Psalm 139
139:1. He invokes in adoration Jehovah, the all-knowing God, and he proceeds to adore him by proclaiming one of his especial attributes. If we would praise God aright we must draw the matter of our praise from himself—thou hast. The Lord knows all things as a matter of course, and not by any effort on his part. He knows us as thoroughly as if he had examined us minutely, and had pried into the most secret corners of our being. Note how the psalmist makes his knowledge personal: he does not say, “O God, thou knowest all things,” but, thou … hast known me. It is wisdom to lay truth home to ourselves.
139:2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising. Me thou knowest, and all that comes of me. My most common and casual acts, my most needful and necessary movements, are noted by thee, and thou knowest the inward thoughts which regulate them. Whether I sink in lowly self-renunciation, or ascend in pride, thou seest the motions of my mind, as well as those of my body. Sitting down to consider, or rising up to act, we are still seen, known, and read by our Lord.
Thou understandest my thought afar off. Before it is my own it is foreknown and comprehended by thee. Though as yet I be not myself cognizant of the shape my thought is assuming, yet thou perceivest its nature, its source, its drift, its result.
139:3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down. My running and my resting are alike within thine observation. I may leave thy path, but thou never leavest mine. I may sleep and forget thee, but thou dost never slumber, nor fall into oblivion concerning thy creature. The original signifies not only surrounding, but winnowing and sifting. The Lord judges our active life and our quiet life; he marks that in them which is good and also that which is evil.
And art acquainted with all my ways. Nothing is concealed from thee, nor misunderstood by thee. This should fill us with awe, so that we sin not; with courage, so that we fear not; with delight, so that we mourn not.
139:4. Divine knowledge is perfect, since not a single word is unknown, not even an unspoken word, and each one is altogether or wholly known. What hope of concealment can remain when the speech with which too many conceal their thoughts is itself transparent before the Lord?
139:5. Thou hast beset me behind and before. As though we were caught in an ambush, or besieged by an army, we are surrounded by the Lord. Behind us there is God recording our sins, or in grace blotting out the remembrance of them; and before us there is God foreknowing all our deeds, and providing for all our wants. Lest we should imagine that the surrounding presence is yet a distant one, it is added, And laid thine hand upon me. The prisoner marches along surrounded by a guard, and gripped by an officer. God is very near; we are wholly in his power; from that power there is no escape. It is not said that God will thus beset us and arrest us, but it is done—Thou hast beset me. Shall we not alter the figure, and say that our Heavenly Father has folded his arms around us, and caressed us with his hand?
139:6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. I cannot grasp it. I can hardly endure to think of it. The theme overwhelms me. I am amazed and astounded at it. Such knowledge not only surpasses my comprehension, but even my imagination.
It is high, I cannot attain unto it. This truth seems to be always above me, even when I soar in spiritual thought. Is it not so with every attribute of God? Can we attain any idea of his power, his wisdom, his holiness? Our mind has no line with which to measure the Infinite.
139:7–12. Here omnipresence is the theme—a truth to which omniscience naturally leads.
139:7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Not that the psalmist wished to avoid the power of the divine life. Note that the writer makes the matter personal to himself—Whither shall I go? Jehovah is omnipresent to me. Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? No answer comes. From the sight of God he cannot be hidden, but that is not all—from the immediate, actual, constant presence of God he cannot be withdrawn. This makes it dreadful to sin, for we commit treason at the very foot of his throne. His mind is in our mind, himself within ourselves. His Spirit is over our spirit; our presence is ever in his presence.
139:8. If I ascend up into heaven thou art there. Jehovah is in the heavenly place, upon his throne. Note the abrupt words: “Thou, there.”
If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. Descending into the lowest imaginable depths among the dead, there we should find the Lord. “Thou!” says the psalmist, as if he felt that God was the one great Existence in all places. A behold is added, since it seems more a wonder to meet with God in hell than in heaven. Of course the presence of God produces very different effects in these places, but it is unquestionably in each; the bliss of one, the terror of the other.
139:9. Light flies with inconceivable rapidity, but its speed would utterly fail if employed in flying from the Lord. Were we to break into oceans unknown to chart and map, yet there we should find the Lord already present. He who saves to the uttermost would be with us in the uttermost parts of the sea.
139:10. Even there shall thy hand lead me. We could only fly from God by his own power. The Lord would be leading, covering, preserving, sustaining us even when we were fugitives from him. And thy right hand shall hold me. Both the hands of God are with his own servants to sustain them, and against rebels to overthrow them; and in this respect it matters not to what realms they resort, the active energy of God is around them still.
139:11. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me. Dense darkness may oppress me, but it cannot shut me out from thee, or thee from me. Thou art present with me whatever the hour, and being present thou discoverest all that I think, or feel, or do.
Even the night shall be light about me. Let us think of this if ever we are tempted to take license from the dark. Note well how David keeps his song in the first person; let us mind that we do the same as we cry with Hagar, “Thou God seest me.”
139:12. Yea, beyond all denial.
The darkness hideth not from thee. It veils nothing. It hides from people, but not from God.
But the night shineth as the day—quite as clearly manifesting all that is done.
The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. This sentence seems to sum up all that went before. The ungodly are still duped by their groveling notions of God, and inquire, “How does God know?” They must fancy that he is as limited in his powers of observation as they are, and yet if they would but consider for a moment they would conclude that he who could not see in the dark could not be God, and he who is not present everywhere could not be the Almighty Creator. The Great Spirit comprehends within himself all time and space, and yet he is infinitely greater than these, or aught else that he has made.
139:13. For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou art the owner of my inmost parts and passions: not the indweller and observer only, but the acknowledged Lord and possessor of my most secret self. The word reins signifies the kidneys, which by the Hebrews were supposed to be the seat of the desires and longings; but perhaps it indicates here the most hidden and vital portions of the person; this God not only inspects and visits, but it is his own.
Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. There I lay hidden—covered by thee. Before I could know thee, or aught else, thou hadst a care for me, and didst hide me away as a treasure till thou didst see fit to bring me to the light.
139:14. I will praise thee. A good resolve, and one which he was even now carrying out. Those who wish to praise have subjects for adoration ready to hand. We too seldom remember our creation, and all the skill and kindness bestowed upon our frame.
For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The science of anatomy was quite unknown to the psalmist, and yet he had seen enough to arouse his admiration of the work and his reverence for the Worker.
Marvelous are thy works. These parts of my frame are all thy works; and though they be close under my own eye, yet are they wonderful to the last degree. They are within my own self, yet beyond my understanding. We need not go to the ends of the earth for marvels; they abound in our own bodies.
And that my soul knoweth right well. He was no doubter—his soul knew. Those know of a truth who first know the Lord, and then know all things in him. He was made to know the marvelous nature of God’s work with assurance and accuracy, for he had found by experience that the Lord is a master-worker, performing inimitable wonders when accomplishing his kind designs. What shall we not say of that new birth which is even more mysterious than the first, and exhibits even more the love and wisdom of the Lord?
139:15. My substance was not hid from thee. The substantial part of my being was before thine all-seeing eye. The essential materials of my being before they were arranged were all within the range of thine eye. They were hidden from all human knowledge, but not from thee.
When I was made in secret. Most beautifully is here described the formation of our being before the time of our birth. Much of the formation of our inner man still proceeds in secret; hence the more of solitude the better for us. The true church also is being fashioned in secret, so that none may cry, “Lo, here!” or “Lo, there!” as if that which is visible could ever be identical with the invisibly growing body of Christ.
And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. “Embroidered with great skill” is an accurate poetical description of the creation of veins, sinews, muscles, nerves, etc. Cannot he who made us wondrously when we were not, still carry on his work of power till he has perfected us, though we feel unable to aid in the process, and are lying in great sorrow and self-loathing, as though cast into the lowest parts of the earth?
139:16. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect. While the vessel was upon the wheel the Potter saw it all.
And in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. An architect draws his plans, and makes out his specifications; just so did the great Maker of our frame write down all our members in the book of his purposes. That we have eyes, and ears, and hands, and feet, is all due to the wise and gracious purpose of heaven: it was so ordered in the secret decree by which all things are as they are. God’s purposes concern our limbs and faculties. Their form, and shape, and everything about them were appointed of God long before they had any existence. God saw us when we could not be seen, and he wrote about us when there was nothing of us to write about. When as yet there were none of our members in existence, all those members were before the eye of God in the sketch-book of his foreknowledge and predestination.
This verse is an exceedingly difficult one to translate, but we do not think that any of the proposed amendments are better than the rendering afforded us by the Authorized Version. The large number of words in italics will warn the English reader that the sense is hard to come at, and difficult to express, and that it would be unwise to found any doctrine upon the English words; happily there is no temptation to do so.
The great truth expressed in these lines has by many been referred to the formation of the mystical body of our Lord Jesus. Of course, what is true of man, as man, is emphatically true of Him who is the representative man. The great Lord knows who belong to Christ; his eye perceives the chosen members who will yet be made one with the living person of the mystical Christ. He sees their substance, unperfect though they be.
139:17. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! He is not alarmed at the fact that God knows all about him; on the contrary, he is comforted, and even feels himself to be enriched. That God should think upon him is the believer’s treasure and pleasure. It is a joy worth worlds that the Lord should think upon us who are so poor and needy: it is a joy which fills our whole nature to think upon God, returning love for love, thought for thought, after our poor fashion.
How great is the sum of them! Thoughts of our pardon, renewal, upholding, supplying, educating, perfecting, and a thousand more kinds perpetually well up in the mind of the Most High. What a contrast is this to the notion of a world without a thinking, personal God! Conceive of a grim providence of machinery—a fatherhood of law! Such philosophy is hard and cold. But a God always thinking of us makes a happy world, a rich life, a heavenly hereafter.
139:18. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. The task of counting God’s thoughts of love would be never-ending. This is not hyperbole, but the solid fact of inspired statement: God thinks upon us infinitely; there is a limit to the act of creation, but not to the might of divine love.
When I am awake, I am still with thee. Thy thoughts of love are so many that my mind never gets away from them; they surround me at all hours. I go to my bed, and God is my last thought; and when I wake I find my mind still hovering about his palace-gates: God is ever with me, and I am ever with him. If during sleep my mind dreams, it only wanders upon holy ground. The psalmist does not say, “When I awake I return to thee,” but, I am still with thee, as if his meditations were continuous, and his communion unbroken.
139:19. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God. Thou hast seen all their transgressions, which indeed have been done in thy presence. If the eye of God is grieved with the presence of evil, it is but natural to expect that he will remove the offending object. God who sees all evil will slay all evil. Such is his love of holiness, and hatred of wrong, that he will carry on war to the death with those whose hearts and lives are wicked. God will not always let his creation be defiled by the presence of wickedness.
Depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. Men who delight in cruelty and war are not fit companions for those who walk with God. David chases them from his court, for he is weary of those of whom God is weary. We tremble in the society of the ungodly lest their doom should fall upon them suddenly, and we should see them dead at our feet. We do not wish to have our place of fellowship turned into a gallows of execution.
139:20. For they speak against thee wickedly. Why should I bear their company when their talk sickens me? When people speak against God they will be sure to speak against us, if they find it serve their turn; hence godless people are not the stuff out of which true friends can ever be made. God gave these people their tongues, and they turn them against their Benefactor, from sheer malice.
And thine enemies take thy name in vain. To insult Jehovah’s glorious name is their amusement. How can God do other than slay them? How can we do other than withdraw from association with them? We ought not to wonder that people slander and deride us, for they do the same with the Most High.
139:21. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? He hated only those who hated good. Of this hatred he is not ashamed, but sets it forth as a virtue. To love everyone with benevolence is a duty, but to love any wicked person with complacency would be a crime. To hate someone for his own sake, or for any evil done to us, would be wrong; but to hate someone because he is the foe of all goodness and the enemy of all righteousness is an obligation. The more we love God the more indignant shall we grow with those who refuse him their affection.
And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? He appeals to heaven that he took no pleasure in those who rebelled against the Lord, but was made to mourn by a sight of their ill behavior.
139:22. I hate them with perfect hatred. He is as wholehearted in his hate of wickedness as in his love of goodness.
I count them mine enemies. They may have done him no ill, but if they are opposed to God, to his laws, and to the great principles of truth and righteousness, David proclaims war against them. Wickedness excludes people from the communion of the just.
139:23. Search me, O God, and know my heart. He is sure that even by such an investigation there will be found in him no complicity with the wicked. We may each one desire such searching, for it would be a terrible calamity to us for sin to remain in our hearts unknown and undiscovered.
Try me, and know my thoughts. Read not alone the desires of my heart, but the fugitive thoughts of my head. What a mercy that there is one being who can know us to perfection! He is graciously inclined towards us, and is willing to bend his omniscience to serve the end of our sanctification. Let us pray as David did, and let us be as honest as he. We cannot hide our sin: salvation lies the other way, in a plain discovery of evil, and an effectual severance from it.
139:24. And see if there be any wicked thing in me. See whether there be in my heart, or in my life, any evil habit unknown to myself. If there be such an evil way, take me from it, take it from me. No matter how dear the wrong may have become, nor how deeply prejudiced I may have been in its favor, be pleased to deliver me therefrom altogether, effectually, and at once, that I may tolerate nothing which is contrary to thy mind. As I hate the wicked in their way, so would I hate every wicked way in myself.
And lead me in the way everlasting. If thou hast introduced me already to the good old way, be pleased to keep me in it, and conduct me further and further along it. It is a way which thou hast set up of old, it is based upon everlasting principles, and it is the way in which immortal spirits will gladly run forever. Conduct me into it, O Lord, and conduct me throughout the whole length of it.
The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
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