Psalms 139

What should we contemplate but celestial glory, when we shall see God face to face? David was got above the ordinary sort of men, he was in the altitudes (Psalm 139:18): "I am ever with you." A true saint every day takes a turn in heaven, his thoughts and desires are like cherub…

1. A body is visible, but God is invisible, therefore he is a Spirit (1 Timothy 6:16). Whom no man has seen, nor can see, not by an eye of sense. 2. A body is terminated, can be but in one place at once; but God is ubique, in all places at once, therefore he is a Spirit (Psalm 1…

Your hand shall find out all your enemies. What caves or thickets can men hide in that God cannot find them: go where they will he is present (Psalms 139:7). Whither shall I fly from your presence?

It is a spark of celestial brightness, says Damascene. If David did so admire the rare contexture and workmanship of his body (Psalm 139:13). I am wonderfully made, I was curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. If the cabinet be so curiously wrought, what is the jewe…

I am he which searches the reins and the heart. The clouds are no canopy, the night is no curtain to draw between us and his sight (Psalm 139:12). The darkness hides not from you.

If you can find but one thing, that the frame and temper of your soul be holy; are you still breathing after God, delighting in him, is the complexion of your soul heavenly? Can you say as David, Psalm 139:17, When I awake I am still with you. As colors laid in oil, or a statue…

But though they think to hide their sin under a canopy, God sees it. (Psalm 139:7) "Where shall I go from your presence?" — verse 12, "The darkness hides not from you." These persons do profane this day, and God will have an action of trespass against them.

As a good man's thoughts are still in heaven: he is thinking of Christ's love, and eternal recompenses. (Psalm 139:18.) When I awake I am still with you: that is, by divine contemplation. So a covetous man is still with the world: his mind is wholly taken up about it; he can thi…

5. Make holy thoughts familiar to you in your ordinary course of life. David was often musing on God (Psalm 139:18): when I awake I am still with you. He who gives himself liberty to have vain thoughts out of prayer will scarce have other thoughts in prayer.

2. Let us speak of man who is a Microcosm, or lesser world. The excellent structure and frame of his body, who is wrought curiously as with needlework (Psalm 139:15): I was curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. And the endowment of this body with a noble soul — who…

1. Are we heavenly in our contemplations? do our thoughts run upon this kingdom? do we get sometimes upon Mount Pisgah, and take a prospect of glory? Thoughts are as travelers; most of David's thoughts traveled Heaven's road (Psalm 139:17). Are our minds [reconstructed: heaveniz…

What a man looks upon as a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a thing by the by, he does not much mind. If ever we would have heaven we must look upon it as our main concern: other things do but concern our livelihood, this concerns our salvation; then we make religion our business when…

4. In other debts, men may fly from their creditor, leave their country, and go into foreign parts, and the creditor cannot find them: but we cannot fly from God. God knows where to find all his debtors (Psalms 139:7): Where shall I fly from your presence? If I take the wings of…

For the guilt of a man's particular ways, actions, and corruptions is made the matter of the evidence and the proofs of those minor premises; and the defilement and erroneousness of the conscience is that principle in us which he works upon when he enforces such a misapprehensio…

But when he looked up and beheld the heavens, the works of God's hands, the moon and the stars which he had ordained; he forthwith fell into a reverence and admiration of God's mercy to man, for whom and whose use he made them all. For the second, the same David could not enter…

And let them know it, whoever they be that go forward in their sins, that God the creator whenever he will, can open hell to devour them: and that he can show himself as mighty in his judgment to men's destruction, as he was mighty in the beginning in giving us a being when we w…

But, the thoughts of the righteous are right (Proverbs 12:5). A righteous man's thoughts have got wings and fled to heaven (Psalm 139:18). When I awake I am still with Thee.

The heart is as it were the pasture in which multitudes of thoughts are fed every day. A gracious heart diligently kept feeds many precious thoughts of God in a day (Psalm 139:17): 'How precious are your thoughts to me, O God! how great is the sum of them! if I should count them…

For in this, even to wonderment, does the glory of God in his works appear, and that he is wise in counsel, and wonderful in working, when he has secretly contrived one thing for another, when as each are in themselves, and apart glorious. It is said by David of himself (and it…

So God takes this to him as proper to appoint things to come, and no supposed God, nor power whatever can share with him in it, and let any man answer and give a reason why of ten thousand possible worlds of infinite things, actions of men and angels that from eternity of themse…

But we cannot say that the person of God must be united with clouds, ship, sea, Sun, heavens, men fighting, and men saving, and killing; and that God personally fills all creatures — only God in the immensity of his nature is all these and every where, and is in them by his oper…

And therefore they stand not devising plots against their Prince, but he will tell him, that such wicked rebellious thoughts devise mischief against him, and therefore he craves help against them. So did David in the like case (Psalm 139:33): Search me, and know my heart, and se…

Yes, says the believing soul, I know you are everywhere; no thought can be withheld from you, therefore I wait on you here: it's all the same where I am, for wherever I am I cannot run away from you; and wherever I am, I may approach to you: And the Lord is near to broken hearts…

For the conscience is a marvelous tender thing, and therefore when it is so shut up under the prison of the law, it sees no way how to get out: and this straitness seems daily so to increase, as though it would never have an end. For then does it feel the wrath of God which is i…

Abraham and Isaac before God (Genesis 17:1; Genesis 48:15). And David (Psalm 116:9; Psalm 139 throughout). And Cornelius (Acts 10:33).

Hell and destruction are before him, how much more, etc. (Psalm 11:4). His eyes consider, his eyelids try the children of men (Psalm 139:2). He knows our thoughts long before they be (Hebrews 4:12).

And we know not what is the Way of the Spirit, nor how the Bones do grow, either in the Womb, or Heart that conceives this holy Child. The new Creature may use that Language in Psalms 139. 14, 15. I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

ANd First, Let us consider, how well Providence has performed the first work that ever it did for us, in our formation and protection in the womb. Certainly, this is a very glorious and admirable performance; it's that the Psalmist admires, Psalm 139:15 My substance was not hid…

But they are then said to come and present themselves before God, when they come upon some special business, or upon some special occasion. As it is with us here upon the earth, we are never out of the presence of God, for (Psalm 139), where shall I go from your presence? Yet wh…

We read of the voice of the Lord in power, the voice of the Lord in majesty, the voice of the Lord upon the waters, the voice of the Lord dividing the flames of fire, the voice of the Lord shaking the wilderness of Kadesh, breaking the cedars of Lebanon, and the like, which is t…

Now it is said of a godly man (Proverbs 12:5), the thoughts of the righteous are right, that is, judgment, law, measure, as the word imports; the meaning is, a gracious person thinks as he is, according to the rules of rectified, sanctified reason; his thoughts run in a right ch…

Though we walk on earth, do we trade in heaven? Can we say as David (Psalm 139:17), I am still with you. This requires violence; for motions upward are usually violent.

Because he is our Maker, in him we live. He has given us our bodies; they are his curious needlework (Psalm 139:15). And as he has wrought the cabinet; so he has put the jewel in it, the precious soul; and surely if we had our being from him: we cannot breathe without him: there…

Some speak slightly of God, though he is infinitely great and glorious, others speak hardly of him, though he is infinitely just and good. The name of God is spoken against by the profane using of it; so it is construed (Psalm 139:20): they speak against you wickedly, your enemi…

The Body is the Souls Instrument, it is as the Tools are to a skilful Artificer, this Lust both dulls and spoils it, so that it's utterly unfit for any service of him that made it. Your body is a curious piece. not made by a word of command, as other Creatures, but by a word of…

No sin, though never so small, is tolerated by the pure and perfect Law of God, Psalm 119:96. The command is exceeding broa[•]; not as if it gave Men a latitude to walk as they please, but broad, i. e. extending it self to all our words, thoughts, actions, and affections: Laying…

What discovery may be made of this by a sinful man, may be seen in the father of us all; who when he had sinned had no reserve for mercy, but hid himself (Genesis 3:8). He did it when the wind did but a little blow at the presence of God; and he did it foolishly thinking to hide…

Woe to them that dig deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, who sees us? and who knows us? (Isaiah 29:15). And this is the grand principle of all wickedness, not (it may be) expressly stated, but secretly lying in the soul, a hab…

Where shall I fly from your Spirit? If I go into the depths, you are there (Psalm 139). God is here, there, and everywhere.

1. God's tempting is not to inform himself, but to discover his creatures to themselves and others. Not to inform himself, for he knows our thoughts afar off (Psalm 139:2), that is, he knows not only the conclusion and event, and management of things near; but he knows the very…

There are so many circuits, wiles, turnings in the heart of man, that we are not competent judges of what is worked in us; therefore it is usually ascribed to the Spirit to be the searcher of the heart. Where shall I go from your Spirit? or where shall I flee from your presence…

Which appears by this: parents, they know not what the child will be, male or female, beautiful or deformed; they cannot tell the number of bones, muscles, veins, arteries; and cannot restore any of these, in case they should be lost and spoiled. So that he that framed us in the…

It is he that has made us, and not we our selves. Our bodies are Gods curious needle work, Psalm 139:15. And as God has wrought the Cabinet, so he has put a Jewel in it, the Precious Soul.

IT shews us how to have our Thoughts frequently fixed upon God. 1. Begin the day with Holy Thoughts, Psalm 139:17. When I awake I am still with you.

God sees in the dark. Psalm 139:12. The darkness hides not from you.

The Mind is a Mint-house where Thoughts are Minted. David minted Golden Cogitations, Psalm 139:18. I am still with you.

For God's compassions are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22), as fresh as if never tired with former acts of grace, nor wearied with former offences. It is some recompense for the time of sleep; half our time passes away, and we do not show one act of love and kindness to God…

So that those which hide their counsels from God, are those that will not take God along with them. In short, this declaration is not necessary for God, who knows our thoughts afar off (Psalm 139:2). Not only our words and works, but purposes, before we begin to lift up a though…

The nature of God is a depth which we cannot fathom, no more than a nutshell can empty the ocean. (Psalm 139:6) Such knowledge is too wonderful for me: it is high, I cannot attain to it. It is above our capacity; for a finite thing cannot comprehend an infinite.

It was a lie, because there was a false assertion in saying that it was the whole; and it was a lie to the Holy Ghost, partly as being pretended to be done by his motion when they were acted by Satan, counterfeiting spiritual actions; or a lie against the Holy Ghost, because the…