what is the message of psalm 139
and know me”—my heart and my anxious thoughts. Tucker and Grant note several verses that seems to suggest the weightiness that comes with the nearness of God’s presence in offering comfort: Then there are the images of God’s hand that further illustrate this “flight and fascination” with God’s presence in the psalm: This tenuous balance between “flight and fascination” exists throughout Scripture. Add Psalms, Volume 2 to your library today and you will grasp the original meaning, exegetical context, and contemporary significance of these precious biblical poems, hymns, and prayers. Tucker and Grant note how many hymns tend to highlight the fascination and comfort gained from God’s presence. “Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord?” the Psalmist asks. To know we are fearfully and wonderfully made by the Lord, we need to understand the smallest details of our lives occur according to the plan of the Lord (Ephesians 1:11). The strophe ends with another merism, involving darkness and light, another possible scenario escaping God’s presence: In the ancient Near East light was typically associated with divine presence (Num 6:25–26), while darkness was associated with chaos and death. If I ascend up … As stated elsewhere in the Bible, God's mind is inexpressibly beyond that of any person (Isaiah 55:8–9). Because God has known us, fully known us, we can trust in him when the world goes awry and seems to be in open rebellion against his ways (vv. By submitting your email address, you understand that you will receive email communications from HarperCollins Christian Publishing (501 Nelson Place, Nashville, TN 37214 USA) providing information about products and services of HCCP and its affiliates. He knitted each of us. Admonition to the wicked and comfort to the pious are alike implied inferences from these doctrines. After presenting the sublime doctrines of God's omnipresence and omniscience, the Psalmist appeals to Him, avowing his innocence, his abhorrence of the wicked, and his ready submission to the closest scrutiny. " … "Where can I go from your Spirit? David ends with some of the most well-known words in the Old Testament: “search me . Nevertheless, there arecountless challenges that the psalm raises which also warrant a detailed study.The psalmist was apparently a very skilled writer, using complex sentencestructures and very rare words. In this genre, singers praise God for God’s goodness in delivering them from various life-threatening situations, such as illness, oppression, enemy attack, etc. v1 *LORD, when you look at me you know all about me. The word’s later use in the Talmud suggests the term could be construed as meaning ‘embryo’ or something that was formless or shapeless” (922). Psalm 139 is a psalm of David. Others insist the psalm is a prayer of an unjustly accused person, given the final strophe, while some have suggested it is a complaint uttered by a psalmist in the midst of hostility. They apply to all human beings, at all times and in all places. And because God has known us, fully known us, we should be compelled to ask God to search us to see whether there is any offensive way in us (vv. Psalm 139 reflects on the human condition, and specifically God’s interaction with the individual human experience. The God who appears to Israel on Mount Sinai in a theophany is the same God who exacts judgment moments later at the base of that very mountain. 2) Psalm 139 was penned by King David. Therefore, Psalm 139:23-24 are verses for believers. The supplicant David, then, blends wisdom themes with a complaint in offering his psalm of prayer and worship before the Lord. Verse 7-9 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? The psalmist’s only hope is God; thus, the purpose of God’s searching, knowing, and testing is to determine whether there is ‘any offensive way in me.’” Why? The first thing we learn from Psalm 139, is that. Thebeauty of its content alone is enough to inspire fascination. Through his petitions the psalmist aligns himself with God and asks for God to redress his present circumstances. A. 17-22 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! The text for this sermon is the entirety of Psalm 139; therefore, present an overview of the entire psalm instead of looking intently at one small part of it. 23-24 Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me;Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about;See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life. Tucker and Davis offer an overview of these four movements: In Genesis 22, God tests Abraham’s obedience by asking him to sacrifice Isaac, his only son. At the start, they offer a unifying thread that serves as an interpretive key: As in Psalm 138, the writer of Psalm 139 announces the threats that befall him and pleads for God’s action (Ps 139:19–22). Others still highlight the wisdom themes present and prefer a “meditation” or “wisdom meditation” label. However, “Rarely do hymns remind us of the kind of pervasive presence of God in our lives that might prompt a sense of holy fear. And he knows all our days. Yet he has remained present with us (v. 18). They’ve abrogated any relationship with God. Psalm 139 reflects on the human condition, and specifically God’s interaction with the individual human experience. Before exploring the meaning of this passage in detail, here is the whole psalm for your consideration from the NIV: You discern my going out and my lying down; If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. Psalm 139:8 "If I ascend up into heaven, thou [art] there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou [art … In verses 13 and 15, the poet invokes images of knitting and weaving to explain the care with which God created him. Yet as the poem draws to a close, it is the psalmist’s nearness to God (v. 18b) that gives him cause for hope even in the face of impending threats. Opening his psalm, the poet captures the fullness of God’s knowledge through what the authors note is several examples of merism. In Psalm 139 David marvels at God's wisdom and power, which is at work for us, his creatures. We are content with having God near us, but preferably not too near” (927). Psalm 121 Commentary: Where Does Our Help Come From? I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! 1. Where can I flee from your presence?” (v. 7) he begins. I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking. The second part of Psalm 139:13 continues this motif, confessing God’s presence with the psalmist from the very beginning of existence by indicating that the psalmist was knit together in his mother’s womb. These merisms follow the Lord’s searching of the psalmist, where thereafter he knows him. They offer a few examples of merism: “when I sit” and “when I rise” (v. 2a), “my going out and my lying down” (v. 3a), and “behind and before” (v. 5a). The emphasis here is not on workmanship, but on the mystery of creation itself. Although the transactional nature of the term remains its dominant meaning throughout the Old Testament, the word does appear in contexts that clearly refer to creation” (921). Psalm 139:16 “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Explanation and Commentary of Psalm 139:16. Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson, The Message (MSG). all the men and women who belittle you, God. “In Babylonian Aramaic, the term refers to a formless mass or an incomplete vessel. The psalmist ends his poetic utterance like this: “By living in the tension between comfort and fear, we acknowledge anew the presence of God; we acknowledge anew our desire to walk in ‘the way everlasting’” (927). As the authors note, “Because God is pervasively present, the comfort of his presence is juxtaposed with the very threat of the same. A key thought in the Old Testament is the idea of knowing God. No reason is provided or justification offered for the divine hand that has befallen the psalmist. It’s not a generic psalm; it’s intensely personal, between David and God (note the frequent “I” & “me”). Although hate can refer to emotion or feeling, "'hating' does not connote a negative emotion but, instead, a lack of relationship," which connotes the hater’s position in regards to God. And please, God, do away with wickedness for good! If you have any questions, please review our. And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!And you murderers—out of here!— all the men and women who belittle you, God, infatuated with cheap god-imitations.See how I hate those who hate you, God, see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred. Psalm 139 is the 139th psalm of the Book of Psalms, generally known in English by its first verse, in the King James Version, "O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. This Psalms commentary, which is part of the NIV Application Commentary Series, helps readers learn how the message of the Psalms can have the same powerful impact today that it did when they were first written. Gen 47:19; 49:30; Lev 22:11; Jer 32:7). Read verse in The Message Bible 139 1 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. You may unsubscribe from these email communications at any time. When your world turns dark and your journey turns rugged, where do you turn for help? The God who calls David from the fields to be his anointed king is the same God who chastens David for his pursuit of Bathsheba” (926). His very presence casts out all darkness (John 1:5). He continues with a full-orbed look at that presence from birth. This psalm speaks of the pervasive presence of God, and his intimate knowledge of us, which offer us an outsized measure of hope and comfort in the face of adversity and trial. The authors don’t believe a dichotomy of meaning is warranted. Tucker and Grant explain that in the Old Testament, “‘anxious thoughts’ can be the result of night visions (Job 4:13) or defamatory rhetoric (Job 20:2), as well as the fear of being mistreated by others (Ps 94:19). Get updates from Zondervan Academic directly in your inbox. In the first strophe "you" serves as the subject of nearly all the verbs, while in the second strophe, "I" dominates throughout. all the days ordained for me were written in your book. As they explain: A merism is a poetic technique that expresses a totality by mentioning two parts, typically polar opposites … Poetically speaking, a merism provides vivid images that are meant to replace more abstract concepts such as “all,” “every,” or “always.” Given this intended usage, a merism is meant to be understood figuratively or metaphorically, but not literally. This “I-Thou” relationship serves as the “unifying thread” throughout the psalm. The psalmist continues the theme of God’s pervasive presence: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Tucker and Grant coordinate both tasks in their commentary on Psalm 139. Rather than using more traditional creation language (bara’, “to create,” or ‘asah, “to make”), “the psalmist uses the verb qanah, which normally means ‘to acquire by purchase’ (cf. "I am fearfully and wonderfully made” he declares. Grant provide insight into the meaning and composition of this magisterial psalm in their new commentary Psalms, Volume 2 (NIV Application Commentary). In this context, golem parallels “my frame” (‘otsem) in verse 15a, “with both terms referring to a human in its embryonic state. The psalmist has no recourse against such violent power but to turn to the God who is present with him” (924). Bible teachers will tell you that of all the 150 Psalms, this is the one that best describes God’s personal relationship with us. Praying through Psalm 139:16 . (It is) a psalm of David. In this poem, however, the psalmist’s hope rests entirely with the God who knows him, the God with whom he is in relationship. That’s worrying, frightening even! “Because the psalmist desires the presence of God, he seeks to eradicate anything in his own life that might vitiate that life-giving relationship” (925). Here’s why: The God who has known us from our very beginnings is the God who has watched us all along. Psalm 139 is called a psalm of David and is generally thought to be written by King David himself. GOD SEES EVERYTHING ABOUT ME. As the NIV’s translation suggests, Psalm 139 can be divided into four strophes: verses 1–6; 7–12; 13–18; and 19–24. Of God eternally woven together in my mother ’ s searching of psalmist! I ’ ve done anything wrong— s anxieties are due to the pious are implied... Or justification offered for the choir director: a psalm of David to... First sentence saw me before I speak a word, you are there ; if I up... The didactic psalm and the wisdom psalm prefer a “ meditation ” label Omnipresence and Omniscience ” —my and... A full-orbed look at me you know God 's Omnipresence and Omniscience thanksgiving, lament, confession, and... Of creation itself up ; you knit me together in my mother ’ s presence! 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