Psalm 139:2 NKJV
You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
Finding Comfort in God’s Awareness
MY NOTES
“You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.” — Psalm 139:2 (NKJV)
Ever feel like your life is just a repetitive loop of “sitting down and getting up”? You sit down to check your email, and you get up to make coffee. You sit down to work, and you get up to let the dog out. To us, these moments feel like the background noise of life—the filler between the “big stuff.”
But in Psalm 139:2, David points out that God isn’t just watching the highlight reel of your life; He’s tuned into the live stream of your most mundane moments.
When David says God knows his “sitting down and rising up,” he’s using a Hebrew way of saying everything in between. Whether you are collapsing into a chair in exhaustion or standing up to start a difficult task, God is marking the movement.
As Matthew Henry beautifully put it, God knows the “temper of mind” we have when we compose ourselves to sit and the “aim” we have when we stir ourselves to work. He knows if you’re sitting down in pride or rising up in service. To God, there is no such thing as a “casual” act. He knows the errand you’re running and the spirit in which you’re walking.
Before the Thought
The second half of the verse is even more staggering: “You understand my thought afar off.” Think about that for a second. Before a thought even becomes “yours”—before it fully forms in your consciousness—God has already analyzed its source, its drift, and its result. Spurgeon noted that God understands the “chain” of our thoughts, even when the links are so messy that we can’t make sense of them.
Sometimes we feel like we have to explain ourselves to God, but David reminds us that God has an “impartial mind” that never misinterprets us. He doesn’t just see the “passing meteor” of a thought; He sums up its entire meaning in a single glance. He knows the thoughts you’ve forgotten and the ones you haven’t even had yet.
There is No Distance
Whether “afar off” refers to God looking down from heaven or looking across the span of time, the takeaway is the same: Distance is no barrier to His intimacy. You can’t go to a place so remote—physically or mentally—that God loses the signal.
For the person who feels misunderstood by everyone else, this is the ultimate comfort. You are seen, known, and read by Jehovah. He isn’t just aware that you exist; He is intimately acquainted with the why behind your every move.
Key Takeaways
- Nothing is Mundane: Your daily routines are not “filler” to God. He is present in the sitting, the rising, and the walking.
- He Translates Your Mess: When you can’t find the words or your thoughts feel like a tangled web, God already understands the “chain” and the “connection.”
- Total Transparency: We can’t “edit” ourselves for God. Since He knows the thought “afar off,” we might as well be honest with Him the moment it arrives.
- Constant Observation: There has never been a moment when you were unknown, and there never will be a moment when you are beyond His care.
Cross References (NKJV)
Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Matthew 9:4
“But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ‘Why do you think evil in your hearts?’”
Jeremiah 31:3
“The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.’”
Psalm 44:21
“Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.”
Prayer
Abba, it’s a relief to know that I don’t have to explain my tangled thoughts to You. You see the “why” behind my sitting and the “purpose” behind my rising. When I feel invisible to the world, remind me that I am under Your constant, loving observation. Help me to live today with the awareness that You aren’t just far off in heaven, but right here in the details of my day. Thank You for knowing me better than I know myself. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Things to Think About:
- How does it change your “commute” or your “housework” to realize God is marking your “rising up” and “sitting down”?
- Is there a “chain of thoughts” in your head right now that feels messy or confusing? Write them out and then write: “Lord, You already understand these.”
- Albert Barnes mentioned how “unwilling” we often are to let others know what we are thinking. Why is it different with God? How does His “perfect knowledge” create safety instead of fear?
Proverb for Today
He who has knowledge spares his words, And a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive. Proverbs 17:27-28 NKJV.
Daily Scripture
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Ephesians 4:4-6 NKJV
Bill
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Summary of Commentaries:
God tracks the rhythm of our routines, from resting to working. Commentators explain that even “casual acts” are marked by His “piercing glance.” Beyond physical postures, He understands the “chain” of our thoughts before we even think them. Whether “afar off” refers to heaven’s heights or eternity past, distance is no barrier. Our internal dialogues are transparent to His “impartial mind,” ensuring we are never truly alone or misunderstood in our most mundane moments.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising. Me thou knowest, and all that comes of me. I am observed when I quietly sit down, and marked when I resolutely rise up. My most common and casual acts, my most needful and necessary movements, are noted by time, and thou knowest the inward thoughts which regulate them. Whether I sink in lowly self-renunciation, or ascend in pride, thou seest the motions of my mind, as well as those of my body. This is a fact to be remembered every moment: sitting down to consider, or rising up to act, we are still seen, known, and read by Jehovah our Lord.
“Thou understandest my thought afar off.” Before it is my own, it is foreknown and comprehended by thee. Though my thought be invisible to the sight, though as yet I be not myself cognizant of the shape it is assuming, yet thou hast it under thy consideration, and thou perceivest its nature, its source, its drift, its result. Never dost thou misjudge or wrongly interpret me: my inmost thought is perfectly understood by thine impartial mind. Though thou shouldest give but a glance at my heart, and see me as one sees a passing meteor moving afar, yet thou wouldst by that glimpse sum up all the meanings of my soul, so transparent is everything to thy piercing glance.
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Enduring Word
You know my sitting down and my rising up: David used this proverbial phrase to say that God knew everything about him, even the most everyday things. As Jesus would later say, God knows the number of hairs on our head (Matthew 10:30). (Guzik)
i. “Even these inconsiderable and casual things are under thy continual notice. I cannot so much as take a seat, or leave it, without being marked by thee.” (Clarke)
ii. VanGemeren points out that when looking at You know (Psalm 139:2) and You covered (Psalm 139:13) in the Hebrew grammar, the emphasis is on You. “This section continues the emphasis on divine involvement by an emphatic use of ‘you’.”
You understand my thought afar off: God not only knew the smallest aspects of David’s everyday life, He also knew his thoughts. God knows our words before we speak them, and there is nothing of us hidden from the all-knowing God. As David wrote, You are acquainted with all my ways. (Guzik)
i. “Divine knowledge is perfect, since not a single word is unknown, nay, not even an unspoken word, and each one is ‘altogether’ or wholly known.” (Spurgeon)
ii. The fact that God knows every word on my tongue should affect my speech. Those who claim to be disciples of Jesus Christ, yet use profanity or impurity of speech, should remember that God hears and knows every word. (Guzik)
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Albert Barnes
Thou knowest my downsitting … – In the various circumstances of life, thou knowest me. Thou knowest me in one place as well as in another. I cannot so change my position that thou will not see me, and that thou wilt not be perfectly acquainted with all that I say, and all that I do. In every posture, in every movement, in every occupation, thou hast a full knowledge of me. I cannot go out of thy sight; I cannot put myself into such a position that thou wilt not see me.
Thou understandest my thought – Hebrew, “As to my thought.” That is, Thou seest what my plans are; what I design to do; “what I am thinking about.” A most solemn reflection! How unwilling would bad people be – would even good people be – to have those round about them know always “what they are thinking about.”
Afar off – Not when the “thought” is far off; but “thou,” being far off, seest us as clearly as if thou wert near. I cannot go to such a distance from thee that thou wilt not see perfectly all that I am thinking about.
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John Gill
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising,…. Here, the psalmist proceeds to observe the particular circumstances and actions of his life, which were known to God, as his “downsitting,” either to take rest, as weary persons do. Schultens explains it of the quiet rest in sleep; this the Lord knew when he betook himself to it, and to whose care he committed himself and family; under whose protection he laid himself down, and on whom he depended for safety, Psalm 4:8. Or, since lying down to sleep is afterwards mentioned, this may respect sitting down at table to eat and drink; when the Lord knows whether men use the creatures aright, or abuse them; whether they receive their food with thankfulness, and eat and drink to the glory of God: or else this downsitting was to read the word of God, and meditate upon it; so the Targum paraphrases it, “my sitting down to study the law.”
When men do this, the Lord knows whether in reading they understand what they read, or read attentively and with affection; whether it is to their comfort and edification, and for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness; whether their meditation on it is sweet, and is attended with profit and pleasure. “Uprising” may respect either rising from bed, when the Lord knows whether the heart is still with him, Psalm 139:18; what sense is had of the divine protection and sustentation, and what thankfulness there is for the mercies of the night past; and whether the voice of prayer and praise is directed to him in the morning, as it should be, Psalm 3:5; or else rising from the table, when the Lord knows whether a man’s table has been his snare, and with what thankfulness he rises from it for the favors he has received. The Targum interprets this of rising up to go to war, which David did, in the name and strength, and by the direction, of the Lord;
thou understandest my thought afar off; God knows not only his own thoughts, but the thoughts of men, which none but themselves know; by this Christ appears to be truly God, the omniscient God, being a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, Matthew 9:3 Hebrews 4:12. God knows what thoughts his people have of him, and of his lovingkindness in Christ; what thoughts they have of Christ himself, his person, offices, and grace; what thoughts they have of themselves, their state, and condition: he knows all their vain thoughts, and complains of them, and which also they hate; and all their good thoughts, for they come from him. And he knows them “afar off,” or “of old”, even before they are; so Aben Ezra interprets it, a long time past, and compares it with Jeremiah 31:3; where the same word is rendered “of old”: God knows the thoughts of his people, as well as his own, from all eternity; see Isaiah 25:1; as he knew what they would say and do, so what they would think; he knows thoughts that are past long ago, and forgotten by men, or were unobserved when thought; how else should he bring them into judgment? Or though he is afar off in the highest heavens, yet he sees into the hearts of men, and is privy to all their thoughts.
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Matthew Henry
1. “Thou knowest me and all my motions, my down-sitting to rest, my up-rising to work, with what temper of mind I compose myself when I sit down and stir up myself when I rise up, what my soul reposes itself in as its stay and support, what it aims at and reaches towards as its felicity and end. Thou knowest me when I come home, how I walk before my house, and when I go abroad, on what errands I go.”
2. “Thou knowest all my imaginations. Nothing is more close and quick than thought; it is always unknown to others; it is often unobserved by ourselves, and yet thou understandest my thought afar off. Though my thoughts be ever so foreign and distant from one another, thou understandest the chain of them, and canst make out their connexion, when so many of them slip my notice that I myself cannot.” Or, “Thou understandest them afar off, even before I think them, and long after I have thought them and have myself forgotten them.” Or, “Thou understandest them from afar; from the height of heaven thou seest into the depths of the heart,” Ps. 33:14.
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Miscellaneous Comments
My thought. The רע, rea, which we have rendered “thought,” signifies also a friend or companion, on which account some read—thou knowest what is nearest me afar off, a meaning more to the point than any other, if it could be supported by example. The reference would then be very appropriately to the fact that the most distant objects are contemplated as near by God. Some for “afar off” read beforehand, in which signification the Hebrew word is elsewhere taken; as if he had said, O Lord, every thought which I conceive in my heart is already known to thee beforehand.
—John Calvin.
“Thought.” In all affliction, in all business, a man’s best comfort is this, that all he does and even all he thinks, God knows. In the Septuagint, we read διαλογισμοὺς, that is, “reasonings.” God knows all our inner ratiocination, all the dialogues, all the colloquies of the soul with itself.
—Thomas Le Blanc.
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