Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

Psalm 139. In this hymn the closing request ("search me, O God, and know my heart") echoes the opening statement ("you have searched me and known me"). The key word of the psalm is "know": God knows (vv. 1, 2, 4, 6, 23), and the faithful soul knows (v. 14). These features highlight the Psalm's theme: God's intimate knowledge of his people (a theme that vv. 1-6 begins). Then vv. 7-12 declare that there is no place one can go to get away from that knowledge, and vv. 13-16 illustrate the point by describing life in a very dark place (the mother's womb). Verses 17-18 exclaim how delightful this "knowledge of God's knowledge" is; vv. 19-22 affirm the singer's loyalty to the Lord; and vv. 23-24 invite God to continue examining the singer's inner life, in order to purge it from all that hinders him from walking in "the way everlasting."

139:1-6 The Lord Knows All There Is to Know about Me. Verse 1 states the theme of the whole psalm (you have searched me and known me), and vv. 2-6 develop that further as a general assertion: God knows all of my activities, all of my words, even my inmost thoughts. The response (v. 6) is, such knowledge is too wonderful for me, i.e., beyond my ability to comprehend (see note on "too marvelous," 131:1-2).