Search Me, God, and Know My Heart
1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. 2 You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether. 5 You hem me in behind and before. You laid your hand on me. 6 This knowledge is beyond me. It’s lofty. I can’t attain it. 7 Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence? 8 If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there! 9 If I take the wings of the dawn, and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me. The light around me will be night,” 12 even the darkness doesn’t hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness is like light to you. 13 For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well. 15 My frame wasn’t hidden from you, when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is their sum! 18 If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you. 19 If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men! 20 For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain. 21 Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred. They have become my enemies. 23 Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. 24 See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
A man discovers he cannot get away from God, is glad about it, and ends by inviting the inspection he had been describing.
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me.
The psalm has four parts and they build an argument. God knows him; God is everywhere he could go; God made him; and therefore — the conclusion nobody expects — please examine me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether.
The knowledge is described at three depths: what he does, what he thinks, and what he is about to say. The last is the most invasive — the word is known before it is spoken.
You hem me in behind and before. You laid your hand on me.
The verb can describe a siege. The psalm does not pretend this is a comfortable discovery, and the next line admits as much: this knowledge is beyond me. It's lofty. I can't attain it Psalms 139:6.
Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence?
The second movement, and the verb is flee. He is imagining escape, which is what a person does when the first movement has sunk in.
If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!
The two extremes, and then two more: the wings of the dawn — light traveling west at sunrise — and the far side of the sea Psalms 139:9. Every direction available, and the answer in each case is the same, with a change of tone: even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me Psalms 139:10. What began as a search for an exit has become a promise of company.
even the darkness doesn’t hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness is like light to you.
For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
The third movement explains the first two. He cannot be unknown because he was assembled by the one doing the knowing, and the verb is a weaver's.
I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.
Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.
A record kept before there was anything to record.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. 24 See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
The conclusion, and it is astonishing after twenty-two verses establishing that God already knows everything. The searching of verse one is now requested. What has changed is that he wants to be told what is found — and the last clause asks not for a verdict but for a road.
settled What this mark means