Psalms 139
Big idea: A psalm about being known, and it is not entirely comfortable about it. You hem me in behind and before — that is a besieging word. Then the flight attempt: heaven, Sheol, the far side of the sea, total darkness, and every route ends in the same place. Then the reason it is not surveillance: you knit me together in my mother's womb; your eyes saw my body when it was still being made. And the psalm ends by inviting the very examination it opened by describing — search me, God, and know my heart.
Psalm 139 asks to be searched. Psalm 140 asks to be delivered from men who search for a different reason.
139:1–12 — Where could I go from your Spirit?
The most examined psalm in the book, and its first movement is about being examined. What makes it more than comforting is verse 5 — 'you HEM ME IN behind and before' — which is the language of a siege as much as an embrace, and verse 6 admits he cannot get his mind round it. Then the flight, which fails in every direction he can name, including downward.
1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. 2 You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in behind and before. You laid your hand on me. 6 This knowledge is beyond me. It’s lofty. I can’t attain it. 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.
139:13–18 — Fearfully and wonderfully made
The most-quoted movement, and its images are craft images: KNIT together, WOVEN. Both are slow, deliberate, one-thread-at-a-time work. And verse 15 places it 'in the depths of the earth', which is the same darkness verse 12 just said was no obstacle — the psalm links the two on purpose. Being seen in the womb is the answer to being unable to hide.
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 their sum! 18 If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.
139:19–24 — Search me, God, and know my heart
The movement most readers wish were somewhere else, and its placement is the point. Having said God knows everything about him, the psalmist immediately opens his hatred to inspection too — and then, in the last two verses, asks to be searched. The verb in verse 23 is the same one verse 1 opened with. The psalm ends by requesting what it began by describing.
19 If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men! 20 For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain. 21 Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred. They have become my enemies. 23 Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. 24 See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).