Psalms 139:23-24

23 ¹Search me, O God, and know my heart; ²Try me and know my anxious thoughts;

24 And see if there be any ³hurtful way in me, And ⁴lead me in the ⁵everlasting way.

Psalms 139:23-24 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. This psalm was written by David, when he lay under the reproach and calumnies of men, who laid false things to his charge; things he was not conscious of either in the time of Saul's persecution of him, or when his son Absalom rebelled against him: and herein he appeals to the heart searching and rein trying God for his innocence; and, when settled on his throne, delivered it to the master of music, to make use of it on proper occasions. According to the Syriac title of the psalm, the occasion of it was Shimei, the son of Gera, reproaching and cursing him as a bloody man, 2 Samuel 16:5. Theodoret takes it to be a prophecy of Josiah, and supposes that he is represented as speaking throughout the 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. It treats of some of the most glorious of the divine perfections; omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. Arama says, the argument of it is God's particular knowledge of men, and his providence over their affairs.

Cross References

• 1. Job 31:6; Psalms 26:2
• 2. Psalms 7:9; Proverbs 17:3; Jeremiah 11:20; 1 Thessalonians 2:4
• 3. Psalms 146:9; Proverbs 15:9; Proverbs 28:10; Jeremiah 25:5; Jeremiah 36:3
• 4. Psalms 5:8; Psalms 143:10
• 5. Psalms 16:11

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "way of pain"