Passage Research
Psalm 139 — Sermon Preparation
A David psalm of awed wonder at God's all-knowing presence — who searches every thought, is present everywhere, and knit the psalmist together in the womb. Below is a research summary for Psalm 139, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.
- 24
- verses
- 177 / 128
- Hebrew words / lemmas
- 11
- classic sermon excerpts
- 6
- preachers & commentators
Psalm 139 in the Hebrew
Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Strong's | Count | Glosses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| יָדַע | yâdaʻ | H3045 | 6 | know, seeing |
| שָׂנֵא | sânêʼ | H8130 | 3 | hate |
| חָקַר | châqar | H2713 | 2 | penetrate, examine intimately |
| דֶּרֶךְ | derek | H1870 | 3 | road, trodden |
| נָחָה | nâchâh | H5148 | 2 | guide, transport |
| חֹשֶׁךְ | chôshek | H2822 | 2 | dark, darkness |
| אוֹר | ʼôwr | H215 | 2 | illumination, luminary |
How preachers through history handled this text
11 public-domain excerpts on Psalm 139, from the church fathers to the Puritans.
“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. …”
— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise), on Psalm 139:17–30 (Public Domain)
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