Psa 139:17-18 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 17. How precious also are thy thoughts ] reeycha , thy cogitations ; a Chaldaism , as before. How great is the sum of them! ] mah atsemu rasheyhem; How strongly rational are the heads or principal subjects of them ! But the word may apply to the bones , atsamoth , the structure and uses of which are most curious and important.

‏ Psalms 139:17-18

Verse 17. How precious also are thy thoughts] reeycha, thy cogitations; a Chaldaism, as before.

How great is the sum of them!] mah atsemu rasheyhem; How strongly rational are the heads or principal subjects of them! But the word may apply to the bones, atsamoth, the structure and uses of which are most curious and important.

Verse 18. If I should count them] I should be glad to enumerate so many interesting particulars: but they are beyond calculation.

When I awake] Thou art my Governor and Protector night and day.

I am still with thee.] All my steps in life are ordered by thee: I cannot go out of thy presence; I am ever under the influence of thy Spirit.

The subject, from the 14th verse to the 16th Ps 139:14-16 inclusive, might have been much more particularly illustrated, but we are taught, by the peculiar delicacy of expression in the Sacred Writings, to avoid, as in this case, the entering too minutely into anatomical details. I would, however, make an additional observation on the subject in the 15th and 16th verses. Ps 139:15-16 I have already remarked the elegant allusion to embroidery, in the word rukkamti, in the astonishing texture of the human body; all of which is said to be done in secret, bassether, in the secret place, viz., the womb of the mother, which, in the conclusion of the verse, is by a delicate choice of expression termed the lower parts of the earth.

The embryo state, golem, has a more forcible meaning than our word substance amounts to. galam signifies to roll or wrap up together; and expresses the state of the fetus before the constituent members were developed. The best system of modern philosophy allows that ino semine masculino all the members of the future animal are contained; and that these become slowly developed or unfolded, in the case of fowls, by incubation; and in the case of the more perfect animals, by gestation in the maternal matrix. It is no wonder that, in considering these, the psalmist should cry out, How precious, or extraordinary, are thy thoughts! how great is the sum-heads or outlines, of them! The particulars are, indeed, beyond comprehension; even the heads-the general contents, of thy works; while I endeavour to form any tolerable notion of them, prevail over me-they confound my understanding, and are vastly too multitudinous for my comprehension.