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).

Psalm 140:5 Parallel Commentaries

the proud

Psalm 10:4-12 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts...

Psalm 17:8-13 Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of your wings...

Psalm 35:7 For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit, which without cause they have dig for my soul.

Psalm 36:11 Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me.

Psalm 57:6 They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have dig a pit before me...

Psalm 119:69,85,110 The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart...

Psalm 123:3,4 Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt...

Psalm 141:9,10 Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity...

Psalm 142:3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then you knew my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privately laid a snare for me.

Proverbs 29:5 A man that flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.

Jeremiah 18:18,20,22 Then said they, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise...

Luke 11:53,54 And as he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently...

Luke 20:20-23 And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words...