Psalms 139:1-7

1 O LORD, you have examined me, and you know me.

2 You alone know when I sit down and when I get up. You read my thoughts from far away.

3 You watch me when I travel and when I rest. You are familiar with all my ways.

4 Even before there is a [single] word on my tongue, you know all about it, LORD.

5 You are all around me--in front of me and in back of me. You lay your hand on me.

6 Such knowledge is beyond my grasp. It is so high I cannot reach it.

7 Where can I go [to get away] from your Spirit? Where can I run [to get away] from you?

Psalms 139:1-7 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.