1 To the chief musician: a psalm of David. Jehovah, thou hast searched me and knowest.
2 Thou knowest my sitting and my rising; thou understandest (to my thought from afar.
3 Thou siftest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue—behold, O Jehovah, thou knowest all of it.
5 Behind and before thou hast beset me and laid thy hand upon me.
6 Knowledge too wonderful for me! It is high: I cannot [rise] unto it.
7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? and whither flee from thy face?
8 If I ascend the heavens, there [art] thou; and make Sheol my bed, behold, thou [art there];
9 I will take wings of dawn, I will dwell in the utmost end of the sea;
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
11 And if I say, Surely darkness shall cover me, and light about me [is] night;
12 Even darkness hideth not from thee, and night shineth as the day; as the darkness, so the light.
13 For thou didst possess my reins; thou didst cover me in my mother’s womb.
14 I thank thee, because I am fearfully, wonderfully made: wonderful [are] thy works, and my soul knoweth [it] right well.
15 Not concealed was my frame from thee, when I was made in the hiding place, embroidered in earth’s lowest parts.
16 Thine eyes saw mine unformed substance, and in thy book were all of them written, days they were fashioned when (and) not one [was] among them.
17 And to me how precious [are] thy thoughts, O God; how strong their sum!
18 Would I count them, they are more than the sand; I awaked and [am] still with thee.
19 Surely thou wilt slay the wicked one, O God! and ye men of blood, depart from me.
20 For they speak of thee with evil intent, and take [thy name] in vain, thine enemies.
21 Do not I hate those that hate thee, Jehovah? And those that rise against thee, do not I loathe?
22 (With) perfect hatred I hate them; for enemies they are to me.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts;
24 And see if a way of grief [be] in me, and lead me in a way everlasting.
Notes on Psalm 139
“To the chief musician: a psalm of David.” The execution of external judgment, when Christ takes the world-kingdom (Rev. 11), does not hinder the inner work for the faithful Jew, who here tells out his confidence in the heart-searching of Jehovah. This recalls not only His own omnipresence and omniscience, as the faithful Creator, but His thoughts about us. For truly His complacency is in men, not angels: the Christ was to be man, though Son of the Highest. Therefore as a godly Jew he heartily goes with the vengeance to fall on the wicked, while he desires yet more God’s searching of himself lest any grievous way should be found in him.
From the deep searching, yea God’s searching, of the heart in the last psalm, we turn to a group of five, rising from a cry for full deliverance by executed judgment to anticipated thanksgiving in Psalm 145, a millennial strain, followed by varied and ceaseless praises to the end of the book.