Psalms 139:11-21

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

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

17 How precious to me are your thoughts,^[a] God! How vast is the sum of them!

18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!

20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name.

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?

Psalms 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. Job 34:22; Daniel 2:22
• 2. Psalms 119:73
• 3. S Job 10:11
• 4. Isaiah 44:2,24; Isaiah 46:3; Isaiah 49:5; Jeremiah 1:5
• 5. Psalms 119:164; Psalms 145:10
• 6. S Job 40:19; Psalms 40:5
• 7. Ecclesiastes 11:5
• 8. S Job 10:11
• 9. S Psalms 63:9
• 10. S Job 33:29; S Psalms 90:12
• 11. S Psalms 92:5
• 12. S Job 5:9; Psalms 40:5
• 13. Psalms 40:5
• 14. S Job 29:18
• 15. S Psalms 3:5
• 16. Psalms 5:6; Isaiah 11:4
• 17. S Psalms 6:8; Psalms 119:115
• 18. S Psalms 59:2
• 19. S Psalms 65:7
• 20. S Deuteronomy 5:11; Jude 15
• 21. 2 Chronicles 19:2; Psalms 31:6; Psalms 119:113; Psalms 119:158
• 22. S Psalms 26:5

Footnotes

• [a]. Or "How amazing are your thoughts concerning me"