The Inescapable God

To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.

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 far away.

3You search out my path and my lying down,

and are acquainted with all my ways.

4Even before a word is on my tongue,

O LORD, you know it completely.

5You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is so high that I cannot attain it.

7Where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can 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 settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

10even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me fast.

11If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light around me become night’,

12even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is as bright as the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

13For it was you who formed my inward parts;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

that I know very well.

15My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

In your book were written

all the days that were formed for me,

when none of them as yet existed.

17How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18I try to count them—they are more than the sand;

I come to the end139.18 Or I awake—I am still with you.

19O that you would kill the wicked, O God,

and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—

20those who speak of you maliciously,

and lift themselves up against you for evil!139.20 Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain

21Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

22I hate them with perfect hatred;

I count them my enemies.

23Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my thoughts.

24See if there is any wicked139.24 Heb hurtful way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.139.24 Or the ancient way. Compare Jer 6.16