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Psalm 139 · a question people ask

"Where could I go from your Spirit?" (139:7). What does the psalm say about the Spirit?

In the text

The verse asks one question in two ways: "Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence?" (139:7). In Hebrew from your Spirit is one word, meruchekha: ruach with from and your joined to it (tap Spirit). From your presence is one word too: panim, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "face", with from and your joined to it. The psalm sets the two side by side, and the next verse answers with places, not with more about the Spirit: "If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!" (139:8). Another psalm has the same two nouns in one prayer: "Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me" (Psalm 51:11). Psalm 139 says no more about the Spirit than 139:7, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence? If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!”
Psalm 139:7-8 · World English Bible
“Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.”
Psalm 51:11 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 139

Psalm 139: Search me, God

Psalm 139 opens, "LORD, you have searched me, and you know me" (139:1), and ends asking for the same two verbs: "Search me, God, and know my heart" (139:23). Its woven (139:15) is the verb Exodus uses for the embroiderer, and its word for thoughts comes only twice in the Hebrew Bible: my thoughts (139:2) and your thoughts (139:17).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions