“A PSALM THAT EXTOLS THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD” PSALMS 139:1-24

In this psalm, David extols the attributes of God:  His omniscience, His omnipresence and His omnipotence.  Our God is great and we should celebrate His greatness as the psalmist in Psalm 145:3-4 says: “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.   One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.”  God is good, isn’t He?  Let us celebrate His greatness and goodness by living obedient lives to His glory.  Our God is great because He has created us, sustains us, and He is getting us ready to spend eternity with Him without any degree of blame (I Thessalonians 5:23).

David begins this stupendous psalm by calling attention to the omniscience of God (vv. 1-6).  In a very meditative mood, David was overwhelmed with the fact that God knew him thoroughly – he knew about his every action, and his very thoughts.  Verses 1-4 state succinctly that: “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.   Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.  Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.  For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.”  David responded by saying that such knowledge of himself was indeed extraordinary and beyond his comprehension.  After reading verses 1-6, I thought about the fact that such knowledge that God possesses should promote us to confess our sins because He already knows about the sins before we even attempt to confess them!

Not only was David overwhelmed with God’s omniscience, but David was indeed   awed by the Lord’s omnipresence (vv. 7-12).  David realized that with the Lord’s powerful omnipresence, there was no way for him to escape from the Lord’s presence.  He asked the question in verse 7- “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?”  The Lord is present in the heavens above, and also He is present in sheol beneath!

Even if David sought to fly from one extreme to the other, God’s presence will be there!  David concludes this section by stating that darkness could not hide him from God because both light and darkness are the same with Almighty God.  God controls both light and darkness – a fact that brings out his omniscience and omnipresence!

Having discussed the Lord’s omnipresence, the psalmist takes up the thought of God’s omnipotence (vv. 13-18).  David was so overwhelmed with the fact that the Lord knew him intimately before He created him in his mother’s womb.  Such power regarding God’s Sovereign control of his life caused David to praise the Lord.  He marvels in verses 17-18 by saying: “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.”  God knew every detail of David’s life even before David was conceived!  Knowing that God had sovereignly planned his life prompted David again to praise God because David was beautifully formed!

David concludes this beautiful psalm by affirming that God would destroy his enemies (vv. 19-22) and he prays for God to search and test him to affirm his loyalty: “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” (vv. 23-24).

May God Bless!