Psalms 139:1-24
1 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 compassesta 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 hidethb 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 substancec 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,d 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 wickede way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
CXXXIX. God is Everywhere: He Knows Everything Oh that He would Destroy the Wicked. This Ps. is among the most spiritual productions of the OT. It deals with the mystery of Divine providence, a theme frequently discussed after the Exile, when the national life had died out and each individual was brought face to face with the difficulties which surrounded him and with the thought of his ultimate fate. Other nations, of course, have engaged in similar speculation, but in very different tone and spirit. Here, as elsewhere, the Hebrew poet manifests intense belief in the personality of God, in His righteousness, in His care for the men He has made. He speaks in the first person singular, because he is giving expression to his own faith and in part to his own experience. Again, he uses no abstract terms such as omnipresence, omniscience, and the like: indeed in Biblical Heb. no such words are to be found. There is no indication of date, except the reason given above, for placing the Ps. after the Exile, but the strong Aramaic colouring of the vocabulary and the high probability that in Psalms 139:13 we have a reminiscence of Job 10:9, point to a late origin. Certainly the greater originality seems to be with the passage in Job.
Psalms 139:1. God's intimate knowledge of the Psalmist and His constant proximity to him. He is familiar with all his ways and observes his most ordinary movements and actions. He knows the thought which is still unformed and the word which is still unuttered. The Psalmist finds such knowledge inconceivable. Further, God is in heaven and no less truly in Sheol, the latter assertion marking a significant advance in religious ideas, for the old notion (Psalms 115:17) was that all memory of God ceased in Sheol. Were the poet to be borne on the wings of the morning (here personified, cf. Job 3:9 *) and fly to the western ocean, God would still be with him. To God darkness and light are alike.
Psalms 139:4. Translate, Before there is a word on my tongue, thou, O Yahweh, knowest it (the unuttered word) altogether, i.e. exactly.
Psalms 139:11 b. Follow mg.
Psalms 139:13. Man's wonderful creation.
Psalms 139:13. reins: here all the interior organs.
Psalms 139:15. Read, as in the lowest parts of the earth.
Psalms 139:16 is corrupt and proposed emendations are very doubtful. Read perhaps, Thine eyes saw my days. They were all being written in thy book; they were formed while as yet there was none of them for me. The days of the Psalmist's life were preordained by God and visible to Him, long before they had actual existence. For the Book of Life, see Psalms 56:8; Psalms 69:28.
Psalms 139:17 f. Yahweh's inscrutable providence. The thoughtful care which God takes of the Psalmist is a heavy burden. The common interpretation, How precious, is unsuitable to the context, and the rendering just given, though Aramaic and not Heb., is quite permissible in a Ps. like this, which is partly Aramaic in its vocabulary. Moreover God's care extends to all men, or at least to all Israelites. Great then is the sum (lit. sums) of them, i.e. the aggregate of God's care for countless souls. The Psalmist is lost in contemplation of this mystery, and next morning when he wakes he is possessed by the same thought.
Psalms 139:19. Oh that God would but destroy the wicked! The Psalmist has no theory on the existence of evil. His solution is a practical one. He will ever hate the wicked utterly. He begs Yahweh to see if there is anything in him which is sinful and must therefore result in affliction, and prays God to lead him in the way everlasting. It is impossible to say whether the poet was thinking of a life beyond death or only of a happy life prolonged to old age.