Psalm 139:5

Verse 5. Thou hast beset me behind and before. What would you say if, wherever you turned, whatever you were doing, whatever thinking, whether in public or private, with a confidential friend telling your secrets, or alone planning them -- if, I say, you saw an eye constantly fixed on you, from whose watching, though you strove ever so much, you could never escape ... that could perceive your every thought? The supposition is awful enough. There is such an Eye. --De Vere.

Verse 5. Thou hast beset me behind and before. One who finds the way blocked up turns back; but David found himself hedged in behind as well as before. --John Calvin.

Verse 5. Thou hast ... laid thine hand upon me. As by an arrest; so that I am thy prisoner, and cannot stir a foot from thee. --John Trapp.

Verse 5. And laid thine hand upon me. To make of me one acceptable to thyself. To rule me, to lead me, to uphold me, to protect me; to restore me; in my growth, in my walk, in my failures, in my affliction, in my despair. --Thomas Le Blanc.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 5. A soul captured. Stopped, overtaken, arrested. What has it done? What shall it do?