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.
Parallel Translations
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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.
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Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
Show all 3 translations
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Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off.
Thou measurest my going about and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (30)
- Matthew 9:4 (v2) Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?
- 2 Kings 19:27 (v2) But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me.
- Isaiah 37:28 (v2) But I know your sitting down, your going out, your coming in, and your raging against me.
- Jeremiah 23:24 (v3) Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh.
- Job 31:4 (v3) Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?
Show all 30 cross-references
- Psalms 94:11 (v2) Yahweh knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile.
- Luke 9:47 (v2) Jesus, perceiving the reasoning of their hearts, took a little child, and set him by his side,
- Proverbs 15:3 (v2) Yahweh’s eyes are everywhere, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
- John 2:24-25 (v2) But Jesus didn’t entrust himself to them, because he knew everyone, and because he didn’t need for anyone to testify concerning man; for he…
- Psalms 56:8 (v2) You count my wanderings. You put my tears into your container. Aren’t they in your book?
- Zechariah 4:10 (v2) Indeed, who despises the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These…
- Genesis 28:10-17 (v3) Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He…
- Proverbs 5:20-21 (v3) For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another? For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s…
- Genesis 16:13 (v2) She called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees,” for she said, “Have I even stayed alive after seeing him?”
- 2 Samuel 11:27 (v3) When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that…
- 2 Samuel 12:9-12 (v3) Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have…
- 2 Kings 6:12 (v2) One of his servants said, “No, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak…
- Psalms 121:3-8 (v3) He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.…
- Psalms 139:18 (v3) If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.
- Ecclesiastes 12:14 (v3) For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.
- Job 14:16-17 (v3) But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin? My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.
- Isaiah 29:15 (v3) Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”
- John 6:70-71 (v3) Jesus answered them, “Didn’t I choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Now he spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for it…
- Acts 5:3-4 (v3) But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land? While…
- John 13:2 (v3) During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
- John 13:21 (v3) When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, “Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.”
- 1 Corinthians 4:5 (v2) Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the…
- 2 Samuel 8:14 (v3) He put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom, he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became servants to David. Yahweh gave victory to…
- 2 Samuel 11:2-5 (v3) At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was…
- Ezekiel 38:10-11 (v2) “ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “It will happen in that day that things will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan. You will say,…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (15 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2–3 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 vv2–3 Psa 139:2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising,…
Psa 139:2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
Ver. 2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising] All my postures, gestures, practices, sive sedeam, sive surgam, whether I sit, stand, walk, lie; thou searchest and knowest all. Some search, but know not; thou dost both; thine eyes behold, thine eyelids try, the children of men, Psa 11:4. {See Trapp on "Psa 11:4"}
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Thou understandest my thought] Heb. my familiar thoughts, such as I am delighted in; voluntatem meam, some render it, my will; others, propinquitatem meam, my nearness, and that afar off, even from heaven, being intimo meo mihi intimior, not so far from me as the bark is from the tree, the skin from the flesh, or the flesh from the bones.
Afar off] Eminus, a longe praenovisti, antequam moveantur, saith Chrysostom; thou knowest my thoughts before I have conceived them; my thoughts in posse, from all eternity; so great is thy sagacity and perspicacity. As a man that knoweth what roots he hath in his garden, though there be not a flower appearing, yet he can say, when the spring comes, this and this will come up; so here, God knows our whole frame, our principles, &c.
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 vv2–3 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.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv2–3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down,.... The…
Thou compassest my path and my lying down,.... The Targum adds,
"to study in the law.''
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His walk in the daytime, and every step he took, and his lying down at night. It denotes his perfect knowledge of all his actions, day and night; he surrounds every path of man, that they cannot escape his knowledge. Or, "thou winnowest", as some render the word (c); he distinguishes actions; he discerns and separates the good from the bad, or the goodness of an action from the evil and imperfection of it, as in winnowing the wheat is separated from the chaff. Or, "thou measurest my squaring" (d); all his dimensions, his length and breadth, as he lay down in his bed;
and art acquainted with all my ways; the whole of his life and conversation, all his works and doings: God knows all the evil ways and works of his people; he takes notice of them, and chastises for them; and all their good works, and approves and accepts of them; he knows from what principles of faith and love they spring, in what manner they are performed, and with what views, aims, and ends; see Rev 2:2, Psa 1:6.
(c) "ventilasti", Pagninus, Montanus; so Tigurine version and Ainsworth. (d) "quadraturam meam spithama mensurasti", Gussetius, p. 775. "spithama metiris", Cocceius.
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 vv2–3 Afar off - Thou knowest what my thoughts will…
Afar off - Thou knowest what my thoughts will be in such and such circumstances, long before I know it, yea from all eternity.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv2–3 Verse 2. My downsitting and mine uprising] Even these…
Verse 2. My downsitting and mine uprising] Even these inconsiderable and casual things are under thy continual notice. I cannot so much as take a seat, or leave it, without being marked by thee.
Thou understandest my thought] לרעי lerei, "my cogitation." This word is Chaldee, see Da 2:29-30.
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Afar off.] While the figment is forming that shall produce them.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv2–3 Thou knowest my downsitting ... - In the various…
Thou knowest my downsitting ... - In the various circumstances of life, thou knowest me. Thou knowest me in one place as well as in another. I cannot so change my position that thou will not see me, and that thou wilt not be perfectly acquainted with all that I say, and all that I do. In every posture, in every movement, in every occupation, thou hast a full knowledge of me. I cannot go out of thy sight; I cannot put myself into such a position that thou wilt not see me.
Thou understandest my thought - Hebrew, “As to my thought.” That is, Thou seest what my plans are; what I design to do; “what I am thinking about.” A most solemn reflection! How unwilling would bad people be - would even good people be - to have those round about them know always “what they are thinking about.”
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Afar off - Not when the “thought” is far off; but “thou,” being far off, seest us as clearly as if thou wert near. I cannot go to such a distance from thee that thou wilt not see perfectly all that I am thinking about.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv2–3 2. Downsitting and… uprising—That is, my hours of rest…
2. Downsitting and… uprising—That is, my hours of rest and of activity, my most retired and most familiar life.
Afar off—Literally, From afar. From thy remotest heaven thou knowest me as if I were before thee. See Psa_138:6
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 vv2–3 2. Thou knowest] Thou is emphatic. It is God…
2. Thou knowest] Thou is emphatic. It is God alone Who possesses this absolute knowledge of His creatures.
my downsitting and mine uprising] My whole life, at rest or in activity. Cp. Psa_127:2; Deu_6:7.
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thought] The word used here and in Psa_139:17 is an Aramaism, found here only in the O.T.
afar off] Cp. Psa_138:6; Jer_23:23. The P.B.V. long before is also a possible rendering. Neither space nor time exist for God.
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 vv2–3 (2) Down-sitting and uprising—as in Deu_6:7, to denote the…
(2) Down-sitting and uprising—as in Deu_6:7, to denote the whole daily life—business and rest.
Thought.—An Aramaic form found nowhere else, but, from one possible derivation (“companion”), meaning the thoughts which are inseparable companions, most intimate thoughts.
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Comp. Macbeth 3:2:
“How now, my lord? Why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest fancies your companions making?”
Afar off.—Exactly as in Psa_138:6. Jehovah notes and recognises the proud from afar off, so here though He has His home in heaven He knows what are the thoughts and feelings amid which a man habitually lives. (Comp. Job_22:12-13.) The Hebrew expression literally means, thou hast intelligence as to my thought from afar, an Aramaic expression.
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 vv2–3 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising. All that…
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising. All that I do from one end of the day to the other. Thou understandest my thought afar off; i.e. while it is just forming long before it is a fully developed thought.
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 vv2–3 Ver. 2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising.…
Ver. 2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising. Me thou knowest, and all that comes of me. I am observed when I quietly sit down, and marked when I resolutely rise up. My most common and casual acts, my most needful and necessary movements, are noted by time, and thou knowest the inward thoughts which regulate them. Whether I sink in lowly self renunciation, or ascend in pride, thou seest the motions of my mind, as well as those of my body. This is a fact to be remembered every moment: sitting down to consider, or rising up to act, we are still seen, known, and read by Jehovah our Lord.
Thou understandest my thought afar off. Before it is my own it is foreknown and comprehended by thee. Though my thought be invisible to the sight, though as yet I be not myself cognizant of the shape it is assuming, yet thou hast it under thy consideration, and thou perceivest its nature, its source, its drift, its result. Never dost thou misjudge or wrongly interpret me: my inmost thought is perfectly understood by thine impartial mind. Though thou shouldest give but a glance at my heart, and see me as one sees a passing meteor moving afar, yet thou wouldst by that glimpse sum up all the meanings of my soul, so transparent is everything to thy piercing glance.
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Ver. 2. Thou. David makes the personal pronoun the very frontispiece of the verse, and so says expressly and distinctively to Jehovah, "Thou knowest"; thus marking the difference between God and all others, as though he said, "Thou, and thou alone, O God, in all the universe, knowest altogether all that can be known concerning me, even to my inmost thought, as well as outward act." Martin Geier.
Ver. 2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising. Does God care? Is he our Friend? Even in such little matters as these, does he watch over us "to do us good"? ...When we "sit down" he sees; when we rise up he is there. Not an action is lost or a thought overlooked. No wonder that, as these tiny miracles of care are related by David, he adds the words, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. We get accustomed to the thought that God made the sun and sky, the "moon and stars which he hath ordained", and we bow to the fact that they are "the work of his fingers." Let us go further! The coming in and going out of the Christian is mentioned several times in Scripture as though it were very important. So much hinges on these little words. "David went out and came in before the people. And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with him": 1Sa 18:13-14. "The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore": Ps 121:8. David was given both preservation and wisdom in his "goings out" and "comings in." Perhaps the latter was both cause and effect of the first. It was needed, for many eyes were upon him, and many eyes are upon us: are they not? Perhaps more than we think. Lady Hope, in "Between Times", 1884.
Ver. 2. Downsitting and uprising. "Uprising" following "downsitting" is in the order of right sequence; for action ought to follow meditation. Jacob saw the angels ascending to God before they descended to service among mortals. Hence we are taught first to join ourselves to God by meditation, and afterwards to repair to the aid of our fellows. Thomas Le Blanc.
Ver. 2. Uprising may respect either rising from bed, when the Lord knows whether the heart is still with him (Ps 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 (Ps 3:5 5:3); 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. John Gill.
Ver. 2. Thou understandest my thought afar off. "My thought": that is, every thought, though innumerable thoughts pass through me in a day. The divine knowledge reaches to their source and fountain, before they are our thoughts. If the Lord knows them before their existence, before they can be properly called ours, much more doth he know them when they actually spring up in us; he knows the tendency of them, where the bird will alight when it is in flight; he knows them exactly; he is therefore called a "discerner" or criticizer of the heart: Heb 4:2. Stephen Charnock.
Ver. 2. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Not that God is at a distance from our thoughts; but he understands them while they are far off from us, from our knowledge, while they are potential, as gardeners know what weeds such ground will bring forth, when nothing appears. De 31:21. "I know their imagination which they go about, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I sware": God knew their thoughts before they came into Canaan, what they would be there. And how can it be, but that God should know all our thoughts, seeing he made the heart, and it is in his hand (Pr 21:1), seeing, "we live, and move, and have our being" in God (Ac 17:28); seeing he is through us all, and in us all (Eph 4:6). Look well to your hearts, thoughts, risings, whatever comes into your mind; let no secret sins, or corruptions, lodge there; think not to conceal anything from the eye of God. William Greenhill.
Ver. 2. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Though my thoughts be never 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. Matthew Henry.
Ver. 2. My thought. The er, rea, which we have rendered "thought", signifies also a friend or companion, on which account some readthou 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. John Calvin.
Ver. 2. Thought. In all affliction, in all business, a man's best comfort is this, that all he does and even all he thinks, God knows. In the Septuagint we read dialogiomous, that is, "reasonings." God knows all our inner ratiocination, all the dialogues, all the colloquies of the soul with itself. Thomas Le Blanc.
Ver. 2. Thou understandest my thought. Before men we stand 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. Henry Ward Beecher.
Ver. 2. Thou understandest my thought afar off.
"Man may not see thee do an impious deed;
But God thy very inmost thought can read."
Plutarch.
Ver. 2. Afar off. This expression is, as in Ps 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. Lange's Commentary.
Ver. 2. Afar off. Both in distance, however far off a man may seek to hide his thoughts from God; and in time, for God knows the human thought before man conceives it in his heart, in his eternal prescience. The Egyptians called God the "eye of the world." Thomas Le Blanc.
Ver. 2-4. Do not fancy that your demeanour, 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. Johann David Frisch, 1731.
Ver. 2-4. The knowledge of God extends,
1. To our movements, our "down sitting and uprising" when we sit down to read, write, or converse, and when we rise up to active service.
2. To our thoughts: "Thou understandest my thoughts afar off." What they have been, what they now are, what they will be, what under all circumstances they would have been. He who made minds knows what their thoughts will be at all times, or he could not predict future events, or govern the world. He can know our thoughts without being the Author of them.
3. To our actions: Ps 139:3. Every step we take by day, and all we purpose to do in wakeful hours of the night: all our private, social, and public ways, are compassed or sifted by him, to distinguish the good from the bad, as wheat from the chaff.
4. To our words: Ps 139:4. It has been said that the words of all men and from all time are registered in the atmosphere, and may be faithfully recalled. Whether it be so or not, they are phonographed in the mind of God. G.R.
Ver. 2. (first clause). The importance of the commonest acts of life.
Ver. 2. (second clause). The serious nature of thoughts. Known to God; seen through, their drift perceived; and attention given to them while as yet in the distance.
Psalms 139:3*
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 v3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and…
Psa_139:3
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
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God knows and takes strict and accurate notice of all our ways
This is so, because--
I. God rules and governs men. But this could not be without such knowledge. And so at times He governs mens secret projects.
1. By discovering them, making them known to others.
2. By preventing them.
3. By turning them to other ends than men purposed (Isa_7:7; Gen_45:5).
II. He gives laws to regulate them.
III. He will judge them.
1. He does so in this life where He often gives foretaste of the future (Deu_29:18),
2. In the day of judgment (Luk_12:2).
IV. He is omniscient and omnipresent (Pro_15:3; Heb_4:13). Then--
1. Presumptuous sin is atheism.
2. Let secret sinners be afraid.
Such are those who sin in thought and desire only. God judges such, for they are the roots of sin. Spiritual wickedness is worst wickedness. And they are the product of the man himself, as his actions sometimes are not. And there are secret sins not only thought, but acted, only concealed from men (2Sa_12:12; Hab_2:11; Gen_4:10). God will judge them.
3. Let sincere-hearted Christians be comforted. The same sun-rising and break of day that terrifies the robber is a comfort to the honest traveller. Thou that, art sincere, God sees that sincerity in thee that others cannot discern; perhaps thou canst not fully discern it thyself. And He will exalt thee. (R. South, D. D.)
The record of our lives: -
I. That record is complete.
II. That record may be presented to our condemnation. Men are making efforts to recover the secrets of anothers brain. It is hard to conceive what the possibility means, as suggested by the results of rapid photography in the vitascope. It is not position that is presented, but action; even the change of face with change of thought. It is the publication of a partial set of records. Who could risk the scrutiny of their whole lives with such publicity?
III. But that record can be blotted out. A photographer can remove the sensitive salts in a bath. The picture then has no existence and cannot be exhibited; But we cannot trust our forgetfulness to do this, nor mans charity. But God in mercy has provided a cleansing flood. (W. J. Gregory.)
Gods winnowing
The word in the Hebrew original for compassest is winnowest. This calls up before the mind an image which helps to illustrate the meaning of the verse in a most interesting manner. The mere compassing of our path by God is an elementary, commonplace truth which requires no argument or proof. It is a truism which loses very much the power of truth through our familiarity with it. But when we substitute the winnowing of our path by Gods dealings with us, we have not in that case a commonplace fact, but a most suggestive and instructive metaphor. Harvest operations in the East are all carried on in the open air, for the weather at that time of the year is uniformly fine. When the corn is reaped it is not piled into stocks, or gathered into barns, as with us, but threshed on the spot, on some piece of rising ground, beaten hard and smooth, and exposed to the wind. The sheaves are heaped on this spot, arranged in a circle, and over them are driven rude, heavy sledges of wood, having their under-surface stuck full of sharp pieces of hard basalt. Oxen are yoked to these sledges, and a man stands on them to increase their pressure, while another man drives the oxen round and round upon the sheaves until they are mashed to pieces, the straw being broken and crushed, and the grains of corn separated from it. When the grain is all threshed out in this manner, the heaps of mixed corn and broken straw are tossed up before the breeze with a shovel; and then the grain, being heaviest, falls straight down, and the broken straw and chaff, being lighter, is carried by the wind, and forms a heap a little farther on. This explanation will make perfectly clear the allusion of the psalmist: Thou compassest, or winnowest, my path. It refers to the oxen going round and round on the sheaves laid on the threshing-floor, in order to separate the corn from the straw and chaff. In like manner, the psalmist, by a bold figure, represents God going round and round our path by His dealings with us in providence and grace, in order to purify our nature, and to separate the good from the evil. God humbles Himself to do for us the work which the oxen do for the corn. We are valuable to Him as the corn is to the husbandman. How patiently do the oxen plod on hour after hour, going their constant round, treading down the corn until their task is accomplished. And so how patiently and unweariedly does God compass your path with His providences and gracious dealings, till He has fulfilled in you the good pleasures of His goodness, and prepared you for being presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Life to every one is a common round of continual beginnings and endings. Each day is a little circle returning where it began. Our range is as narrow as that of the ox that treadeth out the corn among the heap of sheaves. And all this is apt to become monotonous and wearisome. Some are so consumed by ennui that life has lost all relish for them; and some have grown so tired of pacing the irksome daily round that they have put an end to it by violent means. But surely it gives a new zest to life if we realize that all this constant doing of the same things, this constant going round and round the same little circle of daily duties, is not a treadmill penance, a profitless labour like weaving ropes of sand, but is designed to bring out and educate to the utmost perfection of which we are capable all that is best and most enduring in us. And surely it heightens the interest immeasurably to be assured that God has not merely ordained this long ago as part of His great providential plan for the world, but that He is daily and hourly superintending the process of our discipline and education by His personal presence, compassing our path, going round with us in the circle of lifes toils and duties, and causing all our experiences, by His blessing, to work together for our good. He will not go round on your sheaves with His heavy dispensations oftener than is required to separate the chaff from the wheat; and you may be certain that not one grain of good in you will be destroyed, not one element of lasting benefit will be injured--only the chaff will be blown away and the straw removed. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v3 my path and my lying down
my path and my lying down
Here "path" stands for one's behavior. "My path and my lying down" together represent everything about the psalmist. (See: Metaphor and Merism)
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before there is a word on my tongue
Here "word on the tongue" represents speech. AT: "before I say anything" (See: Metaphor)
Behind me and before me you surround me
This expression refers to God's presence everywhere.
place your hand upon me
This expression refers to guidance and help. AT: "you guide and help me" (See: Metaphor)
too much for me
"too much for me to understand"
it is too high, and I cannot reach it
Being high and out of reach is an expression, in this case, about some knowledge that human beings cannot have. AT: "it is too difficult to understand" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
word
hand
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 vv2–3 139:2 The phrase sit down or stand up refers…
139:2 The phrase sit down or stand up refers to daily activities (cp. Deut 6:6-9).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.