Psalm 139:11-21

11 If I say, ¹“Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night, ”

12 ²even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

13 For you ³formed my inward parts; you ⁴knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. ^{[a] 5}Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

15 ⁶My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in ⁷the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your ⁸book 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 your ⁹thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

18 ¹⁰If I would count them, they are more than ¹¹the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.

19 Oh that you would ¹²slay the wicked, O God! O ¹³men of blood, ¹⁴depart from me!

20 They ¹⁵speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies ¹⁶take your name in vain. ^[b]

21 ¹⁷Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not ¹⁸loathe those who ¹⁹rise up against you?

Psalm 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.

Cross References

• 1. 139:11 [Job 22:14]
• 2. 139:12 Job 34:22; [Dan. 2:22]
• 3. 139:13 Deut. 32:6
• 4. 139:13 [Job 10:11]
• 5. 139:14 See Ps. 72:18
• 6. 139:15 [Job 10:8-10; Eccles. 11:5]
• 7. 139:15 Ps. 63:9
• 8. 139:16 Ps. 56:8
• 9. 139:17 Ps. 92:5
• 10. 139:18 Ps. 40:5
• 11. 139:18 Gen. 22:17
• 12. 139:19 Isa. 11:4; [Ps. 9:17]
• 13. 139:19 Ps. 5:6
• 14. 139:19 See Ps. 6:8
• 15. 139:20 [Jude 15]
• 16. 139:20 Ex. 20:7
• 17. 139:21 See Ps. 26:5
• 18. 139:21 Ps. 119:158
• 19. 139:21 Ps. 59:1

Footnotes

• [a] 139:14 Or 'for I am fearfully set apart'
• [b] 139:20 Hebrew lacks 'your name'