Psalm 139
The Good New and The Bad News
(Which is actually good news)
The Reverend Doctor David J. Glass, A.A., B.A., M.R.E., EdD
(Credentials which are mostly irrelevant)
Personal Comments – Mom
Pastoral Comments – Steve and Others
Psalm 139
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
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.
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.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] 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.
Verse by Verse Commentary:
Verse 1-5 How is this Good News? How is this Bad News?
Verse 6 Checkout Psalm 40:15, Psalm 131:1, Job 42:3
What is the basic point here?
Verse 7-8 The answer to “where” is “nowhere”. “The depths” is Sheol in Hebrew, the place of the dead.
Verse 9 Does God have a sense of humor? How about Jonah as an example? List some funny things in his story.
Verse 10 What is the Good News here?
Verse 11-12 Check out John 3:19 on Darkness vs. Light. Good News or Bad News? Could it be both? Comment on this.
Verse 13-16How long has He been in charge of me?
Obviously, it’s a (check here). Good Thing or a Bad Thing.
Verse 17-18 Are you ready, like David, to praise God? Don’t’ forget, God’s thought are not like our thoughts, but he has revealed his thought to us in his Word.
Verse 19-20 What dose David see in the wicked’s sinfulness?
Verse 21-22 Why does David hate the wicked? Personal animosity or something else?
Verse 23-24 What does David recognize about himself?
What does he want from God?