Bible Strands
Psalms 139:17
How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God, how vast is their sum!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly at the peak of a meditation on divine omniscience (vv. 1–18), having just noted that his unformed body was seen and his days written before any of them came to be.
The words — עָצְמוּ (ʿaṣmû, H6105) means "vast, great" and modifies the thoughts themselves; רָאשֵׁיהֶם (rāʾšêhem, H7218) is "their sum," using the root for "number, count" rather than "head."
The thread — Isaiah 55:8 states the same gap from God's side: "My thoughts are not your thoughts." Psalms 40:5 echoes the uncountable magnitude of divine plans.
Why it lands — The verse does not ask the reader to understand the thoughts, only to acknowledge that they are the object of them and that their total exceeds any count the reader could make.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
Cross-references
- Psalms 40:5 Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us—none can compare to You—if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.
- Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
- Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.
- Psalms 92:5 How great are Your works, O LORD, how deep are Your thoughts!
- Psalms 36:7 How precious is Your loving devotion, O God, that the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings!
- Ephesians 3:9 and to illuminate for everyone the stewardship of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
- Psalms 31:19 How great is Your goodness which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have bestowed before the sons of men on those who take refuge in You!
- Proverbs 8:31 I was rejoicing in His whole world, delighting together in the sons of men.