Psalms 139:1-9

1 Lord, you have examined me and know all about me.

2 You know when I sit down and when I get up. You know my thoughts before I think them.

3 You know where I go and where I lie down. You know thoroughly everything I do.

4 Lord, even before I say a word, you already know it.

5 You are all around me -- in front and in back -- and have put your hand on me.

6 Your knowledge is amazing to me; it is more than I can understand.

7 Where can I go to get away from your Spirit? Where can I run from you?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I lie down in the grave, you are there.

9 If I rise with the sun in the east and settle in the west beyond the sea,

Psalms 139:1-9 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.