Psalms 139:7-17

7 Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence?

8 If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!

9 If I take the wings of the dawn, And settle in the uttermost parts of the sea;

10 Even there your hand will lead me, And your right hand will hold me.

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

12 Even the darkness doesn't hide from you, But the night shines as the day. The darkness is like light to you.

13 For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb.

14 I will give thanks to you, For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.

15 My frame wasn't hidden from you, When I was made in secret, Woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there were none of them.

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

Psalms 139:7-17 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.