Psalm 139
1 O LORD, you have searched me [thoroughly] and have known me.2 You know my downsitting and my uprising; You understand my thought afar off. 3 You sift and search out my path and my lying down, and You are acquainted with all my ways.4 For there is not a word in my tongue [still unuttered], but, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. 5 You have beset me and shut me in--behind and before, and You have laid Your hand upon me.6 Your [infinite] knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high above me, I cannot reach it.7 Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence?8 If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the place of the dead), behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,10 Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me and the night shall be [the only] light about me,12 Even the darkness hides nothing from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You. 13 For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb.14 I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well.15 My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery].16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.17 How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with You.19 If You would [only] slay the wicked, O God, and the men of blood depart from me--20 Who speak against You wickedly, Your enemies who take Your name in vain! 21 Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You? And am I not grieved and do I not loathe those who rise up against You?22 I hate them with perfect hatred; they have become my enemies.23 Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!24 And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139
A David Psalm
1-6 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight. You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too— your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful— I can't take it all in!
7-12 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there! If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon, You'd find me in a minute— you're already there waiting! Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!" It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.
13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb. I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.
17-22 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll never comprehend them! I couldn't even begin to count them— any more than I could count the sand of the sea. Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you! And please, God, do away with wickedness for good! And you murderers—out of here!— all the men and women who belittle you, God, infatuated with cheap god-imitations. See how I hate those who hate you, God, see how I loathe all this godless arrogance; I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred. Your enemies are my enemies!
23-24 Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I'm about; See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong— then guide me on the road to eternal life.