Psalms 139:19

THE SUPPLICATION

"Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God,:

Depart from me therefore, ye bloodthirsty men.

For they speak against thee wickedly,

And thine enemies take thy name in vain.

Do not I hate them, O Jehovah, that hate thee?

And am I not grieved at those who rise up against thee?

I hate them with perfect hatred:

They are become mine enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart:

Try me, and know my thoughts;

And see if there be any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting."

"And thine enemies take thy name in vain" (Psalms 139:20). What an indictment this is against the world's profane swearers! It would be a shock to most of those indulging in profanity to contemplate the awful implications of this verse.

This final division of the psalm is essentially a prayer; and as Maclaren noted, the awareness of the unfathomable character of God as revealed in the first three paragraphs of the psalm make this sudden, abrupt change to prayer quite, "Natural."[16]

"Search me, O God, and know my heart" (Psalms 139:23). David's plea here is that God may deliver him from the danger of committing sins which are unknown to him, sinful deeds which to the psalmist might not appear as sins, "secret sin," meaning not sins that he would hide from men, but sin of which he himself is unaware. The truth must be that all people are guilty of this type of sin.

"And lead me in the way everlasting" (Psalms 139:24). James Moffatt's translation of the Bible (1929) gives the true meaning of this passage in his translation, "Do thou lead me on the lines of life eternal." Here is the answer to the question of whether or not the Old Testament saints believed in life after death. Of course, they did! That Moffatt's translation here is correct is corroborated by Delitzsch's comment that, "The `everlasting way' is the way of God (Psalms 27:11), the way of the righteous, which stands fast forever and shall not perish."[17]