“Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.”
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. The imagery of hemming in suggests enclosure and containment; God surrounds the psalmist from all directions (behind and before, and implicitly above and below). The laying of hand represents both protective gesture and assertion of control and possession. The total enclosure emphasizes that escape from God's knowledge and presence is impossible. This verse shifts from epistemological claims (God knows) to ontological claims (God encompasses my existence). The enclosure can be experienced as either comforting protection or claustrophobic confinement.
Church Fathers on Psalms 139:5
1. ...Our Lord Jesus Christ speaks in the Prophets, sometimes in His own Name, sometimes in ours, because He makes Himself one with us; as it is said, “they two shall be one flesh.” Wherefore also the Lord says in the Gospel, speaking of marriage, “therefore they are no more two, but one flesh.” One flesh, because of our mortality He took flesh; not one divinity, for He is the Creator, we the creature. Whatsoever then our Lord speaks in the person of the Flesh He took upon…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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