Psalm 139 “To the Chief Musician, a Psalm of David. 1 of 2
1 O Yahweh, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. 3 You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Yahweh, You know it altogether. 5 You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. -
7 Where can I go to get away from your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in the earth [sheol], behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” even the night shall be light about me. 12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You.
“‘To the Chief Musician, a Psalm of David.’ Jesus is the Maker of all things, including mankind (John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16) and thus He has intimate knowledge of us. “And Nathaneal quickly recognizes that Jesus' knowledge of him is knowledge available only to God and immediately confesses this (John 1:49). The preacher on the Johannine text will rightly see Jesus' access to divine knowledge (the knowledge confessed in our psalm) as another of John's proclamations that ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14:9)—a true epiphany.” (Fred Gaiser) “’O Yahweh, You have searched me and known me.’ (1) The language, employed in this and the following verses, is taken from the affairs of men; who by diligent search find out those things, which had been carefully concealed from them. (Genesis 11:5— The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.; Genesis 18:20-21— And the LORD said, ‘The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to Me; and if not, I will know.’).” (Thomas Scott) And thus Jesus condescended in the the Day of His sojourn with us, which He also did in the days of old and was known as “the” Angel of Yahweh and the Commander of Yahweh’s Host.
“In this Aramaizing Psalm what the preceding psalm says (Psa 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) And there David was in exile. Or was he? Not in truth! “That exile would be strange that could separate us from God. I speak not of those poor and common comforts [as the earthly land affords]... i.e. His elements of earth or water that bear us, His air we breathe; but of that special privilege, that His gracious presence is ever with us; that no sea is so broad as to divide us from His favour; that wheresoever we feed, He is our host; wheresoever we rest, the wings of His blessed providence are stretched over us.” (Thomas Adams) And thus in the second strophe: “‘Whither shall I flee from thy presence?’ etc. (Psalm 139:7) The Gelineau version gives the psalm the heading ‘The Hound of Heaven’, a reminder that Francis Thompson’s fine poem of that name owed its theme of flight and pursuit largely to the second stanza here ( Psalm 139:7-12), which is one of the summits of OTpoetry." (Derek Kidner)
“‘O Yahweh, You have searched me and known (me).’ (1) 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.” (A.R. Jamieson)
“‘You know’— 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)—> “‘You know my sitting down and my rising up;’ ‘my down-sitting,’ to rest after work, and ‘mine up-rising,’ (2a) to go to work (Psalms 127:2).”(Jamieson, Faussett, Brown)— Whether the works be good or evil. “’You understand my thought afar off.‘ (2b) ’He confesseth that neither our actions, thoughts, nor any part of our life, can be hid from God, though he seem to be afar off.’ ‘My inclinations are so perfectly understood by thee, that before I have conceived any design it is visible to thee.’ Bp. Patrick. (Psalm 17:13. Psalm 44:17-22.) ’My thoughts, before they are my own, Are to my God distinctly known; He knows the words I mean to speak, Ere from my op’ning lips they break.’ Walts.” (Thomas Scott)
“”You comprehend my path…’- Margin, ‘winnowest my path.’ The Hebrew word - זרה zârâh - means properly ‘to scatter,’ to cast loosely about - as the wind does dust; and then, to winnow - to wit, by throwing grain, when it is thrashed, up to the wind: Isaiah 30:24; Jeremiah 4:11; Ruth 3:2 . Then it means ‘to winnow out;’ that is, to winnow out all the chaff, and to leave all the grain - to save all that is valuable. So here it means that God, as it were, ‘sifted’ him. Compare Isaiah 30:28; Amos 9:9; Luke 22:31. He scattered all that was chaff, or all that was valueless, and saw what there was that was real and substantial. When it is said that He did this in his ‘path and his lying down,’it is meant that He did it in every way; altogether; entirely.” (Barnes)— “‘And are acquainted with all my ways’ (3) - God takes notice of every step we take, every right step, and every by-step. He knows what rule we walk by, what end we walk toward, what company we walk with.” (Religious Tract Society) “All that I do, in all places and at all times, is fully known to thee.” (Barnes) “The piety and the charity which are practised in cottages, the labour and pain which are patiently endured in the field, and on the bed of sickness; the misery and torment inflicted by persecution in the mines, the galleys, and the dungeons; all are under the inspection of Jehovah, and are noted down by Him against the day of recompense. He sees, and He will reward all we do, and all we suffer, as becometh Christians.” (Bishop Horne) “Paul the apostle said, “For in Him we live, we move, we have our being.” (Acts 17:28)
“‘For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Yahweh, You know it altogether.’ (4) “What has been already said of deeds and thoughts is now extended to ‘words.’” (The Pulpit Commentary) He knows “every thing I intend to utter...” (Thomas Scott) before I even open my mouth. Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to Me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in Your hometown what we have heard that You did in Capernaum.’” (Luke 4:23)
“’You have hedged me behind and before,’ There is here an insensible transition from God's omniscience to his omnipresence, out of which the Scriptures represent it as arising. ‘Behind and before,’ i.e., on all sides. The idea of above and below is suggested by the last clause. ‘Beset,’ besiege, hem in, or closely surround.” (Joseph Addison Alexander)— “‘And laid Your hand upon me.’(5) As by an arrest; so that I am thy prisoner.” (John Trapp)— “‘Knowledge is too wonderful for me.’ (6) He does “not say, ‘such knowledge,’ but simply ‘knowledge,’ i.e. real true knowledge, such as deserves the name. ‘The thought of God's omniscience makes him feel as if real knowledge [of God] were beyond his reach’ (Kay).” (The Pulpit Commentary)- except as He condescends.
“As He made all things, He must be intimately acquainted, not only with their properties, but with their very essence.” (Henry Duncan) “Then do we see most of God, when we see Him incomprehensible, and do see ourselves swallowed up in the thoughts of His perfection, and are forced to fall in admiration of God, as here.” (David Dickson)
“‘Where can I go to get away from your Spirit?’ (7)—from thee, who art a spirit, and so canst pierce and penetrate me.” (Ezekiel Hopkins) “They that attempt it, do but as the fish which swimmeth to the length of the line, with a hook in the mouth.” (Trapp) “In heaven God reigns on His high throne; in the grave [earth] His power is manifest…”(Sutcliffe) by the resurrection. “The winds and the waters and all God's creatures are wont to take God's part against Jonah, or any rebellious sinner. For though God in the beginning gave power to man over all creatures to rule them, yet when man sins, God giveth power and strength to His creatures to rule and bridle man.” (Henry Smith) “We may run, but we cannot ultimately hide from the God who penetrates even the darkness with the gaze of His light. If we manage to dodge Him in this life, we must still stand exposed before Him on that fearful Day of Judgment.” (Steven J. Cole)
13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. 7 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! 18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You.
“The fact that man is manifest to God even to the very bottom of his nature, and in every place, is now confirmed from the origin of man. The development of the child in the womb was looked upon by the Israelitish Chokma as one of the greatest mysteries, Ecclesiastes 11:5; and here the poet praises this coming into being as a marvellous work of the omniscient and omnipresent omnipotence of God.” (Keil & Delitzsch)
“‘For You formed my inward parts;’ lit. ‘Thou hast possessed my reins,’…. His thoughts and counsels, the reins being the seat of instruction and counsel.” (John Gill) “We need not be surprised at God’s knowledge of the most secret thoughts of men, since He formed their hearts and their reins. He thus represents God as sitting king in the very reins of man, as the center of His jurisdiction, and shows it ought to be no ground of wonder that all the windings and recesses of our hearts are known to Him who, when we were inclosed in our mother’s womb, saw us as clearly and perfectly as if we had stood before Him in the light of mid-day.” (Calvin)
“‘I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made’ (14a) This is a “work so astonishing, that before the Psalmist proceeds in his description of it, he cannot help breaking forth in rapture at the thought.” (Bishop Horne) “I am well assured, both by thy Word, and by the contemplation and study of thy works [in my soul], that they are wonderful, although I do not so accurately understand them in all their parts as I wish to do.” (Joseph Benson)
“‘My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.’ (15) That is, in the womb: as curious workmen, when they have some choice piece in hand, they perfect it in private, and then bring it forth to light for men to gaze at.” (Abraham Wright) “What deeper solitude, what state of concealment more complete, than that of the babe as yet unborn [in the mother’s womb]. Yet the Psalmist represents the Almighty as present even there… The whole image and train of thought is one of striking beauty. We see the wonderful work of the human body, with all its complex tissue of bones, and joints, and nerves, and veins, and arteries growing up, and fashioned, as it had been a piece of rich and curious embroidery under the hand of the manufacturer. But it is not the work itself that we are now called on to admire.” (Charles Wordsworth) It is the Workman Himself.
“Your eyes saw my substance,' each part- 'being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written.’ etc. (16)A skilful architect before he builds draws a model, or gives a draught of the building in his book, or upon a table; there he will show you every room and contrivance: in his book are all the parts of the building written, while as yet there are none of them, or before any of them are framed and set up. In allusion to architects and other artisans, David speaks of God, ‘In thy book all my members were written;’ that is, Thou hast made me as exactly as if thou hadst drawn my several members and my whole proportion with a pen or pencil in a book, before thou wouldst adventure to form me up. The Lord uses no book, no pen to decipher His work. He had the perfect idea of all things in Himself from everlasting; but He may well be said to work as by pattern, whose work is the most perfect pattern.” (Joseph Caryl)
This rings of a false view of predestination, but Mike Smith says that it is the Maker's design that all acorns become oak trees. All acorns are predestined to become oak trees. They were formed for that purpose, but some for various reasons some don't make it. Those who believe and perservere to the end are all predestined to glory to be adopted as sons and daughters of God (Ephesians 1:5) and to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:25), but some turn back. See Matthew 13:1-9- the Parable of the Sower; the mystery is explained by Jesus in Matthew 13:18-23. EVERYONE is written in the Lamb’s book of life. God has a purpose and a plan for each of us. But because of the reasons in the parable, some never arrive at their destination. In Psalm 69:27-28 David pleas : "Add iniquity unto their iniquity; and let them not come into your righteousness, let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous." (Cp. Revelation 3:5- He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.) “For many are called, but few are chosen (eklektos)."(Matt 22:14) Perhaps all are called but few elect to answer the call of God.
But David answered the call, so he could say: “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake [in resurrection], I am still with You.’ (17-18) These thoughts of God "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 Gaebelein)
19 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men. 20 For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain. 21 Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred; 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
“Every morning we awake more indebted... than before: but when we shall awake in the world of glory, how shall we admire and bless our God for this invaluable salvation ! Yet this God of infinite mercy will most surely destroy all the impenitent workers of iniquity. We should therefore warn our fellow sinners ‘to flee from the wrath to come;’ and protest against their crimes by separating from their company. (2 Chron 19:1-2; 2 Cor 6:14-18; Eph 5:8-14.) But those bloody men, who persecute the people of God, and thus join cruelty to their impiety and blasphemy, are most eminently the enemies and haters of God Himself; and should be shunned with marked abhorrence by all, who love Him and His cause: yet we should still pray for their conversion and salvation, and wait for opportunities of shewing them kindness, and attempting to ‘overcome evil with good.’ As the Lord knows us perfectly, and we are such strangers to ourselves; we should earnestly desire and pray to be searched and proved, in His providence, and by His Word and Spirit: thus we shall best be preserved from self-deception, gradually purified from our remaining sinfulness, and led in the way of everlasting life: and these our desires and prayers will evidence our sincerity, and increase our comfortable assurance, that we are the children of God (John 3:19-21). (Thomas Scott)