Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 139:1

Searched. The Hebrew word originally means to dig, and is applied to the search for precious metals (Job 28:3), but metaphorically to a moral inquisition into guilt. —Joseph Addison Alexander.

Verses 1-5. God knows everything that passes in our inmost souls better than we do ourselves: he reads our most secret thoughts: all the cogitations of our hearts pass in review before him; and he is as perfectly and entirely employed in the scrutiny of the thoughts and actions of an individual, as in the regulation of the most important concerns of the universe. This is what we cannot comprehend; but it is what, according to the light of reason, must be true, and, according to revelation, is indeed true. God can do nothing imperfectly; and we may form some idea of his superintending knowledge, by conceiving what is indeed the truth, that all the powers of the Godhead are employed, and solely employed, in the observation and examination of the conduct of one individual. I say, this is indeed the case, because all the powers of the Godhead are employed upon the least as well as upon the greatest concerns of the universe; and the whole mind and power of the Creator are as exclusively employed upon the formation of a grub as of a world. God knows everything perfectly, and he knows everything perfectly at once. This, to a human understanding, would breed confusion; but there can be no confusion in the Divine understanding, because confusion arises from imperfection. Thus God, without confusion, beholds as distinctly the actions of every man, as if that man were the only created being, and the Godhead were solely employed in observing him. Let this thought fill your mind with awe and with remorse. —Henry Kirke White, 1785-1806.

Verses 1-12.

O Lord, in me there lieth nought

But to thy search revealed lies;

For when I sit

Thou markest it;

No less thou notest when I rise;

Yea, closest closet of my thought

Hath open windows to thine eyes.

Thou walkest with me when I walk,

When to my bed for rest I go,

I find thee there,

And everywhere:

Not youngest thought in me doth grow,

No, not one word I cast to talk

But, yet unuttered, thou dost know.

If forth I march, thou goest before;

If back I turn, thou com'st behind:

So forth nor back

Thy guard I lack;

Nay, on me, too, thy hand I find.

Well, I thy wisdom may adore,

But never reach with earthly mind.

To shun thy notice, leave thine eye,

O whither might I take my way?

To starry sphere?

Thy throne is there.

To dead men's undelightsome stay?

There is thy walk, and there to lie

Unknown, in vain I should assay.

O sun, whom light nor flight can match!

Suppose thy lightful flightful wings

Thou lend to me,

And I could flee

As far as thee the evening brings:

Ev'n led to west he would me catch,

Nor should I lurk with western things.

Do thou thy best. O secret night,

In sable veil to cover me:

Thy sable veil

Shall vainly fail:

With day unmasked my night shall be;

For night is day, and darkness light,

O Father of all lights, to thee. —Sir Philip Sidney, 1554-1586.