Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 139:12
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light [are] both alike [to thee].
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee – Margin, as in Hebrew, darkeneth not. Darkness does not make darkness to thee. It makes things dark to us; not to him. So it is in natural darkness; so in moral darkness ness. It seems dark to us; it is not so to him. Things appear dark to us – disappointment, bereavement, trouble, care, losses; but all is light to God. The existence of sin and suffering on the earth seems dark to us; not to him, for he sees the reasons and the end of all.
But the night shineth as the day – One is as bright and clear to him as the other.
The darkness and the light are both alike to thee – Margin, as in Hebrew, As is the darkness so is the light. To thee there is no difference. All is light.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 139:12
The darkness and the light.
The changes of the sky
What is the lesson conveyed by the great alternate changes of the sky? Now it is sweetly luminous, and now a solemn darkness. Strictly speaking, as we all know, there is no change in the sky at all. It is always an infinite darkness, and always lit up by myriads of stupendous suns. But we should not know this if the earth did not turn on her axis, and successively face the sun, and again turn away from him. To the turning of our planet from the sun we owe our knowledge of the universe. In the symbolism of its darkness and light we have our sublimest revelation of God. Light which is called God, and is God, issues for ever from the Infinite Bosom of His darkness. Darkness and light are both alike to Him; for He is as much one as the other. The Son of God, the only-begotten Light, reveals the Father of Lights, as suns reveal the ether. God presents Himself in the light, but also conceals Himself; as we both present ourselves, and hide ourselves, in our garment. Thou coverest Thyself with light as with a garment. As the infinite ether is hidden by the daylight, even so is God hidden by the light of the angelic heavens which reveal Him. Therefore, all those who dwell in the Eternal Light worship the unseen God, and live as seeing the invisible. They know that light is but His effluence. They worship the Light as God, and, again, with silent, ineffable adoration, they worship what is behind the Light. (John Pulsforal, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee] Darkness and light, ignorance and knowledge, are things that stand in relation to us; God sees equally in darkness as in light; and knows as perfectly, however man is enveloped in ignorance, as if all were intellectual brightness. What is to us hidden by darkness, or unknown through ignorance, is perfectly seen and known by God; because he is all sight, all hearing, all feeling, all soul, all spirit-all in ALL, and infinite in himself. He lends to every thing; receives nothing from any thing. Though his essence be unimpartible, yet his influence is diffusible through time and through eternity. Thus God makes himself known, seen, heard, felt; yet, in the infinity of his essence, neither angel, nor spirit, nor man can see him; nor can any creature comprehend him, or form any idea of the mode of his existence. And yet vain man would be wise, and ascertain his foreknowledge, eternal purposes, infinite decrees, with all operations of infinite love and infinite hatred, and their objects specifically and nominally, from all eternity, as if himself had possessed a being and powers co-extensive with the Deity! O ye wise fools! Jehovah, the fountain of eternal perfection and love, is as unlike your creeds, as he is unlike yourselves, forgers of doctrines to prove that the source of infinite benevolence is a streamlet of capricious love to thousands, while he is an overflowing, eternal, and irresistible tide of hatred to millions of millions both of angels and men! The antiproof of such doctrines is this: he bears with such blasphemies, and does not consume their abettors. “But nobody holds these doctrines.” Then I have written against nobody; and have only to add the prayer, May no such doctrines ever disgrace the page of history; or farther dishonour, as they have done, the annals of the Church!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Shineth, or enlighteneth, as this word is used, Psa 19:8; Pro 29:13, &c.; discovereth me and all mine actions.
The darkness and the light are both alike to thee: this is repeated so oft to reprove and confute the ridiculous conceits of many ungodly men, who flatter themselves with hopes of secrecy and impunity for those sins which they commit in the dark. See Isa 29:15.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee,…. Any thing that is done by men in it; or “darkeneth not from thee” i, or causeth such darkness as to hinder the sight of any action committed. The Targum is,
“from thy Word;”
see Heb 4:12;
but the night shineth as the day; or “enlightens as the day” k, gives as much light with respect to God as the day does;
the darkness and the light [are] both alike [to thee]; as is the one, so is the other: the day gives him no more light than the night, and the night no more darkness than the day; he sees as well, as clearly and distinctly, in the one as in the other. The psalmist expresses the same thing in different words three or four times, as Kimchi observes, to show that so the Lord is, that thus it is with him; he has as clear a discerning of all things done in the darkest night as at bright noon day; see Job 34:21.
i “non obscurabit a te”, Montanus; “non obtenebrant”, Gejerus; so Michaelis. k “illustrat”, Junius Tremellius “illuminabit”, Gejerus Michaelis; so Ainsworth.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(12) Hideth not.Better to keep as near as possible to the original maketh not dark. Others render cannot be too dark for thee. The highest development of the psalmists thought is of course to be found in St. Johns declaration, God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
Shineth.Or, giveth light.
The darkness . . .Literally, as darkness, so light.
God is the light which, never seen itself, makes all things visible, and clothes itself in colours.RICHTER.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 139:12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light [are] both alike [to thee].
Ver. 12. Yea, the darkness hideth not ] Heb. darkeneth not from thee, because thine eyes are fiery, Rev 1:14 , such as need no outward light; they are more light and radiant than the sun in his strength.
The darkness and the light, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
hideth not from = cannot be too dark for.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the darkness: Exo 14:20, Exo 20:21, Job 26:6, Job 34:22, Dan 2:22, Heb 4:13
hideth not: Heb. darkeneth not
the darkness: etc. Heb. as is the darkness, so is the light
Reciprocal: Job 12:22 – discovereth Job 13:20 – hide myself Job 22:14 – General Eze 16:36 – and thy Mat 6:4 – seeth