[Important note from Mark: If you do anything today, please read the article/letter, A Brother and His Mother in India Need Our Help! | FaithWriters. It is of urgent necessity regarding a dire situation for a brother and his mother in India; both of them loving believers in Jesus Christ. Please pass this article/letter on to as many brothers and sisters in Christ as you can, so the body of Christ can make an amazing impact in their lives.]
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There is so much glorious wonder to Psalm 139, that we had no choice but to break our study down into four parts:
Psalm 139:1-6 – God Knows Me Intimately
Psalm 139:7-12 – God Knows Me Intimately
Psalm 139:13-18 – God Knows Me Intimately
Psalm 139:19-24 – God Knows Me Intimately
Candidly, I struggled a little with the title of this four-part study on Psalm 139, as other titles entered my head, such as God’s Omniscience, Omnipresence, and Omnipotence, or God’s Omni Attributes. However, David was mesmerized and awed by the Lord’s intimate knowledge of him, His ever-present presence with him, and His provisions for him. Therefore, as the believer in Jesus Christ can and should appropriate David’s divinely given knowledge of the Lord to himself or herself, God Knows Me Intimately – for me, and I suspect for many commentators – really sums up this marvelous and unequaled Psalm.
King David was known as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22), and no words of David sum up his intense love, awe, and reverence for his Creator more than Psalm 139.
A favorite psalm of all children of God, Psalm 139 reveals the heart of David toward the Lord and his intimate relationship with his God, and, in the process, gives us remarkable biological insights into the workings of God in creating every human being. Psalm 139 also reveals God in the breathtaking and astounding character traits of His glorious and majestic omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence.
As we are accustomed to, we will be examining Psalm 139 verse by verse along with commentary and corroborating Scriptures. We will also be analyzing many significant and notable Hebrew words and phrases throughout the Psalm.
Moreover, we added a few notations by Henry M. Morris from The Henry Morris Study Bible, annotated by THMSB. We will also quote a few different translations for the reader to consider; however, this in no way is an endorsement of any translation cited in this article. I always recommend only the King James Version to my brothers and sisters, as this is the best English translation we have.
King David’s insights into God and His sovereign omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence, as outlined in this Psalm, are stunning.
An outline of Psalm 139 concerning God’s omni characteristics, and as divided in our four-part series as given in the Psalm’s four stanzas, are: Psalm 139:1-6, God’s omniscience; Psalm 139:7-12, God’s omnipresence; Psalm 139:13-18, God’s omnipotence; and Psalm 139:19-24, God’s omni-righteousness with His abhorrence of wickedness and evil.
THMSB: This psalm is intensely personal. The first-person pronouns (“I,” “me,” etc.) occur 48 times in these 24 verses, and the second-person pronouns (“thou,” “thine,” etc.) occur 28 times.
Underlined Scripture passages are my own emphasis.
Psalm 139:7-12 – God’s Omnipresence with His Divine Presence Encompassing, Penetrating, and Saturating His Entire Creation
King David focuses in on God’s Omnipresent attributes through His Holy Spirit that encompasses, penetrates, and saturates His entire creation.
“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” – Psalm 139:7
The Hebrew for “from thy Spirit?” is מֵ / רוּחֶ / ךָ “mērûḥeḵā” from 7307 רוּחַ “rûaḥ,” and when used in context of God’s Spirit, always refers to the Holy Spirit, though the word can also mean wind, breath, mind, spirit.
God’s omnipresence – [Definition of Omnipresence: 1. Presence in every place at the same time; unbounded or universal presence; ubiquity. 2. The ability to be at all places at the same time; usually only attributed to God. 3. The state of being everywhere at once.] – is manifested through the Holy Spirit who is virtually everywhere at all times and in every situation. There is nothing hidden from the omnipresent triune Godhead, and King David recognized this fact of God.
For the believer in Messiah Yeshua, as the bride of Christ, our relationship with the Holy Spirit is wonderful and unique, to say the least.
“Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” – 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
Nevertheless, David did, as we shall see, have his own wonderful and unique relationship with the Holy Spirit of God!
“If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” – Psalm 139:8
God, through Amos, said, concerning rebellious Israel…
“Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them: And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them: and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.” – Amos 9:2-4
The Hebrew word for “into heaven” is 8064 שָׁמַיִם “šāmayim,” meaning, depending on context, heaven, heavens, visible heavens, sky, the abode of stars, the visible universe, atmosphere, heaven (the abode of God, the heaven of heavens or the third heaven).
There are only three heavens described in Scripture.
- The atmospheric heaven that surrounds Earth with the air that we breathe and where the birds fly.
- The universal heavens that contain all of the billions upon billions of galaxies and their billions upon billions of solar systems within each galaxy.
- God’s heaven, also known as the heaven of heaven s and the third heaven.
The Hebrew for “in hell” is the well-known word 7585 שְׁאוֹל “šᵊ’ôl” or “sheol,” meaning, depending on context, underworld, grave, pit, the abode of the dead.
David is obviously speaking of Sheol, where all departed spirit/soul complexes of human beings would go after death, with two compartments separated by an unpassable fixed gulf pre-cross: hell/hades/torments where the unsaved were housed and Paradise or Abraham’s Bosom where the saved were preserved. Since the cross, however, Christ took Paradise with Him to Father God’s heaven, and this is where the saved spirit/soul complexes go immediately upon their deaths ever since. The spirit/soul complexes of the unsaved are still sent to Sheol/hell/hades/torments, awaiting the Great White Throne Judgment.
Hence, when King David speaks of heaven and contrasts heaven with Sheol, he is undoubtedly referring to God’s heaven of heavens, the third heaven. There is nothing “higher” in God’s creation than God’s heaven and nothing “lower” in God’s creation than Sheol.
“If I shall ascend to Heaven, there you are, and if I would descend to Sheol, you are there also!” – Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
Job also observed, concerning hell in Sheol, that…
“Hell [Sheol] is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.” – Job 26:6
David reveals that, when it comes to the almighty God, from heaven above to hell or Sheol beneath, and everywhere else in between, God is always there through His Holy Spirit. There is no place in God’s creation where the Lord is not continuously present and vitally aware through His Holy Spirit, which should come as no surprise to anyone.
Truly, this concept should give great peace and comfort to the believer. On the other hand, to those who reject the free-gift love offer of complete salvation in and through Messiah Yeshua, this cosmic truth should deeply trouble and terrify them. God knows all and is in every place, observing men and women at all times, knowing intimately every detail of them better than they know themselves.
“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” – Proverbs 15:3
For the born-again Christian, Christ, through His indwelling Holy Spirit, is always with us wherever we are and wherever we go.
“[L]o, I am with you always [through His indwelling Holy Spirit], even unto the end of the world [age]. Amen.” – Matthew 28:20
“Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” – 2 Corinthians 1:21-22
“If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” – Psalm 139:9-10
THMSB: This phrase, “wings of the morning,” speaks to the east; “uttermost parts of the [Mediterranean] sea” speaks of the west. Whether highest heaven or deepest hell (139:8), east or west, day or night (139:10-11), God is omnipresent.
King David then addresses the mighty ocean or oceans, “the uttermost parts of the sea,” that the Lord has created, which even today has not been fully mapped and explored by mankind, and most likely never will.
The Hebrew for “in the uttermost parts” is בְּ / אַחֲרִית “bᵊ’aḥărîṯ” from 319 אַחֲרִית “‘aḥărîṯ,” meaning, depending on context, the last or the end, end, last, hindermost, issue, event, the future, hence, length, remnant, posterity, residue, reward.
The Hebrew for “of the sea” is 3220 יָם “yām,” which almost exclusively means sea, ocean, or river, but can also mean seaward, west, or westward.
In King David’s statement, “in the uttermost parts” seems literally to be “in the after-part, the hindermost end of a place,” and “of the sea” can be rendered “of the mighty ocean westward.” David appears to be speaking of a place where no human has ever been, “in the after-part, the hindermost end of a place within the mighty ocean westward.”
“If I lift up the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea.” – Legacy Standard Bible
David then finishes his thought with a beautiful testimony of the Lord’s love and provision for him when he says, “Even there [if David were there] shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.”
We have spoken quite a bit about God’s wonderful provisions for His children so far in this study. However, we should keep in mind two other truths when contemplating this subject.
The first is that we should remind ourselves of the deception of the Word of Faith movement. God is not in the business of giving us our “best life today.” This is a deceptive misnomer on the highest level. Those who follow the “name it and claim it, God wants you healthy, wealthy, and at ease” false teachings are being deceived beyond measure by the False Teachers who promote such detestable doctrines. This false teaching logically leads us to our second observation.
The second is that, as believers, we know that there are times in the lives of God’s children that appear to be quite at odds with what we know of God’s provisions. We spoke of this apparent conflict/contradiction in our article QFTBOC: Psalm 91, Protection, and God’s Will. Here is what we discerned in our subtitle, Christian Persecution:
While some aspects of Psalm 91 can be claimed by the believer – especially in light of those living at the rapture of the church – we must recognize that many of these promises won’t be fully realized until we are resurrected and united in our glorious, perfect, and eternal bodies.
Our experience in this life clearly shows us that, while God is our protector, all will die (except for those living at the rapture) and, in some cases, might even have very violent deaths.
Christ is our example in this: Perfect, just, and sinless, He died the most violent of deaths – physically and spiritually – compared to any other human being while in His earthly body. If He wasn’t excluded from this reality of physical death and pain – and again, experience shows us this is true – then, obviously, neither shall most of us.
We need look no further than to our brothers and sisters in Christ who have been hunted down, tortured, and murdered for their faith in our Lord and loyalty to His Word for the last 2,000 years. Even today, God’s people suffer immense persecution and death for the Name of Christ. Jesus Himself proclaimed to His followers:
“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” – John 15:18-19
I’ve been amazed at the reports I’ve been hearing from our brothers and sisters in Christ in such places as China, Iran, and other nations that persecute Christians. When asked if the church should be praying for their persecution to come to an end, this is generally their response: “No! Don’t pray for our persecution to come to an end. It’s because of this persecution that many others are coming to the Lord. Please, just pray that we are able to have many doors opened to us to share the gospel of Christ with unbelievers so they may come to the Lord and be saved. This persecution is actually growing the Kingdom of God.”
Wow! What faith! What love! What sacrifice! Now that’s what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ!
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.” – Romans 8:29a
Again, the primary aspect of these promises we find in Scripture is our ultimate victory over death and the grave through Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross as He willingly paid for our sins. His resurrection is the proof of His promises to us for ultimate protection from the enemy of our souls, restoration, healing, and eternal life.
Therefore, though the believer is often mightily blessed with God’s provisions in their life – and I would suspect that every believer has numerous testimonies to just this truth in their own lives without exception – these precious promises of provisions from the Lord, despite our life’s struggles with testings, trials, tribulations, chastisements, and persecutions, including death, will ultimately find their fulfillments in our eternal lives.
David’s faith and trust in His God who has always provided for him in the darkest of circumstances, never fails, knowing and believing when in the distresses of life, “Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” Surely this is not surprising to the student of the Word; after all, David, according to the Lord Himself, was a man after God’s own heart!
“If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.” – Psalm 139:11
The Hebrew for “the darkness” is 2822 חֹשֶׁךְ “ḥōšeḵ,” meaning darkness, obscurity, secret place, hiding place.
The Hebrew for “shall cover me” is יְשׁוּפֵ / נִי “yᵊšûp̄ēnî” from 7779 שׁוּף “šûp̄,” a unique word, used only three times, evidently meaning to bruise, crush, break, gape upon, fall upon. Interestingly, the other two passages that use this word are…
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise [7779 שׁוּף “šûp̄”] thy head, and thou shalt bruise His [7779 שׁוּף “šûp̄”] heel.” – Genesis 3:15
“For he breaketh me [7779 שׁוּף “šûp̄”] with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.” – Job 9:17
The following translation actually uses this definition:
“And I say, ‘Surely darkness bruises me,’” ” Then night [is] light to me.” – Literal Standard Version
The Hebrew for “shall be light” is 216 אוֹר “‘ôr,” a feminine noun, meaning light from any source, including from God. In fact, the first time this word is used is in Genesis when God created light.
“And God said, Let there be light [216 אוֹר “‘ôr”]: and there was light [216 אוֹר “‘ôr”]. And God saw the light [216 הָ / אוֹר “hā’ôr”], that it was good: and God divided the light [216 הָ / אוֹר “hā’ôr”] from the darkness. And God called the light [216 לָ / אוֹר “lā’ôr”] Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.” – Genesis 1:3-5
And the second time this Hebrew word is used is in the creation account of the sun, moon, and stars, though the Hebrew 3794 מָאוֹר “mā’ôr” from the verb 215 אוֹר “‘ôr” is used for the light of the sun, moon, and stars themselves.
“And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light [once again, 216 אוֹר “‘ôr”] from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.” – Genesis 1:18
The intent seems to be that the darkness or obscurity of night, with an absence of any light, shall “fall upon” David, yet God shall observe all of this vividly and clearly by “His [divine] light about [David].”
Symbolically, we might see that the darkness or obscurity of night, with an absence of light, could very well represent David’s enemies, difficulties, dangers, and tribulations abounding within his life; yet David knows all too well that all these horrific issues in his life would never be an obstacle and is no match for the omnipresent Lord who shields him, especially in his darkest hours.
We may also see an allusion to the historical and prophetic darknesses that have and will eclipse any darkness mankind has ever experience in the dead of night:
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days…” – Exodus 10:21-23
“And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.” – Revelation 16:10-11
David may be subtly noting these truth’s metaphorically through this imagery.
In context, however, when David speaks of the darkness as “covering him,” or “falling upon him,” or seemingly more literally, “bruising him,” we still see the allusion to the fact that there is nowhere, not even in the darkest of darknesses and/or in the pitch-black dead of night where God’s omnipresent Spirit and divine light will not shine about David.
“Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” – Psalm 139:12
The Hebrew for “and the light [are] both alike” is כָּ / אוֹרָה “kā’ôrâ,” and is from another Hebrew word for “light,” 219 אוֹרָה “‘ôrâ,” used only four times, meaning either light or figuratively light of joy and happiness.
“Even the darkness is not dark to You and conceals nothing from You, But the night shines as bright as the day; Darkness and light are alike to You.” – Amplified Bible
To our great and awesome God, the darkness which God created, shines as bright as the day, as He sees and knows all. Nothing is hidden from the face of our ever-present, all-seeing, and all-knowing Lord.
“I form the light [Hebrew 216 אוֹר “‘ôr”], and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” – Isaiah 45:7
“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light [Greek 5457 φῶς “phōs”]; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” – Luke 12:2-3
Habakkuk saw the Lord…
“God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.” – Habakkuk 3:3-4
When it comes to our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus is that divine “true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
“That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” – John 1:1-9
Messiah Yeshua, our Lord and Savior, the “only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” … “dwell[eth] in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.”
“I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus…; That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” – 1 Timothy 6:13-16
Conclusion
As we have seen, and as King David so wonderfully revealed, for the believer, God’s omnipresence is such a gift and comfort.
Today, because of all that Jesus Christ did for us on the cross and His presence ever since at the right hand of the Father, every born-again adopted son and daughter that has been saved by God’s grace through faith in Messiah Yeshua, receives His indwelling Holy Spirit leading and guiding us forevermore.
Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift of Jesus Christ and the sealing of His Holy Spirit until the day of redemption!
“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” – 2 Corinthians 9:15
“In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” – Ephesians 1:11-14
Thanks be to God for His loving and incomparably unspeakable gift of Jesus Christ and the sealing of His omnipresent Spirit in our hearts and lives until the day of redemption and beyond!
Amen!
May we all keep Answering the Call of The Great Commission, and giving an answer to every man and woman who so desperately needs Jesus and asks us, “Why Am I Here and What Is It All About?”
Love, grace, mercy, and shalom in Messiah Yeshua, and Maranatha!
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