Psalms — Chapter 138

DOMINE PROBASTI ME ET COGNOVISTI ME. Lapide: Psalm 138 — the great psalm of divine omniscience. "Lord, Thou hast proved me and known me: Thou hast known my sitting down and my rising up." Lapide: this is the most extended meditation on divine omniscience in Scripture. God knows every movement of the soul — sitting, rising, going out, coming in (vv.1-3). He knows the words before they are formed (v.4). He is before and behind (v.5). Lapide: this "knowledge" is not merely intellectual but creative and sustaining: God knows me because He made me and continuously holds me in being. "Thou hast known from afar" (v.2) = from eternity, before I existed.