And he petitions God to act because they are against him , God himself. The God who appears to Israel on Mount Sinai in a theophany is the same God who exacts judgment moments later at the base of that very mountain.
There is a better way. The God who has known us from our very beginnings is the God who has watched us all along. He has seen our comings and goings, our faithfulness and faithlessness. Yet he has remained present with us v. Because God has known us, fully known us, we can trust in him when the world goes awry and seems to be in open rebellion against his ways vv.
And because God has known us, fully known us, we should be compelled to ask God to search us to see whether there is any offensive way in us vv. Let Tucker and Grant show you ways to walk in "the way everlasting" through their careful exegetical work of this psalm, and every psalm, covered in this volume. Add Psalms, Volume 2 to your library today and you will grasp the original meaning, exegetical context, and contemporary significance of these precious biblical poems, hymns, and prayers.
The Art and Force of Psalm Part 1. The Art and Force of Psalm Part 2. Categories Old Testament. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you. If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? Life within the love of Christ Jesus, Immanuel God with us , changes our hearts forever and continually until we arrive home in heaven.
The journey of each human heart is unique, purposed, and intimately known by the One True God. Before we were known to our mothers, God was forming every intricate detail and fabric of who we are. We often default to a critical view of ourselves and others. Color, ethnicity, disability …every trait and characteristic were crafted by our purposeful God.
We are crafted personally and purposefully, to bring glory to God. Nothing about us is accidental. When I became a mother, I experienced love on another level. Yet, I only carried my babies into this world. God gave them life and cares for them infinitely more. We are all loved by God this way. But we do have some say over what happens to them once they arrive. Scripture advises to take our thoughts captive. Some of the rogue thoughts that enter our minds are absolutely crazy!
God sees every one of them. He knows our words before we let them exit our mouths. He knows what we will do. We are intimately known by God, not just outwardly, but inwardly. When the heart is mentioned in Scripture, it often refers to the seat of our souls, and the place from which we make decisions and harbor our beliefs. God is there. He is not surprised by our physical or mental struggles! Being intimately known by our sovereign God means we are not hidden, nor should we feel compelled or convinced by guilt or shame to hide from Him in any way.
The sacrifice Jesus made on the cross negated the shame which compelled Adam and Eve to hide from God in the garden. Though the curse of sin we live under compels us to do the same—run and hide when we sin—God made a way for us, through Jesus, to bring our sin to His feet and confess and repent of it.
We were made with purpose, to bring glory to God. Each talent, gift, and occupation have a place in the workforce of the Kingdom of God. Who we are is meant to bring reverence to God. Not a fear to be afraid of, but a respectful, reverence for God. When people look at the lives of those who follow Christ, they should witness the blood He shed dripping from our daily lives. According to Biblestudytools. We have each been intentionally set apart, different from the world.
Living in the New Covenant, we can read this psalm knowing Jesus has defeated death and is seated at the right hand of the Father. Those who follow Christ will be welcomed into heaven for eternity upon death on this earth. God moves through our earthly lives to spread the gospel. His desire is not to leave behind even one! There is infinitely more happening in the world and our lives than we can plausibly see. He has numbered our days, and nothing can change or alter His good plan for our lives.
His will trumps what we want. So much injustice, unfairness, tragedy and heartbreak surround everyday circumstances world-wide. Even devout Christ-followers gaze up to wonder where God is during tumultuous seasons.
Nothing in the universe is random without divine design and purpose. The Psalm may be thus summarized Ps Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. I cannot break away from thee" Ps Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
As if he had said, "The knowledge of thy great and glorious majesty and infiniteness is utterly past all human comprehension. If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. There is no darkness nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves": Job Therefore, Christians, do nothing but what you are willing God should take notice of; and judge in yourselves whether this be not the way to have a good and quiet conscience.
In this Aramaizing Psalm what the preceding Psalm says Ps comes to be carried into effect, viz. This Psalm has manifold points of contact with its predecessor. As a later writer could have no motive for prefixing the title, "To the Chief Musician", it affords an incidental proof of antiquity and genuineness. How any critic 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, 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 authorship are so strong as to overwhelm any such verbal, or rather literal criticism, were even the objections more formidable than they actually are.
Verse 1. There is no "me" after "known" in the Hebrew; therefore it is better to take the object after "known" in a wider sense. The omission is intentional, that the believing heart of all who use this Psalm may supply the ellipsis.
Thou hast known and knowest all that concerns the matter in question, as well whether I and mine are guilty or innocent Ps ; also my exact circumstances, my needs, my sorrows, and the precise time when to relieve me. The godly may sometimes be so overclouded with calumnies and reproaches as not to be able to find a way to clear themselves before men, but must content and comfort themselves with the testimony of a good conscience and with God's approbation of their integrity, as here David doth.
David here lays down the great doctrine, that God has a perfect knowledge of us, First, in the way of an address to God: he saith it to him, acknowledging it to him, and giving him the glory of it. Divine truths look full 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 find ourselves concerned to speak with the utmost degree both of sincerity and reverence, which will be likely to make the impressions the deeper.
Secondly, 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 things for our good when we know them for ourselves.
Job David was a king, and "the hearts of kings are unsearchable" to their subjects Pr , but they are not so to their sovereign. O LORD, thou hast searched me. I would have you observe how thoroughly in the very first verse he brings home the truth to his own heart and his own conscience: "O LORD, thou hast searched me. The Hebrew word originally means to dig, and is applied to the search for precious metals Job , but metaphorically to a moral inquisition into guilt.
Verses 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. 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. 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. David makes the personal pronoun the very frontispiece of the verse, and so says expressly and distinctively to Jehovah, "Thou knowest"; thus marking the difference between God and all others, as though he said, "Thou, and thou alone, O God, in all the universe, knowest altogether all that can be known concerning me, even to my inmost thought, as well as outward act.
Does God care? Is he our Friend? Even in such little matters as these, does he watch over us "to do us good"? When we "sit down" he sees; when we rise up he is there. Not an action is lost or a thought overlooked. No wonder that, as these tiny miracles of care are related by David, he adds the words, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. We get accustomed to the thought that God made the sun and sky, the "moon and stars which he hath ordained", and we bow to the fact that they are "the work of his fingers.
The coming in and going out of the Christian is mentioned several times in Scripture as though it were very important. So much hinges on these little words. And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with him": 1Sa David was given both preservation and wisdom in his "goings out" and "comings in. It was needed, for many eyes were upon him, and many eyes are upon us: are they not?
Perhaps more than we think. Downsitting and uprising. Jacob saw the angels ascending to God before they descended to service among mortals. Hence we are taught first to join ourselves to God by meditation, and afterwards to repair to the aid of our fellows. Uprising may respect either rising from bed, when the Lord knows whether the heart is still with him Ps ; what sense is had of the Divine protection and sustentation, and what thankfulness there is for the mercies of the night past; and whether the voice of prayer and praise is directed to him in the morning, as it should be Ps ; or else rising from the table, when the Lord knows whether a man's table has been his snare, and with what thankfulness he rises from it for the favours he has received.
The Targum interprets this of rising up to go to war; which David did, in the name and strength, and by the direction of the Lord. The divine knowledge reaches to their source and fountain, before they are our thoughts. If the Lord knows them before their existence, before they can be properly called ours, much more doth he know them when they actually spring up in us; he knows the tendency of them, where the bird will alight when it is in flight; he knows them exactly; he is therefore called a "discerner" or criticizer of the heart: Heb Not that God is at a distance from our thoughts; but he understands them while they are far off from us, from our knowledge, while they are potential, as gardeners know what weeds such ground will bring forth, when nothing appears.
De And how can it be, but that God should know all our thoughts, seeing he made the heart, and it is in his hand Pr , seeing, "we live, and move, and have our being" in God Ac ; seeing he is through us all, and in us all Eph Look well to your hearts, thoughts, risings, whatever comes into your mind; let no secret sins, or corruptions, lodge there; think not to conceal anything from the eye of God.
Though my thoughts be never 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. My thought. The er , rea, which we have rendered "thought", signifies also a friend or companion, on which account some read-- thou knowest what is nearest me afar off, a meaning more to the point than any other, if it could be supported by example.
The reference would then be very appropriately to the fact that the most distant objects are contemplated as near by God. Some for "afar off" read beforehand, in which signification the Hebrew word is elsewhere taken; as if he had said, O Lord, every thought which I conceive in my heart is already known to thee beforehand. In all affliction, in all business, a man's best comfort is this, that all he does and even all he thinks, God knows. In the Septuagint we read dialogiomous , that is, "reasonings.
Thou understandest my thought. Before men we stand as opaque beehives. They can see the thoughts go in and out of us, but what work they do inside of a man they cannot tell. Before God we are as glass beehives, and all that our thoughts are doing within us he perfectly sees and understands. Afar off. This expression is, as in Ps , to be understood as contradicting the delusion Job that God's dwelling in heaven prevents him from observing mundane things.
Both in distance, however far off a man may seek to hide his thoughts from God; and in time, for God knows the human thought before man conceives it in his heart, in his eternal prescience.
The Egyptians called God the "eye of the world. Do not fancy that your demeanour, posture, dress, or deportment are not under God's providence. You deceive yourself. Do not think that your thoughts pass free from inspection.
The Lord understands them afar off. Think not that your words are dissipated in the air before God can hear. Oh, no! He knows them even when still upon your tongue. Do not think that your ways are so private and concealed that there is none to know or censure them.
You mistake. God knows all your ways. Thou compassest my path and my lying down , etc. The words that I have read unto you, seem to be a metaphor, taken from soldiers surrounding the ways with an ambush, or placing scouts and spies in every corner, to discover the enemy in his march; "Thou compassest my path": thou hast as it were thy spies over me, wheresoever I go.
By "path" is meant the outward actions and carriage of his ordinary conversation. By "lying down" is signified to us the private and close actions of his life; such as were attended only by darkness and solitude. In Ps , it is said of the wicked that "he deviseth mischief upon his bed", to denote not only his perverse diligence, but also his secrecy in it: and God is said to "hide his children in the secret of his pavilion", so that these places of rest and lying down are designed for secrecy and withdrawing.
When a man retires into his chamber, he does in a manner, for a while, shut himself out of the world. And that this is the fine sense of that expression of lying down appears from the next words, "Thou art acquainted with all my ways"; where he collects in one word what he had before said in two; or, it may come in by way of entrance and deduction, from the former.
As if he should say, Thou knowest what I do in my ordinary converse with men, and also how I behave myself when I am retired from them; therefore thou knowest all my actions, since a man's actions may be reduced either to his public or private deportment. By the other expression of "my ways" is here meant the total of a man's behaviour before God, whether in thoughts, words, or deeds, as is manifest by comparing this with other verses.
Thou compassest my path. This is a metaphor either from huntsmen watching all the motions and lurking places of wild beasts, that they may catch them; or from soldiers besieging their enemies in a city, and setting round about them. Thou compassest , or feignest, or wannest, my path ; that is, discuss or try out to the utmost, even tracing the footsteps, as the Greek signifieth. Compare Job Thou art acquainted with all my ways. God takes notice of every step we take, every right step, and every by step.
He knows what rule we walk by, what end we walk toward, what company we walk with. Art acquainted , as by most familiar intercourse, as if thou hadst always lived with me Hebrew and thus become entirely familiar with my ways.
The Psalmist mentions four modes of human existence; stationis, sessionis, itionis, cubationis; because man never stayeth long in one mood, but in every change the eyes of the Lord cease not to watch him. For there is not a word in my tongue , etc.
The words admit a double meaning. Accordingly some understand them to imply that God knows what we are about to say before the words are formed on our tongue; others, that though we speak not a word, and try by silence to conceal our secret intentions, we cannot elude his notice.
Either rendering amounts to the same thing, and it is of no consequence which we adopt. The idea meant to be conveyed is, that while the tongue is the index of thought to man, being the great medium of communication, God, who knows the heart, is independent of words.
And use is made of the demonstrative particle lo! How needful it is to set a watch before the doors of our mouth, to hold that unruly member of ours, the tongue, as with bit and bridle. Some of you feel at times that you can scarcely say a word, and the less you say the better.
Well, it way be as well; for great talkers are almost sure to make slips with their tongue. It may be a good thing that you cannot speak much; for in the multitude of words there lacketh not sin.
Wherever you go, what light, vain, and foolish conversations you hear! I am glad not to be thrown into circumstances where I can hear it. But with you it may be different. You may often repent of speaking, you will rarely repent of silence. How soon angry words are spoken! How soon foolish expressions drop from the mouth! The Lord knows it all, marks it all, and did you carry about with you a more solemn recollection of it you would be more watchful than you are.
Thou knowest it. The gods know what passes in our minds without the aid of eyes, ears, or tongues; on which divine omniscience is founded the feeling of men that, when they wish in silence, or offer up a prayer for anything, the gods hear them. Thou hast beset me behind and before , etc. There is here an insensible transition from God's omniscience to his omnipresence, out of which the Scriptures represent it as arising.
The idea of above and below is suggested by the last clause. What would you say if, wherever you turned, whatever you were doing, whatever thinking, whether in public or private, with a confidential friend telling your secrets, or alone planning them--if, I say, you saw an eye constantly fixed on you, from whose watching, though you strove ever so much, you could never escape The supposition is awful enough.
There is such an Eye. One who finds the way blocked up turns back; but David found himself hedged in behind as well as before. Thou hast As by an arrest; so that I am thy prisoner, and cannot stir a foot from thee. And laid thine hand upon me.
To make of me one acceptable to thyself. To rule me, to lead me, to uphold me, to protect me; to restore me; in my growth, in my walk, in my failures, in my affliction, in my despair. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me , etc. When we are about to look upon God's perfections, we should observe our own imperfections, and thereby learn to be the more modest in our searching of God's unsearchable perfection: Such knowledge , saith David, is too high for me, I cannot attain unto it.
Then do we see most of God, when we see him incomprehensible, and do see ourselves swallowed up in the thoughts of his perfection, and are forced to fall in admiration of God, as here. Compared with our stinted knowledge, how amazing is the knowledge of God! As he made all things, he must be intimately acquainted, not only with their properties, but with their very essence. His eye, at the same instant, surveys all the works of his immeasurable creation.
He observes, not only the complicated system of the universe, but the slightest motion of the most microscopic insect; --not only the most sublime conception of angels, but the meanest propensity of the most worthless of his creatures. At this moment he is listening to the praises breathed by grateful hearts in distant worlds, and reading every grovelling thought which passes though the polluted minds of the fallen race of Adam At one view, he surveys the past, the present, and the future.
No inattention prevents him from observing; no defect of memory or of judgment obscures his comprehension. In his remembrance are stored not only the transactions of this world, but of all the worlds in the universe; --not only the events of the six thousand years which have passed since the earth was created, but of a duration without beginning.
Nay, things to come extending to a duration without end, are also before him. An eternity past and an eternity to come are, at the same moment, in his eye; and with that eternal eye he surveys infinity. How amazing! How inconceivable! There is a mystery about the Divine Omnipresence, which we do not learn to solve, after years of meditation. As God is a simple spirit, without dimensions, parts, or susceptibility of division, he is equally, that is, fully, present at all times in all places.
At any given moment he is not present partly here and partly in the utmost skirt of the furthest system which revolves about the dimmest telescopic star, as if like a galaxy of perfection he stretched a sublime magnificence through universal space, which admitted of separation and partition; but he is present, with the totality of his glorious properties in every point of space.
This results undeniably from the simple spirituality of the Great Supreme. All that God is in one place he is in all places. All there is of God is in every place. Indeed, his presence has no dependence on space or matter. His attribute of essential presence were the same if universal matter were blotted out. Only by a figure can God be said to be in the universe; for the universe is comprehended by him.
All the boundless glory of the Godhead is essentially present at every spot in his creation, however various may be the manifestations of this glory at different times and places. Here we have a case which ought to instruct and sober those, who, in their shallow philosophy, demand a religion without mystery. It would be a religion without God; for "who by searching can find out God?
Alexander, in "The American National Preacher", Wither shall I go from thy spirit? By the "spirit of God" we are not here, as in several other parts of Scripture, to conceive of his power merely, but his understanding and knowledge.
In man the spirit is the seat of intelligence, and so it is here in reference to God, as is plain from the second part of the sentence, where by "the face of God" is meant his knowledge or inspection. That is, either from thee, who art a spirit, and so canst pierce and penetrate me; be as truly and essentially in the very bowels and marrow of my soul, as my soul is intimately and essentially in my body: "from thy spirit"; that is, from thy knowledge and thy power; thy knowledge to detect and observe me, thy power to uphold or crush me.
We may elude the vigilance of a human enemy and place ourselves beyond his reach. God fills all space--there is not a spot in which his piercing eye is not on us, and his uplifted hand cannot find us out. Man must strike soon if he would strike at all; for opportunities pass away from him, and his victim may escape his vengeance by death.
There is no passing of opportunity with God, and it is this which makes his long suffering a solemn thing. God can wait, for he has a whole eternity before him in which he may strike. Whither shall I go , etc. A heathen philosopher once asked, "Where is God? Whither shall I flee from thy presence? That exile would be strange that could separate us from God. I speak not of those poor and common comforts, that in all lands and coasts it is his sun that shines, his elements of earth or water that bear us, his air we breathe; but of that special privilege, that his gracious presence is ever with us; that no sea is so broad as to divide us from his favour; that wheresoever we feed, he is our host; wheresoever we rest, the wings of his blessed providence are stretched over us.
Let my soul be sure of this, though the whole world be traitors to me. Whither shall I flee? Surely no whither: they that attempt it, do but as the fish which swimmeth to the length of the line, with a hook in the mouth. Thy presence. The presence of God's glory is in heaven; the presence of his power on earth; the presence of his justice in hell; and the presence of his grace with his people. If he deny us his powerful presence, we fall into nothing; if he deny us his gracious presence, we fall into sin; if he deny us his merciful presence, we fall into hell.
The celebrated Linnaeus testified in his conversation, writings, and actions, the greatest sense of God's presence. So strongly indeed was he impressed with the idea, that he wrote over the door of his library: "Innocue vivite, Numen adest -- Live innocently: God is present. You will never be neglected by the Deity, though you were so small as to sink into the depths of the earth, or so lofty as to fly up to heaven; but you will suffer from the gods the punishment due to you, whether you abide here, or depart to Hades, or are carried to a place still more wild than these.
The Psalm was not written by a Pantheist. The Psalmist speaks of God as a Person everywhere present in creation, yet distinct from creation. In these verses he says, "Thy spirit If I make my bed. Properly, "If I strew or spread my couch. Hell in some places in Scripture signifies the lower parts of the earth, without relation to punishment: If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. By "heaven" he means the upper region of the world, without any respect to the state of blessedness; and "hell" is the most opposite and remote in distance, without respect to misery.
As if he had said, Let me go whither I will, thy presence finds me out. Thou art there. Or, more emphatically and impressively in the original, "Thou! God is there also; he has not gone from him! This is not meant of his knowledge, for that the Psalmist had spoken of before: Ps , "Thou understandest my thought afar off: thou art acquainted with all my ways.
For having before spoken of his omniscience, he proves that such knowledge could not be in God unless he were present in his essence in all places, so as to be excluded from none. He fills the depths of hell, the extension of the earth, and the heights of the heavens. When the Scripture mentions the power of God only, it expresses it by hand or arm; but when it mentions the spirit of God, and doth not intend the third person of the Trinity, it signifies the nature and essence of God; and so here, when he saith, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit?
The effects of his power and wisdom are seen in the world, but his essence is invisible, and this the Psalmist elegantly expresses. The wings of the morning , is an elegant metaphor; and by them we may conjecture is meant the sunbeams, called "wings" because of their swift and speedy motion, making their passage so sudden and instantaneous, as that they do prevent the observation of the eye; called "the wings of the morning" because the dawn of the morning comes flying in upon these wings of the sun, and brings light along with it; and, by beating and fanning of these wings, scatters the darkness before it.
The wings of the morning. This figure to a Western is not a little obscure. For my part, I cannot doubt that we are to understand certain beautiful light clouds as thus poetically described. I have observed invariably, that in the late spring time, in summer, and yet more especially in the autumn, white clouds are to be seen in Palestine. They only occur at the earliest hours of morning, just previous to and at the time of sunrise.
It is the total absence of clouds at all other parts of the day, except during the short period of the winter rains, that lends such striking solemnity and force to those descriptions of the Second Advent where our Lord is represented as coming in the clouds.
This feature of his majesty loses all its meaning in lands like ours, in which clouds are of such common occurrence that they are rarely absent from the sky. The morning clouds of summer and autumn are always of a brilliant silvery white, save at such times as they are dyed with the delicate opal tints of dawn.
They hang low upon the mountains of Judah, and produce effects of undescribable beauty, as they float far down in the valleys, or rise to wrap themselves around the summit of the hills. In almost every instance, by about seven o'clock the heat has dissipated these fleecy clouds, and to the vivid Eastern imagination morn has faded her outstretched wings.
If I take the wings of the morning. The point of comparison appears to be the incalculable velocity of light. When we think that we fly from God, in running out of one place into another, we do but run from one hand to the other; for there is no place where God is not, and whithersoever a rebellious sinner doth run, the hand of God will meet with him to cross him, and hinder his hoped for good success, although he securely prophesieth never so much good unto himself in his journey.
The winds and the waters and all God's creatures are wont to take God's part against Jonah, or any rebellious sinner.
For though God in the beginning gave power to man over all creatures to rule them, yet when man sins, God giveth power and strength to his creatures to rule and bridle man. Therefore even he that now was lord over the waters, now the waters are lord over him. Should fate command me to the farthest verge Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes, Rivers unknown to song; where first the sun Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam Flames on the Atlantic isles; 'tis nought to me: Since GOD is ever present, ever felt, In the void waste as in the city full; And where he vital breathes, there must be joy, When e'en at last the solemn hour shall come, And wing my mystic flight to future worlds, I cheerful will obey; there with new powers, Will rising wonders sing: I cannot go Where universal love smiles not around, Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their sons: From seeming evil still deducing good, And better thence again, and better still, In infinite progression.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me , etc. The foulest enormities of human conduct have always striven to cover themselves with the shroud of night. The thief, the counterfeiter, the assassin, the robber, the murderer, and the seducer, feel comparatively safe in the midnight darkness, because no human eye can scrutinize their actions. But what if it should turn out that sable night, to speak paradoxically, is an unerring photographer! What if wicked men, as they open their eyes from the sleep of death, in another world, should find the universe hung round with faithful pictures of their earthly enormities, which they had supposed for ever lost in the oblivion of night!
What scenes for them to gaze at for ever! They may now, indeed, smile incredulously at such a suggestion; but the disclosures of chemistry may well make them tremble. Analogy does make it a scientific probability that every action of man, however deep the darkness in which it was performed, has imprinted its image on nature, and that there may be tests which shall draw it into daylight, and make it permanent so long as materialism endures.
The darkness hideth not from thee. Though the place where we sin be to men as dark as Egypt, yet to God it is as light as Goshen. Thou hast possessed my reins. From the sensitiveness to pain of this part of the body, it was regarded by the Hebrews as the seat of sensation and feeling, as also of desire and longing Ps Job It is sometimes used of the inner nature generally Ps Jer , and specially of the judgment or direction of reason Jer The reins are made specially prominent in order to mark them, the seat of the most tender, most secret emotions, as the work of him who trieth the heart and the reins.
The word here rendered cover means properly to interweave; to weave; to knit together, and the literal translation would be, "Thou hast woven me in my mother's womb", meaning that God had put his parts together, as one who weaves cloth, or who makes a basket.
So it is rendered by De Wette and by Gesenius Lex. The original word has, however, also the idea of protecting, as in a booth or hut, woven or knit together, -- to wit, of boughs and branches. The former signification best suits the connection; and then the sense would be, that as God had made him --as he had formed his members, and united them in a bodily frame and form before he was born--he must be able to understand all his thoughts and feelings.
As he was not concealed from God before he saw the light, so he could not be anywhere. I will praise thee , etc. All God's works are admirable, man wonderfully wonderful. Therefore "I will praise thee. Oh that we knew what the saints do in heaven, and how the sweetness of that doth swallow up all earthly pleasures! They sing honour and glory to the Lord. Because he hath created all things: Re When we behold an exquisite piece of work, we presently enquire after him that made it, purposely to commend his skill: and there is no greater disgrace to an artist, than having perfected a famous work, to find it neglected, no man minding it, or so much as casting an eye upon it.
All the works of God are considerable, and man is bound to this contemplation. He admires the heavens, but his admiration reflects upon man. Quis homo? There is no workman but would have his instruments used, and used to that purpose for which they were made Man is set like a little world in the midst of the great, to glorify God; this is the scope and end of his creation. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The term "fearful" is sometimes to be taken subjectively, far our being possessed of fear.
In this sense it signifies the same as timid. Thus the prophet was directed to say to them that were of a "fearful heart, be strong. Thus it is said of God that he is "fearful in praises", and that it is a "fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The human frame is so admirably constructed, so delicately combined, and so much in danger of being dissolved by innumerable causes, that the more we think of it the more we tremble, and wonder at our own continued existence. How passing wonder he who made him such, Who mingled in our make such strange extremes Of different natures, marvellously mixed!
Helpless immortal, insect infinite, A worm, a god--I tremble at myself! I have no doubt that a thorough examination of that "substance which God hath curiously wrought" Ps , would furnish abundant evidence of the justness of the Psalmist's words; but even those things which are manifest to common observation may be sufficient for this purpose.
In general it is observable that the human frame abounds with avenues at which enter every thing conducive to preservation and comfort, and every thing that can excite alarm. Perhaps there is not one of these avenues but what may become an inlet to death, nor one of the blessings of life but what may be the means of accomplishing it.
We live by inhalation, but we also die by it. Diseases and death in innumerable forms are conveyed by the very air we breathe. God hath given us a relish for divers aliments, and rendered them necessary to our subsistence: yet, from the abuse of them, what a train of disorders and premature deaths are found amongst men!
And, when there is no abuse, a single delicious morsel may, by the evil design of another, or even by mere accident, convey poison through all our veins, and in one hour reduce the most athletic form to a corpse.
The elements of fire and water, without which we could not subsist, contain properties which in a few moments would be able to destroy us; nor can the utmost circumspection at all times preserve us from their destructive power. A single stroke on the head may divest us of reason or of life.
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