17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. 15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Wonderful are your works my soul knows it very well. 14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 13 For you formed my inward parts you knitted me together in my mother's womb. 11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night," 12 even the darkness is not dark to you the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. 7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high I cannot attain it. 5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Thoughts form the seed bed of sin (James 4:14–15), therefore we ought to practice what Paul counseled in Philippians 4:8: "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up you discern my thoughts from afar. Again, only the omniscient God could do this.ĭavid wrote in Psalm 139:2 that God discerned his thoughts. David also asked the Lord to know his thoughts. Only the omniscient God, whom he described earlier in the psalm, could search the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). This is the same term used at the beginning of this psalm (Psalm 139:1), as well as of Israelites scouring the land for territory to claim as their own (Judges 18:2).ĭavid was a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22), but he knew the heart is "deceitful above all things, and desperately sick" (Jeremiah 17:9). The Hebrew word translated "search" here is one often used to describe the way miners searched deeply for gold. Therefore, he asked the Lord to search his heart and know his thoughts.
He was keenly aware that sin might be lurking in his heart and mind. What does Psalm 139:23 mean? Īlthough David despised the wicked who spoke against God and took His name in vain, he realized he was not perfect.