The consciousness of the intimate personal relation between God and man which is characteristic of the whole Psalter reaches its climax here. The omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence of Jehovah are no cold philosophical abstractions for the Psalmist. He realises most vividly that Jehovah is On... [ Continue Reading ]
_searched me_ Cp. Psalms 139:23; Jeremiah 17:10. _and known_me] Or, and knowest me, for nothing can be hid from that omniscient scrutiny.... [ Continue Reading ]
God's perfect knowledge of all the Psalmist's life and thoughts.... [ Continue Reading ]
_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. Psalms 127:2; Deuteronomy 6:7. _thought_ The word used here and in Psalms 139:17 is an Aramaism, found here only in... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou compassest_ Rather, Thou hast examined, lit. _thou hast winnowed_, or _sifted_, subjecting my life to the closest and most discriminating investigation. _my path_ Rather, _my walking_, contrasted with _my lying down_. Cp. Proverbs 6:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
God knows not merely the spoken word which men can hear, but its true meaning, and the secret thoughts which prompt its utterance. But the verse may also be rendered, _For_(_when) a word is not yet on my tongue, Lo, thou_&c. Before thought has formed itself into words and found expression, the Searc... [ Continue Reading ]
_beset me_ The word is used of besieging a town. God hems him in on all sides so that he cannot escape. The P.B.V. _thou hast fashioned me_follows the LXX and other Ancient Versions in a less probable rendering. _laid thine hand upon me_ God holds him fast in His grasp, exercises His authority over... [ Continue Reading ]
A concluding exclamation of reverent awe. Such infinite knowledge baffles human thought to comprehend it. Cp. Romans 11:33. (so) exalted (that) _I cannot attain unto it_ "The word used implies -high so as to be inaccessible"; it is used, for instance, of an impregnable city, Deuteronomy 2:36 " (Dri... [ Continue Reading ]
The power and presence of God are universal. The Psalmist's question does not imply that he wishes to escape from God, but that escape would be impossible if he wished it. The -spirit of Jehovah" in the O.T. is "the living energy of a personal God" (see Swete in Hastings" _Bible Dict_. ii. p. 404):... [ Continue Reading ]
God is everywhere present: man cannot escape or hide himself.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Amos 9:2 ff.; Jeremiah 23:24. _If I_should _ascend up_ Another Aramaic word. _if I make my bed in hell_ Render, and if I should make Sheol my couch.... [ Continue Reading ]
If I should lift up the wings of the dawn &c. If I were to fly with the swiftness of light from the east to the furthest west. The dawn swiftly spreading over the sky, is naturally represented as winged. Cp. -wings of the wind," Psalms 18:10, -wings of the sun," Malachi 4:2. _The sea_, from the pos... [ Continue Reading ]
The thought in this context is not primarily that wherever he goes God's providential care accompanies him, but that there is no place in the universe where he can escape from the control and authority of God. "Dextra Dei ubique.... [ Continue Reading ]
And if I say, Nay, but darkness might shroud me, And the light about me become night; Even darkness hideth not from thee, &c. It is as impossible to hide from God under cover of darkness as it is to escape from Him by change of place (Psalms 139:8). The A.V. _even the night shall be light about m... [ Continue Reading ]
For it was thou that didst form my reins] Thou is emphatic. The connexion of thought expressed by _for_is not obvious; but it appears to give a reason for the intimate knowledge of which the preceding verses have spoken. -Thou knowest me, for Thou didst create me." Psalms 139:14 will then be a paren... [ Continue Reading ]
God must know the Psalmist perfectly, for He ordered the first beginnings of his life, and foresaw all his destiny.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I will praise thee_ I will give thanks unto thee. _I am fearfully and wonderfully made_ The Ancient Versions represent the second person, _thou art fearfully wondrous_. _marvellous_ Wonderful, the same word as in the preceding clause.... [ Continue Reading ]
_my substance_ R.V. my frame, lit. _my bones_or _skeleton_. _in secret_ i.e. in the womb (Psalms 139:13). _curiously wrought_ i.e. fashioned with skill and care. (_Curious_= Lat. _curiosus_, -wrought with care." Cp. Exodus 28:8, "the curious girdle of the ephod," R.V. "the cunningly woven band.")... [ Continue Reading ]
_my substance, yet being unperfect_ R.V. mine unperfect substance. The word (_gôlem_) is a different one from that in Psalms 139:15, and denotes the undeveloped embryo. Cp. Aram, _gôlmâ_, an unfinished vessel. _all_my members] Lit. _all of them_, which A.V. and R.V. interpret to mean all the member... [ Continue Reading ]
To me then, who am the object of all this care, _how precious are thy thoughts, O God_! It is my delight to meditate upon the purposes of Thy Providence. How vast are the sums of them! There are, as it were, many items in that inexhaustible theme, each of which is immeasurable. Cp. Psalms 36:7; Psal... [ Continue Reading ]
_moe_ For this archaism cp. Psalms 69:4. _when I awake_&c. His last thoughts as he falls asleep are of God; and when he awakes, he finds himself still in His Presence, still occupied in contemplating the mystery of His Being. Cp. Psalms 63:6. The Targum, "I awake in the world to come, and I am stil... [ Continue Reading ]
_Surely_&c. Rather as R.V. marg., Oh that thou wouldest slay the wicked. The problem of the existence of evil perplexes him, as it perplexed Job (Job 21:7 ff.). Evil for him is no abstract idea; it is embodied in evil men. Will not God free His world from this insult to His government? Cp. Psalms 10... [ Continue Reading ]
But how can this omniscient God tolerate the existence of wicked men, who blaspheme and hate Him? With such the Psalmist will have no fellowship; and he concludes with a prayer that God will purify his heart, and lead him in the right way.... [ Continue Reading ]
_For they speak against thee_ This rendering involves a questionable construction. That of R.V. marg. _utter thy name_, lit. _thee_, i.e. swear falsely by thy name, suits the parallelism, but is also doubtful. Most probably the word should be read with different vowels, rebel against thee (יַמְרוּךָ... [ Continue Reading ]
_am not I grieved with_ Do not I loathe, as in Psalms 119:158.... [ Continue Reading ]
The energy of the Psalmist's indignation seems to many readers to be a jarring note: yet it is but the limited and imperfect form in which he expresses his intense hatred of evil. "The duty of keeping alive in the human heart the sense of burning indignation against moral evil against selfishness, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Search me_&c. God has searched him and knows him (Psalms 139:1): but he will welcome the continuance of that piercing scrutiny, not seek to avoid it. Cp. Psalms 26:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
In no spirit of presumptuous self-confidence, but with an honest desire to be saved from self-deception and guided in the way of true life, the Psalmist ends by inviting and welcoming that Divine scrutiny which he knows to be a fact and from which he cannot escape (Psalms 139:1 ff.), and praying for... [ Continue Reading ]
any _wicked way_ Lit. _any way of grief_, or _pain_; conduct which leads to suffering and ruin. Some critics, comparing Isaiah 48:5, explain _way of idolatry_, in contrast to _the way of Jehovah_(Psalms 25:4), but there is no hint that this was the special danger of the Psalmist. _the way everlastin... [ Continue Reading ]