psalm-139:7-8

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Psalms 139:7

Psalms 139:7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, &c.— Though the Psalmist acknowledged the divine omniscience to be full of wonders, and a height to which no human, no finite understanding could possibly ascend; yet he saw, at the same time, that it might be capable of the plainest and most convincing proofs; and that there were really obvious and incontestable proofs of it in nature. And these, or at least the two general heads to which they are, in all their forms and variety of lights,... read more

Thomas Constable

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 139:7

Evidently the confining awareness of God’s omniscience led David to try to escape from the Lord. His two rhetorical questions in this verse express his inability to hide from God (cf. Jeremiah 23:24). read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 139:7-12

2. God’s omnipresence 139:7-12 read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 139:8-10

David gave hypothetical examples of where he might go to hide from God in these verses (cf. Romans 8:38-39). Psalms 139:8 is another merism (cf. Psalms 139:2-3) that expresses everywhere between heaven and hell. Even if he could travel as fast as the speed of light, he could not escape God (Psalms 139:9). Even there God’s hand would lead him. Psalms 139:10 pictures God gently leading and guiding David. This thought changes the fearful earlier image of God pursuing the psalmist. 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 139:7

(7) Spirit.—If this clause stood alone we should naturally understand by God’s Spirit His creative and providential power, from which nothing can escape (comp. Psalms 104:30). But taken in parallelism with presence in the next clause the expression leads on to a thought towards which the theology of the Old Testament was dimly feeling, which it nearly reached in the Book of Wisdom. “The Spirit of the Lord filleth the world,” but which found its perfect expression in our Saviour’s announcement... read more

Charles John Ellicott

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 139:8

(8) If I make my bed in hell.—Literally, If I make Sheôl my bed. (For the thought see Amos 9:2, and comp. Proverbs 15:11; Job 26:6.)This conviction that the underworld was not exempt from the vigilance and even from the visitation of Jehovah makes an advance in thought from Psalms 6:5 (where see Note), &c, where death is viewed as cutting off the Hebrew altogether from his relation to the Theocracy. 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

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Psalms 139:7

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

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 139:7

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 139:7-12

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Psalms 139:8-10

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

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 139:7

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers - Psalms 139:8

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

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

Group of Brands