Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 139:1

1. A cheering thought for sinners. If God knew them not perfectly, how could he have prepared a perfect salvation for them?

2. A comfortable truth for saints. "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." —G.R.

Verses 1-5. In these verses we have God's Omniscience,

1. Described. a) As observing minute and comparatively unimportant actions: "My downsitting and uprising." b) As taking note of our thoughts and the motives behind them: "Understandest my thought." c) As investigating all our ways: "Thou compassest", etc.; better rendered, "Thou triest my walking and lying down", i.e., my activities and restings. d) Accurately estimating every word at the instant of its utterance: "For there is not a word", etc. e) As being "behind" men, remembering their past, and "before" men, acquainted with their future: "Thou hast beset me", etc. f) As every instant holding men under watchful scrutiny: "And laid", etc.

2. Personally realized and pondered: "Thou hast searched me." Me and my run through the whole set of statements. Thus felt and used, the fact of God's omniscience, a) Begets reverence. b) Inspires confidence. c) Produces carefulness of conduct. —J.F.

Verse 2-4. The knowledge of God extends,

1. To our movements, our "down sitting and uprising" —when we sit down to read, write, or converse, and when we rise up to active service.

2. To our thoughts: "Thou understandest my thoughts afar off." What they have been, what they now are, what they will be, what under all circumstances they would have been. He who made minds knows what their thoughts will be at all times, or he could not predict future events, or govern the world. He can know our thoughts without being the Author of them.

3. To our actions: Ps 139:3. Every step we take by day, and all we purpose to do in wakeful hours of the night: all our private, social, and public ways, are compassed or sifted by him, to distinguish the good from the bad, as wheat from the chaff.

4. To our words: Ps 139:4. It has been said that the words of all men and from all time are registered in the atmosphere, and may be faithfully recalled. Whether it be so or not, they are phonographed in the mind of God. —G.R.