Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Eight

According to the inscriptions of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin Bibles, the psalm belongs to David. There are no precise indications in the content of the psalm as to the time and occasion of its composition. Because the content of the psalm is imbued with the feeling of awe before the omniscience of the Lord and expresses fervent faith and devotion of David to the Lord, it can be supposed that it was written around the time of the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, when this religious celebration filled him with a high sense of awe and strengthened his devotion to the Lord. The addition in the LXX to David’s name of the name of Zechariah points to the time of the latter prophet as a period when this psalm was particularly widely used among the Hebrew people.

Lord, You know all my thoughts, my words, and my deeds, and Your knowledge evokes reverence in me (1–6). Wherever I may go – into Sheol or to heaven, to the end of the universe, even if I were to hide myself in darkness, You see and know all (7–12). You have woven me in my mother’s womb, wonderfully formed me, and all the days of my life are written in Your book (13–16). How wonderfully You have formed everything, and how marvelous are all the manifestations of Your creative thought, which cannot be counted (17–18)! Your greatness evokes in me hatred for all the wicked who dare to slander Your name (19–22). Test me, God, and do not let me turn away from You (23–24).

Psalm 138:1. Lord! You have tested me and know me. Psalm 138:2. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thoughts from afar. “Tested” – in the sense of examined, studied, and therefore You know all that I can think, say, or do. – “You know when I sit down and when I rise up,” that is, the facts of my ordinary, everyday life. – “You understand my thoughts from afar” – beforehand, even before my thoughts are formed and clarified to myself, You know them.

Psalm 138:3. Whether I walk or rest – You surround me, and all my ways are known to You. Psalm 138:4. Even before a word is on my tongue – You, Lord, already know it completely. Psalm 138:5. Behind and before You embrace me, and You lay Your hand upon me. “Walk,” “rest,” “my ways” – manifestations of my external activity outside the home – they are known to You. You know beforehand my future words, my speech. – “Behind and before You embrace me” – either in the sense that You have examined me completely from all sides, or in the sense that You know not only what I am doing now, but also my past and future.

Psalm 138:6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me – it is high, I cannot understand it! Your knowledge is so all-embracing and profound that it naturally evokes a feeling of awe before You and a consciousness of the impossibility for man to comprehend it.

Psalm 138:7. Where can I go from Your Spirit, and where can I flee from Your face? You, Lord, are all-knowing and omnipresent. Nothing, nowhere, and at no time can be hidden from You.

Psalm 138:8. If I ascend to heaven – You are there; if I descend to Sheol – and there You are. Psalm 138:9. If I take the wings of the dawn and settle on the far side of the sea, – Psalm 138:10. even there Your hand will guide me, and Your right hand will hold me fast. Psalm 138:11. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will become night”; Psalm 138:12. but even darkness will not be dark to You, and night is as bright as day: as darkness, so is light. If a man should try to hide from You in the high spheres of heaven or in the underworld, in Sheol – You are there. To take the “wings of the dawn” – to move with extraordinary speed, like the swift rays of the rising sun illuminating the entire earth from east to west. – “Far side of the sea” – the Mediterranean Sea, which was located to the west of Palestine. According to the understanding of ancient inhabitants of the East, the waters of this sea limited the entire ancient world from the west. “Your hand will guide me, and Your right hand will hold me fast” – the same as in verse 5, “You lay Your hand upon me,” that is, You know what I will do and see that I will act in the direction known to You by foresight, that is, a man at all times, in all places, and in all his deeds is the executor of God’s predestinations concerning him, not in the sense of God compelling man, but in the sense of man’s free choice of the path which God foresaw. – “If darkness will hide me” – if I should try to act secretly, this is useless: everything is known to You, night for You is as clear and bright as day is for man.

Psalm 138:13. For You have formed my inward parts and woven me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 138:14. I praise You, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. Psalm 138:15. My bones were not hidden from You when I was being made in secret, fashioned in the depths of the womb. Psalm 138:16. Your eyes saw my unformed body; in Your book all my days were written down, even though not one of them had yet come to pass. “You have formed my inward parts” – You know my nature, my composition, both in the psychological and emotional sense, as well as in the external physical sense. – “Woven me together in my mother’s womb” – the human organism with all its members is presented as being composed in a complex and intricate manner, like skillfully woven and patterned fabrics, where each thread and line serves the overall pattern and the strength of the fabric. You know my “bones ... when I was being made ... in the depths of the womb.” Your knowledge of me is complete and profound; it encompasses not only my external structure, my outward appearance, but also my internal organs, my bones from the very moment of their formation and development in my mother’s womb. – “Your eyes saw my unformed body” – You know my initial state, which, like a seed for a plant, contains in itself its future form and value, that is, You know all that should come from me. – “In Your book all my days were written down” – You know the span, the duration of my life even before I was born.

Psalm 138:17. How exalted to me are Your thoughts, O God, and how great is their number! “Thoughts” of the Lord – the entire diversity of creation in its composition, powers, and purpose amazes man and is too much for him to fully study; to God all is known perfectly, since each of His creations owes its origin to Him and is a bearer and fulfillment of the divine thought with which it was created; it can be said that each creation has its own ideal, toward the fulfillment of which it is endowed with appropriate powers. To understand these thoughts, ideals, and to know them is impossible for man because of their exaltedness and infinite diversity. They are more numerous than the sand, and each morning and each day of the psalmist, when he devotes himself to the study of God’s creation, reveals the entire diversity of the latter and God’s creative power, so that he is always with Him. The meaning is that the author of the psalm always and everywhere finds new manifestations of the great thoughts of the Lord in His creations, always sees Him (verse 16).

Psalm 138:19. O that You would destroy the wicked, O God! Depart from me, you bloodthirsty men! Psalm 138:20. They speak wickedly against You; Your enemies take Your name in vain. Psalm 138:21. Do I not hate those who hate You, Lord, and abhor those who rise up against You? Psalm 138:22. I hate them with complete hatred: they are enemies to me. If in the author of the psalm there is developed such a deep understanding of the greatness of God in all creation, then everyone who “speaks wickedly against Him,” who slanders and degrades the Lord, is his enemy, with whom he desires to have no fellowship.

Psalm 138:23. Test me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts; Psalm 138:24. and see if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way eternal. These verses are the conclusion of all the content of the psalm. If the Lord holds all things in His power, then the true conduct of man should be expressed in devotion to Him and submission to His guidance, wherefore the author prays to the Lord to test him and direct him onto the proper path, if he has deviated from it in any way. The psalm presents a vivid and artistic depiction of Divine omniscience and omnipresence.