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You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Psalms 139:3 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
  • BSB You search out my path and my lying down; You are aware of all my ways.
  • NKJV You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.
  • NASB You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.
  • NLT You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God observes all of David's paths and is intimately familiar with everything he does.

Overview

Whether David travels or rests, God is acquainted with all his ways. The Lord's attentive knowledge surrounds every part of his life. Such constant awareness reminds believers that they live always before the eyes of God, who in Christ knows and cares for them in every circumstance.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 19

  • Jer 23:24Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh.
  • Job 31:4Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?
  • Gen 28:10–17Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.
  • Prov 5:20–21For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
  • Eccl 12:14For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.
  • 2 Sam 11:27When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh.
  • Ps 139:18If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.
  • Ps 121:3–8He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.
  • 2 Sam 12:9–12Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
  • Job 14:16–17But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin?
  • John 6:70–71Jesus answered them, “Didn’t I choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”
  • Isa 29:15Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”
  • Acts 5:3–4But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
  • John 13:2During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
  • John 13:21When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, “Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.”
  • 2 Sam 11:2–5At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at.
  • 2 Sam 8:14He put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all the Edomites became servants to David. Yahweh gave victory to David wherever he went.
  • Matt 3:12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”
  • Job 13:26–27For you write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth:

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 139:3YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.

How Psalms 139:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.