Psalm 139

Melody

LORD, you have searched me, heart and soul.
My inmost thoughts, you know them all.
When I sit down and when I rise
you see me with your watchful eyes,
and from afar your keen discerning
reveals to you my hopes and yearnings.
You trace my steps and day by day
see me at rest or on my way.
The paths I take are known to you,
for you watch everything I do.
Before my tongue one word can mention
you are aware of my intentions.
You are before me and behind;
I will in you my refuge find.
LORD, you have laid your hand on me.
Such knowledge is a mystery
so high that I cannot attain it,
so deep that I cannot explain it.
Where can I from your Spirit flee?
Where will you not be near to me?
If I to heaven’s height ascend,
then I shall there before you stand.
If I into the depths descended,
you would not leave me unattended.
When on the wings of dawn I rise
and fly away to distant skies,
to the remotest sea or land,
and make my home where I descend,
you even there will stay beside me
and with your right hand hold and guide me.
If I say, “Let the gloom of night
surround me, keep me from your sight,”
then darkness is not dark to you;
it will not hide me from your view.
With you the night is never lightless;
before your eyes the dark is brightness.
O LORD, you formed my inward parts –
my inmost self, my mind and heart.
You shaped them in my mother’s womb,
wove them together on your loom.
With awe, with rev’rent admiration,
I praise your wonderful creation.
O LORD, you know me through and through;
my frame was not concealed from you
when I in utmost secrecy
was knit and braided skilfully.
You know how I in safe seclusion
was made with delicate precision.
You, LORD, when I was yet unborn,
beheld my undeveloped form,
and long before my life began
you in your book decreed its span;
you then recorded on its pages
your plan for me in all its stages.
How precious are your thoughts to me!
How vast the sum of them must be.
I try to count them – they are more
than all the sand upon the shore.
O God, when I from sleep awaken,
I am still with you, not forsaken.
O God, if only you would slay
all those who go their wicked way.
O let them all from me depart,
those men of blood and evil heart.
They strive against you in their scheming;
your holy name they keep blaspheming.
Do I not hate those who hate you,
those who their wickedness pursue?
O LORD, all who against you rise
I as my enemies despise.
May woes and misery await them.
I with a perfect hatred hate them!
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
see if I from your ways depart.
LORD, probe my every anxious thought
and let me by your word be taught.
Help me walk on where you are leading,
in everlasting ways proceeding.