There never was a time in which we were unknown to God, and there never will be a moment in which we shall be beyond his observation. This infallible knowledge has always existed—"Thou hast searched me" and it continues unto this day, since God cannot forget that which he has once known. Searching ordinarily implies a measure of ignorance which is removed by observation of course this is not the case with the Lord but the meaning of the Psalmist is, that the Lord knows us as thoroughly as if he had examined us minutely, and had pried into the most secret corners of our being. Yet we must not let the figure run upon all fours, and lead us further than it is meant to do: the Lord knows all things naturally and as a matter of course, and not by any effort on his part. How well it is for us to know the God who knows us! The divine knowledge is extremely thorough and searching it is as if he had searched us, as officers search a man for contraband goods, or as pillagers ransack a house for plunder. If we would praise God aright we must draw the matter of our praise from himself—"O Jehovah, thou hast." No pretended god knows aught of us but the true God, Jehovah, understands us, and is most intimately acquainted with our persons, nature, and character. He invokes in adoration Jehovah the all knowing God, and he proceeds to adore him by proclaiming one of his peculiar attributes. O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. We have yet to learn that David could not have used expressions belonging to "the language of the patriarchal ancestral house." Who knows how much of the antique speech may have been purposely retained among those nobler minds who rejoiced in remembering the descent of their race? Knowing to what wild inferences the critics have run in other matters, we have lost nearly all faith in them, and prefer to believe David to be the author of this Psalm, from internal evidences of style and matter, rather than to accept the determination of men whose modes of judgment are manifestly unreliable. We believe that upon the principles of criticism now in vogue it would be extremely easy to prove that Milton did not write Paradise Lost. Of course the critics take this composition away from David, on account of certain Aramaic expressions in it. It bears the image and superscription of King David, and could have come from no other mint than that of the son of Jesse. This sacred song is worthy of the most excellent of the singers, and is fitly dedicated to the leader of the Temple Psalmody, that he might set it to music, and see that it was devoutly sung in the solemn worship of the Most High. The last time this title occurred was in Ps 109:1-31.
Like a Pharos, this holy song casts a clear light even to the uttermost parts of the sea, and warns us against that practical atheism which ignores the presence of God, and so makes shipwreck of the soul. The brightness of this Psalm is like unto a sapphire stone, or Ezekiel's "terrible crystal" it flames out with such flashes of light as to turn night into day. It sings the omniscience and omnipresence of God, inferring from these the overthrow of the powers of wickedness, since he who sees and hears the abominable deeds and words of the rebellious will surely deal with them according to his justice. One of the most notable of the sacred hymns.