Two new books to look forward to (though one looks like it may be a reprint):
- Christ and the Decree: Christology and Predestination in Reformed Theology from Calvin to Perkins, by Richard A. Muller (Baker Academic)
- We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry, by G. K. Beale (IVP Academic)
I’ve been thinking about this over the past couple of weeks, so please bare with some of my ramblings about divisions in the Reformed world. Sometimes we joke about the split P’s, but this is something that should make us cry out to the Lord, begging for things to be changed for the better in his good providence.
I was talking with a Reformed co-worker the other day about some of the doctrinal issues within Reformed circles. Another co-worker was listening, and afterwards confessed he had no idea what we were talking about — he is a Christian, but a member of a non-Reformed but evangelical church. He was, understandably, oblivious to the doctrinal controversies within Reformed churches.
I don’t like the “lowest common denominator evangelicalism” that permeates American Christianity. But there seems to be a flip-side to this. We understand the progress of theology; gradually our understanding of Scripture, by God’s grace, compels us to more precise theological formulations. In itself, this is a good thing. But is my perception correct, that at least in Reformed circles, we sometimes equate our hobby-horse doctrines with another step forward in that precision? Extra-confessional doctrinal precision becomes a sort of test for who is or is not orthodox Reformed. But it can be worse: How many times has this led to the formation of new denominations, which seem to exist merely for the sake of their pet doctrinal issues? This seems like a sectarian spirit.
Those outside Reformed circles have no idea what doctrinal controversy takes place amongst us. I find I will often have a more gracious and charitable attitude toward non-Reformed Christians than Reformed Christians who might disagree with one of those more precise doctrinal points that I myself hold to. Probably it’s a sinful “they should know better” attitude. I need to stop this. And I don’t mean to diminish the importance of doctrinal purity in the church. I’m not trying to put unity/charity above purity, as if true unity were only possible if purity were thrown to the wind. I understand why different Reformed denominations won’t unite. I understand that there may be, at times, sincere and serious doctrinal reasons. But I generally have little respect for those obstacles are tied to denominational history or tradition or culture or pet doctrines.
Whatever happened to the catholicity of the church? Why doesn’t the Reformed world express catholicity well? NAPARC is a step in the right direction, but NAPARC itself is a constant reminder to us of our disunity among Reformed denominations. Explaining to unbelievers or non-Reformed Christians why there are so many puny Reformed denominations is such a delicate and painful venture.
May God grant to us a greater desire for true unity in the faith. May God be pleased to bless our denomination’s and presbytery’s committees on ecumenicity and give them discernment and wisdom. May He be gracious to forgive us our sinful division which dishonors him and, at the same time, strengthen us in our resolve to divide when necessary for the God-honoring purity of Christ’s church. Amen.
Introduction
The loftiness of God, displayed in Psalm 139, is both thoroughly convicting and greatly encouraging. Surely, it has the markings of eternity on it, molded by David’s pen as he was moved by the Spirit. In this psalm we see the eminence of God in relation to the finitude of man.
For the translation, no appeal was made to the lxx; the Hebrew Scripture was sufficient to establish the text. The pericope delimitation for this psalm seems self-evident, and most commentators are agreed. There are four natural sections in the text, found on the basis of the content of the text1
- 1-6: Man before the searching, all-knowing God
- 7-12: Man before the everywhere-present God
- 13-18: Man as the wonderful work of the creative God
- 19-24: Man before wicked men and the holy God
The comments that follow are arranged around these four pericopes.
Patrick Miller, Jr. expresses the preciousness of this psalm: “In all of the psalms one senses how deep theological convictions are developed out of personal experience reflected on from the perspective of faith. Nowhere is that more evident than in this psalm, which, not surprisingly, is one of the best known to those who nurture their devotion to God on the psalms, while also being frequently cited by systematic theologians as they formulate a doctrine of God.”2 It is to this psalm that we now turn.
Verses 1-6: God All-Seeing
1 To the choir director. A Psalm of David.
O LORD, you have searched me
and known me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You know 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, O LORD, you know it all.
5 You enclose me, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high, I cannot attain it.
1. In speaking about the divine attributes mentioned in this psalm, Miller says that, “These characteristics of God are probably as fully articulated here as anywhere in Scripture, but in these verses they have a liveliness and bite that needs to inform our more abstract analysis.”3 And to speak abstractly, we certainly have the doctrine of God’s omniscience in perfect and full and a ‘biting’ way.
There is a truth implicitly expressed here, based on our finite and human limitation. We are not God, and our knowledge, even our ourselves and one another can hardly penetrate as God’s does. Just as “the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10), the Spirit searches the hearts and minds of men.
2-3. One commentator understood the psalmist to be basing the doctrine of the omniscience of God not so much on a logical conclusion, but as one reached experientially—and linking this to our conscience.4 It is true, the psalmist is not not giving a simple pro argument for God’s omniscience, but has internalized this truth and confessing such.
Something as private and intimate as our lying down to sleep, our hidden thoughts in bed (cf. Ps. 16:7), and our waking up in the morning are known to God. What, even in our modern-day society is rightly seen as private, is public before the Lord. But not only that, all our thoughts are public to him—even “from afar” off. While there is no visible manifestation that he knows our thoughts, no microphone or recording device, we should not be fooled to believe anything can be hidden from him (cf. Matt. 9:4 where Jesus knows others thoughts).
We might say also, that the Lord does not only know our thoughts, as though they had no context, but he is ‘acquainted with all my ways.’ He knows the patterns of our thoughts and lives—whether they be good or evil, whether consciously comprehended by us or not. This is manifest in the psalmist’s illustration of his lying down and getting up.
4. Verses 2-4 are clearly bound together, following the ‘theme’ given in verse 1 (2a, 3a, and 4a all express the same truth; 2b, 3b, and 4b the same again). Each time the psalmist confesses, “here is some aspect of my life, perhaps hidden from others,” and then says, “but you, O Lord, know.”
Here, we have an extension of this truth. While our thoughts are certainly hidden from others, they become visible and apparent when we make them known with our ‘tongue.’ But even when men come to know our thoughts in this way, the Lord’s knowledge is still far superior, because he knows these thoughts before they are spoken.
5. Based on the context, this verse could be taken to mean that the Lord has ‘enclosed’ the psalmist’s thoughts—perhaps in the sense expressed in the end of the psalm, that he would ‘lead me in the way everlasting.’ This may be the sense here, a conscious expression of the work of God’s Spirit in preventing his people from, i.e., evil thoughts. This is pointedly expressed in Deut. 30:6, “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
Another interpretation, also based on the context given in the psalm but appealing to later verses, 7ff., understands this ‘enclosing’ to refer to the truth that we are fully ‘enclosed’ by the knowledge of God. We cannot escape being known by him; we are hedged in, as the NKJV renders it. But that the Lord would ‘lay your hand upon me’ seems to suggest his guidance (cf. v. 10). Nevertheless, perhaps both understandings are appropriate.
6. Here is a confession of the incomprehensibility of God. It is one thing to logically assert that God knows all, another to bring this truth to bear in our lives by putting flesh on the assertion. The psalmist does this here by acknowledging that the Lord knows more about him that he does himself! Truly, this knowledge is wonderful and high. It is ‘too’ wonderful because it is beyond our ability to fully grasp.
Verses 7-12: God All-Present
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell 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 cover me,
and the light around me be night,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
and the night will shine as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
7. Our psalm now continues by turning to another truth, one intimately related to God’s omniscience—his omnipresence. Miller takes the omnipresence of God expressed in these verses to not be “about God’s being generally present everywhere, though one might infer that; rather it is the certainty that God is present everywhere I am that the psalmist declares.”5 It is helpful to keep remember that the psalmist, as one of God’s own dear children, is one who has meditated on his God enough to bring about these helpful points of application.
Miller also describes this in terms of the inescapability of God, which can be something that brings comfort, or something “truly unsettling,” depending on our standing before him. But the fact is that God exists everywhere, since he upholds all things. In him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Running from him cannot free us from the presence of his Spirit—this is something Jonah came to learn by experience.
8-9. The NKJV translates ‘Sheol’ as ‘hell.’ It should simply be understood as the place of the dead. While ‘hell’ is not an entirely bad translation, it does seem to connote the place of judicial torment, which is not meant here. Even death cannot separate David from God, much less being brought up to heaven as was Enoch. As Delitzsch explains, this is a description “which is superterrestrial and subterrestrial.”6 Following the heights and the depths is the spaciousness between the west and the east, as expressed poetically by the ‘wings of the morning’ and the ’sea.’ No amount of physical separation is possible from the Lord of creation.
10. How comforting is the thought expressed here (cf. vv. 5, 24). Nothing in this life can separate us from God’s presence. During this life, we certainly cannot know where the Lord will take us—but we know he will not leave us. Even the very beginning of our lives was such that we could spend little time fretting and worrying over (and on account of our age, we could not do so! Cf. vv. 13-15). But something of this attitude ought to be maintained towards the end of our lives, when we are brought to the place of the dead. We have nothing to fear, because even there our covenant God’s “right hand shall hold me.”
11-12. David continues here to further express what he has already said, that he cannot be hid from his God. Hearkening back to v. 2, even in the night it is as day unto the Lord. The quiet and solitary nature of the darkness of the night is only an illusion due to the restrictions of our humanity. God, who knows all things and is everywhere present, is not bound by the limits of our sight (cf. Heb. 4:13).
Verses 13-18: God All-Creative
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works,
and my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was made in secret,
skillfully woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
and in your book were all written the days fashioned for me,
when as yet there was not one of them.
17 How precious also are your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more than the sand.
When I awake, I am still with you.
13. That the Lord has interest in our being formed in our mother’s womb is not strange to Scripture. The Lord says to Jeremiah (1:5) that “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (which knowing is specifically related to his calling as “a prophet to the nations”). But here, David expresses the formation of the crown of God’s creation. The wonder of this forming of a child before his birth is not always remembered, perhaps in spite of its common and frequent nature.
14. C. John Collins argues for another reading that takes the Hebrew for “to be wonderful” (alp) as another verb, “to be distinguished, to be set apart” (hlp).7 He offers this translation then: “I praise you for the fact that I have been awesomely distinguished; your works are wonderful, and my soul knows it well.”8 His argument supposes that the psalmist is stressing the fact that his covenantal relation to God was brought about even in the womb. There is perhaps some validity to this translation, but the traditional one is not lacking in support.
William Brown says, “Some modern readers may find the psalmist’s self-praise excessively effusive. The psalmist is no self-described ‘worm’ or ‘maggot’ of humanity (Ps. 22:6; Job 25:6). To the contrary, our author is unapologetically preoccupied with the sheer wonder of the self.”9 Such an understanding focusing on, as he says, the “praise of self,” emphasizes the author’s moral proclivity above the simple fact that God has created him.
The wonder and grandeur of creation is surely manifest in the moral agency of man, which is not absent in the psalm, but the focus here is the ‘frame’ of man. Morally speaking, the psalmist later cries to God that he would ’search’ and ‘know’ his heart, to ‘try’ him. Nevertheless, Brown makes a pointed remark that, “In short, the psalm is a celebration of God’s invasion of our privacy.”10 This is certainly true, and can only prove comforting to one of his children.
The psalmist is acquainted with God’s wonderful works because he is acquainted with himself—not that he is impressed with the wonder of his own moral success, but with the physical workings of his body. Truly, this is something that today, in the face of an ever-growing medical knowledge of the wonders of the human body, ought to be ever more easily accepted.
15. “The earth was the mother’s womb of Adam, and the mother’s womb out of which the child of Adam comes forth is the earth out of which it is taken.”11 Perhaps this passage ought to lead us back to the creation of our first father, Adam, made from the dust of the ground. Again, though the psalmist was formed and made ‘in secret,’ even unseen by his mother who carried him, he is not hidden from God.
16. Here we see a hint towards the doctrine of predestination. Not only has God wonderfully created him, but this creation has a purpose and future that God knows (though the psalmist may not know), and that has been planned. As Paul writes similarly in his Epistle to the Ephesians (2:10), “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
17-18. Here the psalmist expresses the preciousness of God’s thoughts, and of the God of those thoughts. We may understand these thoughts as those in relation to the author of the psalm—”how wonderful and amazing, Lord, that in all these ways you would consider me, your servant!” seems to be the idea being expressed.
To consider and meditate on the truth that God minds our weak and feeble thoughts and movements surely is an encouragement to us. And as though that truth were not enough, how many thoughts does he have towards his people? Surely more than we could have towards ourselves! “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the LORD?” (Rom. 11:33-34a).
Verses 19-24: God All-Holy
19 Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God;
O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with evil intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
try me, and know my anxious thoughts.
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
19-20. “Most of us stumble over such parts of the psalms, or skip over them—and rightly so,” says Miller.12 This is certainly an inappropriate attitude towards passages of Scripture of this nature. The psalmist expresses no pleasure in the death of the wicked (cf. Ezek. 33:11), but only that God “would slay the wicked.” While this might make our modern minds uncomfortable, it is not right to “skip over” it. We cannot deny or ignore the holiness of our God.
Surely, the Lord will on that great Day bring an end to all his enemies, and this is a foretaste of that. If we ascribe this psalm to David, we might see his reference here to those who seek to destroy God’s people without just cause. The kingdom of God is one of rest from his and our enemies, which will only be perfectly realized in the eschaton, but something partially and temporarily realized in the ‘golden age’ of the rule of David and Solomon.
Most English translations supply “your name” in 20b—without this the meaning would be unclear. Gene Rice argues for another reading: “They have carried away thy cities to destruction.”13 Based on the context, this fits with the thrust of the verses prior and following, and has the benefit of not supplying helping words. This possibility ought to be considered, but a deviation from the traditional translation is not necessary.
The fact is, that wicked men may hate God’s people, they also hate God himself. This is manifest in their continual enticing Israel away from God, but also by the blood shed in their physical attacks on the cities of the Lord. They also manifest this hatred vocally, in taunting the God of Israel, and taking his name in vain. Consider the works of Sennacherib, “which he has sent to reproach the living God” (2 Kings 19:16; cf. 2 Chron. 32:9-11).
21-22. The psalmist lays his logic bare here concerning that hatred he has towards his enemies. Should the Lord’s people not hate that which their Master hates? The liberal tendency to remove the evil act from the (evil or wicked) person, the true owner of such an act, is a delusion at best. He who searches the hearts of men is intimately aware that the very core of their being, their very person, is wicked (cf. Matt. 15:19).
There is nevertheless an apparent friction between these verses and what our Lord says in the Sermon on the Mount, when he says that we ought to “love your enemies” (Matt. 5:44). Is the God of the Old Testament different from that of the New? Of course not. Nothing prevented Israel from loving her enemies in the sense that Jesus expressed—that of doing good to them (consider the Law of Moses in dealing with strangers from other nations) and praying for them and their salvation (cf. Ps. 67:2).
Love towards our wicked neighbor is not a fuzzy feeling, it at least includes a decided action. This action includes prayer for their salvation, knowing full well the judgment they and we deserve. It includes whatever actions we might use to bring about their salvation, such as making known to them the gospel of Christ. But such a love must not be void from wanting to see God’s just vindication; just as a judge sentencing a murderer to death may rejoice to see this murderer come to faith before his punishment is carried out.
We do not rejoice in their destruction, but only that God is just. This tension is resolved in our celebration of the judgment measured out on our Lord—which truth is both somber and joyous at the same moment. And we must maintain this antithesis, a knowledge that God has enemies in this world, and that we likewise have enemies (cf. Jude 15). We must count them our enemies, or we might unwittingly be overrun by them.
23. As the psalmist has already confessed that the Lord has “searched” him (v. 1), so now he prays that the Lord would continue this searching. The conclusion of this psalm, which is really a recapitulation of the beginning, is well-known by many, and very precious to the church. No other prayer in Scripture calls on God to “search me” and to “try me” as explicitly as is done here.
But this (vv. 23-24) is more than a conclusion, it is also an application of all the preceding. For here David prays that the Lord would not only know him, but now more pointedly his ‘anxious thoughts.’ If there is anything he knows about himself very clearly, it is the thoughts that continually bubble to the surface, the worries and perhaps even the alluring temptation of sin. It is as if he had cried, “O Lord, you know all these things about me, things I may never know, but these thoughts, Lord, these disquieting thoughts, do not forget!”
24. It is the thoughts of v. 23 that the psalmist prays the Lord to search and try. This verse brings clarity and a close to the ‘leading’ already mentioned twice in the psalm (cf. vv. 5, 10). The psalmist has already been expressing the fact that God has been leading him by his ‘hand.’ This is a prayer for this invaluable leading of God to continue, and that he might be led away from ‘any wicked way.’ He knows that any moral difference that he has from his enemies is the work of God (sanctification) in his life.
But also alluded to in this verse is the promise and hope of eternal life. There is a ‘way’ that leads to a life ‘everlasting,’ a life that does not shy away in fear from the presence of this knowing God. To enter this life requires the leading of Another, and a faith the Lord to be accounted “to him for righteousness,” as was the case with Abraham (Gen. 15:6). This faith is the grounds for joy instead of dread, as we consider ourselves as those always before the face of God, and as those ’searched’ by him.
Notes
- Derek Kidner (Tyndale Commentary) has the most pointed terms for the divisions, which will be followed in the comments.
- Interpreting the Psalms, p. 144.
- Interpreting the Psalms, p. 145.
- Miller, p. 146.
- Interpreting the Psalms, pp. 146-147.
- Commentary, p. 810.
- ‘Psalm 139:14: “Fearfully and wonderfully made”?’, Presbyterion, p. 116.
- Ibid., p. 118.
- ‘Psalm 139: The Pathos of Praise,’ Interpretation, p. 282.
- Ibid., p. 283.
- Delitzsch, p. 812.
- Interpreting the Psalms, p. 150.
- ‘The Integrity of the Text of Psalm 139:20b,’ CBQ, p. 30.
Bibliography
Allen, Leslie C. “Faith on Trial: An Analysis of Psalm 139.” Vox Evangelica 10 (1977) 5-23.
Allen, Leslie C. Psalms 101-150. Waco, Texas: Word, 1983. (WBC, 21)
Brown, William P. “Psalm 139: The Pathos of Praise.” Interpretation 50 no 3:280-284 J1 1996.
Brueggemann, Walter. The Message of the Psalms: a theological commentary. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984.
Calvin, John. Commentary Upon the Book of Psalms, Vol. 4. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1981. (pp. 206-224)
Collins, C. John. Psalm 139:14: “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made”? Presbyterion 25 no 2:115-120 Fall 1999.
Dahood, Mitchell. Psalms III: 101-150, introdution, translation and notes with an appendix; the grammar of the Psalter. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1970.
Davidson, Robert. The Vitality of Worship: a commentary on the book of Psalms. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.
Delitzsch, F, translated by Francis Bolton. Commentary on the Old Testament (Vol. 5, Psalms). Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers (updated edition, printed 2006).
Hengstenberg, Ernst Wilhelm. Commentary on the Psalms. Cherry Hill, NJ: Mack Publishing Company, n.d. (pp. 494-504)
Kidner, Derek. Psalms 73-150: a commentary. Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity, 1975. (Tyndale OT)
Leupold, Herbert Carl. Exposition of the Psalms. Columbus: Wartburg Press, 1959. (Conservative Lutheran)
Miller, Patrick D. Interpreting the Psalms. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986. (pp. 144-153)
Reardon, Patrick Henry. Christ in the Psalms. Ben Lomond, California: Conciliar Press, 2000.
Rice, Gene. “The Integrity of the Text in Psalm 139:20b.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly (1984) 28-30.
Spurgeon, Charles Haddon. The Treasury of David. Vol 3. Mclean, Virginia: Macdonald Publishing Company, n.d.
Young, Edward J. Psalm 139: A Study in the Omniscience of God. London: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965.
“That’s Why They Call Them Browsers,” Ken Myers
Related articles worth reading:
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Nicholas Carr
“The Autumn of the Multitaskers,” Walter Kirn
“The Myth of Multitasking,” Christine Rosen
There is, of course, a distinctly Christian approach to ecology and pollution. But these hippies wailing for dead trees show how the radical “concern” for Gaia (otherwise known as “Mother Earth”) is a liturgy of pagan spirituality.
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