Five-minute study · Day 365 · Psalms 139
Psalm 139:17
A word worth stopping on: thoughts / companion רֵעַ rea
'How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!' The Hebrew word behind 'thoughts' is rea, from the root that also means companion, intimate friend. David has just spent sixteen verses describing a God who knows everything about him: where he sits, where he walks, what he thinks before he thinks it, how his body was formed in the womb, what his unwritten days contain. The natural response to total surveillance is fear. David's response is wonder. He calls God's thoughts precious, yaqar, a word used for gold, for rare gems, for the price of something irreplaceable. God's thoughts toward you are not clinical observations. They have the warmth of a friend leaning across a table, paying close attention, knowing you fully and choosing to stay.
Word study: thoughts / companion
- Hebrew
- רֵעַ
- Pronounced
- rea
- Strong's
- H7454
- Definition
- A thought, a purpose, an act of the mind; from the same root family as rea (H7453), meaning companion, friend, intimate associate. The semantic overlap connects thinking with companionship: God's thoughts toward David carry the quality of a friend's attention.
The word reekha in Psalm 139:17 belongs to a root cluster that BDB connects to both cognitive and relational meanings. The noun rea (H7453) means friend, companion, neighbor, the person you know well and interact with closely. The noun rea (H7454) means thought, purpose. Kraus's commentary on Psalms 60-150 (Continental Commentary) notes that the semantic proximity is significant. In Hebrew, the word for 'your thoughts' toward someone sounds like 'your friendship' toward someone. David may be hearing both registers.
Kraus reads Psalm 139:17-18 as the psalm's emotional pivot. Verses 1-6 describe God's omniscience: he knows David's sitting and rising, his thoughts, his words before they reach his tongue. Verses 7-12 describe God's omnipresence: there is nowhere David can go to escape him, not the heavens, not Sheol, not the far side of the sea, not the darkness. Verses 13-16 describe God's creative intimacy: he formed David's body, saw his unfinished embryo, wrote his days in a book. After sixteen verses of being completely known, David responds with verse 17: how precious are your thoughts to me.
Kraus observes that the expected response would be terror. Total knowledge in the ancient world was associated with power and judgment. A deity who knows everything about you can destroy you with precision. David's response inverts that expectation. He finds the omniscience precious, yaqar. The word yaqar describes costly stones (1 Kings 5:17), the honor of a king (Esther 1:4), and the rare value of the word of God in a time when visions were scarce (1 Samuel 3:1). David treats God's total knowledge of him as something rare and valuable.
The sum (rosh, literally 'head' or 'total') of God's thoughts is what stuns David. Verse 18 continues: 'If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.' The volume is the point. God does not think about David occasionally. The thoughts are continuous, countless, more than the grains of sand on every beach. Kraus notes that this image reverses the scale of Psalm 8, which asks 'What is man, that thou art mindful of him?' Psalm 139 answers: you are someone God thinks about constantly, with the attention and warmth of a close friend.
Historical context · c. 1000-500 BCE
The Theology of Divine Knowledge in the Psalms
Psalm 139 is one of the most theologically developed psalms in the Hebrew Bible, addressing divine omniscience, omnipresence, and creative sovereignty in a single composition. Kraus dates the psalm to the late pre-exilic or early post-exilic period based on linguistic features, though the attribution to David reflects the Psalter's editorial tradition.
In the ancient Near Eastern world, divine knowledge was a source of anxiety. Mesopotamian religion assumed that the gods observed human behavior for the purpose of judgment. The Babylonian poem Ludlul Bel Nemeqi ('I Will Praise the Lord of Wisdom'), sometimes called the 'Babylonian Job,' describes a righteous sufferer who cannot understand why the gods have afflicted him. He laments that human beings cannot know the mind of the gods: 'Who can learn the counsel of the gods in heaven? The plan of a god is deep waters; who can comprehend it?' The relationship between divine knowledge and human fate is opaque and frightening.
Psalm 139 enters this same territory and arrives at a different conclusion. David's God knows everything. He knows thoughts, words, movements, the body's formation, the days yet unlived. And David's response is delight. Kraus identifies this as a distinctive contribution of Israelite theology: the God who knows you completely is the God who loves you specifically. The knowledge is attention. The thoughts (reekha) carry the warmth of the friend (rea).
The word 'precious' (yaqar) places God's thoughts in the category of rare treasures. Archaeological discoveries from ancient Israel include hoards of gold jewelry, carved ivories, and precious stones found in royal and temple contexts. Yaqar describes these objects: costly, rare, irreplaceable. David applies the term to God's inner life toward him. God's thoughts about you belong in the same category as gold and jewels. They are valuable. They are abundant. They cannot be exhausted.
Kraus connects Psalm 139:17 to the wider biblical theme of divine remembrance. God remembers Noah in the flood (Genesis 8:1). God remembers Rachel's barrenness (Genesis 30:22). God remembers his covenant with Abraham (Exodus 2:24). The word 'remember' (zakar) in these texts means active attention, a turning of the mind toward someone in order to act on their behalf. Psalm 139:17 extends this: God does not merely remember David at critical moments. He thinks about David constantly. The thoughts outnumber the sand.
For reflection
David learned that God's thoughts about him were more numerous than sand grains, and his response was wonder. Most people, confronted with total knowledge of their inner life, would feel exposed. David felt treasured. Sit quietly and consider one thing about yourself that you wish nobody knew. Now read verse 17 again. God knows that thing. His response is not revulsion. His thoughts about you are precious, warm, constant. Let that land.
The word for God's thoughts sounds like the word for friend. His attention toward you has the character of someone who knows you fully and stays close on purpose.
Sources: BDB; Kraus, "Psalms 60-150"