- Dec 19, 2015
- 320
- Tinnitus Since
- 09/2015
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Anxiety, Insomnia, and a Fan at Night
I wrote some commentary on Psalm 139 yesterday on Christmas
1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
[The timing of one's sitting down and rising up are seemingly unimportant details. These are the among the things God has "searched". If the most insignificant things have been "searched", then without a doubt the most important things have as well(lesser to the greater implication).
The next example of the exhaustiveness of God's "searching" is in His knowledge of our thought life. Taking notice of the smallest details of our lives like "sitting and rising" shows great attentiveness and care to know; turning to the unseeable life of the mind, shows the depth of that knowledge, going beyond the realm of the seen(where "sitting and rising" takes place). These thoughts are known "from afar". God does not need to search these things out by close, strenuous examination. He does so from "afar", suggesting great ease because of the strength of His ability.
So A. God cares so greatly that he "searches" even the most insignificant details of our lives, B. He does so with the most unseeable aspects that know one else can know, and C. He does it with great ease.]
3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
[To "search out" is a common OT idea\phrase. Psalm 64:6 They search out injustice, saying, "We have accomplished a diligent search."
I take "path" here to mean the direction of one's life. That which we put forward effort to accomplish things in our lives: our progress. And "lying down" is the temporary cessation of working toward that progress. Some of our greatest angst in life comes from the questions that arise from our progress or path in life: Are our goals valid? Wise? Ever going to be accomplished? Going to help anyone? Will God give me success in them? Doesn't He notice how hard I try?
"All" of our "ways" of our life, I take to mean the quality of behavior on the path. Our best intentions, and upright behavior are not wasted. God is "acquainted" with all of it.]
4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
[Whatever word might be spoken out of need, fear, or distress, our Father already knows--not only because he knows our "thoughts from afar", which precede the words, but he also knows all the troublesome circumstances which induce the words which we cry to Him.]
5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
[This statement wouldn't make sense if God merely knew about things without caring, or cared, but cared in sentiment only. The fact that He cares with efficacy means that we are completely swallowed up in his protection by that knowledge from anything that would interfere with out greatest possible blessing. And it is not merely the knowledge which surrounds us, being done "from afar"; His hand is active in this realm, near us, even upon our very selves, to completely protect, assist, and bless us.]
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
[There are a couple possibilities here as to which way the knowledge is too high: A. The author does not have the ability to take in knowledge the way God does. The Psalmist's knowledge is far more limited. B. The way in which God is able to know these things can't be known by the author. How God can know all these things is mysterious to Him.
I am inclined to believe it is the latter. He is amazed and baffled that God is able to know him through and through in this way, completely enveloping him with his knowledge. At least I believe it is this mainly; perhaps A is also in view.]
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
[The author could have said "What can take me away from your presence?"(as Paul later rhetorically asks in Romans 8:28). But the psalmist, instead, goes a step further. He says, "What can I do take myself away from your watchful presence?". If not even we can interfere with God's watch over us, how could someone else possibly hope to do so? This Also points out that it is not we, who have any ability to influence this power of God's. God's intense surveillance over us is not a cooperative task. We don't contribute to His ability. If attempting to flee does nothing to disrupt His watch over us, then clearly we have nothing to do with this power.]
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
[The theory of fleeing God's presence continues: If I were to, at my will, be launched to the most outer reaches of space, or if I were to take a trip to the most lowest, cavernous places, deep in the earth--even then you would be there. And just think: If this is how it is when we try to escape, how certainly applies if we are not trying to flee. If instead we haven't fled, but we are, against our wills, adrift in space, derelict with no contact with anyone, or trapped deep beneath the earth, where no soul lives, certainly then God is there with his hand upon us.]
9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
[Perhaps the author is referring to some flight pattern of birds toward the sea in the morning, or perhaps a wind current common in the morning that moves toward the sea. When one looks out at the sea, and sees the blue horizon, it appears to go forever, there being no end in sight. And even today in our time, if one set out to that horizon without communication device, one would be totally isolated for great periods of time in that vast space.]
10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
[In the places far away where there is nothing that can be done with and/or for society, where goals and progress don't make sense, yet even there his hand "leads", giving direction and purpose to that which seems to have no purpose, and his right hand holds us, upholding our faith, helping us believe that whatever happens in this life, we will be cared for until the resurrection, when the current struggles will be revealed as to their meaning, and to their worth, in granting to us a reward that far outweighs the measure of pain inflicted upon us.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,"
[During the night our ability to anticipate obstacles to our safety in the near future diminishes as we lack the resources to forecast either peace or calamity. We can't see what or who is coming to visit us. But during these times God CAN see. Not only does God neither slumber nor sleep at night, He isn't limited by its lack of visibility.]
12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
[When the darkness descends on our lives we can draw on the security that we have in God's complete clarity of perspective.]
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
[The excruciating care as to the ordering of the psalmist's life did not happen along the way; it started at the very beginning, with the creation of his very person.]
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
[Though marred by the fall, and the ruin that is in Adam, man is still a wonderful creation, and still more marvelous is the recreation in Christ that was prepared for all those written in the Lamb's book of life.]
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
[At no point from beginning of our existence to the very end of this life and into eternity, do we ever slip from God's perception(and as His elect people, from the eye of His eternal salvation which He would call us unto at the proper time)]
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
[The truest understanding of God's knowledge is that it is creative; Not only does He not take in the light of the sun, so as to need it to see, but He does not need to take in knowledge at all. He doesn't receive knowledge from the creation; he determines beforehand what His knowledge will be. He ultimately doesn't see any difficult day in the pages our lives; he ordains them.]
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
[The well of God's omniscience is precious to the believer because it is a never-depleting repository of plans to bless His people.]
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.
[Whether one awakes on earth or in heaven, he is always with God, in that God always keeps us near. He is with us when we awake here on our earth during our pilgrimage as aliens, and He is certainly with us when we awake "at home with the Lord" as Paul said.]
19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain! 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? 22 I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.
[The knowledge of God is completely different thing to His enemies. It is the surety of their ruin if they do not repent.]
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
[Search, O God for any part in me that does not trust in your plans and provision. The strongholds of sin in my life are fundamentally rooted in a distrust of your all-knowing care.]
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
[Things which are grievous to God are also to the believer; the believer wishes to be led in "the way everlasting", that is, eternal life, which as Jesus said, is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. This is what the knowledge of God has prepared for the believer in the ages to come.]
1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
[The timing of one's sitting down and rising up are seemingly unimportant details. These are the among the things God has "searched". If the most insignificant things have been "searched", then without a doubt the most important things have as well(lesser to the greater implication).
The next example of the exhaustiveness of God's "searching" is in His knowledge of our thought life. Taking notice of the smallest details of our lives like "sitting and rising" shows great attentiveness and care to know; turning to the unseeable life of the mind, shows the depth of that knowledge, going beyond the realm of the seen(where "sitting and rising" takes place). These thoughts are known "from afar". God does not need to search these things out by close, strenuous examination. He does so from "afar", suggesting great ease because of the strength of His ability.
So A. God cares so greatly that he "searches" even the most insignificant details of our lives, B. He does so with the most unseeable aspects that know one else can know, and C. He does it with great ease.]
3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
[To "search out" is a common OT idea\phrase. Psalm 64:6 They search out injustice, saying, "We have accomplished a diligent search."
I take "path" here to mean the direction of one's life. That which we put forward effort to accomplish things in our lives: our progress. And "lying down" is the temporary cessation of working toward that progress. Some of our greatest angst in life comes from the questions that arise from our progress or path in life: Are our goals valid? Wise? Ever going to be accomplished? Going to help anyone? Will God give me success in them? Doesn't He notice how hard I try?
"All" of our "ways" of our life, I take to mean the quality of behavior on the path. Our best intentions, and upright behavior are not wasted. God is "acquainted" with all of it.]
4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
[Whatever word might be spoken out of need, fear, or distress, our Father already knows--not only because he knows our "thoughts from afar", which precede the words, but he also knows all the troublesome circumstances which induce the words which we cry to Him.]
5 You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
[This statement wouldn't make sense if God merely knew about things without caring, or cared, but cared in sentiment only. The fact that He cares with efficacy means that we are completely swallowed up in his protection by that knowledge from anything that would interfere with out greatest possible blessing. And it is not merely the knowledge which surrounds us, being done "from afar"; His hand is active in this realm, near us, even upon our very selves, to completely protect, assist, and bless us.]
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
[There are a couple possibilities here as to which way the knowledge is too high: A. The author does not have the ability to take in knowledge the way God does. The Psalmist's knowledge is far more limited. B. The way in which God is able to know these things can't be known by the author. How God can know all these things is mysterious to Him.
I am inclined to believe it is the latter. He is amazed and baffled that God is able to know him through and through in this way, completely enveloping him with his knowledge. At least I believe it is this mainly; perhaps A is also in view.]
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
[The author could have said "What can take me away from your presence?"(as Paul later rhetorically asks in Romans 8:28). But the psalmist, instead, goes a step further. He says, "What can I do take myself away from your watchful presence?". If not even we can interfere with God's watch over us, how could someone else possibly hope to do so? This Also points out that it is not we, who have any ability to influence this power of God's. God's intense surveillance over us is not a cooperative task. We don't contribute to His ability. If attempting to flee does nothing to disrupt His watch over us, then clearly we have nothing to do with this power.]
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
[The theory of fleeing God's presence continues: If I were to, at my will, be launched to the most outer reaches of space, or if I were to take a trip to the most lowest, cavernous places, deep in the earth--even then you would be there. And just think: If this is how it is when we try to escape, how certainly applies if we are not trying to flee. If instead we haven't fled, but we are, against our wills, adrift in space, derelict with no contact with anyone, or trapped deep beneath the earth, where no soul lives, certainly then God is there with his hand upon us.]
9 If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
[Perhaps the author is referring to some flight pattern of birds toward the sea in the morning, or perhaps a wind current common in the morning that moves toward the sea. When one looks out at the sea, and sees the blue horizon, it appears to go forever, there being no end in sight. And even today in our time, if one set out to that horizon without communication device, one would be totally isolated for great periods of time in that vast space.]
10 even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
[In the places far away where there is nothing that can be done with and/or for society, where goals and progress don't make sense, yet even there his hand "leads", giving direction and purpose to that which seems to have no purpose, and his right hand holds us, upholding our faith, helping us believe that whatever happens in this life, we will be cared for until the resurrection, when the current struggles will be revealed as to their meaning, and to their worth, in granting to us a reward that far outweighs the measure of pain inflicted upon us.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,"
[During the night our ability to anticipate obstacles to our safety in the near future diminishes as we lack the resources to forecast either peace or calamity. We can't see what or who is coming to visit us. But during these times God CAN see. Not only does God neither slumber nor sleep at night, He isn't limited by its lack of visibility.]
12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
[When the darkness descends on our lives we can draw on the security that we have in God's complete clarity of perspective.]
13 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
[The excruciating care as to the ordering of the psalmist's life did not happen along the way; it started at the very beginning, with the creation of his very person.]
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
[Though marred by the fall, and the ruin that is in Adam, man is still a wonderful creation, and still more marvelous is the recreation in Christ that was prepared for all those written in the Lamb's book of life.]
15 My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
[At no point from beginning of our existence to the very end of this life and into eternity, do we ever slip from God's perception(and as His elect people, from the eye of His eternal salvation which He would call us unto at the proper time)]
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
[The truest understanding of God's knowledge is that it is creative; Not only does He not take in the light of the sun, so as to need it to see, but He does not need to take in knowledge at all. He doesn't receive knowledge from the creation; he determines beforehand what His knowledge will be. He ultimately doesn't see any difficult day in the pages our lives; he ordains them.]
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
[The well of God's omniscience is precious to the believer because it is a never-depleting repository of plans to bless His people.]
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.
[Whether one awakes on earth or in heaven, he is always with God, in that God always keeps us near. He is with us when we awake here on our earth during our pilgrimage as aliens, and He is certainly with us when we awake "at home with the Lord" as Paul said.]
19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain! 21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? 22 I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.
[The knowledge of God is completely different thing to His enemies. It is the surety of their ruin if they do not repent.]
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
[Search, O God for any part in me that does not trust in your plans and provision. The strongholds of sin in my life are fundamentally rooted in a distrust of your all-knowing care.]
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
[Things which are grievous to God are also to the believer; the believer wishes to be led in "the way everlasting", that is, eternal life, which as Jesus said, is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. This is what the knowledge of God has prepared for the believer in the ages to come.]
