Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down. My path and my pallet, my running and my resting, are alike within the circle of thine observation. Thou dost surround me even as the air continually surrounds all creatures that live. I am shut up within the wall of thy being; I am encircled within the bounds of thy knowledge. Waking or sleeping I am still observed of thee.
The poet recites the whole condition of human existence: sitting and rising, thinking and walking, lying down and waking. God's knowledge encompasses the entire sum of our spiritual life and all our actions, and this scrutiny is never suspended but constantly exercised, an ever-present knowledge seeing into our thoughts from afar.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 139:2-7
David refuses the hiding places where men cloak themselves in lies. He fixes on a truth that strips all pretense bare: nothing escapes God's sight, not because He watches from afar, but because He shaped us bone by bone in darkness and cannot be ignorant of what He has made.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 139:1-24