Psalm 139

For the music leader. Of David. A song.

• 139 LORD , you have examined me.
• You know me.
• ² You know when I sit down and when I stand up.
• Even from far away, you comprehend my plans.
• ³ You study my traveling and resting.
• You are thoroughly familiar with all my ways.
• ⁴ There isn’t a word on my tongue, LORD ,
• that you don’t already know completely.
• ⁵ You surround me—front and back.
• You put your hand on me.
• ⁶ That kind of knowledge is too much for me;
• it’s so high above me that I can’t fathom it.

• ⁷ Where could I go to get away from your spirit?
• Where could I go to escape your presence?
• ⁸ If I went up to heaven, you would be there.
• If I went down to the grave,^c you would be there too!
• ⁹ If I could fly on the wings of dawn,
• stopping to rest only on the far side of the ocean—
• ¹⁰ even there your hand would guide me;
• even there your strong hand would hold me tight!
• ¹¹ If I said, “ The darkness will definitely hide me;
• the light will become night around me, ”
• ¹² even then the darkness isn’t too dark for you!
• Nighttime would shine bright as day,
• because darkness is the same as light to you!

• ¹³ You are the one who created my innermost parts;
• you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb.
• ¹⁴ I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart.
• Your works are wonderful—I know that very well.
• ¹⁵ My bones weren’t hidden from you
• when I was being put together in a secret place,
• when I was being woven together in the deep parts of the earth.
• ¹⁶ Your eyes saw my embryo,
• and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me,^d
• before any one of them had yet happened.^e
• ¹⁷ God, your plans are incomprehensible to me!
• Their total number is countless!
• ¹⁸ If I tried to count them—they outnumber grains of sand!
• If I came to the very end—I’d still be with you.^f

• ¹⁹ If only, God, you would kill the wicked!
• If only murderers would get away from me—
• ²⁰ the people who talk about you, but only for wicked schemes;
• the people who are your enemies,
• who use your name as if it were of no significance.^g
• ²¹ Don’t I hate everyone who hates you?
• Don’t I despise those who attack you?
• ²² Yes, I hate them—through and through!
• They’ve become my enemies too.

• ²³ Examine me, God! Look at my heart!
• Put me to the test! Know my anxious thoughts!
• ²⁴ Look to see if there is any idolatrous way^h in me,
• then lead me on the eternal path!