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Psalm 139:3
You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. LORD, you have searched me, and you know me.
2You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar.
3You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
4For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, LORD, you know it altogether.
5You hem me in behind and before. You laid your hand on me.
Notice
Your path and your lying down cover movement and stillness alike, leaving no part of an ordinary day outside God’s knowledge of you.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
Which part of your day feels different when you picture God knowing your path through it?
Write on thisWhat comfort or unease comes with being known by God even when you lie down?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 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
Jeremiah 23:24Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says the LORD. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD.Both passages describe God’s knowledge reaching beyond what anyone could hide from his sight.
Psalm 139:18If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.Lying down and waking up both belong within the psalm’s account of being known by God and being with him.
Job 31:4Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?Both speak of God knowing a person’s ways, with Job describing that attention as counting every step.
Psalm 119:168I have obeyed your precepts and your testimonies, for all my ways are before you. TAVBoth declare that all a person’s ways are known to God; Psalm 119 connects that awareness with obedience.
Jeremiah 16:17For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face. Their iniquity isn’t concealed from my eyes.Both describe all human ways as open to God’s sight; Jeremiah names iniquity among the things that cannot be concealed.
Proverbs 5:20–21For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?The shared thread is human conduct: the psalm speaks of all one’s ways, while Proverbs addresses the specific danger of adultery.
Genesis 28:10–17Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.The supplied Genesis verse shares the concrete detail of travel with the psalm’s path, naming Jacob’s departure and destination.
2 Samuel 12:9–12Why have you despised the LORD’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your …Both concern conduct within God’s sight; Samuel names David’s violence against Uriah and taking of his wife as evil.
Psalm 121:3–8He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.Both connect God’s attention with human movement and rest, while Psalm 121 adds that the keeper does not slumber.
Ecclesiastes 12:14For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.Both describe the reach of God’s knowledge into human conduct; Ecclesiastes adds judgment of every work, including hidden things.
2 Samuel 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 …David’s conduct is known to God in both passages; Samuel also states God’s displeasure with what David had done.
Genesis 31:12He said, ‘Now lift up your eyes, and behold, all the male goats which leap on the flock are streaked, speckled, and grizzled, for I have seen all that Laban …Both describe God’s knowledge of human conduct; in Genesis, God says he has seen all that Laban does to Jacob.
Where this verse fits
An ordinary day. loneliness. feeling distant from God.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Even the parts of your day that pass without anyone else noticing are known to God. He is acquainted with your movement and your rest.
Now put it in your words.
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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).