Psalms 139:18-24

18 I recount them! than the sand they are more, I have waked, and I am still with Thee.

19 Dost Thou slay, O God, the wicked? Then, men of blood, turn aside from me!

20 Who exchange Thee for wickedness, Lifted up to vanity [are] Thine enemies.

21 Do not I hate, Jehovah, those hating Thee? And with Thy withstanders grieve myself?

22 [With] perfect hatred I have hated them, Enemies they have become to me.

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart, Try me, and know my thoughts,

24 And see if a grievous way be in me, And lead me in a way age-during!

Psalms 139:18-24 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.