If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Psalm 139:11 continues David’s confession that there is nowhere he can escape the presence and knowledge of God. He has asked, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (v.7). Heaven cannot place him beyond God, hell cannot remove him from God’s sight, and the uttermost parts of the sea cannot carry him beyond God’s hand (vv.8-10). Now David considers darkness itself. If he imagined that night could hide him, even darkness would fail. Verse 12 gives the reason: darkness and light are both alike to God.
“If I say.” David introduces a possible thought. He does not say darkness actually can hide him; he considers what a man might suppose. Men often imagine secrecy where there is none. They may think distance, walls, silence, darkness, or the absence of human witnesses gives privacy. But the psalm has already established that God knows David’s thoughts, ways, and words before they are spoken (vv.2-4). What David might say to himself is therefore already known to God.
This should make a man careful about the private reasoning of his own heart. Sin often begins by persuading the sinner that he is unobserved. The adulterer waits for twilight; the thief chooses darkness; the liar trusts that no witness heard him. Job said of wicked men, “The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face” (Job 24:15). Psalm 139 destroys that confidence. God does not need daylight in order to see.
“Surely the darkness.” Darkness is the strongest natural figure for concealment. Men lose sight of one another in darkness, objects disappear from view, and hidden deeds are easier to perform without human discovery. David therefore takes the best hiding place nature can offer and tests it against the knowledge of God. It fails immediately.
Scripture connects darkness with the false confidence of sinners. Isaiah warned, “Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?” (Isaiah 29:15). Ezekiel records, “Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth” (Ezekiel 8:12). Darkness may hide conduct from men, but it never hides conduct from Jehovah.
“Shall cover me.” To be covered here is to be concealed from sight. David is not seeking comfort beneath a covering; the context is whether he could flee from God’s presence. If darkness surrounded him completely, could it hide him? Verse 12 answers the whole question: “Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee” (v.12). God does not search blindly through darkness until He finds a man. Nothing has ever disappeared from His knowledge.
This doctrine is fearful to the wicked. Secret sin is not secret before God. A man may hide adultery from his spouse, theft from his employer, deceit from his brethren, bitterness behind polite speech, or hypocrisy beneath religion, but none of it is covered from the LORD. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Darkness can delay human discovery; it cannot prevent divine judgment.
The same truth comforts the righteous. Men may not see hidden obedience, secret prayer, private grief, temptation resisted, kindness done quietly, or faithfulness that receives no public notice. God sees all of it. Jesus said, “That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:18). The saint therefore does not need an audience in order to be faithful. Darkness that hides his conduct from men does not hide it from his Father.
“Even the night.” David now names the time when natural light is absent. Night changes what men can see, but it changes nothing in God. Human eyes depend upon light; God’s knowledge does not. Night does not reduce His sight, confuse His judgment, or interrupt His care. Verse 12 declares that night shines as the day before Him.
This should restrain the sins men associate with darkness. Paul wrote, “For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:7). But saints are not to borrow their conduct from the night: “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). The Christian should live privately as he would live beneath the clearest light.
“Shall be light about me.” Darkness cannot perform the concealment David has imagined. Night itself becomes as light in relation to God’s knowledge. The point is not that David’s physical surroundings suddenly glow, but that darkness gives him no hidden place before God. God’s perfect knowledge therefore reaches every place and circumstance.
He sees His servant in a dark prison as fully as in a public assembly. He knows the persecuted saint hidden from enemies, the lonely believer unseen by others, and the sufferer whose trouble occurs when no human helper is near. David cannot hide from God, but neither can trouble hide David from God.
Jesus Christ possesses this perfect knowledge. Peter confessed to Him, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee” (John 21:17). Scripture also declares of the living Word, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13). Darkness never concealed a thought, word, enemy, disciple, or deed from Christ.
Do not trust darkness with your sin, and do not fear darkness in your trouble. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). Live in secret as before the face of God, and take comfort that wherever men cannot see you, Jehovah sees you altogether.
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Psalm 139:11 continues David’s confession that there is nowhere he can escape the presence and knowledge of God. He has asked, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (v.7). Heaven cannot place him beyond God, hell cannot remove him from God’s sight, and the uttermost parts of the sea cannot carry him beyond God’s hand (vv.8-10). Now David considers darkness itself. If he imagined that night could hide him, even darkness would fail. Verse 12 gives the reason: darkness and light are both alike to God.
“If I say.” David introduces a possible thought. He does not say darkness actually can hide him; he considers what a man might suppose. Men often imagine secrecy where there is none. They may think distance, walls, silence, darkness, or the absence of human witnesses gives privacy. But the psalm has already established that God knows David’s thoughts, ways, and words before they are spoken (vv.2-4). What David might say to himself is therefore already known to God.
This should make a man careful about the private reasoning of his own heart. Sin often begins by persuading the sinner that he is unobserved. The adulterer waits for twilight; the thief chooses darkness; the liar trusts that no witness heard him. Job said of wicked men, “The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face” (Job 24:15). Psalm 139 destroys that confidence. God does not need daylight in order to see.
“Surely the darkness.” Darkness is the strongest natural figure for concealment. Men lose sight of one another in darkness, objects disappear from view, and hidden deeds are easier to perform without human discovery. David therefore takes the best hiding place nature can offer and tests it against the knowledge of God. It fails immediately.
Scripture connects darkness with the false confidence of sinners. Isaiah warned, “Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?” (Isaiah 29:15). Ezekiel records, “Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth” (Ezekiel 8:12). Darkness may hide conduct from men, but it never hides conduct from Jehovah.
“Shall cover me.” To be covered here is to be concealed from sight. David is not seeking comfort beneath a covering; the context is whether he could flee from God’s presence. If darkness surrounded him completely, could it hide him? Verse 12 answers the whole question: “Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee” (v.12). God does not search blindly through darkness until He finds a man. Nothing has ever disappeared from His knowledge.
This doctrine is fearful to the wicked. Secret sin is not secret before God. A man may hide adultery from his spouse, theft from his employer, deceit from his brethren, bitterness behind polite speech, or hypocrisy beneath religion, but none of it is covered from the LORD. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Darkness can delay human discovery; it cannot prevent divine judgment.
The same truth comforts the righteous. Men may not see hidden obedience, secret prayer, private grief, temptation resisted, kindness done quietly, or faithfulness that receives no public notice. God sees all of it. Jesus said, “That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:18). The saint therefore does not need an audience in order to be faithful. Darkness that hides his conduct from men does not hide it from his Father.
“Even the night.” David now names the time when natural light is absent. Night changes what men can see, but it changes nothing in God. Human eyes depend upon light; God’s knowledge does not. Night does not reduce His sight, confuse His judgment, or interrupt His care. Verse 12 declares that night shines as the day before Him.
This should restrain the sins men associate with darkness. Paul wrote, “For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:7). But saints are not to borrow their conduct from the night: “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” (1 Thessalonians 5:5). The Christian should live privately as he would live beneath the clearest light.
“Shall be light about me.” Darkness cannot perform the concealment David has imagined. Night itself becomes as light in relation to God’s knowledge. The point is not that David’s physical surroundings suddenly glow, but that darkness gives him no hidden place before God. God’s perfect knowledge therefore reaches every place and circumstance.
He sees His servant in a dark prison as fully as in a public assembly. He knows the persecuted saint hidden from enemies, the lonely believer unseen by others, and the sufferer whose trouble occurs when no human helper is near. David cannot hide from God, but neither can trouble hide David from God.
Jesus Christ possesses this perfect knowledge. Peter confessed to Him, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee” (John 21:17). Scripture also declares of the living Word, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13). Darkness never concealed a thought, word, enemy, disciple, or deed from Christ.
Do not trust darkness with your sin, and do not fear darkness in your trouble. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). Live in secret as before the face of God, and take comfort that wherever men cannot see you, Jehovah sees you altogether.