What Does Psalm 139:6 Mean?
Such perceiving is too wonderful for me; it is high, and I cannot reach it.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.THE KEY
You are fully known by a knowing so wondrous that your own understanding cannot contain it.
THE MEANING
You are known with a completeness your understanding cannot reach. That knowing is wondrous and beyond your grasp, yet the verse speaks of it as real now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that you must fully understand how you are known for that knowing to be real.
THE ROOT
פְּלִיאָה
peli'ah
GROWS FROM
פ־ל־א
To be wondrous or extraordinary, beyond ordinary reach.
“wonderful” in this verse is peli'ah. This root can describe both what is wondrous and what is too difficult for human ability. The word reaches beyond admiration: this knowing exceeds what you can take in.
ALSO GROWS
nifla'ot: Wonders; marvelous acts.
נִפְלָאוֹת
It shows the same root describing realities that exceed ordinary understanding.
yippale: Be too difficult or beyond ordinary ability.
יִפָּלֵא
In Genesis 18:14, the same root appears in the question translated “Is any thing too hard for the LORD?”
דַּעַת
da'at
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
To know or perceive; knowing through encounter.
“Such perceiving” in this verse is da'at. The verse’s “knowledge” grows from a root for knowing and perceiving, not merely holding information. In the surrounding lines, this is the intimate knowing that sees you through and through.
ALSO GROWS
yada: Know or perceive.
יָדַע
This verb names the living act behind the noun “knowledge.”
yodea: One who knows; knowing.
יֹדֵעַ
This form makes the root’s personal knower visible within the idea of knowledge.
נִשְׂגְּבָה
nisgəbah
GROWS FROM
ש־ג־ב
To be high, exalted, or inaccessible.
“high” in this verse is nisgəbah. This height is more than elevation: the same root can describe something set beyond danger or reach. Paired with “I cannot attain,” it gives the knowledge a height the speaker cannot climb.
ALSO GROWS
misgav: High place; refuge or stronghold.
מִשְׂגָּב
It shows height as a place of security, raised beyond what can reach it.
yisgav: Is safe; is set high.
יִשְׂגָּב
In Proverbs 18:10, this form links being high with being secure.
THE PATTERN
A truth can be fully real while remaining beyond human comprehension.
Who is this who covers counsel without knowledge? Therefore I lay out what I cannot tell apart, things too wonderful for me, which I do not know.O the depth of the riches of both wisdom and knowledge of God! How beyond searching out are his judgments, and how beyond tracking are his ways!THE THREAD
Is any word too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will turn back to you, at this season of life, and Sarah will have a son.The phrase translated “too hard” comes from יִפָּלֵא (yippale), meaning “be too difficult,” from the same root פ־ל־א (p-l-ʾ; pala) as “wonderful” here. The shared root links what exceeds your understanding with what exceeds ordinary human ability.
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