Psalm 139:1-16

God's Omnipresence and Omniscience.

1 O LORD, You have ¹searched me and known me.

2 You ²know when I sit down and when I rise up; You ³understand my thought from afar.

3 You ⁴scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.

4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You ⁵know it all.

5 You have ⁶enclosed me behind and before, And ⁷laid Your hand upon me.

6 Such ⁸knowledge is ⁹too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot * attain to it.

7 ¹⁰Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

8 ¹¹If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, ¹²You are there.

9 If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,

10 Even there Your hand will ¹³lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me.

11 If I say, "Surely the ¹⁴darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,"

12 Even the ¹⁵darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. ¹⁶Darkness and light are alike to You.

13 For You ¹⁷formed my inward parts; You ¹⁸wove me in my mother's womb.

14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; ¹⁹Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.

15 My ²⁰frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the ²¹depths of the earth;

16 Your ²²eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in ²³Your book were all written The ²⁴days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

Psalm 139:1-16 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. Psalms 17:3; Psalms 44:21; Jeremiah 12:3
• 2. 2 Kings 19:27
• 3. Psalms 94:11; Isaiah 66:18; Matthew 9:4
• 4. Job 14:16; Job 31:4
• 5. Hebrews 4:13
• 6. Psalms 34:7; Psalms 125:2
• 7. Job 9:33
• 8. Romans 11:33
• 9. Job 42:3
• 10. Jeremiah 23:24
• 11. Amos 9:2-4
• 12. Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11
• 13. Psalms 23:2, 3
• 14. Job 22:13
• 15. Job 34:22; Daniel 2:22
• 16. 1 John 1:5
• 17. Psalms 119:73; Isaiah 44:24
• 18. Job 10:11
• 19. Psalms 40:5
• 20. Job 10:8-10; Ecclesiastes 11:5
• 21. Psalms 63:9
• 22. Job 10:8-10; Ecclesiastes 11:5
• 23. Psalms 56:8
• 24. Job 14:5

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "my sitting"
• [b] Lit "my rising"
• [c] Lit "winnow"
• [d] Or "journeying"
• [e] Lit "For there is not"
• [f] I.e. the nether world
• [g] Lit "bruise;" some commentators read "cover"
• [h] Lit "from"
• [i] Lit "kidneys"
• [j] Some ancient versions read "You are fearfully wonderful"
• [k] Lit "bones were"