Alexander Kirkpatrick states that "the consciousness of the intimate personal relation between God and man which is characteristic of the whole Psalter reaches its climax here".

Since the Middle Ages, this psalm was recited or sung during the Vespers office on Thursday, according to the Rule of St. Benedict, established in 530.

[21] The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention sponsors the Psalm 139 Project, which aims to place ultrasound machines in crisis pregnancy centers as a means of convincing pregnant women not to abort their unborn child.

[22] The hymn "Ob ich sitze oder stehe" ('Whether I sit or stand'), of the genre Neues Geistliches Lied, by Eugen Eckert is based on Psalm 139.

Heinrich Schütz composed a metred paraphrase of Psalm 139 in German, "Herr, du erforschst mein Sinne", SWV 244, for the Becker Psalter, published first in 1628.

Verses 9-10 feature in the short story Ved det yderste Hav (The uttermost parts of the sea) by Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen.