Psalms 139:11-21

11 If I say, "Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night,"

12 even the darkness is not dark to thee, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with thee.

13 For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I praise thee, for thou art fearful and wonderful. Wonderful are thy works! Thou knowest me right well;

15 my frame was not hidden from thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.

16 Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance; in thy book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

17 How precious to me are thy thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee.

19 O that thou wouldst slay the wicked, O God, and that men of blood would depart from me,

20 men who maliciously defy thee, who lift themselves up against thee for evil!

21 Do I not hate them that hate thee, O LORD? And do I not loathe them that rise up against thee?

Psalms 139:11-21 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.