Psalms 139:1

PSALM 139

THE OMNISCIENCE; OMNIPRESENCE; AND OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD

This writer's love of this psalm is enhanced by his remembrance of the frequent reading of it in the chapel services of Abilene Christian College by Dean Henry Eli Speck in the years of 1923-1924.

Scholars have exhausted their vocabularies extolling the glory and greatness of Psalms 139. "This poem is not only one of the chief glories of the Psalter, but in its religious insight and devotional warmth, it is conspicuous among the great passages of the Old Testament."[1]

Regarding the authorship, it is ascribed to David in the superscription, and as Barnes bluntly stated it, "There is no reason to doubt it."[2] Counting the Aramaisms is a favorite device of critics, but as Kidner said, "Aramaic influence is no proof of late dating."[3]

This writer has lost patience with the type of thinking that seems to count the contradiction of something in the Bible, even if it is only a superscription, as some kind of a climax in human intelligence! The following quotation from Charles Haddon Spurgeon expresses perfectly our own views on this question:

"Of course, the critics take this composition away from David on account of certain Aramaic expressions in it, but, upon the principles of criticism now in vogue, it would be extremely easy to prove that John Milton did not write Paradise Lost. Knowing to what wild inferences the critics have run in other matters, we have lost nearly all faith in them. We prefer to believe that David is the author of this Psalm from internal evidences of style and matter, rather than to accept the opinions of men whose modes of judgment are manifestly unreliable."[4]

As John Jebb stated it, "I cannot understand how any critic could assign this psalm to any other than David. Every line, every thought, every turn of expression and transition is his, and his only."[5]

The paragraphing of the psalm is quite simple. It falls into four strophes or stanzas of six verses each.[6]

In Maclaren's paragraphing, he assigned "omniscience" to Psalms 139:1-6, and "omnipresence" to Psalms 139:7-12, and Rawlinson assigned the word "omnipotence" to Psalms 139:13-18.[7] Strangely enough, none of these four-syllable words appears in the versions! One great beauty of the psalm is the simplicity of the language.

Psalms 139:1-6

OMNIPRESENCE

"O Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known me.

Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising;

Thou understandest my thoughts afar off.

Thou searchest out my path and my lying down,

And art acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word in my tongue,

But, lo, Jehovah, thou knowest it altogether.

Thou hast beset me behind and before,

And laid thy hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

It is high, I cannot attain unto it."

"And laid thy hand upon me" (Psalms 139:5). There is something very personal to this writer in this line. He suffered from spinal stenosis, unable to walk a step, and within a few months, following all kinds of "remedies," his normal health returned. Dr. Deane Cline, a very distinguished Houston physician, was asked, "What do I tell people who inquire as to what helped me to get well.?" He pointed heavenward and said, "My medical opinion is that the Great Physician above laid his hand upon you." The tears of gratitude to God from this writer water the page as he writes this. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

"Too wonderful for me" (Psalms 139:6). When what is written here is understood of merely a single individual, it is "wonderful," but when it is multiplied by all of the individuals who ever lived on earth or who may yet live upon it, the immensity of this "wonder" is astronomically increased, surpassing all the laws of geometrical progression. There is an infinity of knowledge here that denies any human ability to comprehend it.