Psalms 139:22

The psalmist’s sense of awe leads him to consider the wicked and to reflect on himself. The Lord, as the examiner of all people, judges the wicked for their destructive acts and speech. So, the psalmist prays that he will not be among them.

In this wisdom psalm, the psalmist opens every part of his life to God. He invites God to examine his thoughts, actions, and words. Even though life is difficult, he wants to grow in wisdom so that he does not share in the judgment of the wicked (Psalm 141:5; 142:3; 143:8, 10; 144:3–4).

The psalmist also knows that he cannot escape from the Lord. His stress fades as he remembers that God has cared for him with love, even before he was born (Psalm 139:13–18). He ends by asking God to keep examining him and to guide him on the path of wisdom (Psalm 139:23–24).

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, Psa 139:17, Psa 139:18. God, who knew him, thought of him, and his thoughts towards him were thoughts of love, thought of good, and not of evil, Jer 29:11. 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 31:28. 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, Psa 40:5. 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 (Psa 139:20): They speak against thee wickedly; they set their mouth against the heavens (Psa 73:9), and shall be called to account for the hard speeches they have spoken against him, Jde 1:15. 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 (Psa 139:21, Psa 139:22): "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, Psa 101:3) "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," Psa 69:8.
III. He appeals to God concerning his sincerity, Psa 139:23, Psa 139:24. 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.

Psalm 139:19-24

19. If thou shalt slay, O God! the wicked, then depart from me, ye bloody men. 20. Who have spoken of thee wickedly, thine adversaries have taken [thy name] falsely. 21. Shall not I hold in hatred those that hate thee, O Jehovah! And strive with those that rise up against thee? 22. I have hated them with perfect hatred; they were to me for enemies. [218] 23. Search me, O God! and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts; 24. And know whether the way of wickedness be in me, and lead me throughout the way of this life. [219]

19. If thou shalt slay, etc. It is unnatural to seek, as some have done, to connect this with the preceding verse. Nor does it seem proper to view the words as expressing a wish -- "I wish," or, "Oh! if thou God wouldst slay the wicked." Neither can I subscribe to the idea of those who think that David congratulates himself upon the wicked being cut off. The sentiment seems to me to be of another kind, that he would apply himself to the consideration of the divine judgments, and advance in godliness and in the fear of his name, so often as vengeance was taken upon the ungodly. There can be no question that God designs to make an example of them, that his elect ones may be taught by their punishment to withdraw themselves from their society. David was of himself well disposed to the fear and worship of God, and yet he needed a certain check, like other saints, as Isaiah says, (Isaiah 26:9,) "when God has sent abroad his judgments, the inhabitants of the earth shall learn righteousness," that is, to remain in the fear of the Lord. At the same time, I have no doubt that the Psalmist presents himself before God as witness of his integrity; as if he had said, that he came freely and ingenuously to God's bar, as not being one of the wicked despisers of his name, nor having any connection with them.

20. Who have spoken of thee wickedly. He intimates the extent to which the wicked proceed when God spares them, and forbears to visit them with vengeance. They not merely conclude that they may perpetrate any crime with impunity, but openly blaspheme their Judge. He takes notice of their speaking wickedly, in the sense of their taking no pains to disguise their sin under plausible pretences, as persons who have some shame remaining will exercise a certain restraint upon their language, but they make no secret of the contempt they entertain for God. The second clause, where he speaks of their taking God's name falsely, some have interpreted too restrictedly with reference to their sin of perjury. Those,come nearer the truth who consider that the wicked are spoken of as taking God's name in vain, when they conceive of him according to their own idle fancies. We see from experience, that most men are ignorant of what God is, and judge of him rather as one dead than alive. In words they all acknowledge him to be judge of the world, but the acknowledgment comes to nothing, as they straightway denude him of his office of judgment, which is to take God's name in vain, by tarnishing the glory of it, and, in a manner, deforming it. But as name is not in the original, and ns', nasa, means to lift Up, or on high, I think we are warranted rather to interpret the passage as meaning', that they carried themselves with an arrogant and false pride. This elation or haughtiness of spirit is almost always allied with that petulance of which he had previously taken notice. What other reason can be given for their vending such poisonous rancour against God, but pride, and forgetfulness, on the one hand, of their own insignificance as men, and on the other, of the power which belongeth unto the Lord? On this account he calls them God's adversaries, for all who exalt themselves above the place which they should occupy, act the part of the giants who warred against heaven.

21. Shall I not hold in hatred those that hate thee? He proceeds to mention how greatly he had profited by the meditation upon God into which he had been led, for, as the effect, of his having realized his presence before God's bar, and reflected upon the impossibility of escaping the eye of him who searches all deep places, he now lays down his resolution to lead a holy and pious life. In declaring his hatred of those who despised God, he virtually asserts thereby his own integrity, not as being free from all sin, but as being devoted to godliness, so that he detested in his heart everything which was contrary to it. Our attachment to godliness must be inwardly defective, if it do not generate an abhorrence of sin, such as David here speaks of. If that zeal for the house of the Lord, which he mentions elsewhere, (Psalm 69:9,) burn in our hearts, it would be an unpardonable indifference silently to look on when his righteous law was violated, nay, when his holy name was trampled upon by the wicked. As to the last word in the verse, qvt, kut, means to dispute with, or contend, and may be understood as here retaining' the same sense in the Hithpael conjugation, unless we consider David to have more particularly meant, that he inflamed himself so as to stir up his mind to contend with them. We thus see that he stood forward strenuously in defense of the glory of God, regardless of the hatred of the whole world, and waged war with all the workers of iniquity.

22. I hate them with perfect hatred. Literally it is, I hate them with perfection of hatred. He repeats the same truth as formerly, that such was his esteem for God's glory that he would have nothing' in common with those who despised him. He means in general that he gave no countenance to the works of darkness, for whoever connives at sin and encourages it through silence, wickedly betrays God's cause, who has committed the vindication of righteousness into our hands. David's example should teach us to rise with a lofty and bold spirit above all regard to the enmity of the wicked, when the question concerns the honor of God, and rather to renounce all earthly friendships than falsely pander with flattery to the favor of those who do everything to draw down upon themselves the divine displeasure. We have the more need to attend to this, because the keen sense we have of what concerns our private interest, honor, and convenience, makes us never hesitate to engage in contest when any one injures ourselves, while we are abundantly timid and cowardly in defending the glory of God. Thus, as each of us studies his own interest and advantage, the only thing which incites us to contention, strife, and war, is a desire to avenge our private wrongs; none is affected when the majesty of God is outraged. On the other hand, it is a proof of our having a fervent zeal for God when we have the magnanimity to declare irreconcilable war with the wicked and them who hate God, rather than court their favor at the expense of alienating the divine layout. We are to observe, however, that the hatred of which the Psalmist speaks is directed to the sins rather than the persons of the wicked. We are, so far as lies in us, to study peace with all men; we are to seek the good of all, and, if possible, they are to be reclaimed by kindness and good offices: only so far as they are enemies to God we must strenuously confront their resentment.

23. Search me, O God! He insists upon this as being the only cause why he opposed the despisers of God, that he himself was a genuine worshipper of God, and desired others to possess the same character. It indicates no common confidence that he should submit, himself so boldly to the judgment of God. But being fully conscious of sincerity in his religion, it was not without due consideration that he placed himself so confidently before God's bar; neither must we think that he claims to be free from all sin, for he groaned under the felt burden of his transgressions. The saints in all that they say of their integrity still depend only upon free grace. Yet persuaded as they are that their godliness is approved before God, notwithstanding their falls and infirmities, we need not wonder that (hey feel themselves at freedom to draw a distinction between themselves and the wicked. While he denies that his heart was double or insincere, he does not profess exemption from all sin, but only that he was not devoted to wickedness; for tsv, otseb, does not mean any sin whatever, but grief, trouble, or pravity -- and sometimes metaphorically an idol. [220] But the last of these meanings will not apply here, for David asserts his freedom not from superstition merely, but unrighteousness, as elsewhere it is said, (Isaiah 59:7,) that in the ways of such men there is "trouble and destruction," because they carry everything by violence and wickedness. Others think the allusion is to a bad conscience, which afflicts the wicked with inward torments, but this is a forced interpretation. Whatever sense we attach to the word, David's meaning simply is, that though he was a man subject to sin, he was not devotedly bent upon the practice of it.

24. And lead me, etc. I see no foundation for the opinion of some that this is an imprecation, and that David adjudges himself over to punishment. It is true, that "the way of all the earth" is an expression used sometimes to denote death, which is common to all, but the verb here translated to lead is more commonly taken in a good than a bad sense, and I question if the phrase way of this life ever means death. [221] It seems evidently to denote the full continuous term of human life, and David prays God to guide him even to the end of his course. I am aware some understand it to refer to eternal life, nor is it denied that the world to come is comprehended under the full term of life to which the Psalm ist alludes, but it seems enough to hold by the plain sense of the words, That God would watch over his servant to whom he had already shown kindness to the end, and not forsake him in the midst of his days.

Footnotes:

[218] "Je les ay tenus pour mes ennemis." -- Fr. "I have held them as my enemies."

[219] "Via seculi." -- Lat. "En la voye du siecle." -- Fr. On the margin of the French Commentary there is the following note -- "C'est, de ce monde;" -- "That is, of this world."

[220] "Car le mot Hebrieu duquel il use en ce passage ne signifie pas indif-feremment tout peche, mais douleur et fascherie," etc. -- Fr. "Any way of wickedness -- the word rendered after the Septuagint by wickedness means both sorrow, mischief; and idol: the former is probably the sense in which the Psalmist here uses it, a way of sorrow is a way productive of sorrow, or tending to sorrow, as is the case (Psalm 1:7 [sic]) with every wicked way." -- Cresswell.

[221] On the margin of the French Commentary Calvin refers to Joshua 23:14.

Footnotes:

[199] This Psalm has often been admired for the grandeur of its sentiments, the elevation of its style, as well as the variety and beauty of its imagery. Bishop Lowth, in his 29th Prelection, classes it amongst the Hebrew idyls, as next to the 104th, in respect both to the conduct of the poem, and the beauty of the style. "If it be excelled," says he, "(as perhaps it is) by the former in the plan, disposition, and arrangement of the matter, it is not in the least inferior in the dignity and elegance of its sentiments, images, and figures." "Amongst its other excellencies," says Bishop Mant, "it is for nothing more admirable than for the exquisite skill with which it descants on the perfections of the Deity. The Psalmist's faith in the omnipresence and omniscience of Jehovah is in the commencement depicted ? with a singular and beautiful variety of the most lively expressions: nor can anything be more sublime than that accummulation of the noblest and loftiest images, in the 7th and following verses, commensurate with the limits of created nature, whereby the Psalmist labors to impress upon the mind some notion of the infinity of God." If we compare this sacred poem with any hymn of classical antiquity in honor of the heathen deities, the immense superiority of the sentiments it contains must convince any reasonable person that David and the Israelites, though inferior in other respects to some other nations, surpassed them in religious knowledge. No philosopher of ancient times ever attained to such sublime views of the perfections and moral government of God as the Hebrew Prophets. How are we to account for this difference but on the supposition of the divine origin of the religion of the Hebrews? On any other supposition these Psalms are a greater miracle than any of those recorded by Moses. Bishop Horsley refers the composition of this Psalm to a later age than that of David. "The frequent Chaldaisms," says he, "of the diction, argue no very high antiquity." Dr. Adam Clarke, on the same ground, argues that it was; not written by the sweet singer of Israel, but during or after the time of the captivity. Other critics, however, maintain that the several Chaldaisms to be found in it afford no foundation for such an opinion. "How any critic," says Jebb, "can assign this Psalm to other than David, I cannot understand. Every line, every thought, every turn of expression and transition is his, and his only. As for the arguments drawn from the two Chaldaisms which occur, (rvy for rvtsy, and ryk for tsryk,) this is really nugatory. These Chaldaisms consist merely in the substitution of one letter for another very like it in shape, and easily to be mistaken by a transcriber, particularly by one who had been used to the Chaldee idiom: but the moral arguments for David's author-ship are so strong as to overwhelm.'my such verbal or rather literal criticism, were even the objections more formidable than they actually are." -- Jebb's Literal Translation of the Psalms, etc., volume 2.

I hate them with perfect hatred,.... Heartily and really; not in word only, but in deed and in truth; "odio vatiniano", with consummate hatred: this is an answer to his own question;

I count them mine enemies; being the enemies of God: the friends of God were David's friends, as angels and good men, and God's enemies were his; their friends and enemies, were common; so closely allied and attached were they to each other, as God and all good men are.

I am no less grieved with their enmity against thee, than if they directed it against myself.

And this God is by many not only not believed in and loved, but even hated and blasphemed! The poet now turns towards these enemies of God in profound vexation of spirit. The אם, which is conditional in Psa 139:8, here is an optative o si, as in Psa 81:9; Psa 95:7. The expression תּקטל אלוהּ reminds one of the Book of Job, for, with the exception of our Psalm, this is the only book that uses the verb קטל, which is more Aramaic than Hebrew, and the divine name Eloah occurs more frequently in it than anywhere else. The transition from the optative to the imperative סוּרוּ is difficult; it would have been less so if the Waw copul. had been left out: cf. the easier expression in Psa 6:9; Psa 119:115. But we may not on this account seek to read יסוּרוּ, as Olshausen does. Everything here is remarkable; the whole Psalm has a characteristic form in respect to the language. מנּי is the ground-form of the overloaded ממּנּי, and is also like the Book of Job, Job 21:16, cf. מנהוּ Job 4:12, Psa 68:24. The mode of writing ימרוּך (instead of which, however, the Babylonian texts had יאמרוּך) is the same as in Sa2 19:15, cf. in Sa2 20:9 the same melting away of the Aleph into the preceding vowel in connection with אחז, in Sa2 22:40 in connection with אזּר, and in Isa 13:20 with אהל. Construed with the accusative of the person, אמר here signifies to declare any one, profiteri, a meaning which, we confess, does not occur elsewhere. But למזמּה (cf. למרמה, Psa 24:4; the Targum: who swear by Thy name for wantonness) and the parallel member of the verse, which as it runs is moulded after Exo 20:7, show that it has not to be read ימרוּך (Quinta: παρεπικρανάν σε). The form נשׁוּא, with Aleph otians, is also remarkable; it ought at least to have been written נשׂאוּ (cf. נרפּוּא, Eze 47:8) instead of the customary נשׂאוּ; yet the same mode of writing is found in the Niphal in Jer 10:5, ינשׁוּא, it assumes a ground-form נשׂה (Psa 32:1) = נשׂא, and is to be judged of according to אבוּא in Isa 28:12 [Ges. 23, 3, rem. 3]. Also one feels the absence of the object to נשׁוּא לשּׁוא. It is meant to be supplied according to the decalogue, Exo 20:7, which certainly makes the alteration שׁמך (Bttcher, Olsh.) or זכרך (Hitzig on Isa 26:13), instead of עריך, natural. But the text as we now have it is also intelligible: the object to נשׂוא is derived from ימרוך, and the following עריך is an explanation of the subject intended in נשׂוא that is introduced subsequently. Psa 89:52 proves the possibility of this structure of a clause. It is correctly rendered by Aquila ἀντίζηλοί σου, and Symmachus οἱ ἐναντίοι σου. ער, an enemy, prop. one who is zealous, a zealot (from עוּר, or rather עיר, = Arab. gâr, med. Je, ζηλοῦν, whence עיר, Arab. gayrat = קנאה), is a word that is guaranteed by Sa1 28:16; Dan 4:16, and as being an Aramaism is appropriate to this Psalm. The form תּקומם for מתּקומם has cast away the preformative Mem (cf. שׁפתּים and משׁפּתים, מקּרה in Deu 23:11 for ממּקּרה); the suffix is to be understood according to Psa 17:7. Pasek stands between יהוה and אשׂנה in order that the two words may not be read together (cf. Job 27:13, and above Psa 10:3). התקוטט as in the recent Psa 119:158. The emphasis in Psa 139:22 lies on לי; the poet regards the adversaries of God as enemies of his own. תּכלית takes the place of the adjective: extremo (odio) odi eos. Such is the relation of the poet to the enemies of God, but without indulging any self-glorying.