Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 139:3
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted [with] all my ways.
3. Thou compassest ] Rather, Thou hast examined, lit. thou hast winnowed, or sifted, subjecting my life to the closest and most discriminating investigation.
my path ] Rather, my walking, contrasted with my lying down. Cp. Pro 6:22.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou compassest my path … – Margin, winnowest. The Hebrew word – zarah – means properly to scatter, to cast loosely about – as the wind does dust; and then, to winnow – to wit, by throwing grain, when it is thrashed, up to the wind: Isa 30:24; Jer 4:11; Rth 3:2. Then it means to winnow out; that is, to winnow out all the chaff, and to leave all the grain – to save all that is valuable. So here it means that God, as it were, sifted him. Compare Isa 30:28; Amo 9:9; Luk 22:31. He scattered all that was chaff, or all that was valueless, and saw what there was that was real and substantial. When it is said that he did this in his path and his lying down, it is meant that he did it in every way; altogether; entirely.
And art acquainted with all my ways – All the paths that I tread; the whole course of my life. All that I do, in all places and at all times, is fully known to thee.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 139:3
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
God knows and takes strict and accurate notice of all our ways
This is so, because–
I. God rules and governs men. But this could not be without such knowledge. And so at times He governs mens secret projects.
1. By discovering them, making them known to others.
2. By preventing them.
3. By turning them to other ends than men purposed (Isa 7:7; Gen 45:5).
II. He gives laws to regulate them.
III. He will judge them.
1. He does so in this life where He often gives foretaste of the future (Deu 29:18),
2. In the day of judgment (Luk 12:2).
IV. He is omniscient and omnipresent (Pro 15:3; Heb 4:13). Then–
1. Presumptuous sin is atheism.
2. Let secret sinners be afraid.
Such are those who sin in thought and desire only. God judges such, for they are the roots of sin. Spiritual wickedness is worst wickedness. And they are the product of the man himself, as his actions sometimes are not. And there are secret sins not only thought, but acted, only concealed from men (2Sa 12:12; Hab 2:11; Gen 4:10). God will judge them.
3. Let sincere-hearted Christians be comforted. The same sun-rising and break of day that terrifies the robber is a comfort to the honest traveller. Thou that, art sincere, God sees that sincerity in thee that others cannot discern; perhaps thou canst not fully discern it thyself. And He will exalt thee. (R. South, D. D.)
The record of our lives: –
I. That record is complete.
II. That record may be presented to our condemnation. Men are making efforts to recover the secrets of anothers brain. It is hard to conceive what the possibility means, as suggested by the results of rapid photography in the vitascope. It is not position that is presented, but action; even the change of face with change of thought. It is the publication of a partial set of records. Who could risk the scrutiny of their whole lives with such publicity?
III. But that record can be blotted out. A photographer can remove the sensitive salts in a bath. The picture then has no existence and cannot be exhibited; But we cannot trust our forgetfulness to do this, nor mans charity. But God in mercy has provided a cleansing flood. (W. J. Gregory.)
Gods winnowing
The word in the Hebrew original for compassest is winnowest. This calls up before the mind an image which helps to illustrate the meaning of the verse in a most interesting manner. The mere compassing of our path by God is an elementary, commonplace truth which requires no argument or proof. It is a truism which loses very much the power of truth through our familiarity with it. But when we substitute the winnowing of our path by Gods dealings with us, we have not in that case a commonplace fact, but a most suggestive and instructive metaphor. Harvest operations in the East are all carried on in the open air, for the weather at that time of the year is uniformly fine. When the corn is reaped it is not piled into stocks, or gathered into barns, as with us, but threshed on the spot, on some piece of rising ground, beaten hard and smooth, and exposed to the wind. The sheaves are heaped on this spot, arranged in a circle, and over them are driven rude, heavy sledges of wood, having their under-surface stuck full of sharp pieces of hard basalt. Oxen are yoked to these sledges, and a man stands on them to increase their pressure, while another man drives the oxen round and round upon the sheaves until they are mashed to pieces, the straw being broken and crushed, and the grains of corn separated from it. When the grain is all threshed out in this manner, the heaps of mixed corn and broken straw are tossed up before the breeze with a shovel; and then the grain, being heaviest, falls straight down, and the broken straw and chaff, being lighter, is carried by the wind, and forms a heap a little farther on. This explanation will make perfectly clear the allusion of the psalmist: Thou compassest, or winnowest, my path. It refers to the oxen going round and round on the sheaves laid on the threshing-floor, in order to separate the corn from the straw and chaff. In like manner, the psalmist, by a bold figure, represents God going round and round our path by His dealings with us in providence and grace, in order to purify our nature, and to separate the good from the evil. God humbles Himself to do for us the work which the oxen do for the corn. We are valuable to Him as the corn is to the husbandman. How patiently do the oxen plod on hour after hour, going their constant round, treading down the corn until their task is accomplished. And so how patiently and unweariedly does God compass your path with His providences and gracious dealings, till He has fulfilled in you the good pleasures of His goodness, and prepared you for being presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Life to every one is a common round of continual beginnings and endings. Each day is a little circle returning where it began. Our range is as narrow as that of the ox that treadeth out the corn among the heap of sheaves. And all this is apt to become monotonous and wearisome. Some are so consumed by ennui that life has lost all relish for them; and some have grown so tired of pacing the irksome daily round that they have put an end to it by violent means. But surely it gives a new zest to life if we realize that all this constant doing of the same things, this constant going round and round the same little circle of daily duties, is not a treadmill penance, a profitless labour like weaving ropes of sand, but is designed to bring out and educate to the utmost perfection of which we are capable all that is best and most enduring in us. And surely it heightens the interest immeasurably to be assured that God has not merely ordained this long ago as part of His great providential plan for the world, but that He is daily and hourly superintending the process of our discipline and education by His personal presence, compassing our path, going round with us in the circle of lifes toils and duties, and causing all our experiences, by His blessing, to work together for our good. He will not go round on your sheaves with His heavy dispensations oftener than is required to separate the chaff from the wheat; and you may be certain that not one grain of good in you will be destroyed, not one element of lasting benefit will be injured–only the chaff will be blown away and the straw removed. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. Thou compassest my path] zeritha thou dost winnow, ventilate, or sift my path; and my lying down, ribi, my lair, my bed.
And art acquainted] Thou treasurest up. This is the import of sachan. Thou hast the whole number of my ways, and the steps I took in them.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou compassest my path; thou watchest me on every side, and therefore discernest every step which I take. It is a metaphor either from huntsmen watching all the motions and lurking-places of wild beasts, that they may catch them; or from soldiers besieging their enemies in a city, and setting watches round about them.
My lying down; me, when I lie down in my bed, where men oft contrive what they execute in the day time.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thou compassest my path and my lying down,…. The Targum adds,
“to study in the law.”
His walk in the daytime, and every step he took, and his lying down at night. It denotes his perfect knowledge of all his actions, day and night; he surrounds every path of man, that they cannot escape his knowledge. Or, “thou winnowest”, as some render the word c; he distinguishes actions; he discerns and separates the good from the bad, or the goodness of an action from the evil and imperfection of it, as in winnowing the wheat is separated from the chaff. Or, “thou measurest my squaring” d; all his dimensions, his length and breadth, as he lay down in his bed;
and art acquainted [with] all my ways; the whole of his life and conversation, all his works and doings: God knows all the evil ways and works of his people; he takes notice of them, and chastises for them; and all their good works, and approves and accepts of them; he knows from what principles of faith and love they spring, in what manner they are performed, and with what views, aims, and ends; see Re 2:2 Ps 1:6.
c “ventilasti”, Pagninus, Montanus; so Tigurine version and Ainsworth. d “quadraturam meam spithama mensurasti”, Gussetius, p. 775. “spithama metiris”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(3) Compassest.There is some obscurity about this word. The Hebrew verb means first to scatter, and is used of throwing corn about to winnow it (Isa. 30:24; Jer. 4:11; Rth. 3:2). Hence by an easy metaphor it may mean to sift or search out. The LXX. and Theodotion, followed by the Vulg., have traced, investigated. Jerome has winnowed. The Authorised Version rendering appears to come from a mistaken etymology.
A most plausible suggestion connects the verb with zr, to lodge, which makes a perfect parallelism with the verb to dwell, in the next clause. Literally,
About my path and bed thou art a guest,
In all my ways thou dwellest;
i.e., art as familiar with all my life as one inhabiting the same house could be.
My path.Literally, my going.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. Compassest That is, to watch and guard. The word sometimes means to scatter by winnowing, as Jer 51:2. Thou winnowest my path, would denote a sifting out of evil, like chaff, that the way might be pure and safe; or, thou triest my path.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 139:3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted [with] all my ways.
Ver. 3. Thou compassest my path ] Or, Thou winnowest; if there be any chaff or trash, thou wilt make it fly; thou art at both ends of all my works and enterprises, both by day and by night, Perdius et pernox. Neither art thou only at my fingers’ ends, but at my tongue’s end too.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
compassest = scrutinisest.
lying down = bed.
art acquainted with = well knowest, or hast inspected.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
compassest: or, winnowest, Job 13:26, Job 13:27, Job 14:16, Job 14:17, Job 31:4, Mat 3:12
my path: Psa 139:18, Psa 121:3-8, Gen 28:10-17, 2Sa 8:14, 2Sa 11:2-5, 2Sa 11:27
and art acquainted: 2Sa 12:9-12, Pro 5:20, Pro 5:21, Ecc 12:14, Isa 29:15, Jer 23:24, Joh 6:70, Joh 6:71, Joh 13:2, Joh 13:21, Act 5:3, Act 5:4
Reciprocal: Gen 31:12 – I have seen Psa 119:168 – for all my Jer 16:17 – General Eze 11:5 – for Dan 5:23 – and whose
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
139:3 Thou {b} compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted [with] all my ways.
(b) So that they are evidently known to you.