Psalm 139:24

And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) Wicked way.—The Hebrew may mean (after 1Chronicles 4:9; Isaiah 14:3) way of sorrow, or (after Isaiah 48:5) way of an idol, i.e., idolatry, which is preferable.

Way everlasting.—Rather, here as in Jeremiah 6:16; Jeremiah 18:15, of the old, i.e., the true, religion, in the ancient way. The word rendered “everlasting” merely expresses indefinite time, whether past or future.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

139:17-24 God's counsels concerning us and our welfare are deep, such as cannot be known. We cannot think how many mercies we have received from him. It would help to keep us in the fear of the Lord all the day long, if, when we wake in the morning, our first thoughts were of him: and how shall we admire and bless our God for his precious salvation, when we awake in the world of glory! Surely we ought not to use our members and senses, which are so curiously fashioned, as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But our immortal and rational souls are a still more noble work and gift of God. Yet if it were not for his precious thoughts of love to us, our reason and our living for ever would, through our sins, prove the occasion of our eternal misery. How should we then delight to meditate on God's love to sinners in Jesus Christ, the sum of which exceeds all reckoning! Sin is hated, and sinners lamented, by all who fear the Lord. Yet while we shun them we should pray for them; with God their conversion and salvation are possible. As the Lord knows us thoroughly, and we are strangers to ourselves, we should earnestly desire and pray to be searched and proved by his word and Spirit. if there be any wicked way in me, let me see it; and do thou root it out of me. The way of godliness is pleasing to God, and profitable to us; and will end in everlasting life. It is the good old way. All the saints desire to be kept and led in this way, that they may not miss it, turn out of it, or tire in it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And see if there be any wicked way in me - Margin, "way of pain," or "grief." The Hebrew word properly means an image, an idol Isaiah 48:5, but it also means pain, 1 Chronicles 4:9; Isaiah 14:3. The word in the form used here does not occur elsewhere. Gesenius (Lexicon) renders it here idol-worship. DeWette, "way of idols." Prof. Alexander, "way of pain." The Septuagint and Vulgate, "way of iniquity." So Luther. The Syriac, "way of falsehood." Rosenmuller, "way of an idol." According to this, the prayer is that God would search him and see if there was anything in him that partook of the nature of idolatry, or of defection from the true religion; any tendency to go back from God, to worship other gods, to leave the worship of the true God. As idolatry comprehends the sum of all that is evil, as being alienation from the true God, the prayer is that there might be nothing found in his heart which tended to alienate him from God - would indicate unfaithfulness or want of attachment to him.

And lead me in the way everlasting - The way which leads to eternal life; the path which I may tread forever. In any other way than in the service of God his steps must be arrested. He must encounter his Maker in judgment, and be cut off, and consigned to woe. The path to heaven is one which man may steadily pursue; one, in reference to which death itself is really no interruption - for the journey commenced here will be continued through the dark valley, and continued forevermore. Death does not interrupt the journey of the righteous for a moment. It is the same journey continued - as when we cross a narrow stream, and are on the same path still.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

PSALM 139

Ps 139:1-24. After presenting the sublime doctrines of God's omnipresence and omniscience, the Psalmist appeals to Him, avowing his innocence, his abhorrence of the wicked, and his ready submission to the closest scrutiny. Admonition to the wicked and comfort to the pious are alike implied inferences from these doctrines.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Wicked way in me, Heb. way of trouble or grief; any course of life which is grievous, either,

1. To myself, as all sin is to the sinner sooner or later: or,

2. To others; as I am accused of causing much trouble and designing mischief to the king and kingdom.

In the way everlasting; in the right and good way, which is lasting, and leads to everlasting life; whereas the way of wickedness, to which this is opposed, will perish, as is said, Psalm 1:6, and bring men into utter destruction. Or, as others render it, in the old way, which is the good way, as it is called Jeremiah 6:16; in the way of righteousness and holiness, which may well be called the old way, because it was from the beginning of the world written in man’s heart, whereas wickedness is of a later date. Possibly it may be rendered, in thy way (the ellipsis of the pronoun being very frequent, as hath been noted and proved before; or, in the way, to wit, the way of God, which is oft called emphatically the way, as Psalm 25:8 119:1 Proverbs 23:19 29:27, and which is sufficiently understood from its opposition to the wicked way in the former clause) for ever, or as long as I live, as this Hebrew word olam without any prefix to it is used, Job 41:4 Psalm 21:4 45:7, and elsewhere. But this with submission.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And see if there be any wicked way in me,.... Not that David thought himself free from wickedness, or that there was none to be found in his heart and life; and therefore said this in a boasting way, he knew otherwise; see Psalm 19:12; but he is desirous it might be thoroughly looked into and seen whether there was any such wicked way in him he was charged with; as that he had a design upon the life of Saul, and to seize his throne and kingdom, which never entered into his mind, 1 Samuel 24:9. Or, "any way of grief" (d); what tended to wound and grieve his own soul, or to grieve the hearts of God's people; or to grieve the Holy Spirit of God; and which he ought to grieve for and repent of: suggesting, that upon the first conviction he was ready to relinquish any such wicked way, and express his abhorrence of it, and testify true repentance for it. Some render it, "the way of an idol" (e); because a word from the same root signifies an idol: every carnal lust in a man's heart is an idol; and whatsoever engrosses the affections, or has more of them than God himself has, or is preferred to him, Ezekiel 14:4. The Targum is,

"and see if the way of those that err is me;''

and lead me in the way everlasting; or, "in the way of old" (f): the good old way, the ancient path, in which the patriarchs before and after the flood walked, Or, "in the perpetual way" (g); the way that endures for ever; in opposition to the way of the wicked, that perishes, Psalm 1:6; or in the way that leads to everlasting life, to eternal peace and rest, and endless pleasures; as opposed to the way of grief and sorrow. It designs Christ, the true and only way to eternal life, the path of faith, truth, and godliness, Matthew 7:13; in which the Lord leads his people, as a father does his child, and as the shepherd his flock. The Jewish commentators, Aben Ezra and Kimchi, interpret it the way of the world; and take it to be the same with the way of all flesh, death, or the grave; which is called man's world, or home, Joshua 23:14; and make the sense to be this: If thou seest any evil in me, take me out of the world; kill me at once, let me die But this seems to be foreign from the text; for the word "lead" designs a blessing or benefit, as Calvin well observes. The Targum is,

"lead me in the way of the upright of the world;''

the way in which upright men walk.

(d) "via doloris", Montanus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth. (e) "Via idoli"; so some in Vatablus. (f) "per viam sepiternam", Pagninus, Vatablus; "per viam antiquam", Gussetius; so Ainsworth. (g) "In via perpetua", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

And see if there be any {p} wicked way in me, and lead me in the {q} way everlasting.

(p) Or any heinous or rebellious way: meaning that though he was subject to sin, yet he was not given to wickedness, and to provoke God by rebellion.

(q) That is, continue your favour toward me to the end.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. any wicked way] Lit. any way of grief, or pain; conduct which leads to suffering and ruin. Some critics, comparing Isaiah 48:5, explain way of idolatry, in contrast to the way of Jehovah (Psalm 25:4), but there is no hint that this was the special danger of the Psalmist.

the way everlasting] A way of life (Psalm 16:11; Proverbs 12:28) and peace (Isaiah 59:8), the opposite to the way of ruin and death. See Psalm 1:6; Psalm 25:4-5; Jeremiah 21:8. Whether the Psalmist’s view was limited to this world, or whether he saw that such a way must lead on to fuller life after death, cannot be decided with certainty. Some render the ancient way, and follow the Targum in explaining it to mean the good old way in which the godly men of former ages walked (cp. Jeremiah 6:16; Jeremiah 18:15); but this sense is less obvious.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - And see if there be any wicked way in me; literally, any way of grief. "Ways of grief" are ways which lead to grief, which involve either bitter repentance or severe chastisement. And lead me in the way everlasting; i.e. either "the way that leadeth to everlasting life," or "the good old way, the way that endures - the way of righteousness." David, with all his faults, is one of those who "hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matthew 5:6).



Psalm 139:24

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

He sees in them the danger which threatens himself, and prays God not to give him over to the judgment of self-delusion, but to lay bare the true state of his soul. The fact "Thou hast searched me," which the beginning of the Psalm confesses, is here turned into a petitioning "search me." Instead of רעים in Psalm 139:17, the poet here says שׂרעפּים, which signifies branches (Ezekiel 31:5) and branchings of the act of thinking (thoughts and cares, Psalm 94:19). The Resh is epenthetic, for the first form is שׂעפּים, Job 4:13; Job 20:2. The poet thus sets the very ground and life of his heart, with all its outward manifestations, in the light of the divine omniscience. And in Psalm 139:24 he prays that God would see whether any דּרך־עצב cleaves to him (בּי as in 1 Samuel 25:24), by which is not meant "a way of idols" (Rosenm׬ller, Gesenius, and Maurer), after Isaiah 48:5, since an inclination towards, or even apostasy to, heathenism cannot be an unknown sin; nor to a man like the writer of this Psalm is heathenism any power of temptation. דוך בּצע (Grהtz) might more readily be admissible, but דוך עצב is a more comprehensive notion, and one more in accordance with this closing petition. The poet gives this name to the way that leads to the pain, torture, viz., of the inward and outward punishments of sin; and, on the other hand, the way along which he wishes to be guided he calls דּרך עולם, the way of endless continuance (lxx, Vulgate, Luther), not the way of the former times, after Jeremiah 6:16 (Maurer, Olshausen), which thus by itself is ambiguous (as becomes evident from Job 22:15; Jeremiah 18:15), and also does not furnish any direct antithesis. The "everlasting way" is the way of God (Psalm 27:11), the way of the righteous, which stands fast for ever and shall not "perish" (Psalm 1:6).