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Psalm 139:18

If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.

16Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.
17How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is their sum!
18If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.
19If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain.
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← Psalm 139:17Psalm 139:19 →
Notice

Sand makes God’s thoughts impossible to count, yet the verse ends with something close and plain: waking to find that his presence has not changed.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What happens to your need to understand when you picture God’s thoughts outnumbering the sand?

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How might waking with the words “I am still with you” shape your first thoughts tomorrow?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

9 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 3:5I laid myself down and slept. I awakened, for the LORD sustains me.Both describe waking in relation to God: Psalm 3 names his sustaining care, while Psalm 139 speaks of still being with him.
Psalm 139:3You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.God’s knowledge of lying down in verse 3 connects with the assurance of being with him upon waking in verse 18.
Job 5:9who does great things that can’t be fathomed, marvelous things without number;Both speak of what exceeds human counting: God’s thoughts in the psalm and his marvelous deeds in Job.
Psalm 16:8I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.Both speak of God’s abiding nearness, whether described as being at the speaker’s right hand or being present upon waking.
Psalm 40:5Many, LORD, my God, are the wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are toward us. They can’t be declared back to you. If I would declare …Both describe God’s thoughts as beyond counting, with Psalm 40 also naming the wonderful works he has done.
1 Thessalonians 5:10who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.Both connect waking with being with the Lord; Thessalonians grounds life with Christ in his death.
Isaiah 26:19Your dead shall live. Their dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast …Both use waking language, though Isaiah speaks of the dead rising and Psalm 139 speaks of waking still with God.
Daniel 12:2Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.Waking is the shared language; Daniel describes the dead rising to differing destinies, while the psalm describes continued presence with God.
Habakkuk 1:9All of them come for violence. Their hordes face forward. They gather prisoners like sand.The shared image is sand for vast numbers: God’s thoughts in the psalm, prisoners gathered by violent invaders in Habakkuk.
Where this verse fits

Feeling distant from God. an ordinary day. praise and worship.

What the Bible says about doubt →What the Bible says about worship →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read this verse aloud when you wake

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Encouragement

Your understanding has limits, as the image of countless grains of sand makes clear. God’s thoughts exceed your counting; his presence remains when you wake.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 139:18. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 139 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).