Psalms 139:18

If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. IF I SHOULD COUNT THEM, THEY ARE MORE IN NUMBER THAN THE SAND - "which cannot be measured nor numbered" (). WHEN I AWAKE, I AM STILL WITH THEE. Thy thoughts of loving-kindness are so countless that they are constantly in my mind: as they are my last meditation before I fall asleep, so they are my first when I awake, whether during the night or in the morning (; also : cf. ; )....

17-24 God's counsels concerning us and our welfare are deep, such as cannot be known. We cannot think how many mercies we have received from him. It would help to keep us in the fear of the Lord all the day long, if, when we wake in the morning, our first thoughts were of him: and how shall we admire and bless our God for his precious salvation, when we awake in the world of glory! Surely we ought not to use our members and senses, which are so curiously fashioned, as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But our immortal and rational souls are a still more noble work and gift of God. Yet if it were not for his precious thoughts of love to us, our reason and our living for ever would, through our sins, prove the occasion of our eternal misery. How should we then delight to meditate on God's love to sinners in Jesus Christ, the sum of which exceeds all reckoning! Sin is hated, and sin...

Verse Psalms 139:18. IF _I SHOULD COUNT THEM_] I should be glad to enumerate so many interesting particulars: but they are beyond calculation. _WHEN I AWAKE_] Thou art my Governor and Protector night and day. _I AM STILL WITH THEE._] All my steps in life are ordered by thee: I cannot go out of thy presence; I am ever under the influence of thy Spirit. The subject, from the 14th verse to the 16th Psalms 139:14 inclusive, might have been much more particularly illustrated, but we are taught, by the peculiar delicacy of expression in the Sacred Writings, to avoid, as in this case, the entering too minutely into _anatomical details_. I would, however, make an additional observation on the subject in the 15th an

IF I SHOULD COUNT THEM - If I could count them. THEY ARE MORE IN NUMBER THAN THE SAND - Numberless as the sand on the sea-shore. WHEN I AWAKE, I AM STILL WITH THEE - When I am lost in deep and profound meditation on this subject, and am aroused again to consciousness, I find the same thing still true. The fact of “my” being forgetful, or lost in profound meditation, has made no difference with thee. Thou art still the same; and the same unceasing care, the same thoughtfulness, still exists in regard to me. Or, the meaning may be, sleeping or waking with me, it is still the same in regard to thee. Thine eyes never close. When mine are closed in sleep, thou art round about me; when I awake from that unconscious state, I find the same thing existing still. I have been lost in forgetfulness of thee in my slumbers; but thou hast not forgotten me. There has been no

EXPOSITION A song of praise to God for his omniscience, his omnipresence, and his marvelous powers, ending with a prayer for the destruction of the wicked, and for the purifying from evil of the psalmist's own heart. The psalm divides into four stanzas of six verses each—the first (Psalms 139:1) dealing with the omniscience of God; the second (Psalms 139:7), with his omnipresence; the third (Psalms 139:13), with his omnipotence; and the fourth (Psalms 139:19) containing the supplication. Psalms 139:1

IF I SHOULD COUNT THEM, THEY ARE MORE IN NUMBER THAN THE SAND,...., That is, if I should attempt to do it, it would be as vain and fruitless as to attempt to count the sands upon the seashore, which are innumerable; Psalms 11:5. So Pindar says s, that sand flies number, that is, is not to be numbered; though the Pythian oracle boastingly said t, I know the number of the sand, and the measures of the sea; to which Lucan u may have respect when he says, measure is not wanting to the ocean, nor number to the sand; hence geometricians affect to know them; so Archytas the mathematician, skilled in geometry and arithmetic, is described and derided by Horace w as the measurer of the earth and sea, and of the sand without number; and Archimedes wrote a book called ψαμμιτης x, of the number of the sand, still extant y, in which he proves that it is not infinite, but that if even the whole world w...

Psalms 139:1. _O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me._ «Thou hast explored me, as men dig in mines, and make subterranean excavations. Thou hast searched into my secret parts, and known me.» Psalms 139:2. _Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising,_ «My simplest acts, those which I scarcely premeditated.» Psalms 139:2. _Thou understandest my thought afar off._ «Before I think it, when I think it, and when I forget it, thou dost understand my every thought.» Psalms 139:3. _Thou compassest my path and my lying down,_ Making a

Psalms 139 In the Divine Presence _ 1. His omniscience (Psalms 139:1)_ 2. His omnipresence (Psalms 139:7) 3. Praising Him (Psalms 139:13) 4. Delighting in His holiness (Psalms 139:19) Here we see the people of God in the light of God, standing in His presence. He is an omniscient and an omnipresent God. How marvellously this is given in this Psalm. And what a comfort to know that He knoweth, that He seeth, that He is about us, around us, with us everywhere, that His hand leads, that His hand upholds

CXXXIX. GOD IS EVERYWHERE: HE KNOWS EVERYTHING OH THAT HE WOULD DESTROY THE WICKED. This Ps. is among the most spiritual productions of the OT. It deals with the mystery of Divine providence, a theme frequently discussed after the Exile, when the national life had died out and each individual was brought face to face with the difficulties which surrounded him and with the thought of his ultimate fate. Other nations, of course, have engaged in similar speculation, but in very different tone and spirit. Here, as elsewhere, the Hebrew poet manifests intense belief in the personality of God, in His righteousness, in His care for the men He has made. He speaks in the first person singular, because he is giving expression to his own faith and in part to his own experience. Again, he uses no abstract terms such as omnipresence, omniscience, and the like: indeed in Biblical Heb. no such words ar...

MORE IN NUMBER... SAND. Figure of speech _Paroemia_. App-6....