Read & explore together
You Have Searched Me and Known Me
Psalm 139 is a song addressed to Yahweh about being fully known by God. It moves from God’s complete knowledge, to his presence everywhere, to his care in human life, and ends with a prayer for honest searching.
Understanding the passage
Read these words in context
In this passage, the speaker talks directly to Yahweh throughout. The psalm describes God knowing actions, words, thoughts, and days of life, then speaks about God’s presence in heaven, Sheol, sea, and darkness. It also includes strong words about the wicked before ending with a request for God to search and lead the speaker.
Psalms 139:1–24Main takeaway
Psalm 139 teaches that Yahweh fully knows the speaker, is present everywhere, and is asked to search the heart and lead in the everlasting way.
Explore the poem and its images
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Known in every detailThe psalm opens with a personal claim: Yahweh has searched and known the speaker. Sitting, rising, paths, rest, thoughts, and even words are all known to God.
Explanation
The psalm opens with a personal claim: Yahweh has searched and known the speaker. Sitting, rising, paths, rest, thoughts, and even words are all known to God. The line about being hemmed in behind and before, with God’s hand laid on the speaker, shows complete awareness and nearness. The speaker says this knowledge is too lofty to grasp fully.
02No place is outside God’s presenceThe next part asks the speaker’s own question: where could I go from God’s Spirit, or flee from his presence?
Explanation
The next part asks the speaker’s own question: where could I go from God’s Spirit, or flee from his presence? Heaven, Sheol, the far sea, and darkness are all named. Even there, God’s hand leads and holds. Darkness does not hide anything from him, because night shines like day to God.
03Made and seen by GodThe psalm then praises God as the one who formed the speaker’s inmost being and knit that life in the mother’s womb.
Explanation
The psalm then praises God as the one who formed the speaker’s inmost being and knit that life in the mother’s womb. The response is thanksgiving: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” The psalm says God saw the speaker’s body, and that the speaker’s days were written before they came.
04Strong loyalty and an honest endingAfter praising God’s precious and countless thoughts, the psalm turns sharply to the wicked and bloodthirsty who speak against God.
Explanation
After praising God’s precious and countless thoughts, the psalm turns sharply to the wicked and bloodthirsty who speak against God. The speaker rejects them, then ends by inviting God’s searching again. This closing matters because the psalm does not only judge others; it asks God to test the speaker’s own heart and lead in the everlasting way.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01Which parts of a person’s life are said to be known by Yahweh in the opening verses?
Look for actions, thoughts, words, and ways named one by one in the first section of the psalm.
02What places or situations are listed to show that no one can escape God’s presence?
Notice the poem’s examples: heaven, Sheol, the sea, and darkness.
03How does the final prayer in verses 23-24 connect back to verse 1?
Compare the opening statement that God has searched and known the speaker with the closing request for God to search, know, test, and lead.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Psalms 139:1–24
1Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me.
2You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar.
3You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
4For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether.
5You hem me in behind and before. You laid your hand on me.
6This knowledge is beyond me. It’s lofty. I can’t attain it.
7Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence?
8If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!
9If I take the wings of the dawn, and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me.
11If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me. The light around me will be night,”
12even the darkness doesn’t hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness is like light to you.
13For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.
15My frame wasn’t hidden from you, when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.
17How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is their sum!
18If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.
19If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain.
21Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you?
22I hate them with perfect hatred. They have become my enemies.
23Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.
24See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.