Some
of the Jewish doctors are of opinion that this is the most excellent of all
the psalms of David; and a very pious devout meditation it is upon the
doctrine of God's omniscience, which we should therefore have our hearts
fixed upon and filled with in singing this psalm. I. This doctrine is here
asserted, and fully laid down, ver. 1-6. II. It is confirmed by two
arguments:-- 1. God is every where present; therefore he knows all, ver.
7-12. 2. He made us, therefore he knows us, ver. 13-16. III. Some inferences
are drawn from this doctrine. 1. It may fill us with pleasing admiration of
God, ver. 17, 18. 2. With a holy dread and detestation of sin and sinners,
ver. 19-22. 3. With a holy satisfaction in our own integrity, concerning
which we may appeal to God, ver. 23, 24. This great and self-evident truth,
That God knows our hearts, and the hearts of all the children of men, if we
did but mix faith with it and seriously consider it and apply it, would have
a great influence upon our holiness and upon our comfort.
To the chief musician. A psalm of
David.
1 O LORD,
thou hast searched me, and known me. 2 Thou knowest my
downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with
all my ways. 4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but,
lo, O LORD,
thou knowest it altogether. 5 Thou hast beset me behind and
before, and laid thine hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is
too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
David here lays down this great doctrine, That the God with whom we have to
do has a perfect knowledge of us, and that all the motions and actions both
of our inward and of our outward man are naked and open before him.
I. He lays down this doctrine in the way of an address to God; he says it to
him, acknowledging it to him, and giving him the glory of it. Divine truths
look fully as well when they are prayed over as when they are preached over,
and much better than when they are disputed over. When we speak of God to
him himself we shall find ourselves concerned to speak with the utmost
degree both of sincerity and reverence, which will be likely to make the
impressions the deeper.
II. He lays it down in a way of application to himself, not, "Thou hast
known all," but, "Thou hast known me; that is it
which I am most concerned to believe and which it will be most profitable
for me to consider." Then we know these things for our good when
we know them for ourselves, Job v. 27. When we acknowledge,
"Lord, all souls are thine," we must add, "My soul is thine;
thou that hatest all sin hatest my sin; thou that art good to all, good to
Israel, art good to me." So here, "Thou hast searched me, and
known me; known me as thoroughly as we know that which we have most
diligently and exactly searched into." David was a king, and the
hearts of kings are unsearchable to their subjects (Prov. xxv. 3), but
they are not so to their Sovereign.
III. He descends to particulars: "Thou knowest me wherever I am and
whatever I am doing, me and all that belongs to me." 1. "Thou
knowest me and all my motions, my down-sitting to rest, my
up-rising to work, with what temper of mind I compose myself when I sit
down and stir up myself when I rise up, what my soul reposes itself in as
its stay and support, what it aims at and reaches towards as its felicity
and end. Thou knowest me when I come home, how I walk before my house, and
when I go abroad, on what errands I go." 2. "Thou knowest all my
imaginations. Nothing is more close and quick than thought; it is always
unknown to others; it is often unobserved by ourselves, and yet thou
understandest my thought afar off. Though my thoughts be ever so foreign
and distant from one another, thou understandest the chain of them, and
canst make out their connexion, when so many of them slip my notice that I
myself cannot." Or, "Thou understandest them afar off, even
before I think them, and long after I have thought them and have myself
forgotten them." Or, "Thou understandest them from afar;
from the height of heaven thou seest into the depths of the heart," Ps.
xxxiii. 14. 3. "Thou knowest me and all my designs and undertakings; thou
compassest every particular path; thou siftest (or winnowest)
my path" (so some), "so as thoroughly to distinguish
between the good and evil of what I do," as by sifting we separate
between the corn and the chaff. All our actions are ventilated by the
judgment of God, Ps. xvii. 3. God takes notice of every step we take, every
right step and every by-step. He is acquainted with all our ways,
intimately acquainted with them; he knows what rule we walk by, what end we
walk towards, what company we walk with. 4. "Thou knowest me in
all my retirements; thou knowest my lying down; when I am withdrawn
from all company, and am reflecting upon what has passed all day and
composing myself to rest, thou knowest what I have in my heart and with what
thought I go to bed." 5. "Thou knowest me, and all I say (v.
4): There is not a word in my tongue, not a vain word, nor a good
word, but thou knowest it altogether, knowest what it meant, from
what thought it came, and with what design it was uttered. There is not a
word at my tongue's end, ready to be spoken, yet checked and kept in, but
thou knowest it." When there is not a word in my tongue, O Lord!
thou knowest all (so some read it); for thoughts are words to God. 6.
"Thou knowest me in every part of me: Thou hast beset me behind and
before, so that, go which way I will, I am under thy eye and cannot
possibly escape it. Thou hast laid thy hand upon me, and I can not
run away from thee." Wherever we are we are under the eye and hand of
God. Perhaps it is an allusion to the physician's laying his hand upon his
patient to feel how his pulse beats or what temper he is in. God knows us as
we know not only what we see, but what we feel and have our hands upon. All
his saints are in his hand.
IV. He speaks of it with admiration (v. 6): It is too wonderful
for me; it is high. 1. "Thou hast such a knowledge of me as I have
not of myself, nor can have. I cannot take notice of all my own thoughts,
nor make such a judgment of myself as thou makest of me." 2. "It
is such a knowledge as I cannot comprehend, much less describe. That thou
knowest all things I am sure, but how I cannot tell." We cannot by
searching find out how God searches and finds out us; nor do we know how we
are known.
7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or
whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8 If I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art
there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, and
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10 Even there shall thy
hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say,
Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about
me. 12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night
shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to
thee. 13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered
me in my mother's womb. 14 I will praise thee; for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that
my soul knoweth right well. 15 My substance was not hid from
thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest
parts of the earth. 16 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.
It is of great use to us to know the certainty of the things wherein we have
been instructed, that we may not only believe them, but be able to tell why
we believe them, and to give a reason of the hope that is in us. David is
sure that God perfectly knows him and all his ways,
I. Because he is always under his eye. If God is omnipresent, he must needs
be omniscient; but he is omnipresent; this supposes the infinite and
immensity of his being, from which follows the ubiquity of his presence;
heaven and earth include the whole creation, and the Creator fills both
(Jer. xxiii. 24); he not only knows both, and governs both, but he fills
both. Every part of the creation is under God's intuition and influence.
David here acknowledges this also with application and sees himself thus
open before God.
1. No flight can remove us out of God's presence: "Whither shall I
go from thy Spirit, from thy presence, that is, from thy spiritual
presence, from thyself, who art a Spirit?" God is a Spirit, and
therefore it is folly to think that because we cannot see him he cannot see
us: Whither shall I flee from thy presence? Not that he desired to go
away from God; no, he desired nothing more than to be near him; but he only
puts the case, "Suppose I should be so foolish as to think of getting
out of thy sight, that I might shake off the awe of thee, suppose I should
think of revolting from my obedience to thee, or of disowning a dependence
on thee and of shifting for myself, alas! whither can I go?" A heathen
could say, Quocunque te flexeris, ibi Deum videbis occurrentem tibi--Whithersoever
thou turnest thyself, thou wilt see God meeting thee. Seneca. He
specifies the most remote and distant places, and counts upon meeting God in
them. (1.) In heaven: "If I ascend thither, as I hope to do
shortly, thou art there, and it will be my eternal bliss to be with
thee there." Heaven is a vast large place, replenished with an
innumerable company, and yet there is no escaping God's eye there, in any
corner, or in any crowd. The inhabitants of that world have as necessary a
dependence upon God, and lie as open to his strict scrutiny, as the
inhabitants of this. (2.) In hell--in Sheol, which may be
understood of the depth of the earth, the very centre of it. Should we dig
as deep as we can under ground, and think to hide ourselves there, we should
be mistaken; God knows that path which the vulture's eye never saw, and to
him the earth is all surface. Or it may be understood of the state of the
dead. When we are removed out of the sight of all living, yet not out of the
sight of the living God; from his eye we cannot hide ourselves in the grave.
Or it maybe understood of the place of the damned: If I make my bed in
hell (an uncomfortable place to make a bed in, where there is no rest
day or night, yet thousands will make their bed for ever in those flames), behold,
thou art there, in thy power and justice. God's wrath is the fire which
will there burn everlastingly, Rev. xiv. 10. (3.) In the remotest corners of
this world: "If I take the wings of the morning, the rays of the
morning-light (called the wings of the sun, Mal. iv. 2), than which nothing
more swift, and flee upon them to the uttermost parts of the sea, or
of the earth (Job xxxviii. 12, 13), should I flee to the most distant and
obscure islands (the ultima Thule, the Terra incognita), I
should find thee there; there shall thy hand lead me, as far as I go,
and thy right hand hold me, that I can go no further, that I cannot
go out of thy reach." God soon arrested Jonah when he fled to
Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
2. No veil can hide us from God's eye, no, not that of the thickest
darkness, v. 11, 12. "If I say, Yet the darkness shall
cover me, when nothing else will, alas! I find myself deceived; the
curtains of the evening will stand me in no more stead than the wings of the
morning; even the night shall be light about me. That which often
favours the escape of a pursued criminal, and the retreat of a beaten army,
will do me no kindness in fleeing from them." When God divided between
the light and darkness it was with a reservation of this prerogative, that
to himself the darkness and the light should still be both alike.
"The darkness darkeneth not from thee, for there is no
darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide
themselves." No hypocritical mask or disguise, how specious soever, can
save any person or action from appearing in a true light before God. Secret
haunts of sin are as open before God as the most open and barefaced
villanies.
II. Because he is the work of his hands. He that framed the engine knows all
the motions of it. God made us, and therefore no doubt he knows us; he saw
us when we were in the forming, and can we be hidden from him now that we
are formed? This argument he insists upon (v. 13-16): "Thou
hast possessed my reins; thou art Master of my most secret thoughts and
intentions, and the innermost recesses of my soul; thou not only knowest,
but governest, them, as we do that which we have possession of; and the
possession thou hast of my reins is a rightful possession, for thou
coveredst me in my mother's womb, that is, thou madest me (Job x. 11),
thou madest me in secret. The soul is concealed form all about us. Who
knows the things of a man, save the spirit of a man?" 1 Cor. ii.
11. Hence we read of the hidden man of the heart. But it was God
himself that thus covered us, and therefore he can, when he pleases,
discover us; when he hid us from all the world he did not intend to hide us
from himself. Concerning the formation of man, of each of us,
1. The glory of it is here given to God, entirely to him; for it is he
that has made us and not we ourselves. "I will praise thee, the
author of my being; my parents were only the instruments of it." It was
done, (1.) Under the divine inspection: My substance, when hid in the
womb, nay, when it was yet but in fieri--in the forming, an unshapen
embryo, was not hidden from thee; thy eyes did see my substance. (2.)
By the divine operation. As the eye of God saw us then, so his hand wrought
us; we were his work. (3.) According to the divine model: In thy book all
my members were written. Eternal wisdom formed the plan, and by that
almighty power raised the noble structure.
2. Glorious things are here said concerning it. The generation of man is to
be considered with the same pious veneration as his creation at first.
Consider it, (1.) As a great marvel, a great miracle we might call it, but
that it is done in the ordinary course of nature. We are fearfully and
wonderfully made; we may justly be astonished at the admirable
contrivance of these living temples, the composition of every part, and the
harmony of all together. (2.) As a great mystery, a mystery of nature: My
soul knows right well that it is marvellous, but how to describe it for
any one else I know not; for I was made in secret, and curiously wrought
in the womb as in the lowest parts of the earth, so privately, and so
far out of sight. (3.) As a great mercy, that all our members in
continuance were fashioned, according as they were written in the book
of God's wise counsel, when as yet there was none of them; or, as
some read it, and none of them was left out. If any of our members
had been wanting in God's book, they would have been wanting in our bodies,
but, through his goodness, we have all our limbs and sense, the want of any
of which might have made us burdens to ourselves. See what reason we have
then to praise God for our creation, and to conclude that he who saw our
substance when it was unfashioned sees it now that it is fashioned.
17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto
me, O God! how great is the sum of them! 18 If I should
count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still
with thee. 19 Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart
from me therefore, ye bloody men. 20 For they speak against thee
wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.
21 Do not I hate them, O LORD,
that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against
thee? 22 I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine
enemies. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and
know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way
in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Here the psalmist makes application of the doctrine of God's omniscience,
divers ways.
I. He acknowledges, with wonder and thankfulness, the care God had taken of
him all his days, v. 17, 18. God, who knew him, thought of him, and
his thoughts towards him were thoughts of love, thoughts of good, and not
of evil, Jer. xxix. 11. God's omniscience, which might justly have
watched over us to do us hurt, has been employed for us, and has watched
over us to do us good, Jer. xxxi. 28. God's counsels concerning us and our
welfare have been, 1. Precious to admiration: How precious are they!
They are deep in themselves, such as cannot possibly be fathomed and
comprehended. Providence has had a vast reach in its dispensations
concerning us, and has brought things about for our good quite beyond our
contrivance and foresight. They are dear to us; we must think of them with a
great deal of reverence, and yet with pleasure and thankfulness. Our
thoughts concerning God must be delightful to us, above any other thoughts.
2. Numerous to admiration: How great is the sum of them! We cannot
conceive how many God's kind counsels have been concerning us, how many good
turns he has done us, and what variety of mercies we have received from him.
If we would count them, the heads of them, much more the
particulars of them, they are more in number than the sand, and yet
every one great and very considerable, Ps. xl. 5. We cannot conceive the
multitude of God's compassions, which are all new every morning. 3. Constant
at all times: "When I awake, every morning, I am still with
thee, under thy eye and care, safe and easy under thy protection."
This bespeaks also the continual devout sense David had of the eye of God
upon him: When I awake I am with thee, in my thoughts; and it would
help to keep us in the fear of the Lord all the day long if, when we awake
in the morning, our first thoughts were of him and we did then set him
before us.
II. He concludes from this doctrine that ruin will certainly be the end of
sinners. God knows all the wickedness of the wicked, and therefore he will
reckon for it: "Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God! for all
their wickedness is open before thee, however it may be artfully disguised
and coloured over, to hide it from the eye of the world. However thou suffer
them to prosper for a while, surely thou wilt slay them at
last." Now observe, 1. The reason why God will punish them, because
they daringly affront him and set him at defiance (v. 20): They
speak against thee wickedly; they set their mouth against the heavens
(Ps. lxxiii. 9), and shall be called to account for the hard speeches they
have spoken against him, Jude 15. They are his enemies, and
declare their enmity by taking his name in vain, as we show our
contempt of a man if we make a by-word of his name, and never mention him
but in a way of jest and banter. Those that profane the sacred forms of
swearing or praying by using them in an impertinent irreverent manner take
God's name in vain, and thereby show themselves enemies to him. Some make it
to be a description of hypocrites: "They speak of thee for mischief;
they talk of God, pretending to piety, but it is with some ill design, for a
cloak of maliciousness; and, being enemies to God, while they pretend
friendship, they take his name in vain; they swear
falsely." 2. The use David makes of this prospect which he has of the
ruin of the wicked. (1.) He defies them: "Depart from me, you bloody
men; you shall not debauch me, for I will not admit your friendship nor
have fellowship with you; and you cannot destroy me, for, being under God's
protection, he shall force you to depart from me." (2.) He detests them
(v. 21, 22): "Lord, thou knowest the heart, and canst witness
for me; do not I hate those that hate thee, and for that reason,
because they hate thee? I hate them because I love thee, and hate to see
such affronts and indignities put upon thy blessed name. Am not I grieved
with those that rise up against thee, grieved to see their rebellion and
to foresee their ruin, which it will certainly end in?" Note, Sin is
hated, and sinners are lamented, by all that fear God. "I hate them"
(that is, "I hate the work of them that turn aside," as he
explains himself, Ps. ci. 3) "with a sincere and perfect
hatred; I count those that are enemies to God as enemies to me, and will
not have any intimacy with them," Ps. lxix. 8.
III. He appeals to God concerning his sincerity, v. 23, 24. 1. He
desires that as far as he was in the wrong God would discover it to him.
Those that are upright can take comfort in God's omniscience as a witness of
their uprightness, and can with a humble confidence beg of him to search and
try them, to discover them to themselves (for a good man desires to know the
worst of himself) and to discover them to others. He that means honestly
could wish he had a window in his breast that any man may look into his
heart: "Lord, I hope I am not in a wicked way, but see if there be
any wicked way in me, any corrupt inclination remaining; let me see it;
and root it out of me, for I do not allow it." 2. He desires that, as
far as he was in the right, he might be forwarded in it, which he that knows
the heart knows how to do effectually: Lead me in the way everlasting.
Note, (1.) The way of godliness is an everlasting way; it is everlastingly
true and good, pleasing to God and profitable to us, and will end in
everlasting life. It is the way of antiquity (so some), the good
old way. (2.) All the saints desire to be kept and led in this way, that
they may not miss it, turn out of it, nor tire in it.
