For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psa 139:1-6

1 You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

A. Find Out

1. Of what is David aware? v.1
2. Of what does the Lord know about him? v.2a
3. What even more? v.2b
4. Of what more does the Lord see and know? v.3
5. And what more? v.4
6. What does the Lord do & what does he feel about that? v.5,6

B. Think:

1. How are thoughts covered here?
2. How are words covered?
3. How are actions covered?

C. Comment:

                This is a psalm all about how the Lord knows David in every way. In these first six verses David ponders on how he is known generally. He is aware of the Lord’s eye on him and everything is open to the Lord (v.1). With the Lord’s eye upon him, nothing escapes the Lord’s knowledge of him. The Lord knows everything he does – when he sits down and when he gets up (v.2a). But even more than that, the Lord doesn’t just see the outward acts, He also knows the thought that provoke those acts (v.2b).

                This isn’t just a one off moment observation; the Lord knows him all the time so He sees when David goes out and comes in and knows when he sleeps (v.3a). Because He is watching David all the time He is familiar with all David’s ways, the sort of things he does (v.3b).

                The Lord understand David completely and so even before a word comes to his lips, the Lord, seeing His thoughts, knows what is coming (v.4). Nothing escapes the Lord!

                This knowledge seems to create a sense of destiny so that the Lord is the one who goes before him and after him and His hand is on him, and this David finds incredible (v.5,6) and really too deep to fully understand. Yes, this is the truth, the Lord sees and knows us, everything there is to know, even more than we know of ourselves.

D. Application:

1. The Lord watches over me; that is reassuring.
2. The Lord watches me; that can be scary.

Passage: Psa 139:7-16

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,’
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

A. Find Out

1. What question does David ask next? v.7
2. What possibilities does he consider? v.8,9
3. What reassurance does that give him? v.10
4. What also will not stop this happening? v.11,12
5. What wonder does he next reflect upon? v.13-16a
6. What conclusion does he reach? v.16b

B. Think:

1. What point is David making in verses 7 to 10?
2. How does he extend that in verses 11 & 12?
3. What point is he making in verses 13 to 16?

C. Comment:

                David’s psalm develops from God knowing him and seeing him everywhere (v.1-6) to a reassuring development of that to see what wherever he is the Lord will be there to guide him and make him secure (v.10). He wonders first (a rhetorical question?) where he could possibly go that was outside of or away from God’s presence (v.7). The fact that he begins by talking about fleeing from God’s presence suggests that he starts on an unsure footing but gets to a place of confidence by the time he reaches verse 10. He considers that God is in heaven and in hell (v.8) and so, by implication is everywhere. But bringing it down to a human level, even if he gets up early in the morning (v.9a) and then travels abroad (v.9b) the Lord will be there. There is no escaping the Lord’s presence WHEREVER you are. He then extends that and imagines it being dark, but even in dark ness God can see (v.11,12).

                He then moves from special awareness of the Lord’s presence to the fact that the Lord always is, and so His knowledge extends to being involved and having watched David being formed in the womb (v.13) and realises he is wonderfully made (v.14). From the very beginning of David’s existence the Lord was there (v.15,16a) and, even more, the Lord is the One who has decreed the number of days David has in store for his life (v.16b).

D. Application:

1. Realise that wherever you are, the Lord is there with you.
2. Realise there is nothing the Lord doesn’t know about you.

Passage: Psa 139:17-24

17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand –
    when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
    Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
    your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
    I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.

A. Find Out

1. What does he think about God’s thoughts? v.17,18a
2. Yet what does he find? v.18b
3. What does he want for his enemies and why? v.19,20
4. What about those who hate God? v.21,22
5. What does he ask the Lord to do? v.23,24a
6. What further? v.24b

B. Think:

1. What do you think David is saying in verses17 & 18?
2. How do you think verses 19 to 22 flow on from that?
3. Yet what response does that cause in him in the remaining verses?

C. Comment:

                So far the psalm has been all about what God knows and where God is. it is a primer, if you like, for finding out about the Lord, in some measure at least. Now he steps back from this knowledge and ponders the wonder of it all and his response to it.

                He marvels at the shear volume of the things he has been thinking about, recognising they are revelation from the Lord Himself (v.17). They are endless, these thoughts, (v.18a) and, by implication he falls asleep thinking about them but when he wakes up they are still with him (v.18b).

                But real knowledge of the Lord always brings about change in us, and in David it is an awareness of those who do not share this viewpoint, of those who are wicked and bloodthirsty (v.19) and those who speak badly of the Lord (v.20) and those who hate the Lord and rebel against Him (v.21). All these David finds almost a zealous anger rising against and he wants the Lord to deal with them and he finds even a hatred against them (their ways) in himself. 

                But David is always aware of his own frailties and so having launched off about his ungodly and unrighteous enemies, he is aware of his own vulnerability and so asks the lord to search him (v.23,24) to search out and (by implication) deal with any wrong in him.

D. Application:

1. It is right to feel righteous anger about godlessness/unrighteousness.
2. Always be aware of your own vulnerability to such things.