Psalm 139:3 ASV

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Psalms 139:3

compassest = scrutinisest. lying down = bed. art acquainted with = well knowest, or hast inspected. read more

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 139:1-6

1. God’s omniscience 139:1-6 read more

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 139:1-24

Psalms 139David praised God for His omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence in this popular psalm. It is a plea for God to search the life to expose sin. It consists of four strophes of six verses each."The Gelineau version gives the psalm the heading ’The Hound of Heaven’, a reminder that Francis Thompson’s fine poem of that name owed its theme of flight and pursuit largely to the second stanza here (Psalms 139:7-12), which is one of the summits of Old Testament poetry." [Note: Kidner,... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 139:2-4

The psalmist employed a figure of speech (merism) to express completeness (Psalms 139:2). In merisms, the opposites named represent everything in between them. God knew every move David made. Furthermore, He understood his motives as well as his actions. "Afar" probably refers to time rather than space. The "Thou" or "You" is emphatic in the Hebrew text. God also knew David’s daily activities (Psalms 139:3). This is another merism with going out and lying down representing a whole day’s... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Psalms 139:1-24

One of the very greatest of the Pss. No grander tribute has ever been paid to the omniscience and omnipresence of God. The Ps. is ascribed to David, but the Hebrew is decisive in favour of a date very long after David, being marked by Aramaisms.1-6. God’s omniscience. 7-12. God’s omnipresence. 13-18. God’s wonderful providence in human life. 19-22. God’s hatred of sin. 23, 24. A prayer that the Psalmist may be cleansed from all evil.3. Compassest] RM ’winnowest,’ i.e. scrutinisest. 5. Beset]... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 139:3

(3) Compassest.—There is some obscurity about this word. The Hebrew verb means first to scatter, and is used of throwing corn about to winnow it (Isaiah 30:24; Jeremiah 4:11; Ruth 3:2). Hence by an easy metaphor it may mean to sift or search out. The LXX. and Theodotion, followed by the Vulg., have traced, investigated. Jerome has winnowed. The Authorised Version rendering appears to come from a mistaken etymology.A most plausible suggestion connects the verb with zûr, to lodge, which makes a... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Psalms 139:1-24

The Searching of God Psalms 139:1 We are prone to associate the searching-work of God with events of a striking or memorable kind. It is in great calamities and overwhelming sorrow that we feel with peculiar vividness God's presence. When Job was in the enjoyment of prosperity he was an eminently reverent man; but it was in the hour of his black and bitter midnight that he cried out, 'The hand of God hath touched me'. And that same spirit lodges in every breast, so that God's searching comes... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Psalms 139:1-24

Psalms 139:1-24THIS is the noblest utterance in the Psalter of pure contemplative theism, animated and not crushed by the thought of God’s omniscience and omnipresence. No less striking than the unequalled force and sublimity with which the psalm hymns the majestic attributes of an all-filling, all-knowing, all-creating God, is the firmness with which the singer’s personal relation to that God is grasped. Only in the last verses is there reference to other men. In the earlier parts of the... read more

Arno Clemens Gaebelein

Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - Psalms 139:1-24

Psalms 139:0 In the Divine Presence 1. His omniscience (Psalms 139:1-6 ) 2. His omnipresence (Psalms 139:7-12 ) 3. Praising Him (Psalms 139:13-18 ) 4. Delighting in His holiness (Psalms 139:19-24 ) Here we see the people of God in the light of God, standing in His presence. He is an omniscient and an omnipresent God. How marvellously this is given in this Psalm. And what a comfort to know that He knoweth, that He seeth, that He is about us, around us, with us everywhere, that His hand... read more

John Calvin

Geneva Study Bible - Psalms 139:3

139:3 Thou {b} compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted [with] all my ways.(b) So that they are evidently known to you. read more