Psalms 139

Psalm 139

The Inescapable God

1O Lord , you have searched me and known me.[#Ps 17.3; Jer 12.3]

2You know when I sit down and when I rise up;[#2 Kings 19.27; Mt 9.4; Jn 2.24]

you discern my thoughts from far away.

3You search out my path and my lying down[#Job 31.4]

and are acquainted with all my ways.

4Even before a word is on my tongue,[#Heb 4.13]

O Lord , you know it completely.

5You hem me in, behind and before,[#Job 9.33; Ps 34.7]

and lay your hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;[#Job 42.3; Rom 11.33]

it is so high that I cannot attain it.

7Where can I go from your spirit?[#Jer 23.24; Jon 1.3]

Or where can I flee from your presence?

8If I ascend to heaven, you are there;[#Job 26.6; Prov 15.11; Am 9.2–4]

if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

9If I take the wings of the morning

and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

10even there your hand shall lead me,[#Ps 23.2, 3]

and your right hand shall hold me fast.

11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,[#Job 22.13]

and night wraps itself around me,”

12even the darkness is not dark to you;[#Job 34.22; Dan 2.22; Heb 4.13]

the night is as bright as the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

13For it was you who formed my inward parts;[#Job 10.11; Ps 119.73]

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[#Ps 40.5]

Wonderful are your works;

that I know very well.

15My frame was not hidden from you,[#Job 10.8–10; Ps 63.9]

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

In your book were written

all the days that were formed for me,

when none of them as yet existed.

17How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God![#Ps 40.5]

How vast is the sum of them!

18I try to count them—they are more than the sand;

I come to the end—I am still with you.

19O that you would kill the wicked, O God,[#Ps 119.115; Isa 11.4]

and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—

20those who speak of you maliciously[#Jude 15]

and lift themselves up against you for evil!

21Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord ?[#Ps 119.158]

And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

22I hate them with perfect hatred;

I count them my enemies.

23Search me, O God, and know my heart;[#Job 31.6; Ps 26.2; Jer 11.20]

test me and know my thoughts.

24See if there is any wicked way in me,[#Ps 5.8; 143.10; Prov 15.9; #139.24 Heb hurtful]

and lead me in the way everlasting.

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ