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Psalm One
Hundred Thirty-nine
Psalm 139
Chapter Contents
God knows all things. (1-6) He is every where present.
(7-16) The psalmist's hatred to sin
and desire to be led aright. (17-24)
Commentary on Psalm 139:1-6
(Read Psalm 139:1-6)
God has perfect knowledge of us
and all our thoughts and
actions are open before him. It is more profitable to meditate on Divine
truths
applying them to our own cases
and with hearts lifted to God in
prayer
than with a curious or disputing frame of mind. That God knows all
things
is omniscient; that he is every where
is omnipresent; are truths
acknowledged by all
yet they are seldom rightly believed in by mankind. God
takes strict notice of every step we take
every right step and every by step.
He knows what rule we walk by
what end we walk toward
what company we walk
with. When I am withdrawn from all company
thou knowest what I have in my
heart. There is not a vain word
not a good word
but thou knowest from what
thought it came
and with what design it was uttered. Wherever we are
we are
under the eye and hand of God. We cannot by searching find how God searches us
out; nor do we know how we are known. Such thoughts should restrain us from
sin.
Commentary on Psalm 139:7-16
(Read Psalm 139:7-16)
We cannot see God
but he can see us. The psalmist did
not desire to go from the Lord. Whither can I go? In the most distant corners
of the world
in heaven
or in hell
I cannot go out of thy reach. No veil can
hide us from God; not the thickest darkness. No disguise can save any person or
action from being seen in the true light by him. Secret haunts of sin are as
open before God as the most open villanies. On the other hand
the believer
cannot be removed from the supporting
comforting presence of his Almighty
Friend. Should the persecutor take his life
his soul will the sooner ascend to
heaven. The grave cannot separate his body from the love of his Saviour
who
will raise it a glorious body. No outward circumstances can separate him from his
Lord. While in the path of duty
he may be happy in any situation
by the
exercise of faith
hope
and prayer.
Commentary on Psalm 139:17-24
(Read Psalm 139:17-24)
God's counsels concerning us and our welfare are deep
such as cannot be known. We cannot think how many mercies we have received from
him. It would help to keep us in the fear of the Lord all the day long
if
when we wake in the morning
our first thoughts were of him: and how shall we
admire and bless our God for his precious salvation
when we awake in the world
of glory! Surely we ought not to use our members and senses
which are so
curiously fashioned
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But our
immortal and rational souls are a still more noble work and gift of God. Yet if
it were not for his precious thoughts of love to us
our reason and our living
for ever would
through our sins
prove the occasion of our eternal misery. How
should we then delight to meditate on God's love to sinners in Jesus Christ
the sum of which exceeds all reckoning! Sin is hated
and sinners lamented
by
all who fear the Lord. Yet while we shun them we should pray for them; with God
their conversion and salvation are possible. As the Lord knows us thoroughly
and we are strangers to ourselves
we should earnestly desire and pray to be
searched and proved by his word and Spirit. if there be any wicked way in me
let me see it; and do thou root it out of me. The way of godliness is pleasing
to God
and profitable to us; and will end in everlasting life. It is the good
old way. All the saints desire to be kept and led in this way
that they may
not miss it
turn out of it
or tire in it.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Psalms》
Psalm 139
Verse 2
[2] Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising
thou
understandest my thought afar off.
Afar off — Thou knowest what my thoughts will be in such and such
circumstances
long before I know it
yea from all eternity.
Verse 3
[3] Thou compassest my path and my lying down
and art
acquainted with all my ways.
Compassest — Thou discernest every step I
take. It is a metaphor from soldiers besieging their enemies
and setting
watches round about them.
Verse 5
[5] Thou hast beset me behind and before
and laid thine
hand upon me.
Beset me — With thy all-seeing providence.
And laid — Thou keepest me
as it were with a strong hand
in thy
sight and under thy power.
Verse 6
[6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high
I
cannot attain unto it.
I cannot — Apprehend in what manner thou dost so presently know
all things.
Verse 8
[8] If I ascend up into heaven
thou art there: if I make my
bed in hell
behold
thou art there.
Hell — If I could hide myself in the lowest parts of the
earth.
Verse 9
[9] If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea;
The wings — If I should flee from east to
west: for the sea being the western border of Canaan
is often put for the west
in scripture. And wings are poetically ascribed to the morning here
as they
are elsewhere to the sun
and to the winds.
Verse 16
[16] Thine eyes did see my substance
yet being unperfect;
and in thy book all my members were written
which in continuance were
fashioned
when as yet there was none of them.
Imperfect — When I was first conceived.
Book — In thy counsel and providence
by which thou didst
contrive and effect this great work
according to that model which thou hadst
appointed.
Verse 17
[17] How precious also are thy thoughts unto me
O God! how
great is the sum of them!
Thoughts — Thy counsels on my behalf. Thou didst not only form me
at first
but ever since my conception and birth
thy thoughts have been
employed for me.
Verse 18
[18] If I should count them
they are more in number than the
sand: when I awake
I am still with thee.
Them — Thy wonderful counsels and works on my behalf come
constantly into my mind.
Verse 22
[22] I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine
enemies.
Perfect hatred — See the difference between the
Jewish and the Christian spirit!
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Psalms》
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and
Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village
Preacher
One of the most
notable of the sacred hymns. It sings the omniscience and omnipresence of God
inferring from these the overthrow of the powers of wickedness
since he who
sees and hears the abominable deeds and words of the rebellious will surely
deal with them according to his justice. The brightness of this Psalm is like
unto a sapphire stone
or Ezekiel's "terrible crystal"; it flames out
with such flashes of light as to turn night into day. Like a Pharos
this holy
song casts a clear light even to the uttermost parts of the sea
and warns us
against that practical atheism which ignores the presence of God
and so makes
shipwreck of the soul.
TITLE. To the Chief
Musician. The last time this title occurred was in Ps 109:1-31. This sacred
song is worthy of the most excellent of the singers
and is fitly dedicated to
the leader of the Temple Psalmody
that he might set it to music
and see that
it was devoutly sung in the solemn worship of the Most High. A Psalm of David.
It bears the image and superscription of King David
and could have come from
no other mint than that of the son of Jesse. Of course the critics take this
composition away from David
on account of certain Aramaic expressions in it.
We believe that upon the principles of criticism now in vogue it would be
extremely easy to prove that Milton did not write Paradise Lost. We have yet to
learn that David could not have used expressions belonging to "the
language of the patriarchal ancestral house." Who knows how much of the
antique speech may have been purposely retained among those nobler minds who
rejoiced in remembering the descent of their race? Knowing to what wild
inferences the critics have run in other matters
we have lost nearly all faith
in them
and prefer to believe David to be the author of this Psalm
from
internal evidences of style and matter
rather than to accept the determination
of men whose modes of judgment are manifestly unreliable.
EXPOSITION
Verse
1. O LORD
thou hast searched me
and known me. He invokes in
adoration Jehovah the all knowing God
and he proceeds to adore him by
proclaiming one of his peculiar attributes. If we would praise God aright we
must draw the matter of our praise from himself—"O Jehovah
thou
hast." No pretended god knows aught of us; but the true God
Jehovah
understands us
and is most intimately acquainted with our persons
nature
and
character. How well it is for us to know the God who knows us! The divine
knowledge is extremely thorough and searching; it is as if he had searched us
as officers search a man for contraband goods
or as pillagers ransack a house
for plunder. Yet we must not let the figure run upon all fours
and lead us
further than it is meant to do: the Lord knows all things naturally and as a
matter of course
and not by any effort on his part. Searching ordinarily
implies a measure of ignorance which is removed by observation; of course this
is not the case with the Lord; but the meaning of the Psalmist is
that the
Lord knows us as thoroughly as if he had examined us minutely
and had pried
into the most secret corners of our being. This infallible knowledge has always
existed—"Thou hast searched me"; and it continues unto this day
since God cannot forget that which he has once known. There never was a time in
which we were unknown to God
and there never will be a moment in which we
shall be beyond his observation. Note how the Psalmist makes his doctrine
personal: he saith not
"O God
thou knowest all things"; but
"thou hast known me." It is ever our wisdom to lay truth home
to ourselves. How wonderful the contrast between the observer and the observed!
Jehovah and me! Yet this most intimate connection exists
and therein lies our
hope. Let the reader sit still a while and try to realize the two poles of this
statement
—the Lord and poor puny man—and he will see much to admire and wonder
at.
Verse
2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising. Me thou
knowest
and all that comes of me. I am observed when I quietly sit down
and
marked when I resolutely rise up. My most common and casual acts
my most
needful and necessary movements
are noted by time
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. This is a fact to be remembered every moment: sitting down to consider
or
rising up to act
we are still seen
known
and read by Jehovah our Lord. Thou
understandest my thought afar off. Before it is my own it is foreknown and
comprehended by thee. Though my thought be invisible to the sight
though as
yet I be not myself cognizant of the shape it is assuming
yet thou hast it
under thy consideration
and thou perceivest its nature
its source
its drift
its result. Never dost thou misjudge or wrongly interpret me: my inmost thought
is perfectly understood by thine impartial mind. Though thou shouldest give but
a glance at my heart
and see me as one sees a passing meteor moving afar
yet
thou wouldst by that glimpse sum up all the meanings of my soul
so transparent
is everything to thy piercing glance.
Verse
3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down. My path and my
pallet
my running and my resting
are alike within the circle of thine
observation. Thou dost surround me even as the air continually surrounds all
creatures that live. I am shut up within the wall of thy being; I am encircled
within the bounds of thy knowledge. Waking or sleeping I am still observed of
thee. I may leave thy path
but you never leave 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 discriminates
our action and our repose
and marks that in them which is good and also that
which is evil. There is chaff in all our wheat
and the Lord divides them with
unerring precision. And art acquainted with all my ways. Thou art familiar with
all I do; nothing is concealed from thee
nor surprising to thee
nor
misunderstood by thee. Our paths may be habitual or accidental
open or secret
but with them all the Most Holy One is well acquainted. 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.
Verse
4. For there is not a word in my tongue
but lo
O LORD
thou
knowest it altogether. The unformed word
which lies within the tongue like
a seed in the soil
is certainly and completely known to the Great Searcher of
hearts. A negative expression is used to make the positive statement all the
stronger: not a word is unknown is a forcible way of saying that every word is
well known. Divine knowledge is perfect
since not a single word is unknown
nay
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? O
Jehovah
how great art thou! If thine eye hath such power
what must be the
united force of thine whole nature!
Verse
5. Thou hast beset me behind and before. As though we were
caught in an ambush
or besieged by an army which has wholly beleaguered the
city walls
we are surrounded by the Lord. God has set us where we be
and
beset us wherever we be. 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. We cannot turn back and so
escape him
for he is behind; we cannot go forward and outmarch him
for he is
before. He not only beholds us
but he besets us; and lest there should seem
any chance of escape
or 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 It is even so with those who are by faith the children of the Most
High.
Verse
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. Mount as I may
this truth
is too lofty for my mind. It seems to be always above me
even when I soar into
the loftiest regions of spiritual thought. Is it not so with every attribute of
God? Can we attain to any idea of his power
his wisdom
his holiness? Our mind
has no line with which to measure the Infinite. Do we therefore question? Say
rather
that we therefore believe and adore. We are not surprised that the Most
Glorious God should in his knowledge be high above all the knowledge to which
we can attain: it must of necessity be so
since we are such poor limited
beings; and when we stand a tip toe we cannot reach to the lowest step of the
throne of the Eternal.
Verse
7. Here omnipresence is the theme
—a truth to which omniscience
naturally leads up. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Not that the Psalmist
wished to go from God
or to avoid the power of the divine life; but he asks
this question to set forth the fact that no one can escape from the all
pervading being and observation of the Great Invisible Spirit. Observe how the
writer makes the matter personal to himself—"Whither shall I
go?" It were well if we all thus applied truth to our own cases. It were
wise for each one to say—The spirit of the Lord is ever around me:
Jehovah is omnipresent to me. Or whither spirit I flee from thy
presence? If
full of dread
I hastened to escape from that nearness of God
which had become my terror
which way could I turn? "Whither?"
"Whither?" He repeats his cry. No answer comes back to him. The reply
to his first "Whither?" is its echo
—a second "Whither?"
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. We must be
whether we will it or not
as near to God as our soul is to our body. This
makes it dreadful work to sin; for we offend the Almighty to his face
and
commit acts of treason at the very foot of his throne. Go from him
or flee
from him we cannot: neither by patient travel nor by hasty flight can we
withdraw from the all surrounding Deity. His mind is in our mind; himself
within ourselves. His spirit is over our spirit; our presence is ever in his
presence.
Verse
8. If I ascend up into heaven
thou art there. Filling the
loftiest region with his yet loftier presence
Jehovah is in the heavenly
place
at home
upon his throne. The ascent
if it were possible
would be
unavailing for purposes of escape; it would
in fact
be a flying into the
centre of the fire to avoid the heat. There would he be immediately confronted
by the terrible personality of God. 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 should we find the Lord.
THOU! says the Psalmist
as if he felt that God was the one great Existence in
all places. Whatever Hades may be
or whoever may be there
one thing is
certain
Thou
O Jehovah
art there. Two regions
the one of glory and
the other of darkness
are set in contrast
and this one fact is asserted of
both—"thou art there." Whether we rise up or lie down
take our wing
or make our bed
we shall find God near us. A "behold" is
added to the second clause
since it seems more a wonder to meet with God in
hell than in heaven
in Hades than in Paradise. 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. What an awful thought
that
some men seem resolved to take up their night's abode in hell
a night which
shall know no morning.
Verse
9. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea. If I could fly with all swiftness
and find a habitation
where the mariner has not yet ploughed the deep
yet I could not reach the
boundaries of the divine presence. Light flies with inconceivable rapidity
and
it flashes far afield beyond all human ken; it illuminates the great and wide
sea
and sets its waves gleaming afar; but its speed would utterly fail if
employed in flying from the Lord. Were we to speed on the wings of the morning
breeze
and 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.
Verse
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. In the uttermost parts of the sea my arrest would be as certain as at
home: God's right hand would there seize and detain the runaway. Should we be
commanded on the most distant errand
we may assuredly depend upon the
upholding right hand of God as with us in all mercy
wisdom
and power. The
exploring missionary in his lonely wanderings is led
in his solitary
feebleness he is held. 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.
Verse
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 seest as well without the light as with it
since thou art not dependent
upon light which is thine own creature
for the full exercise of thy
perceptions. Moreover
thou art present with me whatever may be the hour; and
being present you discover all that I think
or feel
or do. Men are still so
foolish as to prefer night and darkness for their evil deeds; but so impossible
is it for anything to be hidden from the Lord that they might just as well
transgress in broad daylight.
Darkness
and light in this agree;
Great God
they're both alike to thee.
Thine hand can pierce thy foes as soon
Through midnight shades as blazing noon.
A
good man will not wish to be hidden by the darkness
a wise man will not expect
any such thing. If we were so foolish as to make sure of concealment because
the place was shrouded in midnight
we might well be alarmed out of our
security by the fact that
as far as God is concerned
we always dwell in the
light; for even the night itself glows with a revealing force
—even the night
shall be light about me. Let us think of this if ever we are tempted to take
license from the dark—it is light about us. If the darkness be light
how great
is that light in which we dwell! 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."
Verse
12. Yea
of a surety
beyond all denial. The darkness hideth
not from thee; it veils nothing
it is not the medium of concealment in any
degree what ever. It hides from men
but not from God. But the night shineth as
the day: it is but another form of day: it shines
revealing all; it
"shineth as the day
"—quite as clearly and distinctly 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
and most emphatically puts the negative
upon the faintest idea of hiding under the cover of night. Men cling to this
notion
because it is easier and less expensive to hide under darkness than to
journey to remote places; and therefore the foolish thought is here beaten to
pieces by statements which in their varied forms effectually batter it. Yet the
ungodly are still duped by their grovelling notions of God
and enquire
"How doth 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.
Assuredly God is in all places
at all times
and nothing can by any
possibility be kept away from his all observing
all comprehending mind. 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.
Verse
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 portion
of the man; this God doth not only inspect
and visit
but it is his own; he is
as much at home there as a landlord on his own estate
or a proprietor in his
own house. 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 shouldest see fit to bring me to the
light. Thus the Psalmist describes the intimacy which God had with him. In his
most secret part—his reins
and in his most secret condition—yet unborn
he was
under the control and guardianship of God.
Verse
14. I will praise thee: a good resolve
and one which he was
even now carrying out. Those who are praising God are the very men who will
praise him. 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: but the sweet singer of Israel was better instructed
and
therefore he prepares for the chief musician a song concerning our nativity and
all the fashioning which precedes it. We cannot begin too soon to bless our
Maker
who began so soon to bless us: even in the act of creation he created
reasons for our praising his name
For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Who
can gaze even upon a model of our anatomy without wonder and awe? Who could
dissect a portion of the human frame without marvelling at its delicacy
and
trembling at its frailty? The Psalmist had scarcely peered within the veil
which hides the nerves
sinews
and blood vessels from common inspection; the
science of anatomy was quite unknown to him; and yet he had seen enough to
arouse his admiration of the work and his reverence for the Worker.
Marvellous
are thy works. These parts of my frame are all thy works; and though
they be home works
close under my own eye
yet are they wonderful to the last
degree. They are works within my own self
yet are they beyond my
understanding
and appear to me as so many miracles of skill and power. We need
not go to the ends of the earth for marvels
nor even across our own threshold;
they abound in our own bodies. And that my soul knoweth right well. He was no
agnostic—he knew; he was no doubter—his soul knew; he was no dupe—his soul knew
right well. Those know indeed and of a truth who first know the Lord
and then
know all things in him. He was made to know the marvellous 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. If we are marvellously wrought upon even before we are born
what
shall we say of the Lord's dealings with us after we quit his secret workshop
and he directs our pathway through the pilgrimage of life? 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.
Verse
15. My substance was not hid from thee. The substantial part
of my being was before thine all seeing eye; the bones which make my frame were
put together by thine hand. The essential materials of my being before they
were arranged were all within the range of thine eye. I was hidden from all
human knowledge
but not from thee: thou hast ever been intimately acquainted
with me. When I was made in secret. Most chastely and beautifully is here
described the formation of our being before the time of our birth. A great
artist will often labour alone in his studio
and not suffer his work to be
seen until it is finished; even so did the Lord fashion us where no eye beheld
as
and the veil was not lifted till every member was complete. 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. What tapestry can equal the human fabric?
This work is wrought as much in private as if it had been accomplished in the
grave
or in the darkness of the abyss. The expressions are poetical
beautifully
veiling
though not absolutely concealing
the real meaning. God's intimate
knowledge of us from our beginning
and even before it
is here most charmingly
set forth. Cannot he who made us thus 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?
Verse
16. Thine eyes did see my substance
yet being unperfect.
While as yet the vessel was upon the wheel the Potter saw it all. The Lord
knows not only our shape
but our substance: this is substantial knowledge
indeed. The Lord's observation of us is intent and intentional
—"Thine
eyes did see." Moreover
the divine mind discerns all things as clearly
and certainly as men perceive by actual eye sight. His is not hearsay
acquaintance
but the knowledge which comes of sight. 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; even 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 shall yet be made one with the living person
of the mystical Christ. Those of the elect who are as yet unborn
or unrenewed
are nevertheless written in the Lord's book. As the form of Eve grew up in
silence and secrecy under the fashioning hand of the Maker
so at this hour is
the Bride being fashioned for the Lord Jesus; or
to change the figure
—a body
is being prepared in which the life and glory of the indwelling Lord shall for
ever be displayed. The Lord knoweth them that are his: he has a specially
familiar acquaintance with the members of the body of Christ; he sees their
substance
unperfect though they be.
Verse
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
as with a casket of precious
jewels. That God should think upon him is the believer's treasure and pleasure.
He cries
"How costly
how valued are thy thoughts
how dear to me is thy
perpetual attention!" He thinks upon God's thoughts with delight; the more
of them the better is he pleased. 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! When we remember that God thought
upon us from old eternity
continues to think upon us every moment
and will
think of us when time shall be no more
we may well exclaim
"How great is
the sum!" Thoughts such as are natural to the Creator
the Preserver
the
Redeemer
the Father
the Friend
are evermore flowing from the heart of the
Lord. Thoughts of our pardon
renewal
upholding
supplying
educating
perfecting
and a thousand more kinds perpetually well up in the mind of the
Most High. It should fill us with adoring wonder and reverent surprise that the
infinite mind of God should turn so many thoughts towards us who are so
insignificant and so unworthy! What a contrast is all this to the notion of
those who deny the existence of a personal
conscious God! Imagine a world
without a thinking
personal God! Conceive of a grim providence of machinery!—a
fatherhood of law! Such philosophy is hard and cold. As well might a man pillow
his head upon a razor edge as seek rest in such a fancy. But a God always
thinking of us makes a happy world
a rich life
a heavenly hereafter.
Verse
18. If I should count them
they are more in number than the sand.
This figure shows the thoughts of God to be altogether innumerable; for nothing
can surpass in number the grains of sand which belt the main ocean and all the
minor seas. The task of counting God's thoughts of love would be a never ending
one. If we should attempt the reckoning we must necessarily fail
for the infinite
falls not within the line of our feeble intellect. Even could we count the
sands on the seashore
we should not then be able to number God's thoughts
for
they are "more in number than the sand." This is not the hyperbole of
poetry
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 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.
This is life indeed. If during sleep my mind wanders away into dreams
yet it
only wanders upon holy ground
and the moment I wake my heart is back with its
Lord. 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. Soon we shall lie down to sleep for the last time:
God grant that when the trumpet of the archangel shall waken us we may find
ourselves still with him.
Verse
19. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked
O God. There can be no
doubt upon that head
for thou hast seen all their transgressions
which indeed
have been done in thy presence; and thou hast long enough endured their
provocations
which have been so openly manifest before thee. Crimes committed
before the face of the Judge are not likely to go unpunished. 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. With
earthly sovereigns sin may go unpunished for lack of evidence
or the law may
be left without execution from lack of vigour in the judge; but this cannot
happen in the case of God
the living God. He beareth not the sword in vain.
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
suffer his lovely creation to be defaced and defiled by the presence of
wickedness: if anything is sure
this is sure
that he will ease him of his
adversaries. 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 the
men of blood from his court
for he is weary of those of whom God is weary. He
seems to say—If God will not let you live with him I will not have you live
with me. You would destroy others
and therefore I want you not in my society.
You will be destroyed yourselves
I desire you not in my service. Depart from
me
for you depart from God. As we delight to have the holy God always near us
so would we eagerly desire to have wicked men removed as far as possible from
us. We tremble in the society of the ungodly lest their doom should fall upon
them suddenly
and we should see them lie dead at our feet. We do not wish to
have our place of intercourse turned into a gallows of execution
therefore let
the condemned be removed out of our company.
Verse
20. For they speak against thee wickedly. Why should I bear
their company when their talk sickens me? They vent their treasons and
blasphemies as often as they please
doing so without the slightest excuse or
provocation; let them therefore be gone
where they may find a more congenial
associate than I can be. When men speak against God they will be sure to speak
against us
if they find it serve their turn; hence godless men are not the stuff
out of which true friends can ever be made. God gave these men their tongues
and they turn them against their Benefactor
wickedly
from sheer malice
and
with great perverseness. And thine enemies take thy name in vain. This is their
sport: to insult Jehovah's glorious name is their amusement. To blaspheme the
name of the Lord is a gratuitous wickedness in which there can be no pleasure
and from which there can be no profit. This is a sure mark of the
"enemies" of the Lord
that they have the impudence to assail his
honour
and treat his glory with irreverence. How can God do other than slay
them? How can we do other than withdraw from every sort of association with
them? What a wonder of sin it is that men should rail against so good a Being
as the Lord our God! The impudence of those who talk wickedly is a singular
fact
and it is the more singular when we reflect that the Lord against whom
they speak is all around them
and lays to heart every dishonour which they
render to his holy name. We ought not to wonder that men slander and deride us
for they do the same with the Most High God.
Verse
21. Do not I hate them
O LORD
that hate thee? He was a good
hater
for he hated only those who hated good. Of this hatred he is not
ashamed
but he sets it forth as a virtue to which he would have the Lord bear
testimony. To love all men with benevolence is our duty; but to love any wicked
man with complacency would be a crime. To hate a man for his own sake
or for
any evil done to us
would be wrong; but to hate a man because he is the foe of
all goodness and the enemy of all righteousness
is nothing more nor less than
an obligation. The more we love God the more indignant shall we grow with those
who refuse him their affection. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ
let him be Anathema Maranatha." Truly
"jealousy is cruel as the
grave." The loyal subject must not be friendly to the traitor. 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
on the contrary
he was made to mourn by a sight of their ill behaviour. Since God is
everywhere
he knows our feelings towards the profane and ungodly
and he knows
that so far from approving such characters the very sight of them is grievous
to our eyes.
Verse
22. I hate them with perfect hatred. He does not leave it a
matter of question. He does not occupy a neutral position. His hatred to bad
vicious
blasphemous men is intense
complete
energetic. He is as whole
hearted in his hate of wickedness as in his love of goodness. I count them mine
enemies. He makes a personal matter of it. They may have done him no ill
but
if they are doing despite to God
to his laws
and to the great principles of
truth and righteousness
David proclaims war against them. Wickedness passes
men into favour with unrighteous spirits; but it excludes them from the
communion of the just. We pull up the drawbridge and man the walls when a man
of Belial goes by our castle. His character is a casus belli; we cannot
do otherwise than contend with those who contend with God.
Verse
23. Search me
O God
and know my heart. David is no
accomplice with traitors. He has disowned them in set form
and now he appeals
to God that he does not harbour a trace of fellowship with them. He will have
God himself search him
and search him thoroughly
till every point of his
being is known
and read
and understood; for he is sure that even by such an
investigation there will be found in him no complicity with wicked men. He
challenges the fullest investigation
the innermost search: he had need be a
true man who can put himself deliberately into such a crucible. Yet 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.
Exercise any and every test upon me. By fire and by water let me be examined.
Read not alone the desires of my heart
but the fugitive thoughts of my head.
Know with all penetrating knowledge all that is or has been in the chambers of
my mind. What a mercy that there is one being who can know us to perfection! He
is intimately at home with us. 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.
Verse
24. And see if there be any wicked way 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 favour
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 for ever and ever. There
will be no end to it world without end. It lasts for ever
and they who are in
it last for ever. Conduct me into it
O Lord
and conduct me throughout the
whole length of it. By thy providence
by thy word
by thy grace
and by thy
Spirit
lead me evermore.
EXPLANATORY
NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole
Psalm. Aben Ezra observes
that this is the most glorious and excellent
Psalm in all the book: a very excellent one it is; but whether the most
excellent
it is hard to say.—John Gill.
Whole
Psalm. There is one Psalm which it were well if Christians would do by
it as Pythagoras by his Golden Precepts
—every morning and evening repeat it.
It is David's appeal of a good conscience unto God
against the malicious
suspicions and calumnies of men
in Ps 139:1-24.—Samuel Annesley
(1620-1696)
in "The Morning Exercises."
Whole
Psalm. This Psalm is one of the most sublime compositions in the world.
How came a shepherd boy to conceive so sublime a theme
and to write in so
sublime a strain? Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
What themes are more sublime than the Divine attributes? And which of these
attributes is more sublime than Omnipresence? Omniscience
spirituality
infinity
immutability and eternity are necessarily included in it.—George
Rogers.
Whole
Psalm. Let the modern wits
after this
look upon the honest shepherds
of Palestine as a company of rude and unpolished clowns; let them
if
they can
produce from profane authors thoughts that are more sublime
more
delicate
or better turned; not to mention the sound divinity and solid piety
which are apparent under these expressions.—Claude Fleury
1640-1723.
Whole
Psalm. Here the poet inverts his gaze
from the blaze of suns
to the
strange atoms composing his own frame. He stands shuddering over the precipice
of himself. Above is the All encompassing Spirit
from whom the morning wings
cannot save; and below
at a deep distance
appears amid the branching forest
of his animal frame
so fearfully and wonderfully made
the abyss of his
spiritual existence
lying like a dark lake in the midst. How
between mystery
and mystery
his mind
his wonder
his very reason
seem to rock like a little
boat between the sea and sky. But speedily does he regain his serenity; when he
throws himself
with childlike haste and confidence
into the arms of that
Fatherly Spirit
and murmurs in his bosom
"How precious also are thy
thoughts unto me
O God; how great is the sum of them"; and looking
up at last in his face
cries—"Search me
O Lord. I cannot search thee; I
cannot search myself; I am overwhelmed by those dreadful depths; but search me
as thou only canst; see if there be any wicked way in me
and lead me in the
way everlasting."—George Gilfillan (1813-1878)
in "The
Bards of the Bible."
Whole
Psalm. The Psalm has an immediately practical aim
which is unfolded
near the close. It is not an abstract description of the Divine attributes
with a mere indirect purpose in view. If God is such a being
if his vital
agency reaches over all his creation
pervades all objects
illumines the
deepest and darkest recesses; if his knowledge has no limits
piercing into the
mysterious processes of creation
into the smallest and most elemental germs of
life; if his eye can discern the still more subtle and recondite processes of
mind
comprehending the half formed conception
the germinating desire
"afar off"; if
anterior to all finite existence
his predetermining
decree went forth; if in those ancient records of eternity man's framework
with all its countless elements and organs
in all the ages of his duration
were inscribed—then for his servant
his worshipper on earth
two consequences
follow
most practical and momentous: first
the ceasing to have or feel
any complacency with the wicked
any sympathy with their evil ways
any
communion with them as such; and
secondly
the earnest desire that God
would search the Psalmist's soul
lest in its unsounded depths there might be
some lurking iniquity
lest there might be
beyond the present jurisdiction of
his conscience
some dark realm which the Omniscient eye only could explore.—Bela
B. Edwards (1802-1852)
in H.C. Fish's "Masterpieces of Pulpit
Eloquence."
Whole
Psalm.
Searcher
of hearts! to thee are known
The inmost secrets of my breast;
At home
abroad
in crowds
alone
Thou mark'st my rising and my rest
My thoughts far off
through every maze
Source
stream
and issue—all my ways.
How
from thy presence should I go
Or whither from thy Spirit flee
Since all above
around
below
Exist in thine immensity?
If up to heaven I take my way
I meet thee in eternal day.
If
in the grave I make my bed
With worms and dust
lo! thou art there!
If
on the wings of morning sped
Beyond the ocean I repair
I feel thine all controlling will
And thy right hand upholds me still.
"Let
darkness hide me"
if I say
Darkness can no concealment be;
Night
on thy rising
shines like day;
Darkness and light are one with thee:
For thou mine embryo form didst view
Ere her own babe my mother knew.
In me
thy workmanship display'd
A miracle of power I stand:
Fearfully
wonderfully made
And framed in secret by thine hand;
I lived
ere into being brought
Through thine eternity of thought.
How
precious are thy thoughts of peace
O God
to me! how great the sum!
New every morn
they never cease:
They were
they are
and yet shall come
In number and in compass more
Than ocean's sands or ocean's shore.
Search
me
O God! and know my heart;
Try me
my inmost soul survey;
And warn thy servant to depart
From every false and evil way:
So shall thy truth my guidance be
To life and immortality.
—James
Montgomery.
Whole
Psalm. The Psalm may be thus summarized Ps 139:1. O LORD
thou hast
searched me
and known me.—As though he said
"O LORD
thou art the
heart searching God
who perfectly knowest all the thoughts
counsels
studies
endeavours
and actions of all men
and therefore mine." Ps 139:2. Thou
knowest my downsitting and mine uprising
thou understandest my thought afar
off.—As if he had said
"Thou knowest my rest and motion
and my
plodding thoughts of both" Ps 139:3. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down
and art acquainted with all my ways.—As if he had said
"You fan and winnow me"
that is
"You discuss and try me to the
utmost." Ps 139:4. For there is not a word in my tongue
but
lo
O
LORD
thou knowest it altogether.—As if he had said
"I cannot speak a
word
though never so secret
obscure
or subtle
but thou knowest what
and
why
and with what mind it was uttered" Ps 139:5. Thou hast beset me
behind and before
and laid thine hand upon me.—As if he had said
"Thou keepest me within the compass of thy knowledge
like a man that will
not let his servant go out of his sight. I cannot break away from thee" Ps
139:6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high
I cannot attain
unto it. As if he had said
"The knowledge of thy great and glorious
majesty and infiniteness is utterly past all human comprehension." Ps
139:7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy
presence?—As if he had said
"Whither can I flee from thee
whose
essence
presence
and power is everywhere?" Ps 139:8. If I ascend up
into heaven
thou art there: if I make my bed in hell
behold
thou art there.—As
if he had said
"There is no height above thee
there is no depth below
thee." Ps 139:9. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea.—As if he had said
"If I had wings to fly
as swift as the morning light
from the east to the west
that I could in a
moment get to the furthest parts of the world." Ps 139:10. Even there
shall thy hand lead me
and thy right hand shall hold me.—As if he had
said
"Thence shall thy hand lead me back
and hold me fast like a
fugitive." Ps 139:11. If I say
Surely the darkness shall cover me;
even the night shall be light about me.—As if he had said
"Though
darkness hinders man's sight
it doth not thine." In a word
look which
way you will
there is no hiding place from God. "For his eyes are upon
the ways of man
and he seeth all his goings. There is no darkness nor shadow
of death
where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves": Job
34:21-22. Therefore
Christians
do nothing but what you are willing God should
take notice of; and judge in yourselves whether this be not the way to have a
good and quiet conscience.—Samuel Annesley.
Whole
Psalm. In this Aramaizing Psalm what the preceding Psalm says (Ps 138:6)
comes to be carried into effect
viz.: For Jahve is exalted and he seeth the
lowly
and the proud he knoweth from afar. This Psalm has manifold points
of contact with its predecessor.—Franz Delitzsch.
To
the Chief Musician. As a later writer could have no motive for prefixing the title
"To
the Chief Musician"
it affords an incidental proof of antiquity and
genuineness.—Joseph Addison Alexander.
A
Psalm of David. How any critic can assign this Psalm to other than David I cannot
understand. Every line
every thought
every turn of expression and transition
is his
and his only. As for the arguments drawn from the two Chaldaisms which
occur
this is really nugatory. These Chaldaisms consist merely in the
substitution of one letter for another
very like it in shape
and easily to be
mistaken by a transcriber
particularly by one who had been used to the Chaldee
idiom; but the moral arguments for David's authorship are so strong as to
overwhelm any such verbal
or rather literal criticism
were even the
objections more formidable than they actually are.—John Jebb.
Verse
1. O LORD
thou hast searched me
and known (me). There is no
"me" after "known" in the Hebrew; therefore
it is better to take the object after "known" in a wider
sense. The omission is intentional
that the believing heart of all who use
this Psalm may supply the ellipsis. Thou hast known and knowest all that
concerns the matter in question
as well whether I and mine are guilty or
innocent (Ps 44:21); also my exact circumstances
my needs
my sorrows
and the
precise time when to relieve me.—A.R. Fausset.
Verse
1. O LORD
thou hast searched me
and known me. The godly may
sometimes be so overclouded with calumnies and reproaches as not to be able to
find a way to clear themselves before men
but must content and comfort
themselves with the testimony of a good conscience and with God's approbation
of their integrity
as here David doth.—David Dickson.
Verse
1. O LORD
thou hast searched me
and known me. David here
lays down the great doctrine
that God has a perfect knowledge of us
First
in
the way of an address to God: he saith it to him
acknowledging it to him
and giving him the glory of it. Divine truths look full as well when they are
prayed over as when they are preached over: and much better than when they are
disputed over. When we speak of God to him himself
we find ourselves concerned
to speak with the utmost degree both of sincerity and reverence
which will be
likely to make the impressions the deeper. Secondly
he lays it down in a
way of application to himself: not thou hast known all
but "thou hast
known me"; that is it which I am most concerned to believe
and
which it will be most profitable for me to consider. Then we know things for
our good when we know them for ourselves. Job 5:27 ... David was a king
and
"the hearts of kings are unsearchable" to their subjects (Pr 25:3)
but they are not so to their sovereign.—Matthew Henry.
Verse
1. O LORD
thou hast searched me. I would have you observe
how thoroughly in the very first verse he brings home the truth to his own
heart and his own conscience: "O LORD
thou hast searched me."
He does not slur it over as a general truth
in which such numbers shared that
he might hope to escape or evade its solemn appeal to himself; but it is
"Thou hast searched me."—Barton Bouchier.
Verse
1. Searched. The Hebrew word originally means to dig
and is applied to the search for precious metals (Job 28:3)
but metaphorically
to a moral inquisition into guilt.—Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verses
1-5. God knows everything that passes in our inmost souls better than
we do ourselves: he reads our most secret thoughts: all the cogitations of our
hearts pass in review before him; and he is as perfectly and entirely employed
in the scrutiny of the thoughts and actions of an individual
as in the
regulation of the most important concerns of the universe. This is what we
cannot comprehend; but it is what
according to the light of reason
must be
true
and
according to revelation
is indeed true. God can do nothing
imperfectly; and we may form some idea of his superintending knowledge
by
conceiving what is indeed the truth
that all the powers of the Godhead are
employed
and solely employed
in the observation and examination of the
conduct of one individual. I say
this is indeed the case
because all the
powers of the Godhead are employed upon the least as well as upon the greatest
concerns of the universe; and the whole mind and power of the Creator are as
exclusively employed upon the formation of a grub as of a world. God knows
everything perfectly
and he knows everything perfectly at once. This
to a
human understanding
would breed confusion; but there can be no confusion in
the Divine understanding
because confusion arises from imperfection. Thus God
without confusion
beholds as distinctly the actions of every man
as if that
man were the only created being
and the Godhead were solely employed in
observing him. Let this thought fill your mind with awe and with remorse.—Henry
Kirke White
1785-1806.
Verses
1-12.
O
Lord
in me there lieth nought
But to thy search revealed lies;
For when I sit
Thou markest it;
No less thou notest when I rise;
Yea
closest closet of my thought
Hath open windows to thine eyes.
Thou
walkest with me when I walk
When to my bed for rest I go
I find thee there
And everywhere:
Not youngest thought in me doth grow
No
not one word I cast to talk
But
yet unuttered
thou dost know.
If
forth I march
thou goest before;
If back I turn
thou com'st behind:
So forth nor back
Thy guard I lack;
Nay
on me
too
thy hand I find.
Well
I thy wisdom may adore
But never reach with earthly mind.
To
shun thy notice
leave thine eye
O whither might I take my way?
To starry sphere?
Thy throne is there.
To dead men's undelightsome stay?
There is thy walk
and there to lie
Unknown
in vain I should assay.
O
sun
whom light nor flight can match!
Suppose thy lightful flightful wings
Thou lend to me
And I could flee
As far as thee the evening brings:
Ev'n led to west he would me catch
Nor should I lurk with western things.
Do
thou thy best. O secret night
In sable veil to cover me:
Thy sable veil
Shall vainly fail:
With day unmasked my night shall be;
For night is day
and darkness light
O Father of all lights
to thee.
—Sir
Philip Sidney
1554-1586.
Verse
2. Thou. David makes the personal pronoun the very
frontispiece of the verse
and so says expressly and distinctively to Jehovah
"Thou
knowest"; thus marking the difference between God and all others
as
though he said
"Thou
and thou alone
O God
in all the universe
knowest
altogether all that can be known concerning me
even to my inmost thought
as
well as outward act."—Martin Geier.
Verse
2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising. Does God
care? Is he our Friend? Even in such little matters as these
does he
watch over us "to do us good"? ...When we "sit down" he
sees; when we rise up he is there. Not an action is lost or a thought
overlooked. No wonder that
as these tiny miracles of care are related by
David
he adds the words
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is
high
I cannot attain unto it. We get accustomed to the thought that God
made the sun and sky
the "moon and stars which he hath ordained"
and we bow to the fact that they are "the work of his fingers." Let
us go further! The coming in and going out of the Christian is
mentioned several times in Scripture as though it were very important. So much
hinges on these little words. "David went out and came in before the
people. And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with
him": 1Sa 18:13-14. "The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy
coming in from this time forth
and even for evermore": Ps 121:8. David
was given both preservation and wisdom in his "goings
out" and "comings in." Perhaps the latter was both cause and
effect of the first. It was needed
for many eyes were upon him
and many eyes
are upon us: are they not? Perhaps more than we think.—Lady Hope
in
"Between Times
" 1884.
Verse
2. Downsitting and uprising. "Uprising" following "downsitting"
is in the order of right sequence; for action ought to follow meditation. Jacob
saw the angels ascending to God before they descended to service among mortals.
Hence we are taught first to join ourselves to God by meditation
and
afterwards to repair to the aid of our fellows.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse
2. Uprising may respect either rising from bed
when
the Lord knows whether the heart is still with him (Ps 139:18); what sense is
had of the Divine protection and sustentation
and what thankfulness there is
for the mercies of the night past; and whether the voice of prayer and praise
is directed to him in the morning
as it should be (Ps 3:5 5:3); or else rising
from the table
when the Lord knows whether a man's table has been his
snare
and with what thankfulness he rises from it for the favours he has
received. The Targum interprets this of rising up to go to war; which David
did
in the name and strength
and by the direction of the Lord.—John Gill.
Verse
2. Thou understandest my thought afar off. "My
thought": that is
every thought
though innumerable thoughts pass
through me in a day. The divine knowledge reaches to their source and fountain
before they are our thoughts. If the Lord knows them before their existence
before they can be properly called ours
much more doth he know them when they
actually spring up in us; he knows the tendency of them
where the bird will
alight when it is in flight; he knows them exactly; he is therefore called a
"discerner" or criticizer of the heart: Heb 4:2.—Stephen Charnock.
Verse
2. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Not that God is at
a distance from our thoughts; but he understands them while they are far off
from us
from our knowledge
while they are potential
as gardeners know what
weeds such ground will bring forth
when nothing appears. De 31:21. "I
know their imagination which they go about
even now
before I have brought
them into the land which I sware": God knew their thoughts before they
came into Canaan
what they would be there. And how can it be
but that God
should know all our thoughts
seeing he made the heart
and it is in his hand
(Pr 21:1)
seeing
"we live
and move
and have our being" in God (Ac
17:28); seeing he is through us all
and in us all (Eph 4:6). Look well to your
hearts
thoughts
risings
whatever comes into your mind; let no secret sins
or corruptions
lodge there; think not to conceal anything from the eye of
God.—William Greenhill.
Verse
2. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Though my thoughts
be never so foreign and distant from one another
thou understandest the chain
of them
and canst make out their connexion
when so many of them slip my
notice that I myself cannot.—Matthew Henry.
Verse
2. My thought. The er
rea
which we have rendered "thought"
signifies also a friend or companion
on which account some read—thou
knowest what is nearest me afar off
a meaning more to the point than any
other
if it could be supported by example. The reference would then be very
appropriately to the fact that the most distant objects are contemplated as
near by God. Some for "afar off" read beforehand
in which
signification the Hebrew word is elsewhere taken; as if he had said
O Lord
every thought which I conceive in my heart is already known to thee
beforehand.—John Calvin.
Verse
2. Thought. In all affliction
in all business
a man's best
comfort is this
that all he does and even all he thinks
God knows. In the
Septuagint we read dialogiomous
that is
"reasonings." God knows all
our inner ratiocination
all the dialogues
all the colloquies of the soul with
itself.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse
2. Thou understandest my thought. Before men we stand as
opaque beehives. They can see the thoughts go in and out of us
but what work
they do inside of a man they cannot tell. Before God we are as glass beehives
and all that our thoughts are doing within us he perfectly sees and
understands.—Henry Ward Beecher.
Verse
2. Thou understandest my thought afar off.
"Man
may not see thee do an impious deed;
But God thy very inmost thought can read."
—Plutarch.
Verse
2. Afar off. This expression is
as in Ps 138:6
to be
understood as contradicting the delusion (Job 22:12-14) that God's dwelling in
heaven prevents him from observing mundane things.—Lange's Commentary.
Verse
2. Afar off. Both in distance
however far off a man may seek
to hide his thoughts from God; and in time
for God knows the human thought
before man conceives it in his heart
in his eternal prescience. The Egyptians
called God the "eye of the world."—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verses
2-4. Do not fancy that your demeanour
posture
dress
or deportment
are not under God's providence. You deceive yourself. Do not think that your
thoughts pass free from inspection. The Lord understands them afar off. Think
not that your words are dissipated in the air before God can hear. Oh
no! He
knows them even when still upon your tongue. Do not think that your ways are so
private and concealed that there is none to know or censure them. You mistake.
God knows all your ways.—Johann David Frisch
1731.
Verse
3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down
etc. The words
that I have read unto you
seem to be a metaphor
taken from soldiers
surrounding the ways with an ambush
or placing scouts and spies in every
corner
to discover the enemy in his march; "Thou compassest my
path": thou hast (as it were) thy spies over me
wheresoever I go. By "path"
is meant the outward actions and carriage of his ordinary conversation. By "lying
down" is signified to us the private and close actions of his life;
such as were attended only by darkness and solitude. In Ps 36:4
it is said of
the wicked that "he deviseth mischief upon his bed"
to denote not
only his perverse diligence
but also his secrecy in it: and God is said to
"hide his children in the secret of his pavilion"
so that these
places of rest and lying down are designed for secrecy and withdrawing. When a
man retires into his chamber
he does in a manner
for a while
shut himself
out of the world. And that this is the fine sense of that expression of lying
down appears from the next words
"Thou art acquainted with all my
ways"; where he collects in one word what he had before said in two;
or
it may come in by way of entrance and deduction
from the former. As if he
should say
Thou knowest what I do in my ordinary converse with men
and also
how I behave myself when I am retired from them; therefore thou knowest all
my actions
since a man's actions may be reduced either to his public or
private deportment. By the other expression of "my ways" is
here meant the total of a man's behaviour before God
whether in thoughts
words
or deeds
as is manifest by comparing this with other verses.—Robert
South.
Verse
3. Thou compassest my path. This is a metaphor either from
huntsmen watching all the motions and lurking places of wild beasts
that they
may catch them; or from soldiers besieging their enemies in a city
and setting
round about them.—Matthew Pool.
Verse
3. Thou compassest
or feignest
or wannest
my
path; that is
discuss or try out to the utmost
even tracing the
footsteps
as the Greek signifieth. Compare Job 31:4.—Henry Ainsworth.
Verse
3. Thou art acquainted with all my ways. God takes notice of
every step we take
every right step
and every by step. He knows what rule we
walk by
what end we walk toward
what company we walk with.—Religious Tract
Society's Commentary.
Verse
3. Art acquainted
as by most familiar intercourse
as if
thou hadst always lived with me Hebrew and thus become entirely familiar
with my ways.—Henry Cowles.
Verse
3. The Psalmist mentions four modes of human existence; stationis
sessionis
itionis
cubationis; because man never stayeth long in one mood
but in every change the eyes of the Lord cease not to watch him.—Geier.
Verse
4. For there is not a word in my tongue
etc. The words admit
a double meaning. Accordingly some understand them to imply that God knows what
we are about to say before the words are formed on our tongue; others
that
though we speak not a word
and try by silence to conceal our secret
intentions
we cannot elude his notice. Either rendering amounts to the same
thing
and it is of no consequence which we adopt. The idea meant to be
conveyed is
that while the tongue is the index of thought to man
being the
great medium of communication
God
who knows the heart
is independent of
words. And use is made of the demonstrative particle lo! to indicate
emphatically that the innermost recesses of our spirit stand present to his
view.—John Calvin.
Verse
4. For there is not a word in my tongue
etc. How needful it
is to set a watch before the doors of our mouth
to hold that unruly member of
ours
the tongue
as with bit and bridle. Some of you feel at times that you
can scarcely say a word
and the less you say the better. Well
it way be as
well; for great talkers are almost sure to make slips with their tongue. It may
be a good thing that you cannot speak much; for in the multitude of words there
lacketh not sin. Wherever you go
what light
vain
and foolish conversations
you hear! I am glad not to be thrown into circumstances where I can hear it.
But with you it may be different. You may often repent of speaking
you will
rarely repent of silence. How soon angry words are spoken! How soon foolish
expressions drop from the mouth! The Lord knows it all
marks it all
and did
you carry about with you a more solemn recollection of it you would be more
watchful than you are.—Joseph C. Philpot.
Verse
4. When there is not a word in my tongue
O LORD
thou knowest
all; so some read it; for thoughts are words to God.—Matthew Henry.
Verse
4. Thou knowest it. The gods know what passes in our minds
without the aid of eyes
ears
or tongues; on which divine omniscience is
founded the feeling of men that
when they wish in silence
or offer up a
prayer for anything
the gods hear them.—Cicero.
Verse
5. Thou hast beset me behind and before
etc. There is here
an insensible transition from God's omniscience to his omnipresence
out of
which the Scriptures represent it as arising. "Behind and before"
i.e.
on all sides. The idea of above and below is suggested by
the last clause. "Beset"
besiege
hem in
or closely
surround. "Thy hand"
or the palm of thy hand
as the Hebrew
word strictly denotes.—Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse
5. Thou hast beset me behind and before. What would you say
if
wherever you turned
whatever you were doing
whatever thinking
whether in
public or private
with a confidential friend telling your secrets
or alone
planning them—if
I say
you saw an eye constantly fixed on you
from whose
watching
though you strove ever so much
you could never escape...that could perceive
your every thought? The supposition is awful enough. There is such an Eye.—De
Vere.
Verse
5. Thou hast beset me behind and before. One who finds the
way blocked up turns back; but David found himself hedged in behind as well as
before.—John Calvin.
Verse
5. Thou hast...laid thine hand upon me. As by an arrest; so
that I am thy prisoner
and cannot stir a foot from thee.—John Trapp.
Verse
5. And laid thine hand upon me. To make of me one acceptable
to thyself. To rule me
to lead me
to uphold me
to protect me; to restore me;
in my growth
in my walk
in my failures
in my affliction
in my despair.—Thomas
Le Blanc.
Verse
6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me
etc. When we are
about to look upon God's perfections
we should observe our own imperfections
and thereby learn to be the more modest in our searching of God's unsearchable
perfection: Such knowledge
saith David
is too high for me
I cannot
attain unto it. Then do we see most of God
when we see him
incomprehensible
and do see ourselves swallowed up in the thoughts of his
perfection
and are forced to fall in admiration of God
as here. "Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high
I cannot attain unto it."—David
Dickson.
Verse
6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. Compared with our
stinted knowledge
how amazing is the knowledge of God! As he made all things
he must be intimately acquainted
not only with their properties
but with
their very essence. His eye
at the same instant
surveys all the works of his
immeasurable creation. He observes
not only the complicated system of the
universe
but the slightest motion of the most microscopic insect;—not only the
most sublime conception of angels
but the meanest propensity of the most
worthless of his creatures. At this moment he is listening to the praises
breathed by grateful hearts in distant worlds
and reading every grovelling
thought which passes though the polluted minds of the fallen race of Adam...At
one view
he surveys the past
the present
and the future. No inattention
prevents him from observing; no defect of memory or of judgment obscures his
comprehension. In his remembrance are stored not only the transactions of this
world
but of all the worlds in the universe;—not only the events of the six
thousand years which have passed since the earth was created
but of a duration
without beginning. Nay
things to come extending to a duration without end
are
also before him. An eternity past and an eternity to come are
at the same
moment
in his eye; and with that eternal eye he surveys infinity. How amazing!
How inconceivable!—Henry Duncan (1774-1846)
in "Sacred Philosophy of
the Seasons."
Verse
6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. There is a mystery
about the Divine Omnipresence
which we do not learn to solve
after years of
meditation. As God is a simple spirit
without dimensions
parts
or
susceptibility of division
he is equally
that is
fully
present at all times
in all places. At any given moment he is not present partly here and partly in
the utmost skirt of the furthest system which revolves about the dimmest
telescopic star
as if like a galaxy of perfection he stretched a sublime
magnificence through universal space
which admitted of separation and
partition; but he is present
with the totality of his glorious properties in
every point of space. This results undeniably from the simple spirituality of
the Great Supreme. All that God is in one place he is in all places. All there
is of God is in every place. Indeed
his presence has no dependence on space or
matter. His attribute of essential presence were the same if universal matter
were blotted out. Only by a figure can God be said to be in the universe; for
the universe is comprehended by him. All the boundless glory of the Godhead is
essentially present at every spot in his creation
however various may be the
manifestations of this glory at different times and places. Here we have a case
which ought to instruct and sober those
who
in their shallow philosophy
demand a religion without mystery. It would be a religion without God; for
"who by searching can find out God?"—James W. Alexander
in
"The (American) National Preacher"
1860.
Verse
7. Wither shall I go from thy spirit? By the "spirit of
God" we are not here
as in several other parts of Scripture
to conceive
of his power merely
but his understanding and knowledge. In man the spirit is
the seat of intelligence
and so it is here in reference to God
as is plain
from the second part of the sentence
where by "the face of God"
is meant his knowledge or inspection.—John Calvin.
Verse
7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? That is
either from
thee
who art a spirit
and so canst pierce and penetrate me; be as truly and
essentially in the very bowels and marrow of my soul
as my soul is intimately
and essentially in my body: "from thy spirit"; that is
from
thy knowledge and thy power; thy knowledge to detect and observe me
thy power
to uphold or crush me.—Ezekiel Hopkins
1633-1690.
Verse
7. We may elude the vigilance of a human enemy and place ourselves
beyond his reach. God fills all space—there is not a spot in which his piercing
eye is not on us
and his uplifted hand cannot find us out. Man must strike
soon if he would strike at all; for opportunities pass away from him
and his
victim may escape his vengeance by death. There is no passing of opportunity
with God
and it is this which makes his long suffering a solemn thing. God can
wait
for he has a whole eternity before him in which he may strike. "All
things are open and naked to him with whom we have to do."—Frederick
William Robertson
1816-1853.
Verse
7. Whither shall I go
etc. A heathen philosopher once asked
"Where is God?" The Christian answered
"Let me first ask you
Where is he not?"—John Arrowsmith
1602-1659.
Verse
7. Whither shall I flee from thy presence? That exile would
be strange that could separate us from God. I speak not of those poor and
common comforts
that in all lands and coasts it is his sun that shines
his
elements of earth or water that bear us
his air we breathe; but of that
special privilege
that his gracious presence is ever with us; that no sea is
so broad as to divide us from his favour; that wheresoever we feed
he is our
host; wheresoever we rest
the wings of his blessed providence are stretched
over us. Let my soul be sure of this
though the whole world be traitors to
me.—Thomas Adams.
Verse
7. Whither shall I flee? etc. Surely no whither: they that
attempt it
do but as the fish which swimmeth to the length of the line
with a
hook in the mouth.—John Trapp.
Verse
7. Thy presence. The presence of God's glory is in heaven;
the presence of his power on earth; the presence of his justice in hell; and
the presence of his grace with his people. If he deny us his powerful presence
we fall into nothing; if he deny us his gracious presence
we fall into sin; if
he deny us his merciful presence
we fall into hell.—John Mason.
Verse
7. Thy presence. The celebrated Linnaeus testified in his
conversation
writings
and actions
the greatest sense of God's presence. So
strongly indeed was he impressed with the idea
that he wrote over the door of
his library: "Innocue vivite
Numen adest—Live innocently: God
is present."—George Seaton Bowes
in "Information and
Illustration
"1884.
Verses
7-11. You will never be neglected by the Deity
though you were so
small as to sink into the depths of the earth
or so lofty as to fly up to
heaven; but you will suffer from the gods the punishment due to you
whether
you abide here
or depart to Hades
or are carried to a place still more wild
than these.—Plato.
Verses
7-12. The Psalm was not written by a Pantheist. The Psalmist speaks of
God as a Person everywhere present in creation
yet distinct from creation. In
these verses he says
"Thy spirit...thy presence...thou
art there...thy hand...thy right hand...darkness hideth not from thee."
God is everywhere
but he is not everything.—William Jones
in "A
Homiletic Commentary on the Book of Psalms
" 1879.
Verse
8. If I make my bed. Properly
"If I strew or spread my
couch." If I should seek that as a place to lie down.—Albert Barnes.
Verse
8. Hell in some places in Scripture signifies the lower parts
of the earth
without relation to punishment: If I ascend up into heaven
thou art there; if I make my bed in hell
behold
thou art there. By "heaven"
he means the upper region of the world
without any respect to the state of
blessedness; and "hell" is the most opposite and remote in
distance
without respect to misery. As if he had said
Let me go whither I
will
thy presence finds me out.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse
8. Thou art there. Or
more emphatically and impressively in
the original
"Thou!" That is
the Psalmist imagines himself
in the highest heaven
or in the deepest abodes of the dead
—and lo! God is
there also; he has not gone from him! he is still in the presence of the
same God!—Albert Barnes.
Verse
8. Thou art there. This is not meant of his knowledge
for
that the Psalmist had spoken of before: Ps 139:2-3
"Thou understandest my
thought afar off: thou art acquainted with all my ways." Besides
"thou art there"; not thy wisdom or knowledge
but thou
thy
essence
not only thy virtue. For having before spoken of his omniscience
he
proves that such knowledge could not be in God unless he were present in his essence
in all places
so as to be excluded from none. He fills the depths of hell
the
extension of the earth
and the heights of the heavens. When the Scripture
mentions the power of God only
it expresses it by hand or arm; but when it
mentions the spirit of God
and doth not intend the third person of the
Trinity
it signifies the nature and essence of God; and so here
when he
saith
"Whither shall I go from thy spirit?" he adds
exegetically
"whither shall I flee from thy presence?" or
Hebrew
"face"; and the face of God in Scripture signifies the
essence of God: Ex 33:20
23
"Thou canst not see my face"
and
"my face shall not be seen"; the effects of his power
wisdom
providence
are seen
which are his back parts
but not his face. The effects
of his power and wisdom are seen in the world
but his essence is invisible
and this the Psalmist elegantly expresses.—Stephen Charnook.
Verse
9. The wings of the morning
is an elegant metaphor; and by
them we may conjecture is meant the sunbeams
called "wings"
because of their swift and speedy motion
making their passage so sudden and
instantaneous
as that they do prevent the observation of the eye; called "the
wings of the morning" because the dawn of the morning comes flying in
upon these wings of the sun
and brings light along with it; and
by beating
and fanning of these wings
scatters the darkness before it. "Now"
saith the Psalmist
"if I could pluck these wings of the morning"
the sunbeams
if I could imp (graft) my own shoulders with them; if I should
fly as far and as swift as light
even in an instant
to the uttermost parts of
the sea; yea
if in my flight I could spy out some solitary rock
so formidable
and dismal as if we might almost call in question whether ever a Providence had
been there; if I could pitch there on the top of it
where never anything had
made its abode
but coldness
thunders
and tempests; yet there shall thy hand
lead me
and thy right hand shall hold me."—Ezekiel Hopkins.
Verse
9. The wings of the morning. This figure to a Western is not
a little obscure. For my part
I cannot doubt that we are to understand certain
beautiful light clouds as thus poetically described. I have observed
invariably
that in the late spring time
in summer
and yet more especially in
the autumn
white clouds are to be seen in Palestine. They only occur at the
earliest hours of morning
just previous to and at the time of sunrise. It is
the total absence of clouds at all other parts of the day
except during the
short period of the winter rains
that lends such striking solemnity and force
to those descriptions of the Second Advent where our Lord is represented as
coming in the clouds. This feature of his majesty loses all its meaning in
lands like ours
in which clouds are of such common occurrence that they are
rarely absent from the sky. The morning clouds of summer and autumn are always
of a brilliant silvery white
save at such times as they are dyed with the
delicate opal tints of dawn. They hang low upon the mountains of Judah
and produce
effects of undescribable beauty
as they float far down in the valleys
or rise
to wrap themselves around the summit of the hills. In almost every instance
by
about seven o'clock the heat has dissipated these fleecy clouds
and to the
vivid Eastern imagination morn has faded her outstretched wings.—James Neil.
Verse
9. If I take the wings of the morning. The point of
comparison appears to be the incalculable velocity of light.—Joseph Addison
Alexander.
Verses
9-10. When we think that we fly from God
in running out of one place
into another
we do but run from one hand to the other; for there is no place
where God is not
and whithersoever a rebellious sinner doth run
the hand of
God will meet with him to cross him
and hinder his hoped for good success
although he securely prophesieth never so much good unto himself in his
journey. What! had Jonah offended the winds or the waters
that they bear him
such enmity? The winds and the waters and all God's creatures are wont to take
God's part against Jonah
or any rebellious sinner. For though God in the
beginning gave power to man over all creatures to rule them
yet when man sins
God giveth power and strength to his creatures to rule and bridle man.
Therefore even he that now was lord over the waters
now the waters are lord
over him.—Henry Smith.
Verses
9-10.
Should
fate command me to the farthest verge
Of the green earth
to distant barbarous climes
Rivers unknown to song; where first the sun
Gilds Indian mountains
or his setting beam
Flames on the Atlantic isles; 'tis nought to me:
Since GOD is ever present
ever felt
In the void waste as in the city full;
And where he vital breathes
there must be joy
When e'en at last the solemn hour shall come
And wing my mystic flight to future worlds
I cheerful will obey; there with new powers
Will rising wonders sing: I cannot go
Where universal love smiles not around
Sustaining all yon orbs
and all their sons:
From seeming evil still deducing good
And better thence again
and better still
In infinite progression.
—James
Thomson
1700-1748.
Verse
11. If I say
Surely the darkness shall cover me
etc. The
foulest enormities of human conduct have always striven to cover themselves
with the shroud of night. The thief
the counterfeiter
the assassin
the
robber
the murderer
and the seducer
feel comparatively safe in the midnight
darkness
because no human eye can scrutinize their actions. But what if it
should turn out that sable night
to speak paradoxically
is an unerring
photographer! What if wicked men
as they open their eyes from the sleep of
death
in another world
should find the universe hung round with faithful
pictures of their earthly enormities
which they had supposed for ever lost in
the oblivion of night! What scenes for them to gaze at for ever! They may now
indeed
smile incredulously at such a suggestion; but the disclosures of
chemistry may well make them tremble. Analogy does make it a scientific
probability that every action of man
however deep the darkness in which it was
performed
has imprinted its image on nature
and that there may be tests which
shall draw it into daylight
and make it permanent so long as materialism
endures.—Edward Hitchcock
in "The Religion of Geology
" 1851.
Verse
12. The darkness hideth not from thee. Though the place where
we sin be to men as dark as Egypt
yet to God it is as light as Goshen.—William
Secker.
Verse
13. Thou hast possessed my reins. From the sensitiveness to
pain of this part of the body
it was regarded by the Hebrews as the seat of
sensation and feeling
as also of desire and longing (Ps 72:21 Job 16:13
19:27). It is sometimes used of the inner nature generally (Ps 16:7 Jer 20:12)
and specially of the judgment or direction of reason (Jer 11:20 12:2).—William
Lindsay Alexander
in Kitto's Cyclopaedia.
Verse
13. Thou hast possessed my reins. The reins are made
specially prominent in order to mark them
the seat of the most tender
most
secret emotions
as the work of him who trieth the heart and the reins.—Franz
Delitzsch.
Verse
13. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. The word here
rendered cover means properly to interweave; to weave; to knit together
and the literal translation would be
"Thou hast woven me in my mother's
womb"
meaning that God had put his parts together
as one who weaves
cloth
or who makes a basket. So it is rendered by De Wette and by Gesenius (Lex.).
The original word has
however
also the idea of protecting
as in a booth or
hut
woven or knit together
—to wit
of boughs and branches. The former signification
best suits the connection; and then the sense would be
that as God had made
him—as he had formed his members
and united them in a bodily frame and form
before he was born—he must be able to understand all his thoughts and feelings.
As he was not concealed from God before he saw the light
so he could not be
anywhere.—Albert Barnes.
Verse
14. I will praise thee
etc. All God's works are admirable
man wonderfully wonderful. "Marvellous are thy works; and that my soul
knoweth right well." What infers he on all this? Therefore "I will
praise thee." If we will not praise him that made us
will he not
repent that he made us? Oh that we knew what the saints do in heaven
and how
the sweetness of that doth swallow up all earthly pleasures! They sing honour
and glory to the Lord. Why? Because he hath created all things: Re 4:11. When
we behold an exquisite piece of work
we presently enquire after him that made
it
purposely to commend his skill: and there is no greater disgrace to an
artist
than having perfected a famous work
to find it neglected
no man
minding it
or so much as casting an eye upon it. All the works of God are
considerable
and man is bound to this contemplation. "When I consider the
heavens"
etc.
I say
"What is man?." Ps 8:3-4. He admires the
heavens
but his admiration reflects upon man. Quis homo? There is no
workman but would have his instruments used
and used to that purpose for which
they were made...Man is set like a little world in the midst of the great
to
glorify God; this is the scope and end of his creation.—Thomas Adams.
Verse
14. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The term "fearful"
is sometimes to be taken subjectively
far our being possessed of fear. In this
sense it signifies the same as timid. Thus the prophet was directed to say to
them that were of a "fearful heart
be strong." At other times it is
taken objectively
for that property in an object the contemplation of which
excites fear in the beholder. Thus it is said of God that he is "fearful
in praises"
and that it is a "fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God." In this sense it is manifestly to be understood in the
passage now under consideration. The human frame is so admirably constructed
so delicately combined
and so much in danger of being dissolved by innumerable
causes
that the more we think of it the more we tremble
and wonder at our own
continued existence.
"How
poor
how rich
how abject
how august
How complicate
how wonderful is man!
How passing wonder he who made him such
Who mingled in our make such strange extremes
Of different natures
marvellously mixed!
Helpless immortal
insect infinite
A worm
a god—I tremble at myself!"
To
do justice to the subject
it would be necessary to be well acquainted with
anatomy. I have no doubt that a thorough examination of that "substance
which God hath curiously wrought" (Ps 139:15)
would furnish abundant
evidence of the justness of the Psalmist's words; but even those things which
are manifest to common observation may be sufficient for this purpose. In
general it is observable that the human frame abounds with avenues at which
enter every thing conducive to preservation and comfort
and every thing that
can excite alarm. Perhaps there is not one of these avenues but what may become
an inlet to death
nor one of the blessings of life but what may be the means
of accomplishing it. We live by inhalation
but we also die by it. Diseases and
death in innumerable forms are conveyed by the very air we breathe. God hath
given us a relish for divers aliments
and rendered them necessary to our
subsistence: yet
from the abuse of them
what a train of disorders and
premature deaths are found amongst men! And
when there is no abuse
a single
delicious morsel may
by the evil design of another
or even by mere accident
convey poison through all our veins
and in one hour reduce the most athletic
form to a corpse.
The
elements of fire and water
without which we could not subsist
contain
properties which in a few moments would be able to destroy us; nor can the
utmost circumspection at all times preserve us from their destructive power. A
single stroke on the head may divest us of reason or of life. A wound or a
bruise of the spine may instantly deprive the lower extremities of all sensation.
If the vital parts be injured
so as to suspend the performance of their
mysterious functions
how soon is the constitution broken up! By means of the
circulation of the blood
how easily and suddenly are deadly substances
diffused throughout the frame! The putridity of a morbid subject has been
imparted to the very hand stretched out to save it. The poisoned arrow
the
envenomed fang
the hydrophobic saliva
derive from hence their fearful
efficacy. Even the pores of the skin
necessary as they are to life
may be the
means of death. Not only are poisonous substances hereby admitted
but
when
obstructed by surrounding damps
the noxious humours of the body
instead of
being emitted
are retained in the system
and become productive of numerous
diseases
always afflictive
and often fatal to life. Instead of wondering at
the number of premature deaths that are constantly witnessed
there is far
greater reason to wonder that there are no more
and that any of us survive to
seventy or eighty years of age.
"Our
life contains a thousand springs
And dies if one be gone:
Strange that a harp of thousand strings
Should keep in tune so long."
Nor
is this all. If we are "fearfully made" as to our animal
frame
it will be found that we are much more so considered as moral and
accountable beings. In what relates to our animal nature
we are in most
instances constructed like other animals; but
in what relates to us as moral
agents
we stand distinguished from all the lower creation. We are made for
eternity. The present life is only the introductory part of our existence. It
is that
however
which stamps a character on all that follows. How fearful is
our situation! What innumerable influences is the mind exposed to from the
temptations which surround us! Not more dangerous to the body is the pestilence
that walketh in darkness than these are to the soul. Such is the construction
of our nature that the very word of life
if heard without regard becomes a
savour of death unto death. What consequences hang upon the small and
apparently trifling beginnings of evil! A wicked thought may issue in a wicked
purpose
this purpose in a wicked action
this action in a course of conduct
this course may draw into its vortex millions of our fellow creatures
and
terminate in perdition
both to ourselves and them. The whole of this process
was exemplified in the case of Jeroboam
the son of Nebat. When placed over the
ten tribes
he first said in his heart
"If this people go up to
sacrifice at Jerusalem
their hearts will turn to Rehoboam; and thus shall the
kingdom return to the house of David." 1Ki 12:26-30. On this he took
counsel
and made the calves of Dan and Bethel. This engaged him in a course of
wickedness
from which no remonstrances could reclaim him. Nor was it confined
to himself; for he "made all Israel to sin." The issue was
not only
their destruction as a nation
but
to all appearance
the eternal ruin of
himself and great numbers of Iris followers. Such were the fruits of an evil
thought! Oh
my soul
tremble at thyself! Tremble at the fearfulness of thy
situation; and commit thine immortal all into his hands "who is able to
keep thee from falling
and to present thee faultless before the presence of
his glory with exceeding joy."—Andrew Fuller.
Verse
14. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Never was so terse
and expressive a description of the physical conformation of man given by any
human being. So "fearfully" are we made
that there is not an
action or gesture of our bodies
which does not
apparently
endanger some
muscle
vein
or sinew
the rupture of which would destroy either life or
health. We are so "wonderfully" made
that our organization
infinitely surpasses
in skill
contrivance
design
and adaptation of means to
ends
the most curious and complicated piece of mechanism
not only ever
executed "by art and man's device"
but ever conceived by human
imagination.—Richard Warner
1828.
Verse
14. I am wonderfully made. Take notice of the curious frame of
the body. David saith
"I am wonderfully made"; acu pictus sum
so the Vulgate rendereth it
"painted as with a needle"
like a
garment of needlework
of divers colours
richly embroidered with nerves and
veins. What shall I speak of the eye
wherein there is such curious
workmanship
that many upon the first sight of it have been driven to
acknowledge God? Of the hand
made to open and shut
and to serve the labours
and ministries of nature without wasting and decay for many years? If they
should be of marble or iron
with such constant use they would soon wear out;
and yet now they are of flesh they last so long as life lasts. Of the head?
fitly placed to be the seat of the senses
to command and direct the rest of
the members. Of the lungs? a frail piece of flesh
yet
though in continual
action
of a long use. It were easy to enlarge upon this occasion; but I am to
preach a sermon
not to read an anatomy lecture. In short
therefore
every
part is so placed and framed
as if God had employed his whole wisdom about it.
But as yet we have spoken but of the casket wherein the jewel lieth. The soul
that divine spark and blast
how quick
nimble
various
and indefatigable in
its motions! how comprehensive in its capacities! how it animates the body
and
is like God himself
all in every part! Who can trace the flights of reason?
What a value hath God set upon the soul! He made it after his image
he
redeemed it with Christ's blood.—Thomas Manton.
Verse
14. What is meant by saying that the soul is in the body
any
more than saying that a thought or a hope is in a stone or a tree? How
is it joined to the body? what keeps it one with the body? what keeps it in the
body? what prevents it any moment from separating from the body? When two
things which we see are united
they are united by some connection which we can
understand. A chain or cable keeps a ship in its place; we lay the foundation
of a building in the earth
and the building endures. But what is it which
unites soul and body how do they touch how do they keep together? how is it we
do not wander to the stars or the depths of the sea
or to and fro as chance
may carry us
while our body remains where it was on earth? So far from its
being wonderful that the body one day dies
how is it that it is made to live
and move at all? how is it that it keeps from dying a single hour? Certainly it
is as uncomprehensible as anything can be
how soul and body can make up one
man; and
unless we had the instance before our eyes
we should seem in saying
so to be using words without meaning. For instance
would it not be extravagant
and idle to speak of time as deep or high
or of space as quick or slow? Not
less idle
surely
it perhaps seems to some races of spirits to say that
thought and mind have a body
which in the case of man they have
according to
God's marvellous will.—John Henry Newman
in Parochial Sermons
1839.
Verse
14. Moses describes the creation of man (Ge 2:7): "The Lord God
formed man of the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life; and man became a living soul." Now what God did then immediately
he doth still by means. Do not think that God made man at first
and that ever
since men have made one another. No (saith Job)
"he that made me in the
womb made him": Job 31:15. David will inform us: "I am fearfully
and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works"
etc. As if he had
said
Lord
I am wonderfully made
and thou hast made me. I am a part or parcel
of thy marvellous works
yea
the breviate or compendium of them all. The frame
of the body (much more the frame of the soul
most of all the frame of the new
creature in the soul) is God's work
and it is a wonderful work of God. And
therefore David could not satisfy himself in the bare affirmation of this
but
enlargeth in the explication of it in Ps 139:15-16. David took no notice of
father or mother but ascribed the whole efficiency of himself to God. And
indeed David was as much made by God as Adam; and so is every son of Adam.
Though we are begotten and born of our earthly parents
yet God is the chief
parent and the only fashioner of us all. Thus graciously spake Jacob to his
brother Esau
demanding
"Who are those with thee? And he said
The
children which God hath graciously given thy servant": Ge 33:5. Therefore
as the Spirit of God warns
"Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he
that hath made us
and not we ourselves" (Ps 100:3); which as it is true
especially of our spiritual making
so 'tis true also of our natural.—Joseph
Caryl.
Verse
14. Those who were skilful in Anatomy among the ancients
concluded
from the outward and inward make of a human body
that it was the work of a
Being transcendently wise and powerful. As the world grew more enlightened in
this art
their discoveries gave them fresh opportunities of admiring the
conduct of Providence in the formation of a human body. Galen was converted by
his dissections
and could not but own a Supreme Being upon a survey of this
his handiwork. There are
indeed
many parts
of which the old anatomists did
not know the certain use; but as they saw that most of those which they
examined were adapted with admirable art to their several functions
they did
not question but those whose uses they could not determine
were contrived with
the same wisdom for respective ends and purposes. Since the circulation of the
blood has been found out
and many other great discoveries have been made by
our modern anatomists
we see new wonders in the human frame
and discern
several important uses for those parts
which uses the ancients knew nothing
of. In short
the body of man is such a subject as stands the utmost test of
examination. Though it appears formed with the nicest wisdom upon the most
superficial survey of it
it still mends upon the search
and produces our
surprise and amazement in proportion as we pry into it.—The Spectator.
Verses
14-16. The subject
from Ps 139:14 and Ps 139:16 inclusive
might have
been much more particularly illustrated; but we are taught
by the peculiar
delicacy of expression in the Sacred Writings
to avoid
as in this case
the
entering too minutely into anatomical details.—Adam Clarke.
Verse
15. My substance was not hid from thee
etc. What deeper
solitude
what state of concealment more complete
than that of the babe as yet
unborn Yet the Psalmist represents the Almighty as present even there. "My
substance was not hid from thee
when I was made in secret
and curiously
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth." The whole image and train
of thought is one of striking beauty. We see the wonderful work of the human
body
with all its complex tissue of bones
and joints
and nerves
and veins
and arteries growing up
and fashioned
as it had been a piece of rich and
curious embroidery under the hand of the manufacturer. But it is not the work
itself that we are now called on to admire. The contexture is indeed fearful
and wonderful; but how much more when we reflect that the divine Artificer
wrought within the dark and narrow confines of the womb. Surely the darkness is
no darkness with him who could thus work. Surely the blackest night
the
closest and most artificial recess
the most subtle disguises and hypocrisies
are all seen through
are all naked and bare before him whose "eyes did
see our substance yet being imperfect." The night is as clear as the
day; and secret sins are set in the light of his countenance
no less than
those which are open and scandalous
committed before the sun or on the house
top. And if "in his book all our members are written
which day by day
were fashioned
when as yet there was none of them"
surely the actions of
these members
now that they are grown
or growing
to maturity
and called
upon to fulfil the functions for which they were created
shall be all noted
down; and none be contrived so secretly
but that when the books are opened at
the last day
it shall be found written therein to justify or to condemn us.
Such is the main lesson which David himself would teach us in this Psalm
—the omnipresence
and omniscience of Almighty God. My brethren
let us reflect for a
little upon this deep mystery; that he
"the High and Lofty One that
inhabiteth eternity" is about our path and about our bed
and spies out
all our ways; that go whither we will he is there; that say what we will
there
is not a word on our tongue but he knoweth it altogether. The reflection is
indeed
mysterious
but it is also most profitable.—Charles Wordsworth
in
"Christian Boyhood
" 1846.
Verse
15. My substance was not hid from thee. Should an artisan
intend commencing a work in some dark cave where there was no light to assist
him
how would he set his hand to it? in what way would he proceed? and what
kind of workmanship would it prove? But God makes the most perfect work of all
in the dark
for he fashions man in the mother's womb.—John Calvin.
Verse
15. When I was made in secret
etc. The author uses a metaphor
derived from the most subtle art of the Phrygian workman:
"When
I was formed in the secret place
When I was wrought with a needle in the depths of the earth."
Whoever
observes this (in truth he will not be able to observe it in the common
translations)
and at the same time reflects upon the wonderful mechanism of
the human body; the various implications of the veins
arteries
fibres
and
membranes; the "undescribable texture" of the whole fabric—may
indeed
feel the beauty and gracefulness of this well adapted metaphor
but
will miss much of its force and sublimity
unless he be apprised that the art
of designing in needlework was wholly dedicated to the use of the sanctuary
and
by a direct precept of the divine law
chiefly employed in furnishing a
part of the sacerdotal habit
and the vails for the entrance of the Tabernacle.
Ex 28:39 26:36 27:16. Thus the poet compares the wisdom of the divine Artificer
with the most estimable of human arts—that art which was dignified by being
consecrated altogether to the use of religion; and the workmanship of which was
so exquisite
that even the sacred writings seem to attribute it to a
supernatural guidance. See Ex 35:30-35.—Robert Lowth (1710-1787)
in
"Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews."
Verse
15. Curiously wrought in the lowest part
of the earth
that
is
in the womb: as curious workmen
when they have some choice piece in hand
they perfect it in private
and then bring it forth to light for men to gaze
at. What a wonderful piece of work is man's head (God's masterpiece in this
little world)
the chief seat of the soul
that cura Divini ingenii
as
Favorinus calls it. Many locks and keys argue the value of the jewel that they
keep
and many papers wrapping the token within them
the price of the token.
The tables of the testament
first laid up in the ark
secondly
the ark bound
about with pure gold; thirdly
overshadowed with cherubim's wings; fourthly
enclosed within the vail of the Tabernacle; fifthly
with the compass of the
Tabernacle; sixthly
with a court about all; seventhly
with a treble covering
of goats'
rams'
and badgers' skins above all; they must needs be precious
tables. So when the Almighty made man's head (the seat of the reasonable soul)
and overlaid it with hair
skin
and flesh
like the threefold covering of the
Tabernacle
and encompassed it with a skull and bones like boards of cedar
and
afterwards with divers skins like silken curtains; and lastly
enclosed it with
the yellow skin that covers the brain (like the purple veil)
he would
doubtless have us to know it was made for some great treasure to be put
therein. How and when the reasonable soul is put into this curious cabinet
philosophers dispute many things
but can affirm nothing of certainty.—Abraham
Wright.
Verse
15. In the lowest parts of the earth. From this remarkable
expression
which
in the original
and as elsewhere used
denotes the region
of the dead—Sheol
or Hades—it would appear that it is not only
his formation in the womb the Psalmist here contemplates
but also—regarding
the region of the dead as the womb of resurrection life—the refashioning of the
body hereafter
and its new birth to the life immortal
which will be no less
"marvellous" a work
but rather more so
than the first fashioning of
man's "substance." Confirmed by the words of Ps 139:18—"When I
awake
I am still with thee"—the same language before employed to express
the resurrection hope
Ps 17:15; when there shall be purposes and "precious
counsels" with respect to his redeemed
in anticipation of which they may
repeat this Psalm with renewed feelings of wonder and admiration.—William De
Burgh.
Verse
15-16. The word substance represents different words in these
verses. In Ps 139:15 it is "my strength"
or "my bones"; in
Ps 139:16 the word is usually rendered "embryo": but "clew"
(life a ball yet to be unwound) finds favour with great scholars. In the lowest
parts of the earth denotes no subterranean limbo or workshop; but is a poetical
parallel to "in secret." Which in continuance were fashioned is
wrong. The margin
though also wrong
indicates the right way: "my days
were determined before one of them was."—David M`laren
in "The
Book of Psalms in Metre
" 1883.
Verse
16. Thine eyes did see my substance
yet being unperfect
etc.
From whence we may learn
first
not to be proud of what we are; all's the work
of God. How beautiful or comely
how wise or holy soever you are
'tis not of
yourselves. What hath any man
either in naturals or supernaturals
which he
hath not received? Secondly
despise not what others are or have
though they
are not such exact pieces
though they have not such excellent endowments as
yourselves; yet they are what God hath made them. Thirdly
despise not what
yourselves are. Many are ashamed to be seen as God made them; few ale ashamed
to be seen what the devil hath made them. Many are troubled at small defects in
the outward man; few are troubled at the greatest deformities of the inward
man: many buy artificial beauty to supply the natural; few spiritual
to supply
the defects of the supernatural beauty of the soul.—Abraham Wright.
Verse
16. My substance yet being unperfect. One word in the
original
which means strictly anything rolled together as a ball
and
hence is generally supposed to mean here the foetus or embryo. Hupfeld
however
prefers to understand it of the ball of life
as consisting of a
number of different threads ("the days" of Ps 139:16—see margin)
which are first a compact mass as it were
and which are then unwound as life
runs on.—J.J. Stewart Perowne.
Verse
16. A skilful architect before he builds draws a model
or gives a
draught of the building in his book
or upon a table; there he will show you
every room and contrivance: in his book are all the parts of the building
written
while as yet there are none of them
or before any of them are framed
and set up. In allusion to architects and other artisans
David speaks of God
In
thy book all my members were written; that is
Thou hast made me as exactly
as if thou hadst drawn my several members and my whole proportion with a pen or
pencil in a book
before thou wouldst adventure to form me up. The Lord uses no
book
no pen to decipher his work. He had the perfect idea of all things in
himself from everlasting; but he may well be said to work as by pattern
whose
work is the most perfect pattern.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse
17. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me
etc. So far
from thinking it a hardship to be subject to this scrutiny
he counts it a most
valuable privilege. However others may regard this truth
"to me"
my judgment and my feelings
"how costly" valuable "are
thy thoughts"
i.e. thy perpetual attention to me.—Joseph Addison
Alexander.
Verse
17. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me
O God! How
cold and poor are our warmest thoughts towards God! How unspeakably
loving and gloriously rich are his thoughts towards us! Compare Eph
1:18: "The riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."—A.R.
Fausset.
Verse
17. How precious...how great is the sum of them? Our comforts
vie with the number of our sorrows
and win the game. The mercies of God passed
over in a gross sum breed no admiration; but cast up the particulars
and then
arithmetic is too dull an art to number them. As many dusts as a man's hands
can hold
is but his handful of so many dusts; but tell them one by one
and
they exceed all numeration. It was but a crown which king Solomon wore; but
weigh the gold
tell the precious stones
value the richness of them
and what
was it then?—Thomas Adams.
Verses
17-18. Behold David's love to God; sleeping and waking his mind runs
upon him. There needs no arguments to bring those to our remembrance whom we
love. We neglect ourselves to think upon them. A man in love wastes his
spirits
vexes his mind
neglects his meat
regards not his business
his mind
still feels on that he loves. When men love that they should not
there is more
need of a bridle to keep them from thinking of it
than of spurs to keep them
to it. Try thy love of God by this. If thou thinkest not often of God
thou
lovest him not. If thou canst not satisfy thyself with profits
pleasures
friends
and other worldly objects
but thou must turn other businesses aside
that thou mayest daily think of God
then thou lovest him.—Francis Taylor
in "God's Glory in Man's Happiness
" 1654.
Verses
17-18. Mercies are either ordinary or extraordinary—our common
necessaries
or the remarkable supplies which we receive now and then at the
hand of God. Thou must not only praise him for some extraordinary mercy
that
comes with such pomp and observation that all thy neighbours take notice of it
with thee
as the mercy which Zacharias and Elizabeth had in their son
that
was noised about all the country (Lu 1:65); but also for ordinary every day
mercies: for first
we are unworthy of the least mercy (Ge 32:10)
and
therefore God is worthy of praise for the least
because it is more than he
owes us. Secondly
these common
ordinary mercies are many. Thus David enhances
the mercies of this kind
—O God
how great is the sum of them. "If
I should count them
they are more in number than the sand; when I wake I am
still with thee." As if he had said
There is not a point of time wherein
thou art not doing me good; as soon as I open my eyes in the morning I have a
new theme
in some fresh mercies given since I closed them over night
to
employ my meditations that are full of praise. Many little items make together
a great sum. What is lighter than a grain of sand
yet what is heavier than the
sand upon the seashore? As little sins (such as vain thoughts and idle words)
because of their multitude
arise to a great guilt
and will bring in a long
bill
a heavy reckoning at last; so
ordinary mercies
what they want in their
size of some other great mercies
have compensated it in their number. Who will
not say that a man shows greater kindness in maintaining one at his table with
ordinary fare all the year than in entertaining him at a great feast twice or
thrice in the same time?—William Gurnall.
Verse
18. They are more in number than the sand. Pindar says
that
sand flies number (Olymp. Ode 2). The Pythian oracle indeed boastingly
said
I know the number of the sand
and the measure of the sea (Herodot.
Clio. l. i. c. 47). It is to this that Lucan may refer when he says
measure is not wanting to the ocean
or number to the sand (Pharsal. l.
5
v. 182).—Samuel Burder.
Verse
18. If I should count them
they are more in number than the sand.
If
all his glorious deeds my song would tell
The shore's unnumbered stones I might recount as well.
—Pindar
B.C. 518-442.
Verse
18. When I awake
I am still with thee. It is the great
advantage of a Christian
which he has above other men
that he has his friends
always about him
and (if the fault be not his own) need never to be absent
from them. In the friendship and converse of the world
we use to say
"Friends must part"
and those who have delight and satisfaction in
one another's society must be content to leave it
and to be taken off from it.
But this is the privilege of a believer that undertakes communion with God
that it is possible for him always to be with him. Again
in human converse and
society we know it is ordinary for friends to dream that they are in company
with one another; but when they awake they are a great way off. But a Christian
that converses with God
and has his thoughts fastened upon him
when he awakes
he is still with him
which is that which is here exhibited to us in the
example of the prophet David. A godly soul should fall asleep in God's arms
like a child in the mother's lap; it should be sung and lulled to sleep with
"songs of the night." And this will make him the fitter for converse
with God the next day after. This is the happiness of a Christian that is careful
to lie down with God
that he finds his work still as he left it
and is in the
same disposition when he rises as he was at night when he lay down to rest. As
a man that winds up his watch over night
he finds it going the next morning;
so is it also
as I may say
with a Christian that winds up his heart. This is
a good observation to be remembered
especially in the evening afore the
Sabbath.—Thomas Horton
—1673.
Verse
18. When I awake
I am still with thee. It is no small
advantage to the holy life to "begin the day with God." The saints
are wont to leave their hearts with him over night
that they may find them
with him in the morning. Before earthly things break in upon us
and we receive
impressions from abroad
it is good to season the heart with thoughts of God
and to consecrate the early and virgin operations of the mind before they are
prostituted to baser objects. When the world gets the start of religion in the
morning
it can hardly overtake it all the day; and so the heart is habituated
to vanity all the day long. But when we begin with God
we take him along with
us to all the business and comforts of the day; which
being seasoned with his
love and fear
are the more sweet and savoury to us.—Thomas Case
(1598-1682)
in the Epistle Dedicatory to "The Morning Exercise."
Verse
18. When I awake. Accustom yourself to a serious meditation
every morning. Fresh airing our souls in heaven will engender in us a purer
spirit and nobler thoughts. A morning seasoning will secure us for all the day.
Though other necessary thoughts about our calling will and must come in
yet
when we have dispatched them
let us attend to our morning theme as our chief
companion. As a man that is going with another about some considerable
business
suppose to Westminster
though he meets with several friends on the
way
and salutes some
and with others with whom he has some affairs he spends
some little time
yet he quickly returns to his companion
and both together go
to their intended stage. Do thus in the present case. Our minds are active and
will be doing something
though to little purpose; and if they be not fixed
upon some noble object
they will
like madmen and fools
be mightily pleased
in playing with straws. The thoughts of God were the first visitors David had
in the morning. God and his heart met together as soon as he was awake
and
kept company all the day after.—Stephen Charnock.
Verse
19. Depart from me therefore
ye bloody men. The expression
"bloody
men"
or "men of blood"
includes not only homicides
who shed human blood
but all other wicked and evil doers
who injure
or seek
to injure others
or who slay their own souls by sin
or the souls of others by
scandal; all of whom may be truly called homicides; for hatred may be called
the mainspring of homicide
and thus St. John says
"Whoso hateth his
brother is a homicide."—Robert Bellarmine.
Verse
19. Therefore. When we have a controversy with the wicked we
should take heed that private spleen do not rule us
but that only our interest
in God's quarrel with them doth move us
as the Psalmist doth here.—David
Dickson.
Verse
20. Thine enemies take thy name in vain. In every action three
things are considerable
—the end
the agent
the work.
These three duly weighed
we shall soon see what it is to take God's name in
vain.
1.
That which hath no end proposed or is done to no end
may truly be said to be
done in vain. As the sowing of seed without reaping the fruit
the planting a
vineyard without a vintage
or feeding a flock without eating the milk of it.
These are labours in vain. So he that taketh the name of God to no end
neither
to God's glory
nor the private or public good
taketh it in vain. Cui bono?
is a question in all undertakings. If to no good
as good and better not
undertaken at all; it is to no end
it is in vain. If a man have well fashioned
legs
and they be lame
frustra pulchras habet tibia claudus
the lame
man hath them in vain. The chief end
therefore
in taking this name must be
a)
The glory of God
otherwise we open our mouths in vain
as it is in Job. God is
willing to impart all his blessings to us
and requires nothing of as again but
glory
which if we return not
he may say
as David did of Nabal
for whom he
had done many good turns
in securing his shepherds and flocks
etc.; and when
he desired nothing but a little meat for the young men he denied it: All that I
have done for this fellow is in vain; in vain have I kept all he hath. So
God
having done so much for us
and expecting nothing but the glory of his name
if
we be defective herein
he may well say all that he hath done for us is in
vain.
b)
Next to God's glory is the good of ourselves and others; and so to take God's
name without reference to this end
if we neither promote our own good nor the
good of others
it is in vain
ex privatione finis
because it wants a
right end; therefore Saint Paul rejoiced
having by his preaching laboured for
the saving of souls
c)
rejoice
saith he
that I have not run in vain
neither laboured in vain.
2.
In the agent the heart and soul is to be considered
which in the person
acting is the chief mover. If the soul be Rachah
vain and light
as
when we take God's name without due advice and reverence
though we propound a
right end
yet we take his name in vain. Therefore the wise man advises
"not to be rash with our mouth" (Ec 5:2); and the Psalmist professes
that his heart was fixed when he praised God (Ps 57:7): the heart ought to be
fixed and stablished by a due consideration of God's greatness when we speak of
him. This is opposed to rashness
inconstancy
and lightness
such as are in
chaff and smoke
which are apt to be carried away with every blast
and such as
are so qualified do take God's name in vain.
3.
In the work itself may be a twofold vanity
which must be avoided. Firstly
Falsehood. Secondly
Injustice.
a)
If it be false
then is it also vain
as theirs in Isa 28:15: "We
have made a covenant with death
and with hell are we at agreement; when the
overflowing scourge shall pass through
it shall not come unto us: for we have
made lies our refuge
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves." And this
is that actio erroris
work of error
of which Jeremiah speaketh. Vanitas
opponitur veritati
vanity is opposed to verity and truth; therefore a
thing is said to be vain when it is false or erroneous. "They are vanity
the work of errors"
saith the prophet (Jer 10:15); and as there is truth
in natural things
so is there a truth in moral things
which if it be wanting
our speech is vain.
b)
If unjust it is vain too. "If I be wicked
why then labour I in
vain?" saith holy Job 9:29; and
"The very hope of unjust men
perisheth"
saith the wise man (Pr 11:7); and
"They walk in a vain
shadow
and disquiet themselves in vain" (Ps 39:6). If justice be wanting
in our actions
or truth in our assertions and promises
they are vain; and to
use God's name in either is to take his name in vain. So that if either we take
the name of God to no end
but make it common
and take it up as a custom till
it come to a habit
not for any good end; or if our hearts be not stable or
fixed
but light and inconstant when we take it; or if we take it to colour or
bolster up any falsehood or any unjust act
we take it in vain
and break the
commandment.—Lancelot Andrews.
Verse
21. Do not I hate them
O Lord
that hate thee? The simple
future in the first clause comprehends several distinct shades of meaning. Do I
not
may I not
must I not
hate those hating thee? Hate them
not as man
hates
but as God hates.—Joseph Addison Alexander.
Verse
21. Do not I hate them
O LORD
that hate thee? Can he who
thinks good faith the holiest thing in life
avoid being an enemy to that man
who
as quaestor
dared to despoil
desert
and betray? Can he who wishes to
pay due honours to the immortal gods
by any means avoid being an enemy to that
man who has plundered all their temples?—Cicero.
Verse
21. And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
The expression here—"grieved"—explains the meaning of the word
"hate" in the former member of the verse. It is not that
hatred which is followed by malignity or ill will; it is that which is
accompanied with grief
pain of heart
pity
sorrow. So the Saviour looked on
men: Mr 3:5:—"And when he had looked round about on them with anger
being grieved for the hardness of their hearts." The Hebrew word
used here
however
contains also the idea of being disgusted with; of
loathing; of nauseating. The feeling referred to is anger—conscious disgust—at
such conduct; grief
pain
sorrow
that men should evince such feelings towards
their Maker.—Albert Barnes.
Verse
21. Am not I grieved? etc. Acted upon by mingled feelings of
sorrow for them
and loathing at their evil practices. Thus our Lord
"looked round about on them with anger
being grieved for
the hardness of their hearts": Mr 3:5.—French and Skinner.
Verse
21. It is said that Adam Smith disliked nothing more than that moral
apathy—that obtuseness of moral perception—which prevents man from not only
seeing clearly
but feeling strongly
the broad distinction between virtue and
vice
and which
under the pretext of liberality
is all indulgent even to the
blackest crimes. At a party at Dalkeith Palace
where Mr.——
in his mawkish
way
was finding palliations for some villainous transactions
the doctor
waited in patient silence until he was gone
then exclaimed: "Now I can
breathe more freely. I cannot bear that man; he has no indignation in
him."
Verses
21-22. A faithful servant hath the same interests
the same friends
the
same enemies
with his master
whose cause and honour he is
upon all
occasions
in duty bound to support and maintain. A good man hates
as God
himself doth; he hates not the persons of men
but their sins; not what God
made them
but what they have made themselves. We are neither to hate the men
on account of the vices they practise; nor to love the vices
for the sake of
the men who practise them. He who observeth invariably this distinction
fulfils the perfect law of charity
and hath the love of God and of his
neighbour abiding in him.—George Horne.
Verses
21-22. First
we must hate the company and society of manifest and
obstinate sinners
who will not be reclaimed. Secondly
all their sins
not
communicating with any man in his sin
we must have no fellowship (as with the
workers so) with the unfruitful works of darkness. Thirdly
all occasions and
inducements unto these sins. Fourthly
all appearances of wickedness (1Th
5:22)
that is
which men in common judgment account evil; and all this must
proceed from a good ground
even from a good heart hating sin perfectly
that
is all sin
as David
"I hate them with perfect hatred"
and
not as some
who can hate some sin
but cleave to some other: as many can hate
pride
but love covetousness or some other darling sin: but we must attain to
the hatred of all
before we can come to the practice of this precept (Jude
1:23); besides that
all sins are hateful even in themselves.—William
Perkins
1558-1602.
Verse
21
24. The temper of mourning for public sins
for the sins of others
is the greatest note of sincerity. When all other signs of righteousness may
have their exceptions
this temper is the utmost term
which we cannot go
beyond in our self examination. The utmost prospect David had of his sincerity
when he was upon a diligent enquiry after it
was his anger and grief for the
sin of others. When he had reached so far
he was at a stand
and knew not what
more to add "Am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate
them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. Search me
O God
and know
my heart: try me
and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in
me." If there be anything that better can evidence my sincerity than this
Lord
acquaint me with it; "know my heart"
i.e.
make me to
know it. He whose sorrow is only for matter confined within his own breast
or
streams with it in his life
has reason many times to question the truth of it;
but when a man cannot behold sin as sin in another without sensible regret
it
is a sign he hath savingly felt the bitterness of it in his own soul. It is a
high pitch and growth
and a consent between the Spirit of God and the soul of
a Christian
when he can lament those sins in others whereby the Spirit is
grieved; when he can rejoice with the Spirit rejoicing
and mourn with the
Spirit mourning. This is a clear testimony that we have not self ends in the
service of God; that we take not up religion to serve a turn; that God is our
aim
and Christ our beloved.—Stephen Charnock.
Verse
22. I hate them with perfect hatred. What is "with a
perfect hatred"? I hated in them their iniquities
I loved thy
creation. This it is to hate with a perfect hatred
that neither on account of
the vices thou hate the men
nor on account of the men love the vices. For see
what he addeth
"They became my enemies." Not only as God's
enemies
but as his own too doth he now describe them. How then will he fulfil
in them both his own saying
"Have not I hated those that hated thee
Lord"
and the Lord's command
"Love your enemies"?
How will he fulfil this
save with that perfect hatred
that he hate in them
that they are wicked
and love that they are men? For in the time even of the
Old Testament
when the carnal people was restrained by visible punishments
how did Moses
the servant of God
who by understanding belonged to the New
Testament
how did he hate sinners when he prayed for them
or how did he not
hate them when he slew them
save that he "hated them with a perfect
hatred"? For with such perfection did he hate the iniquity which he punished
as to love the manhood for which he prayed.—Augustine.
Verse
23. Try me. True faith is precious; it is like gold
it will
endure a trial. Presumption is but a counterfeit
and cannot abide to be tried:
1Pe 1:7. A true believer fears no trial. He is willing to be tried by God. He
is willing to have his faith tried by others
he shuns not the touchstone. He
is much in testing himself. He would not take anything upon trust
especially
that which is of such moment. He is willing to hear the worst as well as the
best. That preaching pleases him best which is most searching and
distinguishing: Heb 4:12. He is loath to be deluded with vain hopes. He would
not be flattered into a false conceit of his spiritual state. When trials are
offered
he complies with the apostle's advice
2Co 13:5.—David Clarkson.
Verse
23. What fearful dilemma have we here? The Holiest changeth not
when
he comes a visitant to a human heart. He is the same there that he is in the
highest heaven. He cannot look upon sin; and how can a human heart welcome him
into its secret chambers? How can the blazing fire welcome the quenching water?
It is easy to commit to memory the seemly prayer of an ancient penitent
Search
me
O God
and know my heart; try me
and know my thoughts. The dead
letters
worn smooth by frequent use
may drop freely from callous lips
leaving no sense of scalding on the conscience; and yet
truth of God though
they are
they may be turned into a lie in the act of utterance. The prayer is
not true
although it is borrowed from the Bible
if the suppliant invite the
All seeing in
and yet would give a thousand worlds
if he had them
to keep
him out for ever.
Christ
has declared the difficulty
and solved it: "I am the way
the truth
and
the life: no man cometh unto the Father
but by me." When the Son has made
the sinner free
he is free indeed. The dear child
pardoned and reconciled
loves and longs for the Father's presence. What! is there neither spot nor
wrinkle now upon the man
that he dares to challenge inspection by the
Omniscient
and to offer his heart as Jehovah's dwelling place? He is not yet
so pure; and well he knows it. The groan is bursting yet from his broken heart:
"O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?" Many stains defile him yet; but he loathes them now
and longs to
be free. The difference between an unconverted and a converted man is not that
the one has sins
and the other has none; but that the one takes part with his
cherished sins against a dreaded God
and the other takes part with a
reconciled God against his hated sins. He is out with his former friends
and
in with his former adversary. Conversion is a turning
and it is one turning
only; but it produces simultaneously and necessarily two distinct effects.
Whereas his face was formerly turned away from God
and toward his own sins; it
is now turned away from his own sins
and toward God. This one turning
with
its twofold result
is in Christ the Mediator
and through the work of the
Spirit. As long as God is my enemy
I am his. I have no more power to change
that condition than the polished surface has to refrain from reflecting the
sunshine that falls upon it. It is God's love
from the face of Jesus shining
into my dark heart
that makes my heart open to him
and delight to be his
dwelling place. The eyes of the just Avenger I cannot endure to be in this
place of sin; but the eye of the compassionate Physician I shall gladly admit
into this place of disease; for he comes from heaven to earth that he may heal
such sin sick souls as mine. When a disciple desires to be searched by the
living God
he does not thereby intimate that there are no sins in him to be
discovered: he intimates rather that his foes are so many and so lively
that
nothing can subdue them except the presence and power of God.—William Arnot
(—1875)
in "Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth."
Verses
23-24. There are several things worthy of notice in the Psalmist's
appeal
in the words before us.
First
notice the Psalmist's intrepidity. Here is a man determined to explore
the recesses of his own heart. Did Bonaparte
did Nelson
did Wellington
ever
propose to do this? Were all the renowned heroes of antiquity present
I would
ask them all if they ever had courage to enter into their own hearts. David was
a man of courage. When he slew a lion in the way
when he successfully
encountered a bear
when he went out to meet the giant Goliath
he gave
undoubted proofs of courage; but never did he display such signal intrepidity
as when he determined to look into his own heart. If you stood upon some
eminence
and saw all the ravenous and venomous creatures that ever lived
collected before you
it would not require such courage to combat them as to
combat with your own heart. Every sin is a devil
and each may say
"My
name is Legion
for we are many." Who knows what it is to face himself?
And yet
if we would be saved
this must be done.
Secondly
notice the Psalmist's integrity. He wished to know all his sins
that he
might be delivered from them. As every individual must know his sins at some
period
a wise man will seek to know them here
because the present is the only
time in which to glorify God
by confessing
by renouncing
by overcoming them.
One of the attributes of sin is to hide man from himself
to conceal his
deformity
to prevent him from forming a just conception of his true condition.
It is a solemn fact
that there is not an evil principle in the bosom of the
devil himself which does not exist in ours
at the present moment
unless we
are fully renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit. That these evil principles
do not continually develop themselves
in all their hideous deformity
is
entirely owing to the restraining and forbearing mercy of God.
Thirdly
notice the Psalmist's wisdom. He presents his prayer to God himself. God
is the only Being in the universe that knows himself—that peruses himself in
his own light. In the same light he sees all other beings; and hence it follows
that
if other beings see themselves truly
it must be in the light of God. If
the sun were an intelligent being
I would ask him
"How do you see
yourself? In your own light?" And he would reply
"Yes."
"And how do you see the planets that are continually revolving around you?"
"In my own light also
for all the light that is in them is borrowed from
me."
You
will observe that the Psalmist begins with his principles: his desire is to
have these tried by a competent judge
and to have every thing that is evil
removed from them. This is an evidence of his wisdom. The heart and its
thoughts must be made right
before the actions of the life can be set right.
Those who are most eminent for piety are most conversant with God; and
for
this reason
they become most conversant with themselves. David says
elsewhere
"Who can understand his errors? Cleanse THOU me from secret
faults." And Job says
"If I wash myself with snow water
and make me
never so clean
yet shalt THOU plunge me in the ditch
and mine own clothes
shall abhor me." When these holy men perused themselves in God's light
they saw their sins of omission and commission
and prayed earnestly to be
delivered from all.—William Howels
1832.
Verses
23-24. The text is a prayer
and it indicates
as we think
three great
facts in regard to the suppliant: the first
that David thoroughly wished to
become acquainted with himself; the second
that he felt conscious that God
could see through all disguises; and the third
that he desired to discover
in
order that by Divine help he might correct
whatsoever was wrong in his
conduct. Now
the first inference which we draw from the text
when considered
as indicating the feelings of the petitioner is
that he was thoroughly honest
that it was really his wish to become acquainted with his own heart. And is there
you may say
anything rare or remarkable in this? Indeed we think there is. It
would need
we believe
a very high degree of piety to be able to put up with
sincerity the prayers of our text. For
will you tell me that it does not often
happen
that even whilst men are carrying on a process of self examination
there is a secret wish to remain ignorant of certain points
a desire not to be
proved wrong when interest and inclination combine in demanding an opposite
verdict? ...In searching into yourselves
you know where the tender points are
and those points you will be apt to avoid
so as not to put yourselves to pain
nor make it evident how much you need the caustic and the knife. Indeed
we may
be sure that we state nothing but what experience will prove
when we declare
it a high attainment in religion to be ready to know how bad we are...And this
had evidently been reached by the Psalmist
for he pleads very earnestly with
God that he would leave no recess of his spirit unexplored
that he would bring
the heart and all its thoughts
the life and all its ways
under a most
searching examination
so that no form and no degree of evil might fail to be
detected.—Henry Melvill.
Verses
23-24. Self examination is not the simple thing which
at first sight
it might appear. No Christian who has ever really practised it has found it
easy. Is there any exercise of the soul which any one of us has found so
unsatisfactory
so almost impossible
as self examination? The fact is this
that the heart is so exceedingly complicated and intricate
and it is so very
near the eye which has to investigate it
and both it and the eye are so
restless and so shifting
that its deep anatomy baffles our research. Just a
few things
here and there
broad and open
and floating upon the surface
a
man discovers; but there are chambers receding within chambers
in that deepest
of all deep things
a sinner's heart
which no mere human investigation ever
will reach
...it is the prerogative of God alone to "search"
the human heart. To the child of God—the most intimate with himself in all the
earth—I do not hesitate to say—"There are sins latent at this moment in
you
of which you have no idea; but it only requires a larger measure of
spiritual illumination to impress and unfold them. You have no idea of the
wickedness that is now in you." But while I say this
let every Christian
count well the cost before he ventures on the bold act of asking God to
"search" him. For be sure of this
if you do really and earnestly ask
God to "search" you
he will do it. And he will search you
most searchingly; and if you ask him to "try" you
he will try
you
—and the trial will be no light matter!
I
am persuaded that we often little calculate what we are doing—what we are
asking God to do—when we implore him to give us some spiritual attainment
some
growth in grace
some increase in holiness
or peace. To all these things there
is a condition
and that condition lies in a discipline
and that discipline is
generally proportionate to the strength and the measure of the gift that we
ask. I do not know what may have been the state of the Psalmist at the period
when he wrote this Psalm; but I should think either one of Saul's most cruel
persecutions
or the rebellion of his son Absalom
followed quick upon the
traces of that prayer
Search me
O God
and know my heart: try me
and know
my thoughts
etc. Still
whatever his attainment
every child of God will
desire
at any sacrifice
to know his own exact state before God; for
as he
desires in all things to have a mind conformed to the mind of God
so he is
especially jealous lest he should
by any means
be taking a different view
or
estimate
of his own soul from that which God sees it.—Condensed from James
Vaughan.
Verses
23-24. Hypocrisy at the fashionable end of the town is very different
from hypocrisy in the city. The modish hypocrite endeavours to appear more
vicious than he really is
the other kind of hypocrite more virtuous. The
former is afraid of everything that has the show of religion in it
and would
be thought engaged in many criminal gallantries and amours which he is not
guilty of. The latter assumes a face of sanctity
and covers a multitude of
vices under a seeming religious deportment. But there is another kind of
hypocrisy
which differs from both of these: I mean that hypocrisy by which a
man does not only deceive the world
but very often imposes on himself; that
hypocrisy which conceals his own heart from him
and makes him believe he is
more virtuous than he really is
and either not attend to his vices
or mistake
even his vices for virtues. It is this fatal hypocrisy and self deceit which is
taken notice of in those words
"Who can understand his errors? cleanse
thou me from secret faults."
These
two kinds of hypocrisy
namely
that of deceiving the world
and that of
imposing on ourselves
are touched with wonderful beauty in the hundred and
thirty-ninth Psalm. The folly of the first kind of hypocrisy is there set forth
by reflections on God's omniscience and omnipresence
which are celebrated in
as noble strains of poetry as any other I ever met with
either sacred or
profane. The other kind of hypocrisy
whereby a man deceives himself
is
intimated in the two last verses
where the Psalmist addresses himself to the
great Searcher of hearts in that emphatic petition; "Try me
O God
and
seek the ground of my heart: prove me
and examine my thoughts. Look well if
there be any way of wickedness in me
and lead me in the way
everlasting."—Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
in "The Spectator."
Verses
23-24. How beautiful is the humility of David! He cannot speak of the
wicked but in terms of righteous indignation; he cannot but hate the haters of
his God; yet
he seems immediately to recollect
and to check himself—"Try
me
O Lord
and seek the ground of my heart." Precisely in
the same spirit of inward humility and self recollection
Abraham
when
pleading before God in prayer for guilty depraved Sodom
fails not to speak of himself
as being dust and ashes: Ge 18:27.—James Ford
1871.
Verses
23-24. Why did David pray thus to God
Search me
O God
and know my
heart
having said before
in the first verse
"Thou hast searched
me
and known me"? Seeing David knew that God had searched him
what
needed he to pray that God would search him? why did he beg God to do that
which he had done already? The answer is at hand. David was a diligent self
searcher
and therefore he was so willing to be searched
yea
he delighted to
be searched by God; and that not (as was said) because himself had done it
already
but also because he knew God could do it better. He knew by his own
search that he did not live in any way of wickedness against his knowledge
and
yet he knew there might be some way of wickedness in him that he knew not of.
And therefore he doth not only say
"Search me
O God
and know my
thoughts"; but he adds
"See if there be any wicked way
(or any way of pain and grief) in me"; (the same word signifies
both
because wicked ways lead in the end to pain and grief); "and lead
me in the way everlasting." As if he had said
Lord
I have searched
myself
and can see no wicked way in me; but
Lord
thy sight is infinitely
clearer than mine
and if thou wilt but search me thou mayest see some wicked
way in me which I could not see
and I would fain see and know the worst of
myself
that I might amend and grow better; therefore
Lord
if there be any
such way in me
cause me to know it also. O take that way out of me
and take
me out of that way; "lead me in the way everlasting." David
had tried himself
and he would again be tried by God
that he
being better
tried
might become yet better. He found himself gold upon his own trial and
yet he feared there might be some dross in him that he had not found; and now
he would be retried that he might come forth purest gold. Pure gold fears
neither the furnace nor the fire
neither the test nor the touchstone; nor is
weighty gold afraid of the balance. He that is weight will be weight
how often
soever he is weighed; he that is gold will be gold
how often soever he is
tried
and the oftener he is tried the purer gold he will be; what he is he
will be
and he would be better than he is.—Joseph Caryl.
Verse
24. See if there be any wicked way in me. This is a beautiful
and impressive prayer for the commencement of every day. It is
also
a
great sentiment to admonish us at the beginning of each day. There is
the way of unbelief within
to which we are very prone. There is the way
of vanity and pride
to which we often accustom ourselves. There is the
way of selfishness in which we frequently walk. There is the way of worldliness
we often pursue—empty pleasures
shadowy honours
etc. There is the way of sluggishness.
What apathy in prayer
in the examination and application of God's Word
we
manifest! There is the way of self dependence
by which we often
dishonour God and injure ourselves. There is
unhappily
the way of disobedience
in which we often walk. At any rate
our obedience is cold
reluctant
uncertain—not simple
entire
fervent. How necessary is it
then
to go to God
at once
and earnestly to prefer the petition
"Lord
see if there be
any wicked way in me." Let nothing that is wrong
that is opposed to
thy character
repugnant to thy word
or injurious and debasing to ourselves
remain
or be harboured within us.—Condensed from T. Wallace
in
"Homiletic Commentary."
Verse
24. See if there be any wicked way in me. To what a holiness
must David have attained ere he could need
if we may so speak
Divine
scrutiny
in order to his being informed of errors and defects! Is there one of
us who can say that he has corrected his conduct up to the measure of his
knowledge
and that now he must wait the being better informed before he can do
more towards improving his life? I do not know how to define a higher point in
religious attainment than supposing a man warranted in offering up the prayer
of our text. I call upon you to be cautious in using this prayer. It is easy to
mock God
by asking him to search you whilst you have made but little effort to
search yourselves
and perhaps still less to act upon the result of the
scrutiny.—Henry Melvill.
Verse
24. See if there be any wicked way in me
etc.—
Think
and be careful what thou art within
For there is sin in the desire of sin:
Think and be thankful
in a different case
For there is grace in the desire of grace.
—John Byron
1691-1763.
Verse
24. The way everlasting. Way of eternity
or of antiquity
the old way
as Jer 6:16; meaning the way of faith and godliness
which God
taught from the beginning
and which continueth for ever; contrary to "the
way of the wicked"
which perisheth: Ps 1:6.—Henry Ainsworth.
HINTS TO THE
VILLAGE PREACHER
Verses
1
23. A matter of fact made a matter of prayer.
Verse
1.
1.
A cheering thought for sinners. If God knew them not perfectly
how could he
have prepared a perfect salvation for them?
2.
A comfortable truth for saints. "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have
need of all these things."—G.R.
Verses
1-5. In these verses we have God's Omniscience
1.
Described.
a)
As observing minute and comparatively unimportant actions: "My downsitting
and uprising."
b)
As taking note of our thoughts and the motives behind them: "Understandest
my thought."
c)
As investigating all our ways: "Thou compassest"
etc.; better rendered
"Thou triest my walking and lying down"
i.e.
my activities
and restings.
d)
Accurately estimating every word at the instant of its utterance: "For
there is not a word"
etc.
e)
As being "behind" men
remembering their past
and "before"
men
acquainted with their future: "Thou hast beset me"
etc.
f)
As every instant holding men under watchful scrutiny: "And laid"
etc.
2.
Personally realized and pondered: "Thou hast searched me." Me
and my run through the whole set of statements. Thus felt and used
the
fact of God's omniscience
a)
Begets reverence.
b)
Inspires confidence.
c)
Produces carefulness of conduct.—J.F.
Verse
2-4. The knowledge of God extends
1.
To our movements
our "down sitting and uprising"—when we sit down to
read
write
or converse
and when we rise up to active service.
2.
To our thoughts: "Thou understandest my thoughts afar off." What they
have been
what they now are
what they will be
what under all circumstances
they would have been. He who made minds knows what their thoughts will be at
all times
or he could not predict future events
or govern the world. He can
know our thoughts without being the Author of them.
3.
To our actions: Ps 139:3. Every step we take by day
and all we purpose to do
in wakeful hours of the night: all our private
social
and public ways
are
compassed or sifted by him
to distinguish the good from the bad
as wheat from
the chaff.
4.
To our words: Ps 139:4. It has been said that the words of all men and from all
time are registered in the atmosphere
and may be faithfully recalled. Whether
it be so or not
they are phonographed in the mind of God.—G.R.
Verse
2. (first clause). The importance of the commonest acts of
life.
Verse
2. (second clause). The serious nature of thoughts. Known to
God; seen through
their drift perceived; and attention given to them while as
yet in the distance.
Verse
3. The encircling Presence
in our activities
meditations
secrecies
and movements.
Verse
4.
1.
Words on the tongue first in it
and in that stage known to God.
2.
Words on the tongue very numerous
yet all known.
3.
Word on the tongue have wide meaning
yet known "altogether."
Lesson:
Take heed of your words not yet spoken.
Verse
5. A soul captured. Stopped
overtaken
arrested. What has it done?
What shall it do?
Verse
6.
1.
God imperfectly known to man.
2.
Man perfectly known to God. It has been said that wise men never wonder; to us
it appears they are always wondering.—G.R.
Verse
6. Theme: the facts of our religion
too wonderful to understand
are just those in which we have most reason to rejoice.
1.
Prove it.
a)
The incomprehensible attributes of God give unspeakable value to his promises.
b)
The Incarnation is at once the most complete and most endearing manifestation
of God we possess
yet it is the most inexplicable.
c)
Redemption by the death of Christ is the highest guarantee of salvation we can
conceive; but who can explain it?
d)
Inspiration makes the Bible the word of God
though none can give an account of
its mode of operation in the minds of those "moved by the Holy
Ghost."
e)
The resurrection of the body
and its glorification
satisfy the deepest
yearning of our soul (Ro 8:23 2Co 5:2-4); but none can conceive the how.
2.
Apply its lessons.
a)
Let us not stumble at doctrines simply because they are mysterious.
b)
Let us be thankful God has not kept back the great mysteries of our religion
simply because there would be some offended at them.
c)
Let us readily receive all the joy which the mysteries bring
and calmly wait
the light of heaven to make them better understood.—J.F.
Verses
7-10.
1.
God is wherever I am. I fill but a small part of space; he fills all space.
2.
He is wherever I shall be. He does not move with me
but I move in him.
"In him we live
and move"
etc.
3.
God is wherever I could be. "If I ascend to heaven"
etc. "If I
descend to Sheol"
etc. If I travel with the sunbeams to the most distant
part of the earth
or heavens
or the sea
I shall be in thy hand. No mention
is here made of annihilation
as though that were possible; which would be the
only escape from the Divine Presence; for he is not the God of the dead
of the
annihilated
in the Sadducean meaning of the word
but of the living. Man is
always somewhere
and God is always everywhere.—G.R.
Verse
8. The glory of heaven and the terror of hell: "Thou."
Verses
9-10.
1.
The greatest security and encouragement to a sinner supposed.
a)
The place—the remotest part of the sea; by which you are to understand the most
obscure nook in the creation.
b)
His swift and speedy flight after the commission of sin
to this supposed
refuge and sanctuary: "If I take the wings of the morning."
2.
This supposed security and encouragement is utterly destroyed (Ps 139:10).
—See
Flavel's "Seaman's Preservative in Foreign Countries."
Verses
11-12. Darkness and light are both alike to God.
1.
Naturally. "I form the light
and I create the darkness."
2.
Providentially. Providential dispensations that are dark to us are light to
him. We change with respect to him
not he to us.
3.
Spiritually. "Let him that walketh in darkness"
etc. "Yea
though I walk"
etc. He went before them in a pillar of cloud to guide
them by day
and a pillar of fire to guide them by night. It was the same God
in the day cloud and in the night light.—G.R.
Verse
14. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. This is true of man
in his fourfold state.
1.
In his primitive integrity.
2. In his deplorable depravity.
3. In his regeneration.
4. In his fixed state in hell or heaven.
—W.W.
Verses
17-18. The Psalm dilates upon the omniscience of God. In no mournful
manner
but the reverse.
1. God's
thoughts of us.
a)
How certain.
b) How numerous.
c) How condescending.
d) How tender.
e) How wise.
f) How practical.
g) How constant.
2. Our
thoughts upon his thoughts.
a)
How late and yet how due to the subject.
b) How delightful.
d) How consoling.
e) How strengthening to faith.
f) How arousing to love.
3. Our
thoughts upon God himself.
a)
They place us near God.
b)
They keep us near God.
c)
They restore us to him. We are with God when we awake from sleep
from
lethargy
from death.
Verses
17-18.
1.
The saint precious to God. He thinks of him tenderly; in countless ways;
perpetually.
2.
God precious to the saints. Noting God's loving kindnesses
numbering them
newly awakening to them.
3.
The mingling of these loves: "I am still with thee."—W.B.H.
Verse
18. When I awake I am still with thee.
1.
Awaking is sometimes
yea
most commonly
taken in the natural
signification
for the recovery from bodily sleep.
2. Morally
for recovery from sin.
3. Mystically;
"when I shall awake"
that is
from the sleep of death.—T. Horton.
Verse
18. A Christian on Earth still in Heaven (an Appendix to
"A Christian on the Mount; or
A Treatise concerning Meditation")
by
Thomas Watson
1660.
Verse
18. I am still with thee.
1.
By way of meditation.
2.
In respect to communion.
3.
In regard of action
and the businesses which are done by us.—T. Horton.
Verse
19.
1.
The doctrine of punishment the necessary outcome of omniscience.
2.
Inevitable judgment an argument for separation from sinners.—W.B.H.
Verse
20. Two scandalous offences against God.
1.
To speak slanderously of him.
2.
To speak irreverently of him. These are committed only by his enemies.
Verses
21-22.
1.
Such hatred one need not be ashamed of.
2.
Such hatred one should be able to define: "grieved."
3.
Such hatred one must labour to keep right. "Perfect hatred" is a form
of hate consistent with all the virtues.
Verses
23-24. The language
1.
Of self examination.
a)
As in the sight of God.
b)
With a desire for the help of God: Ps 139:23. Look me through
and through
and
tell me what thou thinkest of me.
2.
Of self renunciation: "See if"
etc. (Ps 139:24); any sin unpardoned
any evil disposition unsubdued
any evil habit unrestrained
that I may
renounce it.
3.
Of self dedication: "Lead me"
etc.: a submission entirely to divine
guidance in the future.—G.R.
Verse
24.
1.
The evil way. Naturally in us; may be of different kinds; must be removed;
removal needs Divine help.
2.
The everlasting way. There is but one
we need leading in it. It is the good
old way
it does not come to an end
it leads to blessedness without end.
Verse
24. (last clause).—See "Spurgeon's Sermons
" No.
903: "The Way Everlasting."
── C.H. Spurgeon《The Treasury of David》