(To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.) Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known [me].
David opens this psalm by telling God what God already knows. The rest of the psalm grows out of that one line, and it raises two questions: what does this search involve, and why would David sing about it?
The opening statement sets up a sequence that runs to the end of the psalm. One summary divides it into three:
And so we see, as in Psalm 139, that the Trinity is omniscient (verses 1 to 6), omnipresent (verses 7 to 12), and omnipotent (verses 13 to the end).
The verb matters. David does not say God is looking into him now, or will one day; he speaks of something done.
Every human being has been searched by Omniscience, whether he is conscious of it or not. This will be made clear "on that day when God judges the secrets of men." … He has "hemmed us in, behind and before." He can look backward, and He can look forward also. All our history is before Him, as if it had been written after we had run our course. "O Lord, you have searched me," is the language of the Psalmist — not "you are doing it now, or will do it later," but "you have done it already."
The word behind "searched" carries the idea of winnowing — grain thrown up so the wind carries off the chaff. That image explains why the search can feel painful and still be kind.
And is this not dealing with us according to the divine order in Psalm 139? "O Lord, you have searched me and known me: you winnow my path." And what is the soul's reply to all the sifting it has consciously passed through? "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts." … Let this precious thought comfort our hearts. The Lord is sifting away much that we have cherished more than Himself. But He does it only to bring out what He knows lies at the bottom of our hearts. He by His Spirit has put it there: faith in Him, and love for Him.
David states this as a fact about himself. It is true of everyone else as well.
The psalmist stated the fact: Jehovah has "searched me and known me." It was to him an event of the past. We know that God does search and know people everywhere without their asking Him, and He does so without their knowledge. The thoughtless crowds that fill our streets are all known to God, individually, just as fully as every believer is known by Him. But the believer knows that God knows him, and this makes all the difference. The child of God welcomes such knowledge; he knows it is good for him.
If God already knows everything, why search at all?
Clearly not for His own information. Why then were we searched? We were searched so that we might know ourselves. This is what we have to learn at the beginning of God's dealings with us. We naturally do not want to be searched, for nothing morally good is found in us. … What will God learn by His searchings? Nothing from us. But we may learn a great deal, and we shall learn very much if we respond to His searchings and are glad to be searched. At first we do not like it, but when we see a little of the good of it we are glad to be searched.
Another writer goes further. God does more than see us:
But it is not without the most thorough searching out of all that we are. And this, where there is confidence, is a great grace. Only He can do it, and He does it according to His own perfection. He does it to purify us from everything inconsistent with Himself — with His own mind, and so with our blessedness, which lies in communion with Himself. … This is the conscience brought into the sense that God knows everything in us perfectly. All is under His eye, and He actually sees everything. It is not only that He sees, but He searches.
Being fully known was no threat to David. It was his song.
In this Psalm David lifts up his eyes and says, "O Lord, you have searched me and known me … and are acquainted with all my ways." He stands before the Lord, aware of Him. He rejoices in His full knowledge of himself and his ways, and makes it the theme of his song to Jehovah. To David, this intimate inspection was a matter for praise to God, the omniscient and omnipotent One, who had searched him and known him.
- Searched — the tense is past and finished. God has already examined every person, whether or not they ever notice.
- Sifted — God winnows away what we cherish more than Himself, to bring out the faith and love His Spirit planted in us.
- Known — God knows everyone. Only the believer knows that God knows him, and that makes all the difference.
- Taught — the search tells God nothing. It exists so that we may see ourselves, and it ends in purifying us for communion with Him.
- Sung — David turns the whole thing into praise, and by the psalm's close he asks for more of it, not less.
*Thou* knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off;
Psalm 139 opens with David under the eye of God. Verse 2 shows how far that gaze reaches: the plainest movements of a day, and the thoughts behind them. The question is not whether God knows us, but what we do once we know He does.
Sitting down and getting up are things we do without thinking. One writer takes them as a sample of the whole of life, outward and inward.
The psalmist felt himself searched out fully in the presence of God — a searching he had been unable to carry out on himself. God knew every movement, whether sitting or rising. He not only knows, but understands the thoughts passing through every mind. He understands them better than we do (v. 2).
It reaches past our words to what drives them:
God knows every detail of our lives; every movement of the body, and the thought of the mind and heart the moment it begins. God knows the word we have formed inside before it leaves the tongue. He knows it completely: the motive and spirit behind it, the purpose of sending it out. Its sound may deceive others; we may deceive ourselves about the motive for it, but He knows everything about it perfectly.
God reads a thought before it has passed through our own minds.
All is known to the Lord. The unseen world as well as the future; all eternity is known to Him. All is naked and open before Him. He knows the hearts of men, yes, even our thoughts from far off, before they ever pass through our finite minds.
David does not say God is examining him or will examine him. The tense matters.
Every human being has been searched by Omniscience, whether he is conscious of it or not... "O Lord, You have searched me," says the psalmist. He does not say, "You are doing it now, or will do it later," but "You have done it already." He has "hemmed us in behind and before." He can look backward, and He can look forward also. All our history is before Him, as if it had been written after we had run our course.
One writer applies this verse to Jesus. The scribes never spoke their charge aloud, yet He answered it.
Loving hands bring a paralysed man to Him, and when He saw their faith He said to the helpless one, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven." And now for the first time in the Gospel we read that the scribes said, "This man is blaspheming." They did not speak it out, but He saw their thoughts, for He is the One of whom David says: "You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar" (Ps. 139:2).
God knows everyone this way, whether they ask Him to or not. The difference lies in whether a person knows it and welcomes it.
The psalmist stated the fact: the Lord has "searched me and known me." To him it was an event of the past. We know that God does search and know people everywhere without their asking Him, and does so without their being aware of it. The crowds that fill our streets without a thought of Him are all known to God individually, just as fully as every believer is known by Him. But the believer knows that God knows him, and this makes all the difference. The child of God welcomes such knowledge; he knows it is good for him.
There is another side to this knowledge. The One who knows everything is the One who formed everything.
Psalm 139 shows the full exercise of heart that belongs to God's ways... not a thought escapes God. Morally speaking, no one can stay in His presence. But no one can get out of His presence either. There is nowhere He does not see, though conscience might be glad to flee. But this brings in another side. He knows all, because He has also formed all. This links us with His taking perfect notice of us in goodness. He cares for us. He watches over every part that is formed, just as He knows our every thought. And if He does, He has thoughts of His own too, and these are precious to us.
- Known. Sitting and rising stand for a whole ordinary day. God knows every movement, and the motive behind a word before it leaves the tongue.
- Understood. God understands our thoughts better than we do. He knows them before they pass through our own minds.
- Already. The search is already done. Our whole history lies before Him, as if written after we had run our course.
- Embodied. Jesus answered a charge the scribes never said out loud. One writer sees in Him the One David addressed in this verse.
- Welcomed. Everyone is known this way, aware of it or not. The believer knows it and welcomes it, because the One who reads his thought is the One who formed him, and God's thoughts toward him are precious.
Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways;
Verse 3 adds to the list David has begun: the road he walks by day, the bed he lies on by night, and every other habit of his life. Is such complete knowledge a thing to dread or a thing to sing about?
The verse names movement and rest, then gathers everything else under "all my ways." One writer shows how far that reaches:
God knows every detail of our lives: every movement of the body, and the thought of the mind and heart the moment it begins. Every moment of the day of activity, the time of our rest — yes, He knows through and through all the ways that mark us out down here. God knows the word we have formed before it leaves the tongue. He knows it fully: the motive and spirit behind it, and the purpose we sent it out for. Its sound may deceive others; we may deceive ourselves about the motive for it. But He knows everything about it perfectly.
The word behind "search out" carries the sense of winnowing: tossing grain in the air so the wind blows the chaff away. One commentator sees a shift between verse 2 and verse 3:
The first section speaks of the Lord's knowledge of all things. The first two verses speak of knowledge only, though the Light that is never withdrawn searches everything out. But in the next verses He winnows the path. This hints at a judgment that sifts and separates, and its result would be thorough acquaintance, or familiarity, with all the ways.
If God winnows a life, He is separating something out. One writer ties that to the prayer David ends the psalm with:
What is the soul's reply to all the sifting it has knowingly passed through? "Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!" … Let this precious thought comfort our hearts. The Lord is sifting away much that we have cherished more than Himself. But He does it only to bring out what He knows lies at the bottom of our hearts: faith in Him, and love to Him. He Himself put it there by His Spirit.
David does not say God is examining him now or will do so later. One writer weighs that past tense, and what the searching means for us today:
God, who knows all things, has searched every human being, whether that person is aware of it or not. The day when God judges the secrets of men will make this plain. His word searches "the thoughts and intentions of the heart" now, and that is how He brings His knowledge home to our conscience before that day. He has hemmed us in behind and before. He can look backward, and He can look forward too. All our history is before Him, as if it had been written after we had run our course. "O Lord, You have searched me" is the language of the psalmist — not "You are doing it now, or will do it later," but "You have done it already."
The same knowledge can crush a person or steady him. It depends on what he believes God intends toward him:
In the psalmist's experience, knowing that God knows everything at first plunges his soul into the deepest distress. He thinks of his own broken responsibilities towards God. At last he realises that God's "works" and God's "thoughts" are towards him in grace. Then God's knowledge of everything becomes the source of his deepest comfort.
God does not only watch the path; He shapes it:
Sometimes God will not let us go forward; at other times He will not let us go back, for He hems us in behind and before. In the way He governs us, He knows how to keep us from ways that would dishonour Him and bring shame and sorrow to our poor hearts.
God knows us whether we notice or not. The value of the verse lies in noticing:
God knows all about me at all times, whether I am sleeping or waking, whether I am aware of His eyes on me or not. But when I grasp that truth as the psalmist had, I will want to walk in the awareness of it every day, as he did. … Then I will have the happy assurance, in all I do and say, that God Himself is before me and around me every step of the way I take.
- Searched — the verbs are past tense. God has already examined the whole life, and our history lies open before Him, as if we had finished the race.
- Sifted — the word behind "search out" pictures winnowing. God blows the chaff away to bring out the faith and love His own Spirit put there.
- Known — path and lying down cover activity and rest. God knows a word, and the motive behind it, before it leaves the tongue.
- Comforted — that same knowledge first crushes a person. It becomes his deepest comfort once he sees that God's thoughts toward him are grace.
- Walked — the aim is not information but company. He hems us in, holds us back from ways that would dishonour Him, and goes with us every step.
For there is not yet a word on my tongue, [but] lo, O Jehovah, thou knowest it altogether.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me.
Verse 5 closes the opening section of the psalm, where the writer has traced how fully God knows him. Here the language shifts from what God sees to what God does — and the question is whether that hand is a threat or a comfort.
The first verses describe an eye that misses nothing. This verse describes a hand. One writer marks the shift as the psalm moves through its stages:
The first section speaks of Jehovah's omniscience. The first two verses give knowledge only, though the Light, which is never withdrawn, searches everything out. … The third subsection speaks not simply of knowledge, but of action: "You have hemmed me in behind and before, and laid Your hand on me." He realizes, as well he may, this knowledge as too wonderful for him — an unattainable height.
Older translations say "beset" or "hedged," and put it in the past: "You have beset me behind and before." The picture is a fence on both sides. No route is open except the one God allows:
"You have hedged me behind and before" (v. 5) — that is, God puts limits that we cannot ignore, whether we want to go forward or reverse our direction and return to a previous condition. So He lays His hand on us to preserve, to guide or to restrain, as He sees fit. The very knowledge that this is so is too wonderful for the psalmist to understand: it is high above his ability to search it (v. 6).
That restraint shows itself in ordinary life, and it comes as kindness:
Sometimes God will not let us go forward; at other times He will not let us go back, for He hems us in behind and before. In the way He governs our lives, He knows how to keep us from paths that would dishonour Him. Such paths bring shame and sorrow to our poor hearts. At times He puts His hand on us, so that we may feel it is He Himself who is dealing with us in wisdom and in love.
"Behind and before" covers time as well as space — the past already reviewed, the future already seen:
He has "hemmed us in behind and before." He can look backward, and He can look forward also. All our history is before Him, as if it had been written after we had run our course. The psalmist says, "O Lord, You have searched me." He does not say, "You are doing it now, or will do it later," but "You have done it already."
One writer turns to Jonah, who ran the opposite way from God's word, and asks whether we are any different:
Have we not, like Jonah, tried to go west when God has told us to go east? … And have we not had to learn, to our sorrow and shame, how useless such attempts are? Have we not also learned how near God's hand is to deliver those who call on Him out of the prison of distress they brought on themselves?
Being searched to the bottom and being at peace go together:
Looking more closely at the Psalm as a whole, its earlier part (verses 1–12) expresses, in language of rare grandeur, the believer's inward awareness that God knows him. The fullest sense of self-sifting — the most intimate searching of all that the heart holds — goes together with the fullest enjoyment of assured peace and confidence in God. His right hand holds firmly (verse 10) the soul on which His precious thoughts of peace are set. That grasp is sure salvation, and it holds through every experience of the pilgrim way.
God searches everyone. The difference is that the believer knows it — and welcomes it:
We know that God does search and know people everywhere without their asking Him, and He does so without their being aware of it. The thoughtless crowds that fill our streets are all known to God, individually, just as fully as every believer is known by Him. But the believer knows that God knows him, and this makes all the difference. The child of God welcomes such knowledge; he knows it is good for him. So at the end of this psalm David asked God to search him further; he had learned its value for his soul.
- Knowledge acts. The opening verses show God knowing; verse 5 shows God moving — the searching eye becomes a hand laid on a man.
- Hand as fence. He sets limits ahead and behind — to preserve, to guide, to restrain. Sometimes He will not let us go forward; sometimes He will not let us go back.
- Hand across time. "Behind and before" reaches over a whole life: our history stands before Him as though already written.
- Hand outrun in vain. Jonah's flight proves that no direction escapes it. The same hand delivers those who cry to Him out of trouble they made.
- Hand that holds. The grip that hems in is the grip of sure salvation. That is why David can end the psalm asking God to search him.
O knowledge too wonderful for me! it is high, I cannot [attain] unto it.
The psalmist has just traced what God knows about him: his sitting and rising, his words before he speaks them, his path in front and behind. Here he stops. The verse is his reaction to what he has seen: knowledge he cannot measure, cannot escape, and cannot climb up to.
The word "such" points backwards. One writer sets out the steps the first six verses take:
Psalm 138 had closed with the recognition that we are the work of God's hands. This psalm opens with the realization that, if this is so, God must know us fully, and we are always in His hands. So the first six verses speak of God's omniscience. First, He searches us and knows us. Then He searches into our paths and takes note of all our ways. Last of all, His hand is upon us, dealing with us according to His perfect knowledge. Such knowledge is too wonderful for us.
"It is high; I cannot attain it" admits a limit. When questions run past what God has revealed, one commentator treats this verse as the place to stop:
After all, these are matters which lie beyond the reach of finite minds. Is it likely that God would reveal to us such secrets of His high and eternal purposes — secrets that must lie on the plane of infinity? If He did, would we be any the wiser? No! It is well for us to call a halt here and say with the Psalmist, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it."
At first this knowledge brings fear, not comfort. Reading the psalm in four sections, one writer follows that fear — as far as Sheol, the world of the dead:
The first section speaks plainly of Jehovah's omniscience, as felt by one who is in awe of it. In the second section that fear breaks out into a cry. He longs to escape to the ends of the earth, or into Sheol itself, to be free from it — but he knows well that this is impossible… In the fourth section he is now with God against the evil shown in the world, and against what he fears and hates within himself. The presence of God becomes his sanctuary and refuge. He invites the searching Eye which he once dreaded.
A person can agree that God knows everything and still never have said what verse 6 says. One writer marks the difference:
No wonder the psalmist should say, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it." It is not that anyone might say, "God knows everything; and, of course, He knows all about me." A person might have that awareness and yet not know what it is to be searched by the Spirit of God. We must come into the sense of it. Until that happens there will not be the full sense of what the salvation of God is.
The verse just before speaks of a hand laid on him. One writer reads that hand as care in daily life:
Sometimes God will not let us go forward; at other times He will not let us go back, for He besets behind and before. In His ways of government with us, He knows how to keep us from paths that would dishonour Him and bring shame and sorrow to our poor hearts. At times He puts His hand upon us, so that we might feel that it is Himself dealing with us in wisdom and in love. Do we feel with the Psalmist that the knowledge of these things is too wonderful for us? How great God is! And yet to think that He stoops to deal with small mortals, with such insignificant people as we are.
God's searching could leave a person stuck looking at himself. One writer says the opposite happens here:
God's holy scrutiny does concern us and our ways. But it is not meant to occupy us with ourselves. On the contrary, self is lost in the sense of the wonderful grasp and range of the mind of God.
One writer names what turns his distress into comfort:
In the psalmist's experience, knowing that God knows everything at first plunges his soul into the deepest distress. He thinks of his own broken responsibilities towards God. At last he realizes that God's "works" and God's "thoughts" are toward him in grace. Then God's omniscience becomes the source of his deepest comfort.
- Searched. "Such knowledge" looks back at verses 1–5. God knows the sitting, the rising, the path and the unspoken word — and lays His hand on the man He knows.
- Stopped. Where God has not revealed, this verse is the place to call a halt instead of pushing past what a finite mind can hold.
- Shaken. His first response is awe and the wish to escape — not yet comfort.
- Steadied. Then he sees God's works and thoughts toward him in grace, and the knowledge that overwhelmed him becomes his deepest comfort.
- Sought. The psalm that opens "you have searched me" ends with him asking to be searched — the Eye once dreaded is now invited.