5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me.
[Thy] refuge is the God of old, And underneath are the eternal arms; And he shall drive out the enemy from before thee, And shall say, Destroy [them]!
And on the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: they saw God, and ate and drank.
Lo, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I do not perceive him; On the left hand, where he doth work, but I behold [him] not; he hideth himself on the right hand, and I see [him] not.
The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
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Commentary on Psalms 139 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 139
Some of the Jewish doctors are of opinion that this is the most excellent of all the psalms of David; and a very pious devout meditation it is upon the doctrine of God's omniscience, which we should therefore have our hearts fixed upon and filled with in singing this psalm.
This great and self-evident truth, That God knows our hearts, and the hearts of all the children of men, if we did but mix faith with it and seriously consider it and apply it, would have a great influence upon our holiness and upon our comfort.
To the chief musician. A psalm of David.
Psa 139:1-6
David here lays down this great doctrine, That the God with whom we have to do has a perfect knowledge of us, and that all the motions and actions both of our inward and of our outward man are naked and open before him.
Psa 139:7-16
It is of great use to us to know the certainty of the things wherein we have been instructed, that we may not only believe them, but be able to tell why we believe them, and to give a reason of the hope that is in us. David is sure that God perfectly knows him and all his ways,
Psa 139:17-24
Here the psalmist makes application of the doctrine of God's omniscience, divers ways.