Psalm 139-- God the Stalker

For the Leader. Davidic. A Psalm
One of the most important questions in this psalm is Who is speaking? We know who is being addressed: God. But is the psalmist speaking as a person who has been especially chosen by God, such as David or Jeremiah who have a special task appointed to them from God? Is the psalmist speaking for all who are of God’s people? Is the psalmist speaking of all humanity? Or is the psalmist speaking of all creation, because God has knowledge and care for us all? The psalm does not answer that question. What we need to understand is that the psalmist is expressing a feeling of the care and attention of God on his person, and often we feel that way as well. Jesus said that God gives his care and attention to all animals, but especially to those who are chosen by God (Matthew 6:26). So we can use this psalm to express our feelings of God’s love for us as well.

Yahweh you have examined me and know me
You know my sitting and my rising.
You discern my thoughts from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down.
You are familiar with all my ways.
For there is not a word on my tongue
But that You, Yahweh, know it fully.
From rear to front you hemmed me in
And laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too lofty for me,
It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
God understands the psalmist fully and completely. There is nothing about us that God does not understand and focus on. Every word, every direction of life, every thought—God is there and is aware of it, before we are. In a sense, God’s love is smothering—we can’t get away from it to get a little breathing room. But it doesn’t matter because if we lost the love of God, we would be like an infant without her mother—completely lost and at bay.

Where can I go from Your spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I soar to the heaven, You are there,
Should I bed down in Sheol, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn
If I come to dwell in the remotest part of the sea
Even there Your hand will lead me
And your right hand takes hold of me.
If I say, “The darkness will envelope me
And the night will be light for me.”
Even the darkness is not dark to You
And the night is as bright as day
The darkness is as the light.
Perhaps the psalmist was feeling smothered, because he talks about the attempt to run and hide from God. We might all want to do this, especially when we are doing something displeasing to Him. We might try to run from God, go where God cannot be. The problem with this is that we cannot. God is wherever we would choose to hide from Him. Sometimes we might think that we have hidden from God, like a rhino who thinks that if he can’t see someone that the one can’t see it. Of course, we can’t hide from God, no matter how much we would like to. God is always there, always watching, always caring, despite the fact that we may not want Him to.

For it was you who formed my inner being
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I give thanks to you,
For I am fearfully and wonderfully made
Your deeds are amazing,
And my soul knows this well.
My bones were not concealed from You
When I was shaped unseen
Knitted together in the nethermost parts of the earth
Your eyes beheld my unformed limbs
They were all written in your book
The full number of days in which they were formed
When as yet there was not one of them.
God created every part of us. We might not like all of our parts or understand why God gave us one part over another. But the fact is, God made us for a reason. We may not like the reason He made us the way He did. We may prefer that He made us in a different way, for a different purpose. But God made us who we are because He cares for us. He pours loving attention on us, from the womb.

How precious are Your thoughts O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them, they outnumber the sand.
I am preoccupied with them, even to my arising.
This passage summarizes the whole intention of the psalmist. God thinks about us so much because He loves us. He is like a new lover who is obsessed with thinking of his love. God is like a father who can’t stop thinking about his infant child. He can’t stop thinking about us. And these thoughts display His care, His love for us.

If you would only slay the wicked, O God!
And you men of bloodshed, away from me!
You who speak to deceive
Your enemies pervert You to blasphemy
Surely those who hate you, Yahweh, I hate
And with those who rise up against you, I contend.
I hate them with a full hatred
For me they have become enemies.
Then the psalmist gets to his point. “So, God, if you really care about me so much, why do you let me suffer so much? I’ve got bad guys here and they want to kill me. Why doesn’t God take care of them?” These enemies are not just enemies of the psalmist, but enemies of God. The psalmist stands up for God, because of His care for him.

Search me, O God and know my heart
Try me and know my thoughts
And see if I have any grievous way
And lead me in the everlasting way.
Yet the psalmist perhaps realizes that his thoughts against his enemies are unworthy. He recognizes that he is human as well and so has at times failed God. So the psalmist begs God to not only know him, but to test his thoughts. “God, look in my head and see if there is anything opposed to you in there.” And the final prayer is asking God to change the thoughts from evil to God’s way.