough knowledge of us—this is the subject of our meditation.
I. Think, first, of the blessedness of God’s knowledge of our loyalty.
II. Think of the blessedness of God’s knowledge of our struggles.
III. Think of the blessedness of God’s thorough knowledge of our sins.
IV. Consider the power which every good resolve derives from the fact that we can make it known to God.
V. Notice the blessedness of the fact that He who knows us thoroughly is our Helper and Leader.
A. Mackennal, Christ’s Healing Touch, p. 45.
References: Psa 139:23, Psa 139:24.—J. Keble, Sermons from Lent to Passiontide, p. 253; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th series, p. 222; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 205. Psa 139:24.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv., No. 903; T. Wallace, Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 260. Psalm 139—P. Thomson, Expositor, 2nd. series, vol. i., p. 177; G. Matheson, Ibid., vol. iv., p. 356. Psa 140:12.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 310. Psa 141:2.—E. M. Goulburn, Thoughts on Personal Religion, p. 50. Psa 141:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii., No. 1049.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Manifest in the presence of God, with the moral…
Manifest in the presence of God, with the moral result of this.
To the chief musician, a psalm of David.
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The last verse of the previous psalm, as so often is the case, leads on to the psalm that follows it. We see in this how truly we are the work of God’s hands, and the marvelousness of this work; and this naturally leads further to the recognition that we are still in His hands, who made us, and who will not forsake His work. Thus under His eye, searched out in the light of His presence, we yet realize the blessedness of this, and find with Him our sanctuary-refuge from the evil in ourselves as elsewhere.
The psalm has a peculiar and elaborate structure,quite suited to the character of its contents: the regularity of it showing the perfect divine control of material, which belongs to the Creator of all. Its twenty-four verses are divided into four parts, -the number of testing, -each of six verses, the number of discipline and of mastery of evil; while each of these is again divided into three parts of two verses each, the numbers of manifestation and of witness together.
The first section speaks of Jehovah’s omniscience simply, as realized by one who is under the awe of it, -a fear which in the second section breaks out into the cry of one who would fain escape to the ends of the earth or into Sheol itself to be free from it, but knows well the impossibility of this. In the third section there is a change, however, and a tender thankfulness comes in with the thought of how in the very womb of his mother this omniscience had been exercised in building up in mysterious secrecy the marvelous structure of the future man. The preciousness of God’s thoughts toward him now take possession of him, and that, sleeping or waking, the unslumbering Eye is on him becomes only happiness. In the fourth section he is now with God against the evil manifested in the world, and from that which he fears and hates within himself, the presence of God becomes now his sanctuary-refuge. He invites the searching Eye which once he dreaded. But we must take up the psalm in detail.
1. The first section, as already said, speaks of Jehovah’s omniscience; the first two verses, as knowledge simply, though the Light never withdrawn searches all out. But in the next verses, He winnows the path, -an intimation of discriminating judgment which would imply, as result, thorough "acquaintance" or "familiarity" with all the ways. And the words are known altogether, -all that can be known of them. The third subsection speaks not simply of knowledge, but of action: "Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thy hand on me." He realizes, as well he may, this knowledge as too wonderful for him, -an unattainable height.
2. In the next section the three smaller divisions are similarly distinguishable. In the first, Spirit and presence are, I suppose,the same essentially, while heaven and hell -Sheol or hades, not Gehenna, -are wide asunder: it is omnipresence simply that is in question. In the next, it is relation to the Omnipresent, and that in dependence: the wings of the dawn and the uttermost parts of the sea convey the thought apparently of the utmost solitude; but "even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand hold me." In the third, exposure is what he cannot escape: darkness and light are relative only to man; for God there is no difference.
3. In the third section we come to that which is the full expression for the psalmist of that compassing about of man on God’s part,which at the same time shows fully the divine interest in him, and thus is the revelation to him of God, so as to bring him to fullness of delight in all His thoughts. As Christians we should not take up the mystery of our formation in the womb to assure ourselves of this; and that he does so shows us sufficiently the difference of the Old Testament standpoint. Christians are naturally, therefore, disposed to find in all this the typical presentation of Christian truths. But however this may do as application, the literal meaning must come first, and be the foundation of all other. It is true that this speaks to us only of the Creator, and leaves the question of sin unbottomed. Yet a soul that has realized redemption can and will come back to God’s creative thoughts, with fresh apprehension of the truth that He cannot "forsake the work of His own hands." And the question of sin being here left out, at least makes the whole matter proportionately simple.
"For Thou hast acquired my reins" is the keynote of what follows. "The reins" stand for the very innermost parts; and, according to the Old Testament, the deepest recesses of the mind: there where the fundamental moral questions are entertained and find solution, -the good is received and the evil rejected.* God is the Master here; Lord of the conscience, which continually reminds us of Him and summons before His judgment-seat; and He has acquired this right over us by the fact to which the psalmist now goes on; that He is our Maker: "Thou hast acquired my reins: Thou coveredst" -or, perhaps, "didst interweave me in my mother’s womb." Marvelous power it was that was at work there, and not idly, but with purpose and plan. "I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully, wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth well."
{*The reins or kidneys, as excretory organs, naturally speak of this and of such symbolism as far as possible from materialism -the Old Testament is full.}
He proceeds to speak of these marvels: of the bony framework upon which the flesh was supported; of the delicate embroidery of vessels and nerves ramifying through it; all this wrought in secret, in underparts of earth," -not the ground, surely, which would scarcely have been true of Adam, -but of that human substance which is but animated dust. He thinks of that wrapped up embryo, and of the sketched out plan; in which each part of that continually progressing organism had, before coming into being, its predestined place.
Surely for us, who know much more of these things than the psalmist, the wonder of them should not be less. To him they were a revelation of God’s thoughts toward him, -precious thoughts of divine wisdom and love, which when looked at in the sum; the final outcome of it all, it was great indeed; but if you took them up to look at them in detail, they were numberless as the grains of sand. And still, to the man wakened up out of the unconsciousness of his beginning, as he has been rehearsing it, this same God abides. Could he desire to have Him banished?
4. How awful, then; the condition of the wicked: strangers and enemies to Him who made them; necessarily devoted to death by the very Author of their life. The psalmist is in perfect accord with the divine sentence, and counts the enemies of God as enemies to himself. But he is not unconscious of his own malady; and the sanctity of God’s presence is not a refuge merely for him from the wickedness around. He seeks it as a refuge from himself also, and welcomes the light of it, as where sin cannot be hid. Search me," he cries, "O Mighty One,and know my heart; try me, and know my diverse" -literally, "branching" -"thoughts": all those to him perplexing entanglements of thought which God alone could unravel; "and see if there be any grievous way in me," -anything which is grievous to Thee: "and lead me in the way everlasting."
This is "truth in the inward parts" attained then; and God is become the one help and refuge of the soul: first of all, where we must surely begin; for itself. The setting aside of man must begin here in order to be truthful. But it does not end here, as manifestly the need of redemption is not yet recognized, and the world is not seen either in its true character. The experience of this section has room yet to deepen and widen in those that are to come.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v23 Psa 139:23 - Psa 139:24.
Psalms
GOD’S SCRUTINY LONGED FOR
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Psa 139:23 - Psa 139:24.
This psalm begins with perhaps the grandest contemplation of the divine Omniscience that was ever put into words. It is easy to pour out platitudes upon such a subject, but the Psalmist does not content himself with generalities. He gathers all the rays, as it were, into one burning point, and focusses them upon himself: ‘Oh, Lord! Thou hast searched me, and known me.’ All the more remarkable, then, is it that the psalm should end with asking God to do what it began with declaring that He does. He knows us each, altogether; whether we like it or not, whether we try to hinder it or not, whether we remember it or not. Singular, therefore, is it to find this prayer as the very climax of all the Psalmist’s contemplation. It is more than the ‘searching’ which was spoken of at the beginning, which is desired at the end. It is a process which has for its issue the cleansing of all the evil that is beheld. The prayer of the text is in fact the yearning of the devout soul for purity. I simply wish to consider the series of petitions here, in the hope that we may catch something of their spirit, and that some faint echo of them may sound in our desires. My purpose, then, will be best accomplished if I follow the words of the text, and look at these petitions in the order in which they stand.
I. Note then, first, the longing for the searching of God’s eye.
Now, the word which is here rendered ‘search’ is a very emphatic and picturesque one. It means to dig deep. God is prayed, as it were, to make a cutting into the man, and lay bare his inmost nature, as men do in a railway cutting, layer after layer, going ever deeper down till the bed-rock is reached. ‘Search me’-dig into me, bring the deep-lying parts to light-’and know my heart’; the centre of my personality, my inmost self. That is the prayer, not of fancied fitness to stand investigation, but of lowly acknowledgment. In other words, it is really a form of confession. ‘Search me. I know Thou wilt find evil, but still-search me!’ It seems to me that there are two main ideas in this petition, on each of which I touch briefly.
One is, that it is a glad recognition of a fact which is very terrible to many hearts. The conception of God as ‘knowing me altogether,’ down to the very roots of my being, is either the most blessed or the most unwelcome thought, according to my conception of what His heart to me is. If I think of Him, as so many of us do, as simply the ‘austere man’ who ‘gathers where he did not straw,’ and ‘reaps where he did not sow’; if my thought of God is mainly that of an Investigator and a Judge, with pure eyes and rigid judgment, then I shall be more ignorant of myself, and more confident in myself, than the most of men are when they bethink themselves, if I do not feel that I shrink up like a sensitive plant’s leaf when a finger touches it, and would fain curl myself together, and hide from His eye something that I know lurks and poisons at the centre of my being.
The gaoler’s eye at the slit in the wall of the solitary prisoner’s cell is a constant terror to the man who knows that it may be upon him at every moment, and does not know where the eyehole is, or when the merciless eye may be at it, but if we love one another we do not shrink from opening out our inward baseness to each other. We can venture to tell those that are dear to us as our own hearts the things that lie in our own hearts and make them black and ugly in all eyes but love’s; or if we cannot venture to do it wholly, at all events we do it more fully, and more willingly, and with more of something that is almost pleasure in the very act of confession, in proportion as we are bound by the sacred ties of love to the recipient of the confession. There is a joy, and a blessedness deeper than joy, in discovering ourselves, even our unworthy selves, when we know that the eye that looks is a loving eye.
If, then, we have rightly conceived of our relation to Him, that infinite Lover of all our hearts, who looks, ‘with other eyes than ours, and makes allowance for us all,’ there will be a certain blessedness, almost like joy, in turning ourselves inside out before Him; and in feeling that every corner of our hearts lies naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. ‘Search me, O God!’ is the voice of confident love, which is sure of the love that contemplates the sinner.
And for us Christian people, to whom all these attributes of Deity are gathered together and brought very near our hearts and our experiences in the person of our Brother Christ, the thought of such knowledge of us becomes still more blessed. Just as the Apostle who was conscious of many sins, could say to his Master, not in petulance, but in deeply-moved confidence, ‘Thou knowest all things! Why dost Thou ask me questions? Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest, notwithstanding my denials, that I love Thee,’ so may we turn to Jesus Christ, who knows what is in men, and who knows each man, and may be sure that the eye which looks upon our unworthiness pities our sinfulness, and is ready to bear it all away. There is a deeper gladness in pouring out our hearts to our loving Lord than in locking them in sullen silence, with the vain conceit that we thereby hide ourselves from Him. Make a clean breast of your evil, and you will find that the act has in it a blessedness all unique and poignant. ‘Pour out your hearts before Him, O ye people! God is a refuge for us.’
This prayer is also an expression of absolute willingness to submit to the searching process. God is represented in my text as searching the secrets of a man’s heart, not that God may know, but that the man may know. By His Spirit He will come into the innermost corners of our nature, if this prayer is a real expression of our desire, and there the illumination of His presence will flash light into all the dark places of our experience and of our natures. We cannot afford to be in ignorance of these. Pestilence breathes in the unventilated, unlighted, uncleansed recesses of a neglected nature. It is only on condition of the light of God’s convincing Spirit being cast into every part of our being that we shall be able to overcome and annihilate the creeping swarms of microscopic sins that are there, minute but mighty in their myriads to destroy a man’s soul. ‘Search me’ is the expression of a penitence that knows itself to be full of evil, that does not know all the evil of which it is full, that needs enlightenment, that desires deliverance, that is sure of the love that looks, and that so spreads itself, as a bleacher spreads some piece of stained cloth in the gracious sunshine and sprinkles it with the pure water of heaven that all the stains may melt away.
It is useless to ask God to search us if we lock our hearts against His searching. The mere natural exercise, if I may so say, of the divine attribute of Omniscience we cannot hinder. He knows us thereby altogether, whether we like it or not; but the ‘searching’ of my text is one which He cannot put in force without our consent. We have to confess our sins unto the Lord ere this kind of divine scrutiny can be brought to bear. By His natural Omniscience, He knows them altogether, but the seeing which is preparatory to destroying them depends on our willingness to submit ourselves to the often painful process by which He drags our sins to light. Do you want Him to come and search your hearts, and tell you in your spirits what He has found there? Do you desire to know your hidden evil? Then keep close to Him, and tell Him what the sin is which you know to be sin; and ask Him to show you what the sins are which, as yet, you have not grown up to the height of understanding and acknowledging.
II. Next, there follows the longing for the divine testing of our thoughts.
Now you will have observed, I suppose, that in the second clause of my text, ‘try me, and know my thoughts’ the result of the investigation is somewhat different from that of the previous clause. The ‘searching’ issued in a divine knowledge of the heart; the ‘trying,’ or testing, issues in a divine knowledge of the thoughts. The distinction between these two, in the Biblical use of the expressions, is not precisely the same as in our modern popular speech. We are accustomed to talk of the heart as being the seat of emotions, affections, feelings, whereas we relegate thoughts to the head. But Scripture does not quite take that metaphorical view. In it the heart is the centre of personal being, and out of it there come, not only emotions and loves, but ‘thoughts and intents.’ The difference, then, between these two, ‘heart’ and ‘thoughts’ is this, the one is the workshop and the other is the product. The heart is the place where the thoughts are elaborated. So you see the process of the Psalmist’s prayer is from the centre a little outwards, first the inmost self, and then the ‘thoughts,’ meaning thereby the whole web of activities, both intellectual and emotional, of which the heart, in his sense of the word, is the seat and source. In like manner as the field of investigation is somewhat shifted in the second petition, so the manner of investigation is correspondingly different. ‘Search’ is the divine scrutiny of the inner man by the eye; ‘test’ is the trial as metals are tried and proved by the fiery furnace.
So, then, the innermost man is searched by the divine knowledge, and the thoughts which the innermost man produces are tested by the divine providence. And our second petition is for a trial by facts, by external agencies, of the true nature and character of the purposes, desires, designs, intentions, as well as of the affections and loves and joys. That is to say, this second prayer submits absolutely to any discipline, fiery and fierce and bitter, by which the true character of a man’s activities may be made clear to himself. Oh! it is a prayer easily offered; hard to stand by. It is a prayer often answered in ways that drive us almost to despair. It means, ‘Do anything with me, put me into any seven-fold heated furnace of sorrow, do anything that will melt my hardness, and run off my dross, which Thy great ladle will then skim away, that the surface may be clear, and the substance without alloy.’
Do you pray that prayer, brother! knowing all that it means, and being willing to take the answer, in forms that may rack your heart, and sadden your whole lives? If you are wise, you will. Better to go crippled into life than, ‘having two hands or two feet, to be cast into hell fire’! Better to be saved though maimed, than to be entire and lost.
‘Try me.’ It is an awful prayer. Let us not offer it lightly, or unadvisedly; but if we are wise let it be our inmost desire. And when the answer comes, and sorrows fall, do not let us murmur, do not let us kick, do not let us wonder, but let us say, ‘Thou art a God that hearest prayer,’ and ‘I will glorify God in the fires.’ Then ‘the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, shall be found unto praise and honour and glory.’
III. The next petition of my text is a longing for the casting out of evil.
‘See if there be any wicked way in me.’ Now, that if is not the ‘if’ of doubt whether any such ‘ways’ are in the man, but it is the ‘if’ of consciousness that there are such, though what they are he may not clearly discern. And so, it is the ‘if’ of humility-knowing that he is not justified because he knows nothing against himself-and not the ‘if’ of presumption.
I have only time to observe here, in a word or two, what would well deserve more expanded treatment, and that is, the very striking and significant expression here employed for this evil way that the Psalmist desires to be detected, that it may be cast out. The word rendered ‘wicked’-or more properly, wickedness-is literally ‘forced labour,’ which was, in old times, and still is in some countries, laid upon the inhabitants at the command of authority; and then, because forced labour is grievous labour, it comes to mean sorrow. So the ‘way of wickedness’ that the Psalmist feels is in him is the way of compulsory service, and the way that leads to sorrow. That is to say, all sin is slavery, and all sin leads to a bitter and a bad end, and its fruit is death. And so, because the man feels that his better self is in bondage, and shudderingly apprehends that the courses which he pursues can only end in bitterness and misery, he turns to God and asks Him that He would enlighten him as to what these fatal courses are. ‘See if there be any way of wickedness in me,’ because he is quite sure that the evil which God sees, God will help him to overcome.
Ah, friends! we all have such ways deeply lodged within us, and we do not always know that we have; but if we will turn ourselves to Him, He will prevent our ‘condemning ourselves in things that we allow’ and increasing the sensitiveness of our consciences, He will teach us that many things that we did not know to be wrong are harmful.
As soon as we learn that they are, He will help us to cast them out. God has nothing to do with our evil but to fight against it. Be sure of this, that whatsoever evil in us He thus searches and shows us. He does so in order to fling it from us. He goes down into the cellars of our hearts, with the candle of His Spirit in His hand, in order that He may lay hold of all the explosives there, and having drenched them so that they shall not catch fire, may cast them clean out so that they may not blow us to destruction.
IV. The last petition of my text is for guidance in ‘the everlasting way.’
The ‘ways of wickedness’ are in us; the ‘way everlasting’ we need to be led into. That is to say, naturally we incline to evil; it must be the divine hand and the divine Spirit that lead our feet in the paths of righteousness. When we ask Him to ‘guide us in the way everlasting,’ we ask that we may know what is duty, and that we may incline to do it. And He answers it by the gift of His divine Spirit, by the quickening of our consciences, by bringing nearer to our hearts the great Example who has left us His footsteps as a legacy that we may tread in them.
Whosoever walks in Christ’s footsteps is walking in ‘the way everlasting,’ for that path is rightly so named which leads to eternal blessedness. It is everlasting, too, inasmuch as nothing of human effort or work abides except that which is in conformity with the will of God, and inasmuch as it, and it alone, is not broken short off by death, but runs, borne upon one mighty arch that spans the gorge, clean across the black abyss, and continues straight on in the same course, only with a swifter upward gradient, through all the ages of eternity. The man who here has lived for God will live yonder as he has lived here, only more completely and more joyously for ever. ‘A highway shall be there, and a way, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 One of the very greatest of the Pss. No…
One of the very greatest of the Pss. No grander tribute has ever been paid to the omniscience and omnipresence of God. The Ps. is ascribed to David, but the Hebrew is decisive in favour of a date very long after David, being marked by Aramaisms.
1-6. God's omniscience.
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7-12. God's omnipresence.
13-18. God's wonderful providence in human life.
19-22. God's hatred of sin.
23, 24. A prayer that the Psalmist may be cleansed from all evil.
3. Compassest] RM 'winnowest,' i.e. scrutinisest.
5. Beset] surround, influence.
6. High] the word means 'inaccessible': cp. Deu_2:36.
8. Hell] RV 'Sheol,' i.e. the under-world.
9. The wings of the morning] i.e. follow the first rays of dawn which stretch like outspread wings to the far horizon. Uttermost parts of the sea] i.e. the West—Mediterranean.
11. If I say] The text has,' and I said.' Cover] some, with slight change, render 'screen me,' and this is evidently the thought of the Psalmist. Even the night, etc.] RV 'and the light about me shall be night'—a parallel to previous clause.
13. Possessed] rather, 'formed,' or 'created.'
Reins] the kidneys, seat of thought, feeling, etc., according to Hebrew belief. Covered me] rather, 'woven me together,' like a piece of cloth, with bones, sinews, muscles, etc., cp. Job_10:11.
15. In the lowest parts of the earth] Probably the writer is speaking poetically of the mysterious origin of a human personality in the womb.
16. A most obscure verse. 'Thine eyes beheld my' (yet) 'unformed substance, and in thy book were they all written,' (even) 'the days which were preordained when as yet there was none of them.' The Psalmist himself, all his days, and all their happenings, were in the mind of God before he was born.
18. I am still with thee] either, 'my thoughts still go out to thee and thy wonders,' or, 'I am still in thy thought as an object of care and love.'
19. Surely thou wilt] RM 'O that thou wouldest.' Bloody men] RV 'bloodthirsty men.'
21. The thought is evidently, 'hateful to all right-thinking persons must those be who rebel against such a wonder-working God.'
24. Wicked way] better, 'way leading to sorrow'; the idea is the same. Way everlasting] i.e. the enduring way—well expressed in Pro_12:28.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v8 Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5").
hell
Heb. "Sheol," (See Scofield "Hab 2:5").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 139
Psalm 139
In the Divine Presence
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1. His omniscience (Psa 139:1-6)
2. His omnipresence (Psa 139:7-12)
3. Praising Him (Psa 139:13-18)
4. Delighting in His holiness (Psa 139:19-24)
Here we see the people of God in the light of God, standing in His presence. He is an omniscient and an omnipresent God. How marvellously this is given in this Psalm. And what a comfort to know that He knoweth, that He seeth, that He is about us, around us, with us everywhere, that His hand leads, that His hand upholds the saint, and that darkness and light are both alike to Him. And this God has fashioned us, He is our Creator. And the thoughts of God mentioned in Psa 139:17 and Psa 139:18 may be applied to the thoughts of His love in redemption. How precious are these thoughts in which He has remembered the sinner’s need. They are indeed more than the sand. And with the knowledge of God’s omniscience, His omnipresence, His thoughts of love and grace, the saint loves God’s holiness, separating himself from the wicked, counting God’s enemies his enemies, hating those who rise up against God. And then that prayer-”Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Can you pray thus daily in the presence of an omniscient and omnipresent Lord?
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 13 The Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotence of God.
The Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotence of God.
To the chief musician, for performance in the liturgical part of public worship, a psalm of David, in which he first describes the chief attributes of God and then adds a prayer for a pure heart and a faultless conduct. David addresses himself, first of all, to the omniscient God, vv. 1-6.
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v. 1. O Lord, Thou hast searched me, making a careful survey of his innermost heart and mind, and known me, having a full understanding of all the motives which prompted his every thought and act.
v. 2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, every movement which every person in the world makes; Thou understandest my thought afar off, being familiar with it even before the desire is fully formed or the idea takes shape.
v. 3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, literally, "my walking and my lying down Thou siftest," that is, the Lord proves it out; He weighs it even before it happens and while the act is going on, and art acquainted with all my ways, his entire conduct being uncovered before the eyes of God’s omniscience.
v. 4. For there is not a word in my tongue, uttered or unuttered, but, lo, O Lord, stated with emphasis, Thou knowest it altogether, in every respect, both as to motive and performance.
v. 5. Thou hast beset me behind and before, so that there is no way for him to escape from the Lord’s surveillance, and laid Thine hand upon me, holding him in bounds, guarding against an unbridled use of freedom, for the consciousness of the omniscience of God will act as a curb against an undue assertion of what men claim as their rights. The contemplation of these facts causes David to cry out:
v. 6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is beyond the reach of man’s mind; it is high, I cannot attain unto it; it is beyond man’s comprehension, it is an article of faith.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship."
A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
have examined
"have tested"
when I sit down and when I get up
The psalmist uses these two actions to represent everything he does. AT: "everything I do" or "everything about me" (See: Merism)
translationWords
psalm
David
Yahweh
know
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24 Ps 139 In this wisdom psalm, the psalmist opens…
Ps 139 In this wisdom psalm, the psalmist opens every aspect of his being, character, behavior, and speech to God’s examination. As hard as life is, he wants to ensure his own growth in wisdom so that he does not come under God’s judgment of the wicked (141:5; 142:3; 143:8, 10; 144:3-4). Further, the poet recognizes that he cannot escape from the Lord. His sense of stress disappears when he considers the Lord’s loving care for him, even before birth (139:13-18). He then invites the Lord to continue examining him as he walks in the path of wisdom (139:23-24).
139:1-6 The Lord knows the psalmist well; God has examined him thoroughly, in an inescapable examination that is painful at times (Job 7:17-19).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.