Psalms 139

Psalms 139:1-24

Manifest in the presence of God, with the moral result of this. To the chief musician, a psalm of David. The last verse of the previous psalm, as so often is the case, leads on to the psalm that follows it. We see in this how truly we are the work of God’s hands, and the marvelousness of this work; and this naturally leads further to the recognition that we are still in His hands, who made us, and who will not forsake His work. Thus under His eye, searched out in the light of His presence, we yet realize the blessedness of this, and find with Him our sanctuary-refuge from the evil in ourselves as elsewhere. The psalm has a peculiar and elaborate structure,quite suited to the character of its contents: the regularity of it showing the perfect divine control of material, which belongs to the Creator of all. Its twenty-four verses are divided into four parts, -the number of testing, -each of six verses, the number of discipline and of mastery of evil; while each of these is again divided into three parts of two verses each, the numbers of manifestation and of witness together. The first section speaks of Jehovah’s omniscience simply, as realized by one who is under the awe of it, -a fear which in the second section breaks out into the cry of one who would fain escape to the ends of the earth or into Sheol itself to be free from it, but knows well the impossibility of this. In the third section there is a change, however, and a tender thankfulness comes in with the thought of how in the very womb of his mother this omniscience had been exercised in building up in mysterious secrecy the marvelous structure of the future man. The preciousness of God’s thoughts toward him now take possession of him, and that, sleeping or waking, the unslumbering Eye is on him becomes only happiness. In the fourth section he is now with God against the evil manifested in the world, and from that which he fears and hates within himself, the presence of God becomes now his sanctuary-refuge. He invites the searching Eye which once he dreaded. But we must take up the psalm in detail.

1. The first section, as already said, speaks of Jehovah’s omniscience; the first two verses, as knowledge simply, though the Light never withdrawn searches all out. But in the next verses, He winnows the path, -an intimation of discriminating judgment which would imply, as result, thorough “acquaintance” or “familiarity” with all the ways. And the words are known altogether, -all that can be known of them. The third subsection speaks not simply of knowledge, but of action: “Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thy hand on me.” He realizes, as well he may, this knowledge as too wonderful for him, -an unattainable height.
2. In the next section the three smaller divisions are similarly distinguishable. In the first, Spirit and presence are, I suppose,the same essentially, while heaven and hell -Sheol or hades, not Gehenna, -are wide asunder: it is omnipresence simply that is in question. In the next, it is relation to the Omnipresent, and that in dependence: the wings of the dawn and the uttermost parts of the sea convey the thought apparently of the utmost solitude; but “even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand hold me.” In the third, exposure is what he cannot escape: darkness and light are relative only to man; for God there is no difference.
3. In the third section we come to that which is the full expression for the psalmist of that compassing about of man on God’s part,which at the same time shows fully the divine interest in him, and thus is the revelation to him of God, so as to bring him to fullness of delight in all His thoughts. As Christians we should not take up the mystery of our formation in the womb to assure ourselves of this; and that he does so shows us sufficiently the difference of the Old Testament standpoint. Christians are naturally, therefore, disposed to find in all this the typical presentation of Christian truths. But however this may do as application, the literal meaning must come first, and be the foundation of all other. It is true that this speaks to us only of the Creator, and leaves the question of sin unbottomed. Yet a soul that has realized redemption can and will come back to God’s creative thoughts, with fresh apprehension of the truth that He cannot “forsake the work of His own hands.” And the question of sin being here left out, at least makes the whole matter proportionately simple. “For Thou hast acquired my reins” is the keynote of what follows. “The reins” stand for the very innermost parts; and, according to the Old Testament, the deepest recesses of the mind: there where the fundamental moral questions are entertained and find solution, -the good is received and the evil rejected.* God is the Master here; Lord of the conscience, which continually reminds us of Him and summons before His judgment-seat; and He has acquired this right over us by the fact to which the psalmist now goes on; that He is our Maker: “Thou hast acquired my reins: Thou coveredst” -or, perhaps, “didst interweave me in my mother’s womb.” Marvelous power it was that was at work there, and not idly, but with purpose and plan. “I will praise Thee, for I am fearfully, wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth well.”
   He proceeds to speak of these marvels: of the bony framework upon which the flesh was supported; of the delicate embroidery of vessels and nerves ramifying through it; all this wrought in secret, in underparts of earth," -not the ground, surely, which would scarcely have been true of Adam, -but of that human substance which is but animated dust. He thinks of that wrapped up embryo, and of the sketched out plan; in which each part of that continually progressing organism had, before coming into being, its predestined place. Surely for us, who know much more of these things than the psalmist, the wonder of them should not be less. To him they were a revelation of God’s thoughts toward him, -precious thoughts of divine wisdom and love, which when looked at in the sum; the final outcome of it all, it was great indeed; but if you took them up to look at them in detail, they were numberless as the grains of sand. And still, to the man wakened up out of the unconsciousness of his beginning, as he has been rehearsing it, this same God abides. Could he desire to have Him banished?
4. How awful, then; the condition of the wicked: strangers and enemies to Him who made them; necessarily devoted to death by the very Author of their life. The psalmist is in perfect accord with the divine sentence, and counts the enemies of God as enemies to himself. But he is not unconscious of his own malady; and the sanctity of God’s presence is not a refuge merely for him from the wickedness around. He seeks it as a refuge from himself also, and welcomes the light of it, as where sin cannot be hid. Search me," he cries, “O Mighty One,and know my heart; try me, and know my diverse” -literally, “branching” -“thoughts”: all those to him perplexing entanglements of thought which God alone could unravel; “and see if there be any grievous way in me,” -anything which is grievous to Thee: “and lead me in the way everlasting.” This is “truth in the inward parts” attained then; and God is become the one help and refuge of the soul: first of all, where we must surely begin; for itself. The setting aside of man must begin here in order to be truthful. But it does not end here, as manifestly the need of redemption is not yet recognized, and the world is not seen either in its true character. The experience of this section has room yet to deepen and widen in those that are to come.