Psalms 139
Royal Kingdom
The Inescapable God
To the choirmaster.
A Psalm of David.
1O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
3You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
4Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5You beset me behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain it.
7Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
11If I say, “Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night,”
12even the darkness is not dark to you, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light with you.
13For you formed my inward parts, you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14I praise you, for I am wondrously made. Wonderful are your works! You know me right well;
15my frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes beheld my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
17How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
18If I would count them, they are more than the sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
19O that you would slay the wicked, O God, and that men of blood would depart from me,
20men who maliciously defy you, who lift themselves up against you for evil!
21Do I not hate them that hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe them that rise up against you?
22I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.
23Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
24And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!