Psalm 139:2-12

2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up; You understand my thoughts from far away.

3 You observe my travels and my rest; You are aware of all my ways.

4 Before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, Lord.

5 You have encircled me; You have placed Your hand on me.

6 [This] extraordinary knowledge is beyond me. It is lofty; I am unable to [reach] it.

7 Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?

8 If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol,^[a] You are there.

9 If I live at the eastern horizon [or] settle at the western limits,^[b]

10 even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will hold on to me.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will become night"-

12 even the darkness is not dark to You. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to You.

Psalm 139:2-12 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.

Footnotes

• [a] Jb 17:13; Isa 14:11
• [b] Lit I take up the wings of the dawn; I dwell at the end of the sea