David praiseth God for his all-seeing providence, and for his infinite mercies: he defieth the wicked: he prayeth for sincerity.
To the chief musician, A Psalm of David.
Title. מזמור לדוד למנצה lamnatseach ledavid mizmor.— This psalm is generally thought to have been composed by David when he lay under the imputation of having evil designs against Saul: in which view, it is a solemn appeal to the divine omnipresence and omniscience, for his innocence in that matter: the Psalmist tacitly and elegantly intimating hereby, how foolish as well as impious it would be for him to prevaricate and dissemble with a God, whose knowledge and power it was impossible to elude. But it is Mr. Mudge's opinion, from the strong tincture of Chaldaism in the psalm, that it was written in or after the captivity. Be that as it may, the sentiments it contains are most noble and elevated. There is a peculiar beauty and a sublimity in the representation of the divine attributes in it, which deserve particular attention. The psalm begins with a devout contemplation of the omniscience of God; not, indeed, expressly considered in its utmost extent, as it penetrates at once, with an exact and infallible comprehension, through the whole scope of created nature, and reaches to the utmost verge and limits of the universe: nor as, together with the present system and complete actual state of things, it has an intuitive and clear view of the past, and conceives the most obscure and remote futurities, and all possible natures and modes of existence; but as it particularly respects mankind, and more immediately influences human morality and a serious humble discharge of all the duties of religion. O Lord! says the Psalmist, in a most elevated strain of thought and expression, thou hast searched, &c. to Psalms 139:6. This thought impressed upon his mind such a veneration and awe of the great Deity, the fountain and support of universal life and being, and he found his faculties so swallowed up, and as it were lost in meditating on so deep and immense a subject, that man's reason, in its utmost pride and glory, and with its most boasted improvements and acquisitions of knowledge, seemed now so debased, so weak, so narrow, and, in comparison with infinity, so despicable, that the author of this psalm could proceed no further without expressing his admiration at a boundless scope of intelligence, which he could neither explain nor comprehend; and therefore he immediately adds; such knowledge, &c. Psalms 139:6. See Foster's Discourses, vol. 1. 4to. p. 76.