2nd - 8th June 2025
Psalm 139 is one of the best-known Psalms in the Old Testament with many verses that Christians, over the years, have committed to memory and meditated on. It is a Psalm of great encouragement and challenge as it considers the creator God who is ever present and omniscient and yet is compassionate, knowing the individual worshipper intimately. The Psalm focuses on the relationship between God and His people, demonstrated by His deep knowledge of us: He knows when we sit and when we rise, He knows our thoughts from afar, He is familiar with all our ways, knowing what we are going to say before the words even leave our mouths. Is it any wonder the psalmist proclaims, in verse 6:
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
Written by Robert Young
MONDAY
David begins the Psalm by focusing on the all-knowing God and His intimate knowledge of His people. David proclaims God has searched him and knows him, is aware of his comings and goings, is familiar with all his ways, perceiving his thoughts and knowing what he is going to say before he has fully formulated the words he will use.
Psalm 139: 1 - 4
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.
Father God, we praise You because You are all knowing, all powerful and ever present. You know us completely including our hidden thoughts. We pray that we might be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry so that we might live lives that bring glory to You and be an encouragement to our fellow believers and a witness to those outside the faith. May we humbly seek You to direct our paths remembering You know our every movement, thought and deed. We are amazed that You know everything about us but still accept us and have lavished such love on us that we should be called the children of God. We can only agree with the writer of Hebrews who proclaims that nothing in all creation is hidden from Your sight but that everything is laid bare before Your eyes – the One to Whom we must give account.
TUESDAY
The use of the word ‘hem’ in verse 5 refers to being surrounded by God’s care, compassion and love – completely surrounded – ‘behind and before.’ We can also imagine a city being besieged, its people hemmed in, protected from the enemy without. The Psalmist gives us the assurance of being loved by a God who hems us in completely and thoroughly that we might know His protection and care. But this is also the God who lays His hand upon us. We can imagine a parent or grandparent encouraging a child by laying a hand on their head or supporting a friend by placing a hand on their shoulder or back – a gentle gesture which offers reassurance and shows love and concern. God is not distant but nearby seeking an intimate relationship.
As the Psalmist considers the Lord’s intimate knowledge and protection of us, he echoes Job’s thoughts recorded in Job 42:3:
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
Psalm 139: 5 & 6
You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
Lord, we praise You because You are a God who loves us intimately and seeks to protect us, surrounding us with Your love and mercy and seeking to demonstrate Your love by Your encouraging, supportive touch. We are amazed that You have a deep and personal knowledge of each one of us; an absolute knowledge not limited to what can be seen but including our innermost thoughts. We wonder at Your great gift of salvation; thank you for the grace and mercy You have shown us. Thank You for sending Jesus to make it possible for us to enjoy a relationship with You. Help us to live in the wonderful knowledge that we need not fear death and our salvation is secure.
WEDNESDAY
The next verses remind us that God is ever present – He is the same yesterday, today and forever and is with us wherever we go. We cannot escape His presence; no matter what we do, where we go or what problems and issues we face, we are never far from His comforting presence. Two questions are asked in verse 7 and the answers given in verse 8 which emphasise that nowhere we go is out of God’s reach. In verse 9 ‘the wings of the dawn’ refer to the east and ‘the far side of the sea’ to the west; from north to south and east to west God is with you to comfort and guide you (verse 10).
Psalm 139: 7 - 10
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
Father, as we are reminded that You are omnipresent we recall the truth recorded in Romans 8, ‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ We thank and praise You that You are ever near, guiding and protecting us and ask that we may hear Your word and obey it. Inspire us as individuals and as a church to seek more of Your presence, ‘and to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.’ (Micah 6: 8)
THURSDAY
Yesterday we considered the Psalmist’s wondering where he could flee from the presence of God. Having realised, like Jonah, that trying to run away from God is futile, his response is to consider hiding in a dark place where he cannot be seen; but he realises that to God night is as the brightness of a glorious day and darkness itself is as light. God is all knowing, all seeing and ever present; nothing can be hidden from Him, as John Calvin wrote, “He sees equally well in the deepest darkness as at noonday.”
Psalm 139: 11 & 12
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.
We give You the praise and thanks that Matthew was able to record – “the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (Matthew 4: 16). We give thanks for Jesus who proclaimed “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12). God, open our hearts to hear and readily receive Your word. Help us to live in obedience and reflect Your light to others.
FRIDAY
We worship a God who sees and knows all things, who is ever present and all knowing – knowing us intimately because He created us. In Genesis 2 we read that the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. In today’s verses we find God still active in creation, knitting us together in our mothers’ wombs while in Psalm 119:73 we read, “Your hands made me and formed me.” The Psalmist realized that, from inception, the Lord was intimately involved in his development and had an intentional design plan for his life, creating him for a purpose.
Psalm 139: 13 - 16
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Father God, we join with the Psalmist in offering You the glory and the praise because we recognise that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’. We thank You for Your abounding grace and mercy towards us, that You are involved in the minutest detail of our creation and have a unique plan for each of our lives. Please help us to humbly seek Your presence and guidance that we might live lives which bring You glory and promote Your kingdom.
*Creator God, we praise You that all human life is made in Your image, precious in Your sight. Please would you help us to speak up for the voiceless. Heavenly Father, we grieve for the innocent victims of a worldwide disregard for human life – over a million are aborted every month. We pray for change in countries around the world where there are high abortion rates. Lord, we give thanks for the many children who could have been aborted but were given the gift of life instead. We pray for God’s blessing on them and their parents as they grow.
*Christian Action Research and Education (CARE)
SATURDAY
The Psalmist has established that the omniscient God knows all our thoughts and now turns to consider God’s thoughts. He considers these thoughts as precious, vast and innumerable – thoughts that are infinite and beyond man’s understanding.
Psalm 139: 17 - 18
How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand—when I awake, I am still with you.
Heavenly Father, empower us to engage daily with Your word, turning our attention to Your thoughts and meditating on them. Like the psalmist may we know Your thoughts to be precious to us as we consider the vastness of them, so numerous they are impossible to count. We give You the thanks and the praise when we acknowledge Your nearness to us at all times.
SUNDAY
Verses 19-22 of Psalm 139 are imprecations – where the Psalmist seeks God’s judgement on those who are wicked, bloodthirsty or misuse His name. He expresses his abhorrence and hatred for those who are counted as enemies of God. The Psalmist entrusted his concerns to God, to His justice and timing and so should we.
We have learned that the key word of the Psalm is “know”: but the Psalmist wants his relationship with the Lord to go deeper. The Psalmist asks God to search his heart and mind and point out any wrong motives that may have been behind his reactions to his, and God’s enemies. He wants God to search him and convict him of any sin that he might confess it and follow “the way everlasting” – God’s path of life and holiness.
Psalm 139: 19 - 24
If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Sovereign God, we intercede for righteousness and peace to prevail in countries governed by tyrannical leaders motivated by a lust for power, or extreme religious and political views. Please grant courage and authority to those who oppose them and seek justice and truth.
Lord, we pray with the Psalmist ‘Search me and know my heart’ – may we open our hearts to You in full surrender and open our lives that You might have Your way in them. Father, we pray now that You will search us and reveal to us those thoughts, attitudes and actions which are not in keeping with Your will. Thank you for sending Your Son so we can know mercy and grace instead of condemnation. Shape the way we think and draw us close to You.