Verse 17. How precious also are thy thoughts] reeycha,
thy cogitations; a Chaldaism, as before.
How great is the sum of them!] mah atsemu
rasheyhem; How strongly rational are the heads or principal
subjects of them! But the word may apply to the bones,
atsamoth, the structure and uses of which are most curious and
important.
Verse 18. If I should count them] I should be glad to enumerate
so many interesting particulars: but they are beyond calculation.
When I awake] Thou art my Governor and Protector night and day.
I am still with thee.] All my steps in life are ordered by thee:
I cannot go out of thy presence; I am ever under the influence of
thy Spirit.
The subject, from the 14th verse to the 16th Ps 139:14-16
inclusive, might have been much more particularly illustrated, but
we are taught, by the peculiar delicacy of expression in the
Sacred Writings, to avoid, as in this case, the entering too
minutely into anatomical details. I would, however, make an
additional observation on the subject in the 15th and 16th verses.
Ps 139:15-16 I have already remarked the elegant allusion to
embroidery, in the word rukkamti, in the astonishing
texture of the human body; all of which is said to be done in
secret, bassether, in the secret place, viz., the womb
of the mother, which, in the conclusion of the verse, is by a
delicate choice of expression termed the lower parts of the earth.
The embryo state, golem, has a more forcible meaning than
our word substance amounts to. galam signifies to roll
or wrap up together; and expresses the state of the fetus before
the constituent members were developed. The best system of modern
philosophy allows that ino semine masculino all the members of the
future animal are contained; and that these become slowly
developed or unfolded, in the case of fowls, by incubation; and
in the case of the more perfect animals, by gestation in the
maternal matrix. It is no wonder that, in considering these, the
psalmist should cry out, How precious, or extraordinary, are thy
thoughts! how great is the sum-heads or outlines, of them! The
particulars are, indeed, beyond comprehension; even the heads-the
general contents, of thy works; while I endeavour to form any
tolerable notion of them, prevail over me-they confound my
understanding, and are vastly too multitudinous for my
comprehension.
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