1 For the director of music. Of David. A psalm. O LORD, you have searched me 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 know it completely, O LORD. |
5 You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid 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, O 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 would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! |
20 They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. |
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD, and abhor those who rise up against you? |
22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. |
23 Search me, O 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. |