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 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 139:13-18 – God’s Omnipotence, Foreknowledge, and Intimate Involvement in David’s Creation and the Creation of All Human Beings
What David reveals in the next stanza concerning God’s omnipotent creation of each human being is truly majestic, breathtaking, and astounding in every conceivable way!
“For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.” – Psalm 139:13
The Hebrew for “my reins” is כִלְיֹתָ / י “ḵilyōṯāy” from 3629 כִּלְיָה “kilyâ” which means, depending on context, the literal organ of a kidney, seat of emotion and affection, the essence of man, the mind (as in the interior self), and is translated either kidneys or reigns in the KJV.
A similar Hebrew word translated “heart” is 3820 לֵב “lēḇ” which also means, depending on context, the literal organ of the heart, the inner man with his or her mind, will, understanding, knowledge, thinking, reflection, memory, emotions, passions, conscience, etc.
Both of these Hebrew words are essentially related and synonymously used throughout the Scriptures.
Obviously, when not speaking of the physical organs themselves, reins, kidneys, and heart are metaphorical in the Tanakh (Old Testament Scriptures) for the soul – the metaphysical essence of human beings – the emotions, affections, passions, intelligence/knowledge/understanding, desires, etc., of each unique person God has created in His image; basically, who we are, “the ghost in the machine.”
The Hebrew for “hast possessed” is קָנִיתָ “qānîṯā” from 7069 קָנָה “qānâ,” and, in Qal verb form, means to get, acquire, obtain – that of God originating, creating, redeeming His people, possessor. In context of our verse: of God as originating, creating our souls, our inner being, our essence, who we are.
Incontrovertibly, this verse declares that God had originated, created, possessed King David’s soul, and by extension, each and every soul of every human being that was, is, and will be created!
The Hebrew for “thou hast covered me” is תְּסֻכֵּ / נִי “tᵊsukēnî” from 5526 סָכַךְ “sāḵaḵ,” and, in Qal verb form, means to cover, lay over, to weave together, to interweave.
The Lord created and possessed the soul, the essence of each human being – “thou hast possessed my reins” – and delivers each person’s soul into their growing physical body in their mother’s “covered” womb at conception, beginning with a single fertilized cell, being “weaved together/knit together” by God Himself.
“For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” – New Heart English Bible
The almighty Lord God is “the Father of spirits” (Hebrews 12:9), the metaphysical essence of man. Humanity is created – as God declared in triune council within Himself – “… in Our image, after Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26) and “in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them” (Genesis 1:27).
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” – Genesis 2:7
David, however, was just getting started with the wonders of God’s creation of a human being!
“I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” – Psalm 139:14
The Hebrew for “fearfully” is נוֹרָאוֹת “nôrā’ôṯ” from 3372 יָרֵא “yārē’,” meaning, in context and in Niphal form, cause of astonishment and awe (of Yahweh Himself), awe-inspiring in praises, wonderful, glorious thing.
When it comes to the gestation period of a human being from a single-cell zygote to a full-term baby – ready to be born into the world, and the birth itself – every man and woman should stand in awe and have astonishment that inspires praises for God’s wonderful and glorious creation of every person He has, is, and will ever create. There is literally nothing in this world, fallen as it is, comparable to witnessing the growth of a human being in his or her mother’s womb and the birth of a child.
The Hebrew for “I am | wonderfully made” is נִפְלֵיתִי “nip̄lêṯî” from 6395 פָּלָה “pālâ,” and, in Niphal form, means to be distinct, be separated, be distinguished, be wonderful.
Surely, every human being, when conceived and growing in a woman’s womb – created, as God Himself proclaimed, in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27) – is distinct, separate, distinguishable, and wonderful in every conceivable way!
The Hebrew for “marvelous” is נִפְלָאִים “nip̄lā’îm” from 6381 פָּלָא “pālā’,” also in Niphal form, means to be beyond one’s power, difficult to do, difficult to understand, be wonderful, be extraordinary, be wonderful, marvelous.
The inference behind David’s words of praise is that, on every human level, it is extraordinarily amazing to contemplate and consider God’s creation and creative design of the human being in child development within its mother’s womb through all of its beautiful and breathtaking stages.
Scientists even today are still learning how a baby is created and knit together in its mother’s womb from conception to birth; yet a thousand years or so before Christ – approximately 3,000 years ago – King David’s soul knew all of this wonder all too well! Surely this was by divine revelation, but the very fact of human reproduction – even animal reproduction – is a marvelous, miraculous, awe-inspiring, magnificent creation, worthy of our praises, as each individual man and woman is unique, distinct, exclusive, and gloriously created!
“My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.” – Psalm 139:15
The Hebrew for “my substance” is עָצְמִ / י “ʿāṣmî” from 6108 עֹצֶם “ʿōṣem,” meaning power, bones, might.
THMSB: “My substance” refers to the basic frame of the skeleton. Note also the similar testimony in Ecclesiastes 11:5 [“As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”]. The marvels of embryonic growth are still largely unexplained by scientists, but God knows!
The Hebrew for “I was made” is עֻשֵּׂיתִי “ʿuśśêṯî” from 6213 עָשָׂה “ʿāśâ,” meaning to be made, to be produced, to be observed; obviously, in context, by the Creator who is creating.
The Hebrew for “in secret” is בַ / סֵּתֶר “ḇassēṯer” from 5643 סֵתֶר “sēṯer,” meaning covering, cover, shelter, hiding place, secret, secrecy, secret place.
Truly, every babe that is created by God should always be and feel secure during gestation within their covering, shelter, hiding place, secret place, of their mother’s womb.
Tragically, down through mankind’s evil history, this has not been the case, especially today when babies are literally torn apart and dismembered or chemically aborted from their covering, shelter, hiding place, secret place during gestation in their mother’s womb, which should be the safest place any human being should be in their short and troubled lives.
The horrors of these evils, God will not look away from forever. But, thanks be to God, through our gracious and merciful Lord and Savior, one can be forgiven for even this heinous crime against humanity if he or she comes to saving faith by God’s grace in Messiah Yeshua, with these past sins being remembered no more (Hebrews 10:16-17, Romans 8:1).
The Hebrew for “curiously wrought” is רֻקַּמְתִּי “ruqqamtî” from 7551 רָקַם “rāqam,” which, in Pual verb form, means to be skillfully wrought or woven. Strong’s adds: רָקַם râqam, raw-kam’; a primitive root; to variegate color, i.e., embroider; by implication, to fabricate, embroiderer, needlework, curiously work.
THMSB: “Curiously wrought means “embroidered,” a striking description of the double-helical DNA molecular program which organizes, part by part, the beautiful structure of the whole infant.
What an amazing insight revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures that has been confirmed by modern science studying the recently discovered human genome, once hidden from mankind for thousands of years, in these seemingly last of the last days. True science will always substantiate what our sovereign omnipotent God has always known, has done, and still does!
The Hebrew for “in the lowest parts” is בְּ / תַחְתִּיּוֹת “bᵊṯaḥtîyôṯ” from 8482 תַּחְתִּי “taḥtî,” meaning low, lower, lowest, lower parts. In the feminine plural, as in our text, Strong’s adds: the depths (figuratively, a pit, the womb), low (parts, –er, –er parts, –est), nether (part). Figurative of the dark and hidden interior of the womb.
THMSB: For “lowest parts,” read “nether parts,” or “hidden parts.” God made these hidden parts, or elements, of the earth, then formed Adam’s body from this “dust of the earth” (Genesis 2:7). He created within the body of Adam and Eve the marvelous and complex ability to multiply that body, finally to generate from these lowest parts of the earth through the curiously wrought embroidery of DNA all the many billions of their descendants, including David himself.
David Cloud of Way of Life Literature has offered the following on Psalm 139:15:
David was curiously wrought and fashioned in continuance (Psa. 139:15, 16). This is a wonderful description of how the infant grows in the womb, beginning with the microscopic fertilized egg. The statement that David was made “in the lowest parts of the earth” does not refer to places under the earth but to the womb itself.
It is a poetic description of the womb as a dark, inaccessible place where man’s eye does not penetrate. The Hebrew word translated “curiously wrought” (raqam) means “to variegate color, i.e. embroider; by implication, to fabricate” (Strong). It is elsewhere translated “needlework” (Ex. 26:36) and “embroiderer” (Ex. 38:23).
Barnes comments: “It refers to the act of ‘weaving in’ various threads–as now in weaving carpets. The reference here is to the various and complicated tissues of the human frame–the tendons, nerves, veins, arteries, muscles, ‘as if’ they had been woven, or as they appear to be curiously interweaved. No work of tapestry can be compared with this; no art of man could ‘weave’ together such a variety of most tender and delicate fibres and tissues as those which go to make up the human frame, even if they were made ready to his hand: and who but God could ‘make’ them? The comparison is a most beautiful one; and it will be admired the more man understands the structure of his own frame” (Barnes).
Alan Gillen, M.D., says, “The body is woven together just like a tapestry. For example, look at the interwoven complexity of a single skeletal muscle. … Under the microscope, the amazing interwoven design manifests itself” (Body by Design, 2001, p. 8).]
“Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” – Psalm 139:16
This intriguing verse encourages us to thoughtfully analyze the original language of Hebrew for better clarity and understanding.
The Hebrew for “Thine eyes” is עֵינֶי / ךָ “ʿênêḵā” from 5869 עַיִן “ʿayin” and can mean an eye (literally and figuratively), showing mental qualities, mental and spiritual faculties (figurative), spring, fountain.
Obviously, David is referencing God’s “eyes” in a spiritual sense, as God is an omnipresent, omnipotent Spirit, and as the Scriptures clearly declare, “… He that formed the eye, shall He not see?” (Psalm 94:9-11).
The Hebrew for “did see” is רָאוּ “rā’û” from 7200 רָאָה “rā’â,” and in the Qal form means to look at, see, regard, look after, see after, learn about, observe, watch, look upon, look out, find out.
Contextually, this word denotes God’s intimacy in human gestation by looking after and intently observing the process of each of His new creations in the womb. As we have seen, the omnipotent God is also actively engaged in the process.
The Hebrew for “my substance; yet being unperfect” is גָּלְמִ / י “gālmî” from 1564 גֹּלֶם “gōlem” – the only time this word is used in Scripture – which means embryo or fetus.
The phrase, “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect,” reveals that God, in His omniscience and omnipresence, did see and care for David’s substance as an embryo and fetus in his unperfect states during human development being formed in David’s mother’s womb, just as He does for every human being He ever created in His image upon conception.
THMSB: This “substance yet being unperfect” is one word in the Hebrew, meaning simply “embryo.” God is watching over each embryonic human being from the moment of conception. There is never a time when He is “recapitulating” his imaginary evolutionary ancestry, as the so-called “pro-choice” people seem to think. The baby is “unperfect,” not “imperfect,” until he is ready for delivery, but he is always truly human, with an eternal soul. “In continuance” is the same as “day” in Hebrew. That is, God overseeing the development of all the days of the life, as well as the substance of the body. The embryo is being “fashioned” in a way analogous to the way in which God “formed” (same word) the body of Adam from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7).
The Hebrew for “all my members were written” is broken down from only two Hebrew phrases: כֻּלָּ / ם “kullām” from 3605 כֹּל “kōl” meaning all, the whole, and יִכָּתֵבוּ “yikāṯēḇû” from 3789 כָּתַב “kāṯaḇ” for “were written” meaning, in the Niphal form, to be written, to be written down, be recorded, be enrolled. The English words “my members” were added by the translator for clarity.
The Hebrew for “in continuance” is יָמִים “yāmîm” from 3117 יוֹם “yôm,” meaning, in context, days, lifetime.
Thus, every day of David’s life had been written down by God!
Exceptionally, as we have and are seeing, Psalm 139 is a deep and intense mystery revealed to King David by divine agency of the Holy Spirit!
The Hebrew for “were fashioned” is יֻצָּרוּ “yuṣṣārû” from 3335 יָצַר “yāṣar,” and, in the Pual form, means to be predetermined, be preordained.
The essence behind the intent, not surprisingly, is that God was not only observing intently and intimately involved in the creative development of David’s gestation process, but of knowing thoroughly each and every detail of David’s life – predetermined and preordained by God’s sovereign foreknowledge of who David would be and what David would think and do with his God-given freewill – even before David would live those days out!
The Hebrew for “when/none” is וְ / ל / וֹ “vᵊlô” from 3808 לֹא “lō,’” which means no, not, without, nothing, before.
The words “as yet there was” were added by the translators for additional clarity.
The Hebrew for “of them” is בָּ / הֶם “bāhem” from 1992 הֵם “hēm,” and, depending on context, means they, them, themselves, these, those, same, the same, who, as many more as, ye.
God’s sovereign foreknowledge of virtually everything, encompassing every day and moment of David’s life from his birth to his death, was known intimately and exhaustively in the mind of the triune Godhead even before the Lord ever began His creation process during Creation Week.
Discernibly, this truth also includes and extends to God’s omnipotent intimate involvement and omnipresent engaged observation with every human child during their gestation process, harmoniously unified with the Lord’s sovereign foreknowledge of each and every moment and day in every human life that was, is, and will be created – all of which He predetermined and preordained within His divine triune council before the world began, knowing each individual and what they would do with their God-given freewill throughout their lives.
Logically and necessarily, God’s sovereign intimate foreknowledge would also include every detail in the lives of each of the myriads of fallen angels and holy angels in heaven before they were created as well.
There is nothing that the Lord does not know, with Scripture declaring God’s unique concern and emphasis on and for men and women who were expressly and lovingly created in God’s own image.
In summary, the phrase “and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them,” reveals that in God’s omniscient foreknowledge and omnipotent design, He had created David in exactly the way God had foreordained he would be fashioned and has written all of David’s days – the good, the bad, and the ugly – in His book long before David was created, knowing every thought and choice David would think and make through his divinely-given freewill. The same can be said of every human being who ever was, and will ever be, created.
In this one powerful and astonishing verse, we can ascertain all three of God’s majestic qualities of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence in play within God’s creation of every man and woman who bears His image, remembering also that the Lord “hast possessed [our] reins [our souls, who we are, our essence]” in His mighty hands, knowing each of us more intimately than we could ever know ourselves, preordaining and predetermining our existence before He ever created us!
David Praises God for His Thoughts Toward Him
King David then turns his attention and affection, meditating on God’s inconceivable and unreckonable thoughts toward himself.
“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.” – Psalm 139:17-18
In David’s Messianic Psalm 40, he pondered…
“Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.” – Psalm 40:5
The Hebrew for “precious | are” is יָּקְרוּ “yāqrû” from 3365 יָקַר “yāqar,” in Qal verb form, means to be precious, be highly valued, be esteemed, prized, appraised.
The Hebrew for “thy thoughts” is רֵעֶי / ךָ “rēʿêḵā” from 7454 רֵעַ “rēaʿ” – used only twice in the Tanakh, both in this Psalm (Psalm 139:2, 17) – and is understood as purpose, aim, thought (as association of ideas).
Notice that King David pointed to God knowing David’s thoughts – “my thought” in verse 2 – and now acknowledges God’s thoughts – “thy thoughts” – here in verse 17, towards David. David intuitively knows that God’s thoughts towards him are extremely precious, highly valued, esteemed, and prized. For true lovers of God, believing and obeying each and every Word of the Lord, throughout all dispensations, and especially for the bride of His dearly beloved Son, God’s thoughts toward us are the same as they were and are towards David: extremely precious, highly valued, esteemed, and prized. For this wonderful truth we should rejoice!
THMSB: We should desire to think God’s thoughts, as the early scientists (e.g., Kepler, Newton, Maxwell) used to say. He knows our thoughts (139:2), and we should seek diligently to bring all our thoughts “into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5. We can never exhaust the mind of Christ or the Word of God!
“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” – Colossians 1:12-17
Our triune God is beyond anything anyone anywhere – angelic or human – could ever dream up, concoct, or conceive. Honestly, human language could never express and articulate how amazing and awesome our God, Creator, Lord, Savior, Redeemer, and King truly is!
Avinu Adonai, Father God, thank You for who You are with Your incomprehensively marvelous, majestic, and magnificent omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. We are in awe of You and Your attributes, Your character, Your righteousness, and Your holiness.
Dear heavenly Father, we also thank You with every fiber and spirit of our being – as we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” – for Your one and only beloved Son, Messiah Yeshua, and all that He has done, is doing, and will do for us, our salvation through Him, and Your indwelling Ruach Ha Kodesh, our divine Comforter, the Holy Spirit in our lives.
We love You dearly and always and could never thank You enough for Your love, provisions, and the future You have promised to those who love You. And we do love You, dear Father.
In the precious Name of Jesus Christ, we pray. 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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