What is Psalm 139 about?
Psalm 139 is David's wonder at how completely God knows him. God knows when he sits and rises, his thoughts from far away, and every word before he speaks. There is nowhere he could go to escape God's presence: "Whither shall I go from thy spirit?" (verse 7). God formed him in his mother's womb, and David praises him because "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (verse 14). All his days were written in God's book before one of them came to be. The psalm ends with a prayer for God to search his heart and lead him "in the way everlasting."
What does Psalm 139 mean?
Psalm 139:14
In Psalm 139, David marvels that God knows him completely: when he sits and rises, his thoughts, and every word before he speaks it. Just before this verse he says God formed him in his mother's womb. Then he bursts into praise: "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." "Fearfully" here means with awe and reverence; human beings are a work so remarkable that it should make us stand in wonder at the Maker. David adds that his soul knows this "right well." The verse speaks powerfully to anyone who struggles with self-worth. Every person bears the careful craftsmanship of God and is valued by him.
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