Sunday, June 19, 2011

Psalm 139

1 You have searched me, LORD, 
   and you know me. 

2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
   you perceive my thoughts from afar. 


3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
   you are familiar with all my ways. 


4 Before a word is on my tongue
   you, LORD, know it completely. 


5 You hem me in behind and before,
   and you lay your hand upon me. 


6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
   too lofty for me to attain.



 7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
   Where can I flee from your presence? 


8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 


9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea, 


10 even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast. 


11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
   and the light become night around me,” 


12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
   the night will shine like the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.



 13 For you created my inmost being;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 


14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
   your works are wonderful,
   I know that full well. 


15 My frame was not hidden from you
   when I was made in the secret place,
   when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 


16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
   all the days ordained for me were written in your book
   before one of them came to be. 


17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
   How vast is the sum of them! 


18 Were I to count them,
   they would outnumber the grains of sand—
   when I awake, I am still with you.



 19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
   Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! 


20 They speak of you with evil intent;
   your adversaries misuse your name. 


21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
   and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? 


22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
   I count them my enemies. 


23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts. 


24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.







Amen.