Verse Lens · Context pointer
Psalms 139:17 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 17. 17How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
Psalm 139:17: Within “Known, searched, and unable to flee divine presence: Creaturely formation and uncountable thoughts,” the line “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how…” supplies one distinct parallel claim, image, address, or response.
Read It With
- Psalms 139:13–18
- Psalms 139:1–24
Read Psalms 139:17 with 139:13–18 and 139:1–24. Read alone, “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great…” could lose the individual voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 139:13–18, the individual voice carries the movement “Creaturely formation and uncountable thoughts” as part of “Known, searched, and unable to flee divine presence.” Its wisdom-hymn-lament form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Psalms 139:13–18 — Known, searched, and unable to flee divine presence: Creaturely formation and uncountable thoughtsSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 139:13–18, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 139:13–18
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗