Psalm 139 is a beautiful psalm that illustrates God’s intimate knowledge of each of His children. It tells us that God knows us, made us, and is with us. We are the result of God’s handiwork, fearfully and wonderfully made. You are the intended result of the mind of God.

In v. 19-24, David closes by looking at all the evil in the world. This is the hardest stanza in the psalm, but it is never wise to dismiss from the Bible things we find difficult or distasteful.

When a person’s world is full of God, they will long for the elimination of evil, as David does here. God is so precious to David that he cannot tolerate those who speak against Him. The revolt of the wicked is revolting to him. Below are four observations about the purpose and content of this passage:

A Prayer

First, we should notice that this stanza is a prayer, not just an observation. David directs his comments about evil to God Himself.

Not a Program

Next, we can notice that the passage is not describing a program for us to implement. In both the Old and New Testaments, vengefulness is expressly forbidden, and love for our enemies is an obligation. It is ultimately God’s job to serve justice, not ours.

In these verses, David is not driven by a hateful desire to get back at anyone; he is driven by zeal for God. David is God’s man, and a result, his enemies are not merely his own private enemies — they are God’s enemies.

David sees the true wickedness of evil, so he longs for it to be destroyed.

Our Problem

We have a problem: We are distinctly hesitant to pray like David does here. We find such confrontation distasteful.

This is because we are confused in our thinking. We fail to realize that judgment will fall upon evildoers, not upon abstract evil. We focus on John 3:16, which talks about God’s love and His gift of eternal life to all who believe. Yet we forget about John 3:36, which says that whoever does not obey the Son will not see life, because the wrath of God remains on him.

We recoil from God’s judgment because we are used to seeing evil, so we don’t recognize how wicked it truly is.

Our Posture

After calling on God to deal with the wicked, David submits himself to divine scrutiny and acknowledges that there is evil within his own heart, too. He honestly and humbly realizes he has the ability to deviate from the righteous course.

This must be our response, too. Seeds of appalling evil exist in all of our hearts. We must pray, asking God to search us, to know us, to check for grievous ways within us, and to lead us in the everlasting way. He is able to redeem us, cleanse us from our sin, and make our hearts His palace and royal throne.