Breaking Down Psalm 139: God’s Intimate Involvement In Our Lives
God is intimately involved in every single detail of our lives.
How many of you need to hear that today?
Because I don’t know about you, but sometimes I behave as though if I don’t perform just right—getting quiet time with the Lord in the morning, reigning myself in perfected self-control, and continuing in prayer—that I lose out on God’s presence. But that simply isn’t true.
While spiritual disciplines are healthy, vital, and good for the sake of our faith life, they don’t manipulate or coerce God’s presence with us.
This is good news for the one who wants God’s involvement in all things, but can’t help but feel like they fall short on the daily.
On a cognitive level, most would say that God is with us always. We hear the verses like Isaiah 41:10 which says “do not fear, for I am with you” or Matthew 28:20 telling us that Jesus is “with us always, until the very end of the age”. But personally, I’ve noticed anxiety beginning to creep in on me as I have fallen into a mindset that I must spend my days grappling for his presence. Here’s how it has gone…
As I’ve come to learn and appreciate the beauty of Spiritual disciplines—reading my Bible, praying, solitude, etc.—I’ve lost sight of the reality that God’s power supersedes my human frailty.
Because while these disciplines are fruitful and valuable for the sake of building up my fragile interest in God in the midst of a distracting world, the truth is that God never loses interest in me, even when I miss the mark.
When I become unaware of his presence, his presence remains with me just the same.
Or as the writer of Psalm 139 puts it, even in the midst of our own darkness, everything is as light to God:
“…even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” Psalm 139:12 NIV
Our unawareness of Him, His presence, or how He is working doesn’t supercede the fact that He is there. He is present. And He is working. Psalm 116:1-2, communicated sweetly in NLT version, describes God’s attentive nature:
I love the Lord because he hears my voice
and my prayer for mercy.
Because he bends down to listen,
I will pray as long as I have breath! Psalm 116:1-2 NLT
Don’t stop calling on the God who is there! And who moves. Our prayers matter because God is good and powerful—and by some divine mystery, he has ordained that mountains are moved by the prayers of his people.
Psalm 139 is a portion of Scripture that many are introduced to early in their faith journey, and for good reason—it breathes life into a weary humanity longing for any sense of value. It notably states the fact that each and every person is “fearfully and wonderfully made”.
But may we never let the well-known nature of certain verses make them trite. Every ounce of this weighty Psalm holds meaning and purpose for our lives today.
Would you like to take a walk through Psalm 139 together?
Psalm 139:1-6
Have you ever experienced that feeling of somebody getting you a gift that was just perfect for you? That inexplicable bliss of being fully known and fully seen?
In verses 1-11, the inspired author of this Psalm describes God’s intimate knowledge of our lives. God knows what time we open our eyes in the morning, and is well-acquainted with how we spend our time. He knows those moments of our days where we just need to sit, and sees us when we take a deep breath and keep going in our daily tasks.
He sees it all, and knows it all. And when we partner this beautifully truth with realities found in Romans 8 (below), we are reminded that God doesn’t just intimately know us, but continually love us in all the waking-and-resting moments of our lives.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. Romans 8:38 NLT
You are never separated from God’s knowledge, or God’s love. As a perfect Father, God is attentive to us. We see this displayed so sweetly in Psalm 116:
I love the Lord because he hears my voice
and my prayer for mercy.
Because he bends down to listen,
I will pray as long as I have breath! Psalm 116:1-2 NLT
“Because he bends down to listen.” Picture a parent kneeling down before their distressed child, listening attentively. That is the kind of love that is ours with our Heavenly Father.
And as if the Psalmist of Psalm 139 read my mind (and perhaps yours) he covers a question that instantly came to mind upon reading this: “But does God ever turn away from us?”
Images from the Old Testament flooded my mind as I recalled accounts of God’s obstinate people in rebellion against him and experiencing hardship—like the Israelites grumbling against the Lord and spending more time in the desert. (Exodus 16) Or verses like Psalm 88:14 in which the writer cries out in pain, asking God why He has turned against him.
In instances like this, I think it’s crucial to remember God’s loving heart of discipline isn’t a neglectful lack of presence. Just as a loving parent may allow their children to undergo the consequences of their own sinful behavior that they would learn from it and change their path, so God disciplines those he loves. And he does love his people.
See how Isaiah 65 describes God’s merciful love to even his rebellious ones:
All day long I opened my arms to a rebellious people. But they follow their own evil paths and their own crooked schemes. Isaiah 65:2 NLT
He opens his arms to them. It reminds me of my own child being lost in a tantrum; even in a fit of rebellion, all my heart wants is to open my arms up and embrace him. I want to call him home into my love.
Or consider the story of the Prodigal Son from Luke 15:11-32. In this story, even after the Father’s son had lived recklessly and away from him, the love in his heart opened his arms in warm embrace to welcome his son back into the security of his care.
And let’s consider the arms of Jesus, spread wide on the cross—once and for all making a way for every sinner to fall back in to the loving arms of the Father.
And to draw back to Psalm 139, we see the Father’s hand rested gently on our shoulder, as he surrounds us tenderly in all the moments of our lives:
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me. Psalm 139:5 NIV
Our Father sees every ounce of our lives, and his heart is set on going alongside of us and surrounding us, even when we can’t sense his presence.
Psalm 139:7-12
As if to follow that same line of thinking, the Psalmist continues to comment on God’s ever-presence, proclaiming the reality that whether we are aware of God’s with-ness, it endures nonetheless. God is with us, feel-it-or-not.
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? Psalm 139:7 NIV
The answer to this seemingly rhetorical question, is nowhere. We can go nowhere apart from God’s Spirit, and we cannot flee his presence.
Being closely observed can feel lovely, but it can also feel exposing at times. Remembering God’s benevolent hand and saving help can cause us to embrace the reality of his presence—not longing to hide in the darkness, but knowing the beauty and brilliancy of his light.
I love the way it’s described as we carry on in Psalm 139. The writer describes how God is always there to hold us fast. That even in the darkest moments of our lives—those moments where it feels like everything around us has become darkness, we can trust that God is with us.
The darkness doesn’t feel dark to him, because He Is Light. (1 John 1:5)
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139:11-12 NIV
I hope this encourages you today. If you are in a season where you don’t have a tangible sense of God’s presence, or you don’t feel like you can see how he’s working, know this: God is present and God knows how he’s working. The darkness isn’t dark to him. To him, your entire circumstance is drenched in his marvelous, all-encompassing light.
(Psst—if you need a fuller reminder of God being with you in the valley, check out this writing.)
As though it weren’t lovely enough to rest in the truths we have covered so far—that God sees us fully, loves us entirely, and is intimately knowledgable of our present circusmtances—we get to move into the face that he has fashioned very nook and cranny of our innermost selves. Let’s continue on…
Psalm 139:13-18
Here, we approach some of the most often-quoted portions of Psalm 139, those parts that describe how God knit us together in our mother’s wombs, and has made us both fearfully and wonderfully.
Lest we miss a moment, can I invite you to the tippy top of this section and explore with you Psalm 139:13. There’s some gold in there I’d hate for us to miss:
For you created my inmost being… Psalm 139:13a NIV
What exactly does it mean that God created our inmost being? In some versions, it’s said this way: “For thou hast possessed my reins”. C. H. Spurgeon commented on this language in a way I’ll never forget:
“Thou art the owner of my inmost parts and passions: not the indweller and observer only, but the acknowledged lord and possessor of my most secret self. The word "reins" signifies the kidneys, which by the Hebrews were supposed to be the seat of the desires and longings; but perhaps it indicates here the most hidden and vital portion of the man…” —C. H. Spurgeon on Psalm 139
A person’s inmost being is the absolute core of who they are. Spurgeon noted that at the time of writing, this language might imply God created a person’s inner-workings, including their deep-seated longings and desires.
At face value, this Psalm comments on God crafting a person in-utero. And whether we take this to simply mean a person’s ligaments and bone structures, or their emotional disposition and interests, the fact remains: every single person has been crafted by God with the utmost intention and care.
This is an idea we see carried on into the New Testament:
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 NIV
In Christ Jesus, we are made anew as God’s special handiwork, with purposes God has laid out for our lives in accordance with his good design.
God crafted our innermost beings. God redeems and restores us in Christ Jesus. God is intimately involved in both our being made, and how our days are carried out.
Psalm 139:16 blows my mind in this regard. It says:
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:16 NIV
When we think about God’s eyes “seeing” what wasn’t yet formed, I find it helpful to consider examples from our day-to-day lives.
We “see” things that aren’t yet there all the time.
I am reminded of my friend Jess who moved into a “fixer upper”. She describes the first time she entered the home to find hot pink shaggy carpet and bright blue walls. It might have been an eyesore at the time, but her eyes lit up as she described how “she could just see the finished product”. What she visualized wasn’t yet in existence, but she knew her plans for the design of the house.
Or as an artist, I think about a new painting series I might embark on. Long before my paintbrush hits a canvas, I spend time in my mind visualizing my every intention for the piece.
I see it before it exists.
And God saw you before you existed.
He envisioned you. He designed you. He set to work crafting you. And he has intentions for you. As one version of Ephesians 2:10 puts it, we are God’s masterpiece.
His thoughts concerning us are precious, and more vast than the grains of sand sweeping across every beach on earth. (Psalm 139:17-18) May we know the extravagant worth placed on our lives according to the wonderful design of our Creator.
Psalm 139:19-24
As if in understandable shock, the author of this Psalm seems to go on a small tangent, asking God to slay those who speak of Him with evil intent.
After considering the steadfast love and knowledge of God, it’s easy to understand how our minds could be perplexed at the ones who speak ill of God and rebel against him.
Evidently, the writer isn’t making this statement from a position of pride—as he carries on to acknowledge his own waywardness in the verses to come—but from a position of alliance with God.
This Psalmist has proclaimed God’s goodness to be with him in all the moments of life, and it almost seems like an exclamation of the Psalmists desire to be with God too.
Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? Psalm 139:21 NIV
Love for God bursts forth from this Psalmist as he proclaims his disdain for those who hate God. And now, it might be worthwhile to note that God doesn’t advocate for our hatred of people. (In fact, he advocates that we love our enemies.)
So while this moment might seem a bit tongue-in-cheek, I think it’s a human display of wisdom: we want to love what God loves and hate what he hates. We want to “be on God’s side”.
To fear the Lord is to hate evil… Proverbs 8:13 NIV
In humility, the author turns the mirror on himself and finishes this beautiful Psalm with a prayer we would all benefit from incorporating into our rhythms:
Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalm 139:23-24 NIV
After a bold proclamation on his own hatred for the sinfulness he sees around him, the psalmist desires to pursue holiness inside of himself. He knows this is only possible according to God’s guidance and goodness.
Closing Thoughts
Psalm 139 covers God’s intimate knowledge of every detail of our lives, and the beautiful reality that there is nowhere we can go that is outside his care.
His hand is with us, always. Even when circumstances seem dark or dismal, nothing is without light in God’s eyes. He sees clearly, even when we don’t.
We get to know and trust his goodness, partner with him in a love for the light, and ask him to shine on all the deepest parts of our soul and expose what needs to become more aligned with his perfect ways.
We are so blessed to have a God who cares enough about us to go with us and guide us.
May we find peace in this knowledge today, friends!
Did you enjoy walking through this Psalm? If so, you might like to look into this resource below. I’ve written a Bible study that walks through seven really lovely Psalms.
It’s not so much of a devotional style as this writing, but will break each Psalm down into bite-sized pieces and invite you to dig deeper through cross-referenced Scriptures printed right inside, through word studies, and those special sections tying each Psalm to the truth of the New Covenant. If you’d like to learn more, check out “Summer in the Psalms” below!
