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Psalm 139

O Lord, you search me and you know me,
you know my resting and my rising,
you discern my purpose from afar.
You mark when I walk or lie down,
all my ways lie open to you.

Before ever a word is on my tongue
you know it, O Lord, through and through.
Behind and before you besiege me,
your hand ever laid upon me.
Too wonderful for me, this knowledge,
too high, beyond my reach.

O where can I go from your spirit,
or where can I flee from your face?
If I climb the heavens, you are there.
If I lie in the grave, you are there.

If I take the wings of the dawn
and dwell at the sea’s furthest end,
even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast.

If I say: “Let the darkness hide me
and the light around me be night,”
even darkness is not dark for you
and the night is as clear as the day.

For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation.

Already you knew my soul,
my body held no secret from you
when I was being fashioned in secret
and moulded in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw all my actions,
they were all of them written in your book;
every one of my days was decreed
before one of them came into being.

To me, how mysterious your thoughts,
the sum of them not to be numbered!
If I count them, they are more than the sand;
to finish, I must be eternal, like you.

O God, that you would slay the wicked!
Men of blood, keep far away from me!
With deceit they rebel against you
and set your designs at naught.

Do I not hate those who hate you,
abhor those who rise against you?
I hate them with a perfect hate
and they are foes to me.

O search me, God, and know my heart.
O test me and know my thoughts.
See that I follow not the wrong path
and lead me in the path of life eternal.

Commentary

In Psalm 139, which is attributed to David, we reach one of the highest pinnacles of contemplation in the Psalter. Nowhere are the great attributes of God – His omnipresence, His omniscience and His omnipotence – set forth so strikingly as in this psalm. It stands pre-eminent, both for its lofty thought and wonderfully expressive language; language which reveals the depth and tenderness of the relationship of man and God, where man is not crushed by his all-knowing, all-filling and all-powerful God. This psalm is thought to have been the inspiration for Francis Thompson’s lovely poem The Hound of Heaven, and I have used this title as a reminder.

O Lord, you search me and you know me,
you know my resting and my rising,
you discern my purpose from afar.
You mark when I walk or lie down,
all my ways lie open to you.

Before ever a word is on my tongue
you know it, O Lord, through and through.
Behind and before you besiege me,
your hand ever laid upon me.
Too wonderful for me, this knowledge,
too high, beyond my reach.
                                    (vv. 1-6).

Verses 1-6 deal with the all-seeing God, and express His omniscience in the lucid style of one lost in adoration, rather than in a dry doctrinal statement that would leave us unmoved. Here we are invited to join the psalmist in his wonder and awe that he is so encompassed by God. He addresses God in amazement that he is fully known in his innermost being; his waking and sleeping habits are known to God, and have been sifted and discerned for truth. God is completely familiar with all his ways, and to such an extent that before thoughts are formulated in his mind they are known to Him. God’s hand is upon his whole life, and the knowledge of this is almost frightening. We can immediately see that hypocrisy before God is superlative folly! (see Matthew 9:4; John 1:47; Hebrews 4:13).

The realization that we are so completely known by God can be perceived by us as both good news and bad news together. For many who are entering into relationship with the Lord in a personal way for the first time, it can make it easier for healing grace to work in them. Since God already know all the facts, confessing them before Him is easier, especially when it is pointed out that God loves the person in his present condition anyway. This can be very consoling to one who has not previously experienced love, for to love and be loved involves knowing and being known thoroughly. The realization of being known so fully and yet loved so uniquely by God is wonderfully good news indeed.

For anyone who wishes to hide from God or keep their distance, this knowledge could be interpreted as “Big Brother is watching you!” This person feels that God is spying on his freedom, and spoiling his fun. Some could be terrorized, others could even come to hate God. For all of us who contemplate God’s reality, and have not reached the pinnacle of perfection, there must be a holy fear, which spurs us on to greater efforts to build up the relationship of love with God, because only perfect love will cast out all fear (see 1 John 4:18).

O where can I go from your spirit,
or where can I flee from your face?
If I climb the heavens, you are there.
If I lie in the grave, you are there.

If I take the wings of the dawn
and dwell at the sea’s furthest end,
even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast.

If I say: “Let the darkness hide me
and the light around me be night,”
even darkness is not dark for you
and the night is as clear as the day.
                                 (vv. 7-12).

It is not surprising that the instinct of the psalmist is to run from this all-knowing God, but where can he run to? No one has to tell us that we are not pure enough for God’s presence, and so the urge to flee from the face of God is as old as the fall itself. The poet realizes, though, that it is as useless to flee from God as it is for a small child to run away from its parents, who are the source of its life, security and hope, and without whose tender love it cannot survive.

Taking the sweep of the universe into his vision, the psalmist surveys all of creation to demonstrate that God is everywhere, and that the very possibility of finding oneself somewhere where God is not is ludicrous. Being a pure spirit, there is no place outside the sphere of His power. Neither for the good nor the wicked is there any escape from the omnipresence of God. Whether one goes up to the heights of Heaven or into the depths of sheol or death, God is there. The speed of the light that heralds the morning, and the distant horizon of the sea, both proclaim His presence. Nor will the darkness of night afford any refuge. Man may not penetrate the darkness, but nothing is impenetrable to God. Man seeks in vain to find God’s limits, yet the hand that pursues him is one that holds him in love.

When Jesus came to reveal that God was a father to us, and One who is motivated by infinite love, that His designs towards us were all mercy and grace, then the New Testament writers gave us the teaching of this psalm from the opposite angle, as we see in Romans 8:31-39: “With God on our side who can be against us? For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, nor any power, nor height nor depth, nor any created thing can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This changes the element of fearfulness expressed by the psalmist into a triumphant declaration of security in God.

For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all your creation.

Already you knew my soul,
my body held no secret from you
when I was being fashioned in secret
and moulded in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw all my actions,
they were all of them written in your book;
every one of my days was decreed
before one of them came into being.

To me, how mysterious your thoughts,
the sum of them not to be numbered!
If I count them, they are more than the sand;
to finish, I must be eternal, like you.
                                             (vv. 13-18).

This third section of the psalm carries forward the ideas of the first two; God not only sees the invisible, and penetrates the inaccessible, but is intimately involved with us. He who transcends all time and space is involved in both, in the work of our own creation, and since we cannot escape from His presence we run into His arms, and find that this removes all fear in the intimacy of unconditional love.

Having penetrated the depths of both heaven and sheol we now descend into the dark mysteries of the womb, and find that there, too, the hand of God is at work in our prenatal development. It is awesome indeed to ponder the fact that he who fixes the stars and plans their course through the heavens has also fixed my body together with such immense detail, and plans the course of my life through its earthly and heavenly journeys. Between God’s enormous plans for the universe, and His extraordinary attention to detail in the making of a human being, we are left simply to praise and adore. The problem of fear that held us initially is answered in the realization of His knowledge of us. Now we know that it is a loving knowledge, and that makes the difference. It is not the knowledge of a judge who wishes to condemn, but that of a father who wants to help and guide us to the fullness of life.

Mother earth, the mother of all living things, is also a dark womb that houses us throughout our earthly pilgrimage, as God’s delicate hands work with us in the secret place of our spirit, to fashion us into the fully redeemed person, the ideal man or woman. During all his days, therefore, man needs to look to this wonderful knowledge of God to guide him. Yet he is aware that somehow God keeps a record of everything in “The Book of the Living” (see Exodus 32:32-33; Psalm 69:28), and this knowledge of being one of the elect gives the poet a sense of security. He is not only God’s creature but also part of God’s family.

So overwhelmed is the poet by the contemplation of all these wonders that he now exclaims in reverential awe that the mystery of God is impenetrable, and all His thoughts inscrutable. To comprehend the living God one would need to be God! As for us creatures, it will take all eternity to try to grasp the wonder of His being, and this will keep us occupied with praise and adoration.

O God, that you would slay the wicked!
Men of blood, keep far away from me!
With deceit they rebel against you
and set your designs at naught.

Do I not hate those who hate you,
abhor those who rise against you?
I hate them with a perfect hate
and they are foes to me.

O search me, God, and know my heart.
O test me and know my thoughts.
See that I follow not the wrong path
and lead me in the path of life eternal.
                                     (vv. 19-24).

The abrupt return to everyday realities from the heights of contemplation comes to us with a shock. Suddenly the psalmist is faced again with the problem of evil-doers, and his reaction to them must be interpreted in the light of the vision he has just seen. The rebellion of the wicked is intolerable to him now, and he rejects their evil influence vehemently. His reaction reminds one of Moses seeing the idolatry of Israel on his return from sojourning with God for forty days on Mount Sinai (see Exodus 32:15-24). The reverential awe of God is behind this, but his understanding of God is limited, for he has not realized that the presence of the just and the wicked on the earth is all part of God’s inscrutable ways. He is also limited by the thinking of his own day, where justice had to be seen to be done.

A greater revelation was yet to come, through Jesus, of God’s compassion for His wayward children, and His incomprehensible love that would make Jesus die for the release of sinners. The psalmist here thinks that only the innocent are acceptable to God, so he protests his innocence by declaring loudly that he hates evil with all his heart. He had to learn that while God, too, hates sin, yet He loves the sinner infinitely, and does not wish his death but only his salvation. At the same time the poet is right in his insight that commitment to God in holiness demands a rejection of all fellowship with sin (see 2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

The psalm finishes in a mood opposite to that of its beginning. Here the poet is much more confident in this God whom he has come to know so much better, and so he asks the all-knowing God to put a searchlight into his heart and expose the thoughts that are hidden there, so that he can receive guidance to go forward in his spiritual journey. Here we see a very important principle: that knowledge which is theoretical will merely make us self-important, but knowledge gained through experience, especially when it is acted upon, will increase our maturity.

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