The psalm readily divides into four parts of six verses each (Walvoord 891). In the first part, David expresses God’s complete knowledge (Ps. 139:1-6). Rather than present a rigid statement of God’s knowledge, David speaks of it in adoration (Kidner 500). David is happy to confess that God has searched him and does know him. The perfect verb tense, expressing a past action with continuing results, shows that God always intimately knows the hearts and minds of all people (Keil 809). Yet, the term “search” does not mean that God acquires this information through effort; instead, God thoroughly knows all people as if He had minutely examined them (Spurgeon 258). The knowledge of God is part of His deity, so He does not need to exert any effort
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The actions he undertakes and the thoughts he imagines are all known to God. Longman observes that David uses a series of merisms, which is a “pair of opposites that denote everything in between” (Longman 452). First, mundane activities men undertake daily are well-known by God (Walvoord 891). Second, far away thoughts are seen by God, and because He is impartial, He rightly interprets all these thoughts (Spurgeon 259). Third, the individual habits each person possesses are before the Lord (259). And fourth, even the words people think to speak are known to God before they are …show more content…
Some view it as the east and the west, so it would describe the two directions from which the sun rises (Longman 453). Ancient Near Eastern imagery commonly uses David’s language to describe the sun, which lends credibility to this position (Ryken 954; Walton 434). Others view the saying as a description of swift movement across the sky (Walvoord 891; Spurgeon 261). Neither view detracts from the message of the merism: no one can escape God, no matter where he goes. God’s hand is still present everywhere man may find himself. Longman again takes David’s discussion about darkness negatively, because he says it is David’s desire to escape from God, but because He turns the night to day, he cannot (453). It seems, however, that David is happy about God’s ability to do this. Darkness is simply the absence of light, and it often stirs fear in one’s heart (Ryken 191). To God, however, darkness means nothing, because both dark and light are alike to God. The light switch is perpetually locked in the “on” position. There truly is no place man can go to flee from God’s
The actions he undertakes and the thoughts he imagines are all known to God. Longman observes that David uses a series of merisms, which is a “pair of opposites that denote everything in between” (Longman 452). First, mundane activities men undertake daily are well-known by God (Walvoord 891). Second, far away thoughts are seen by God, and because He is impartial, He rightly interprets all these thoughts (Spurgeon 259). Third, the individual habits each person possesses are before the Lord (259). And fourth, even the words people think to speak are known to God before they are …show more content…
Some view it as the east and the west, so it would describe the two directions from which the sun rises (Longman 453). Ancient Near Eastern imagery commonly uses David’s language to describe the sun, which lends credibility to this position (Ryken 954; Walton 434). Others view the saying as a description of swift movement across the sky (Walvoord 891; Spurgeon 261). Neither view detracts from the message of the merism: no one can escape God, no matter where he goes. God’s hand is still present everywhere man may find himself. Longman again takes David’s discussion about darkness negatively, because he says it is David’s desire to escape from God, but because He turns the night to day, he cannot (453). It seems, however, that David is happy about God’s ability to do this. Darkness is simply the absence of light, and it often stirs fear in one’s heart (Ryken 191). To God, however, darkness means nothing, because both dark and light are alike to God. The light switch is perpetually locked in the “on” position. There truly is no place man can go to flee from God’s