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. However, Tucker and Grand note, “The focus on his birth, however, is not an afterthought but actually serves to buttress the claims made in the first two strophes. In verses 13 and 15, the poet invokes images of knitting and weaving to explain the care with which God created him. 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. Try me, and know my thoughts. PSALM 139 * The All-knowing and Ever-present God. The fact that Yahweh created him makes the psalmist precious in Yahweh’s sight. 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. 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. Yahweh comes close enough to lay his hand on the psalmist. 21 Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you? It is more profitable to meditate on Divine truths, applying them to our own cases, and with hearts lifted to God in prayer, than with a curious or disputing frame of mind. Fearfully is a good translation here. Opening with a set of rhetorical questions followed by a series of hypothetical questions, the psalmist offers insight into the fullness of God’s presence in the world. Hers is a 24/7 job, at least while the child is small. 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. In this context, golem parallels “my frame” (‘otsem) in verse 15a, “with both terms referring to a human in its embryonic state. Yahweh is indeed close enough to bind him up (in support) but also ‘to lay siege’ to him, should doing so be warranted” (918). Although “he cannot know the vast sum of God’s thoughts, he does know that God is with him, whether at the end of his inquiry or the end of his life” (923). The psalmist expresses his faith that Yahweh designed and brought into being the hidden parts of his body. Pursue a deeper knowledge of God through self-paced college- and seminary-level online courses in Old and New Testament studies, theology, biblical Greek, and more. We are all sinners (Romans 3:23), and that would include the psalmist. Give thanks. 3 You search out my path and my lying down, Psalm 139 reflects on the human condition, and specifically God’s interaction with the individual human experience. He simply understands that even God’s corrective action is expressive of his pervasive presence. We find darkness frightening––even dangerous. You laid your hand on me” (v. 5). 19–22). The psalmist says that Yahweh has searched him. But Yahweh is not an enemy set on the psalmist’s destruction, as would normally be the case in a siege. even the darkness doesn’t hide from you, but the night shines as the day. 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. The psalmist has been talking about himself as an example of Yahweh’s creative endeavors, but now he broadens the scope to include all of Yahweh’s works––all of creation. The left brain is usually associated with logic and mathematics, and that better fits zarah. In the first strophe "you" serves as the subject of nearly all the verbs, while in the second strophe, "I" dominates throughout. 1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. Christ calls us to love even our enemies––not to hate them (Matthew 5:44). 1, 2, 4, 6, 14, 23 [2x]), thereby repeatedly reinforcing the “I-Thou” relationship between the psalmist and God. The verb yada‘, “to know,” occurs seven times in the poem (vv. Today with surveillance cameras and tracking devices, it no longer seems odd that someone might know our sitting down and rising up. 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. SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS are from the World English Bible (WEB), a public domain (no copyright) modern English translation of the Holy Bible. ‘osem) wasn’t hidden from you when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth. “If I take the wings of the dawn, and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me” (vv. AN EXPOSITION OF PSALM 139 by Charles H. Spurgeon One of the most notable of the sacred hymns. The final strophe, however, shifts both in focus and tenor. 18 If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. Not really. Even an insightful human counselor can often see things hidden at our core––and bring them to the surface where we can see them too. They used the word nepes to mean breath, the animating force that gives the creature life. The word yada has various meanings. 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