Psalms 139

Psalms 139. God, thou who knowest all things, and art everywhere present, searchest me and knowest me, ver. 1-12. For thou hast formed me, ver. 13-18. Before thee, to whom my heart lies open, I pro-test that I have no fellowship with the wicked, but that I hate them in my heart, and I pray that thou wouldst keep with me the everlasting favour promised to me, from which I have not excluded myself by any guilt of my own, ver. 19-24. The Psalm falls into four times three pairs of verses. That the Psalm is not accidentally placed beside the preceding one, that it rather unites with it by an internal connection, ap-pears most distinctly from the relation of the “lead me upon the everlasting way” of the conclusion here, with the “Lord, thy mercy (toward David and his race) endures for ever,” at the close of Psalms 138. Besides, the מרהוק, in ver. 2, also refers back to that Psalm, as do also ver. 9-12; comp. them with ver. 7 there.

If this relation is rightly ascertained, then the view to be taken of the present Psalm is the following. The preceding Psalm praises the Lord on account of the promise of everlasting favour which had been granted to David.

Here David comes forth be-fore the Lord, shewing himself here as always deeply penetrated by the conviction, that the righteous alone can partake in salva-tion, comp. on Psalms 26., and protests before him, as the searcher of hearts, that he had not made the promise void through his guilt. David peaks here not merely in his own person, but in that of his whole race; and so the Psalm is an indirect exhorta-tion to his successors on the throne, and, at the same time, to the people, whose predominant spirit was represented in them. The Lord’s favour endures for ever–so David exclaims to them-but take good heed that ye allow yourselves in no sin, nor act con-trary to the commands of God. For only if ye can comfort your-selves by submitting to the trial of the Omniscient, only if ye can confidently address to him the “search me and know me,” can ye hope to have a share in this salvation. If, on the other hand, you are among the wicked, you can never hope to escape the avenging hand of the Almighty, comp. on ver. 7 and 8. The consideration of the divine omniscience and omnipresence,however, has not merely this admonitory import, which is the only one commonly brought out by interpreters-(in that point of view Psalms 101. exactly corresponds, and the introduction there ought to be compared; there also the other analogies from the Davidic Psalms are produced)-but it has also a consolatory import; and the overlooking of this has done great harm to the exposition, and led the way to a mistaken view of a series of passages, where it decidedly comes out; comp. especially ver. 9-12, ver. 13-16.

The Psalmist grounds upon the declaration thou searchest me and knowest me, in the conclusion which exhibits the practical result, not merely the prayer, “search me and know my heart,” but also the farther request, “lead me in the everlasting way.” The Omniscient knows not only our guilt and innocence, he knows also the straits of his people. The All-present is not only always at hand with his judgments to chastise the apostate, but also there with his salvation to support the faithful.

There can be no doubt about these two references. But a third, which has been discovered by some, is to be rejected, viz., that David invokes God for judgment on the wicked. Through-out the whole Psalm, and especially at the beginning and the close, which contain the sum, the Psalmist has to do only with himself, and such a turning toward what is without, would have been a violation of its character; the more so as he speaks only of the wicked as such, not of his wicked enemies; ver. 19-22, the verses in which they are mentioned, contain rather a protes-tation of innocence on the part of the Psalmist, in the form of a renunciation of the wicked, and a declaration of his sincere and cordial hatred toward them. The Davidic authorship of the Psalm is attested, besides the superscription, the contents, and connection with Psalms 138., by the various points of contact it presents with the other Psalms of David, and by the depth and original character of the feelings described. An objection has been sought by several in the Chal-daisms that occur, but an explanation is given of these in ver. 6, 17, and 18. Penetrated by the loftiness of his subject, the Psalmist shuns also in the form what is of common and daily use.

Psalms 139:1-6

Ver. 1-6.-Ver. 1. To the chief musician, of David. Lord thou searchest me and knowest. Ver. 2. Thou knowest mysitting down an my rising up, thou understandest my thoughts afar of. Ver. 3. My way and my couch thou markest, andart familiar with all my ways. Ver. 4. For there is not a word upon my tongue, lo, Lord, thou knowest it all. Ver. 5. Behind and before thou dost beset me, and layest upon me thy hand. Ver. 6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, highand I cannot reach it.-Ver. 1 contains the sum of the wholePsalm. At the word: thou knowest, we are not simply to sup-ply me-also in ver. 23, it is not the suffix, but my heart, whichis found-but all that is here generally to be known, all that be-longs to the subject in hand: the expansion of the idea is givenin what follows, where the expression, “ thou knowest,” againreturns. For the very purpose of pointing to this relation, theknowing here is left without its object. The matter on which thesearching and knowing are employed is not merely the guilt orinnocence of the Psalmist, although this come more immediatelyinto view-comp. in reference to this the parallel passages, Psalms 44:21, Job 13:9,–but also his position and state: Godknows also “the necessities of the soul,” “ he knows thy painand domestic sorrows, and the time when to come to thee.” –Thesitting in ver. 2 denotes rest; the rising up, the raising of one’ sself to go to work-comp.

Psalms 127:2 -q. d., what in a state ofrest or of activity, I think, feel, speak, act, and how it goes withme. Understood thus, the mention of the thought in the secondmember is quite suitable. בין with ל to have insight in regardto something. רע in the signification of thought only here, andin ver. 17; in a hind place, often quoted in support of the same,Job 36:33, it is used in its common acceptation, friend.

Afar off, according to some, must mean: long before they come intomy mind. But that we must rather explain: the far distancebetween heaven and earth sets no bounds to thy knowledge, isclear from Ps. Exodus 18:6, and from Jeremiah 23:23, “Am I a Godnigh at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?” Schmid:“as if being in heaven I should not know the things which aredone on earth,” pomp. ver. 24. David utters here a contradictionagainst the error of ungodliness seeking to banish God into hea-ven, as expressed in Job 22:12-14, “Dwells not God in theheight of heaven? and behold the stars, how high they are.Therefore thou sayest, How doth God know? Can he judgethrough the darkness? The clouds are a covering to him, and he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.” God’s being in heaven is, according to the view of Scripture, no limitation of God, but a designation of his absolute being: not merely although, but just because God is in heaven, he is not far from every one of us.

Calvin: “God is not shut up in heaven, as if he delighted in an idle repose (as the Epicureans feigned), and neglected human affairs, but though we live at a great distance from him, still he is not far from us."-The רבע in ver. 3, is the poetical form of רבץ reappearing again in the Chaldee. This never sig-nifies the lying, but always the couch, the place of rest.

To this also agrees the ארה, not the going, but the way, the poetical ex-pression for the common ך`רד used in the second member. My way and my resting-place, for, me as I feel and act on the way and in the place of my rest, what I there do and experience. By the way, also, is not merely to be understood the deeds, but also what hap-pens. זרה, properly, to sift them, poetically, to prove, to know-Luther’s translation: thou art about me, is grounded upon the false Rabinical derivation from רזe crown.�The grounding (for) is givenin ver. 4 only by a further expansion. It is only when the pre-ceding context is viewed in a mistaken light, that something higher is found here than there. We must not explain: For there is still no word; but the expression: Lo, Lord, thou knowest it all, rather stands, as Luther correctly perceived, for, which the Lord does not all know. In ver. 5, the Psalmist already proceeds fromthe territory of the all-knowing, to that of the all-present-an easy and gentle transition, since, according to the view of Scripture, the omniscience of God is founded in his omnipresence.

To the: behind and before, there is supplied from the last member: from above; so that I am on all sides surrounded and environed by thee, can do nothing, and suffer nothing, without being seen by thee, and being always in thy power, either to be punished or assisted.-Before the Psalmist advances farther in the representation, begun in ver. 5, of the divine omnipresence, lie breaks out in ver. 6, into admiration of this superhuman glory, so far exceeding even all human conception; comp. Romans 11:33.

The reading of the text היA.אiל;פiis the feminine of יאiל;פi, wonderful. The Masorites would sub-stitute for this the fem. of the uncertain form פליא. There is a similar wrong Kri in Judges 13:18. Comp., on the expression:it is too wonderlful for me, Deuteronomy 30:11, to which perhaps an allusion is made, and Proverbs 30:18. The knowing must, accord-ing to several interpreters, be the divine; but then neither the suffix nor the article would have been used. What is meant is rather, the human knowledge of the divine omniscience and omnipresence, which always infinitely falls short of its infinite object, and worships before it, without being able to penetrate its depth.

Psalms 139:7-12

Ver. 7-12. Ver. 7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Andwhither shall I gee from thy presence? Ver. 8. If I ascend into heaven, thou art there; and if I should make any bed in hell, behold thou art there. Ver. 9 Take I the wings of the morning-dawn, would I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Ver. 10. Even there would thy hand lead me, and thy right hand hold me. Ver. 11. And if I say: Surely the dark-ness shall crush me, then at night was the light about me. Ver. 12. Even the darkness darkens not before thee, and the night shines as the day; darkness is as the light,-Ver. 7 and 8 cut off all hope of deliverance from the sinner, by pointing to the omnipresence of God. The the tight is to be supplied: If I had cause to fear thy judging eye, and thine avenging hand, and to hide myself from them. Amos i 10:2 is to be compared: “If they (the sinners) should break trough into hell, there will my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.” The Spirit of the Lord is his power and presence operating in the world; comp. in Psalms 106:33, the history of the creation, and Psalms 33:6. Incorrectly some: the Spirit who knows all things. הציע Is denom, from יצוע, to make a couch, bed, or something for a bed; precisely as here in Isaiah 58:5, and the Hiph. Isaiah 14:11, Esther 4:3, comp. Ewald § 122. The accus. שאול, finds in this an obvious explanation. Job 26:5; Job 26:6 is to be compared. On ver. 9, 10, comp.

Psalms 55:6; Psalms 55:8 : “Oh that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and abide. Lo! I would fly far off, I would lodge in the wilderness. I would make haste to a refuge from the strong wind, from the tempest.” This very similar passage shews, that we are not to think of a desire of being at a distance from God as the motive for flight, but the desire of escaping from the enemies. To the same result also are we conducted by the ex-pression: “thy hand will lead me,” under which we can thinkonly of a friendly leading; compare Psalms 73:24; Psalms 23:3; Psalms 5:8; Psalms 27:11, &c., and of this Ps. ver. 24. (Falsely, therefore, many: minus tua, ex qua elabi conarer.) The right hand also is to be regarded as that which is ready to help, comp. Psalms 18:16. That in both members: thy hand will lead me, and: thy right hand will hold me, God’s omnipresence is applied for the consola-tion of the helpless, apparently quite excluded from his aid, yet still, wherever he may be, secure within the territory of God, still farther appears quite clearly from the reference which they carry to ver. 7 of the internally related Psalms 138.: “Against the wrath of mine enemies do thou stretch forth thy hand, and deliver me with thy right hand.” Hence ver. 7, where the Psalmist speaks of his fleeing from the presence of God, belongs not to the whole section, ver. 7-12, but only to ver. 8, with which it is united into a pair. The morning-dawn is brought here into no-tice in respect to the speed with which its rays dart from one end of the earth to the other. Such extraordinary means needed to be called into requisition, in order to reach the distant end, that could not be attained in the common way. It is better to trans-late: take I (comp. the had I in Psalms 55:6) than lift I, with com-parison of Eze 10:16, In order to lift up wings, one must still first have them.

The uttermost parts, the ends of the sea, are at the same time the ends of the earth. As the furthest point in the breadth, stands here in connection with the furthest depth and the furthest height in ver. 8, for the purpose of expressing the thought, that in the whole universe there is no point whereGod is not present. The usage, according to which ים also meansthe western regions, is not to be thought of.-Ver. 11 and 12 become plain, as soon as we adhere, in the explanation of ישופניitself to the more certain usage, and are not driven hither and thither after conjectural meanings. שוף signifies, in the two other passages where it occurs, Genesis 3:15, Job 9:17, unquestion-ably to bruise, and this signification, which the LXX. (ךבפבנᾰפחףוי) and the Vulgate (conculcabit) retain also here, will be found quite suitable, when we do not miss the proper interpretation of the two preceding verses, and are not led generally to suppose, that the Psalmist had in view only a one-sided application of the divine omnipresence. The darkness is here brought into consi-deration, not as a sort of covering for the heart and actions ofmen from the presence of God, or from his avenging hand, as in Job 34:21; Job 34:22, Jeremiah 23:24, but as exposing to danger, from being that in which robbers and murderers execute their designs. Besides darkness in this natural sense, respect is also had to darkness in the very common figurative sense; comp. Isaiah 1:10, “Whoever walks without light, let him trust upon the name of the Lord, and stay himself on his God;” so that the words in Psalms 138:7, “When I walk in the midst of trouble,” are quite parallel. Thine all-seeing eye, thine almighty hand, is at work also in the deepest darkness, where no human eye pene-trates, no human hand avails: Thou, the all-present, to whom the contrasts of heaven and earth, earth and hell, one’s set-tled home and the end of the earth, import nothing, so neither do the contrasts of light and darkness. Thou art with me when I walk through the valley of death-darkness, and deliverest me from it. What is generally found in the passage in a direct man-ner may certainly be deduced from it. If helpless innocence, veiled in darkness, is not concealed from God, neither assuredly can guilt be so, when attempting to hide itself in darkness. ך`א, only, has here the import of a strengthening particle, comp. Psalms 58:11; Psalms 68:22.

It points to this, that the crushing power of darkness appears to stand as a thing beyond all doubt. Luther renders the second member: so must the night become also light about me. But according to ver. 9 and 10 the minor is more properly begun at ver. 12. The light about me, the light that encircles me for my protection. Upon ך`ישהה, in ver. 12, always to make dark, to darken, never to be dark (Luther: even darkness is not darkness to thee) comp. on Psalms 105:28. Before thee, so that thou couldst not see through it.

In reference to the double כ at the end, see Ew. �˜ 347.

Psalms 139:13-18

Ver. 13-18.-Ver. 13. For thou host my reins in thy power thou wert over me in my mother’s womb. Ver. 14. I praise thee on this account, that I am greatly distinguished; wonder- ful are thy works; and that my soul well knows. Ver. 15. My strength was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, when I was woven in the depths of the earth. Ver. 16. Thine eyes saw me, when I still was unprepared, and in thy book were they all written, the days which were still to be, and of which none then was. Ver. 17. And how precious are to me, O God, thythoughts, how great is their sum! Ver. 18. I will number them, there is more of them than the sand, I awake and am still with thee.—The for in ver. 13 does not refer specially to what imme- diately precedes, but to the fundamental thought which pervades the whole section, ver. 1-12: thou searchest and knowest me. This is proved by the fact that man already belongs to God from the first beginnings of his existence, that God glorifies himself in his first formation, and has even then pre-arranged all his des-tiny. How could such a being be strange to God! How could his heart be hidden from him! or his troubles be unknown, indif-ferent, or accidental! It appears that the: for thou, here refers back to the thou in ver. 2. The reins are known as the seat of the desires and feelings, the region where sinful passion boils, and where pain also plants its seat.

This region God has in his power as the creator of man, as is more fully declared in what follows, and so nothing can be concealed from him which passes in this secret workshop. קנה always signifies to possess, to hold posses-sion of, never to make. תסכני is rendered: thou hast covered or protected me, by the LXX., Vulg. Pesch.; Luther: thou wast over me.

It is commonly translated now: thou hast woven me, with comp. of Job 10:11. But ך`כס signifies always to cover, and, what is decisive, it is used thus in the closely-related follow-ing Psalm, ver. 8. This signification is quite suitable here also. The covering and protection consists, according to what follows, in the oversight and protection, which is exercised by God in re-gard to the germ of life, which is perfectly impotent in itself. How could he, who had manifested these, be indifferent and care-less in respect to the work of his hands, comp. Ps. xxii, 9, Job-x. 12.

Let him, whom sinful lust or despair in regard to God’s omniscence and omniprescence would cause to err, ascend to the original of his being, and he will be ashamed of himself, and re-verently adore.-Ver. 14 does not form a sort of side-thought, but the more glorious the formation of man is, so much the stronger the proof of God’s absolute omniscience and omnipresence, so much the more striking the testimony it furnishes against those who abandon themselves to sin, under the idea that God sees not and judges not, or surrender themselves to despair, sayingMy way is hidden from God, Job 10:9-11. The roots פלא andפלה are never interchanged, comp. on Psalms 4:3; Psalms 17:7, but theyare nearly related both in form and meaning. נוראות found also in David’s mouth in Psalms 65:5, 2 Samuel 7:23; and else-where, is used here adverbially, as נפלאות in Job 37:5. עצם, in ver. 15 undoubtedly signifies strength in the two other places where it occurs, and is there also in the female form.

This meaning is therefore to be retained also here. But: my strength, is a poetical expression, for: my bones or skeleton, םצ,ע,, so namedfrom the strength connected with it, with the addition perhaps of the sinews, which, together with the bones, make up the strength of the body-comp. Job 10:11, “with bones and sinews hast thou interwoven me.” It was not hidden from thee, for thou hast pre- pared it for me, since thou bast woven me together with bones and sinews. By the depths of the earth Sheol is indicated, comp. Psalms 63:9. As no trace is to be found of the pre-existence of man in Sheol, as here also the subject discoursed of is the bodily formation of main, while to the Sheol could belong in that case only the soul, and the Psalmist, finally, has to do here only with what took place in his mother’s womb, there must, therefore, be supposed an abbreviated comparison: in a place, so dark and concealed as the depths of the earth.

Similar is Job 1:21, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall re-turn to it again,” in a state resembling the former. As the point of comparison in the parallel: in the hidden, is expressly an-nounced, the assertion is to be rejected, that the comparison pointsto the region of the dead as to the womb of a resurrection-life.” גלם in ver. 16 of the still unformed embryonic mass.

The suff. in כלם is used by way of anticipation, and refers to the days. If this should appear too bard to any one, he can with Hupfeld understand by גלם, the ball of the thread of life, and to this refer the suffix. For, the other constructions are too violent and constrained. The יצר (here P�) is elsewhere also often used of the divine pre-determination, as contrasted with its execution and its actual introduction. The days are brought into consideration here partly in respect to themselves, compare Job 14:5, “Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with thee,” partly also in respect to the events which they contain for men, comp. Psalms 56:8.

And there was not one among them, the days pre-determined by thee. It is not worth while to inquire what the Masorites meant by their Kri, לו.

The consolatory tendency ofthe Psalm comes here distinctly out. If our whole being is by God pre-arranged, how then can any thing befal us, which he has not in his hand, which he does not see, or in regard to which he is unable at the proper time to administer help to us?-The thoughts of God in ver. 17 are of him, as the searching and know-ing, judging and helping in regard to all that lives upon the earth. In reference to the expression: precious = glorious, comp. on Psalms 45:9; Psalms 36:7 : “How precious (glorious) is thy goodness, 0 God”-one of the passages very nearly related to this, the more so, as among the thoughts, the saving and helping have here also an important place. Against the explanation: how pre-cious, how hard to be reached, how difficult are they, the paral-lelism already decides. Of the four members of the two verses, ver. 2 and 3, 1 and 4 correspond, as Ewald has excellently re-marked. In the second member of ver. 18 the Psalmist does not praise his zeal in maintaining fellowship with God, and meditat-ing upon his thoughts, but the glorious riches of these thoughts themselves, which so chain him, that he cannot isolate himself from God, that God is not merely his thought by day, but also his dream by night.

A thinking, which is not interrupted even by sleep, which renders dreams also of service, must be stirred by some mighty object. Psalms 16:7; Psalms 63:6 are related.

Psalms 139:19-24

Ver. 19-24.—Ver. 19. If thou only killest, God, the wicked, and ye men of blood depart from me. Ver. 20. Those who name thee for crime, bear away for lies as thine enemies. Ver. 21. Shall I not hate, Lord, thy haters, and abhor those that rise up against thee? Ver. 22. I hate them in right earnest, they are enemies to me. Ver. 23. Search me, God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts. Ver. 24. And see if there be with me any way of trouble, and lead me in the way of eternity. As the אם ver. 19 is not a particle of desire, compare at Psalms 81:9, there is to be supplied: it will be agreeable to me, I will cordially praise thee, or something similar. That the Psalmist declares himself content with the overthrow of the wicked, skews how little he partici-pates in their feeling, and prepares the way for the confident de-mand: Search me, God, and know my heart, in ver. 23. Men of blood, a common expression with David, comp. 5:6, 26:9, Leviticus 23, passages which have only to be looked at to see whatshould be made of the remark: “Men of blood, on account of their libations of blood.” On the words: depart from me, q. d., get you away, I have nothing to do with you, we are not to comp. Psalms 6:8; Psalms 119:115, but Job 21:14 : “And they (the wicked) say unto God, depart from us,” and Matthew 7:23.

Luther falsely: And the blood-thirsty must depart from me, as if the Psalmist called in God’s help against the wicked, through which the whole train of thought in the Psalm is destroyed. In ver. 20 ימרו is from אמר, with the dropping of א, as in 2 Samuel 19:14.

They who speak to thee, with poetical boldness, for, they who use thy name-comp. 40:11. That we must explain: for crime, for the promotion of that, not criminally (Luther: slanderously) appears from the second member. In this member, נשוא is put by a poetical transposition for נשאו, comp. Psalms 8:7. It unquestion-ably rests upon Exodus 20:7, to which also Psalms 24:4 alludes: thou shalt not bear the name of the Lord to a lie, that is, thou shalt leave it unmixed with lies, not use it for the confirmation of a lie-comp. on Psalms 24. Accordingly the suffix is here to be supplied from the first member, bear thee away for lying and deceit.

The two members stand in the same relation to each other, as the two members of Psa 24:4; only that the position there is an inverse one: who does not bear away his soul to a lie, and swears not to deceit. As thine enemies (the ער, enemy in 1 Samuel 28:16, and Daniel 4:16, not Isaiah 14:21), for every one is an enemy of the Lord, who mixes him up with sin, and degrades him into the means of compassing his bad ends.

Luther’s translation: and thine enemies raise themselves without cause, is dissipated by the one consideration, that נשא never signifies to raise one’s self. Besides, there is naturally only one particular manifestation brought out here of the corruption of the wicked, in order to characterize them as such.-The expression: shall I not hate, in ver. 21, presents the hatred as something entirely natural to the true servant of God, a thing be understood by him of itself, and consequently a necessary mark of a gracious state; q. d., how could I do otherwise than hate them? Calvin: “When he says that the despisers of God were hateful to him, he vindicates by this eulogium his own integrity, not because he was himself free from all failings, but because, devoted to the cultivation of piety, he thoroughly adhorred all impiety. For never does thelove of piety sufficiently flourish in our hearts, unless it begets in us a hatred of crimes, such as David here declares. Then, if that zeal for the house of God burns in us, of which David speaks in Psalms 69:9, it will be inexcusable coldness in us, if we tacitly allow not only his righteousness to be violated, but also his sacred name to be insolently trodden under foot by the wicked? Upon תקומם, abbreviated from מתקומם, comp.

Ewald �˜ 160, a.�In ver. 22 Luther translates quite erroneously: therefore are they hostile to me, instead of: therefore are they enemies to me, I judge and consider them as such; because they are God’s enemies, they are also mine; which alone suits the connection.-With such feeling, as he has expressed in ver. 19-22, with such hearty abhorrence of the wicked and in respect to them, the Psalmist can call upon God, by way of consolation, to search and prove him, even to the lowest depths of his heart, ver. 23. He knows that this inquisi-tion and trial, to which at all events he is subject, and which he cannot escape, ver. 1, will establish for him a favourable result. -עצב, ver. 24, means heavy work, so in Isaiah 48:5 my work, for the idols, which I have laboriously made; parallel: my carved work, and my graven work-the trouble, pain.

The way of pain is the way, which leads to pain. Such a way of pain, a painful course and manner of life, including what is experienced as well as done, belongs to those whose heart departs from the living God, and who walk in the wickedness of their heart, comp. Psalms 16:4. The Psalmist had no reason to apprehend such a way, so far as the passage, ver. 19-22, contains the language of truth. The contrast to the way of pain forms the way of eternity-the way that leads to eternity. There is an allusion to the close of the preceding Psalm: Lord, thy favour (toward me) endures for ever; q. d. upon the way, which leads to the blessed eternity promised me by thee (the endless continuance and prosperity of the Davidic stem and kingdom), which I have not lost through any guilt of mine,