Psalm 139:1-18

A Psalm with a Thesis Statement

Some psalms begin with a thesis statement, which is quite a gift to the reader. This is true of Psalm 139:  God knows the psalmist because God made him, and God even knows his outer life (“when I sit and when I rise,” v. 2a) and his inner life (“you discern my thoughts from afar,” v. 2b). This psalm is dominated by ”I”/“You” language, signaling that it is an exchange between God and David, an excellent example of a meditative psalm. In fact, the verb “know” occurs six times in the psalm and the noun “knowledge” once. God has searched David and knows him—that is the thesis statement, and David prays that this truth will always be the divine operation: “Search me, O God, and know my heart!” (v. 23).