To the Music Director: A Davidic Song
God’s Knowledge and Presence
139 Lord, you have examined me;
you have known me.
2 You know when I rest[a]
and when I am active.[b]
You understand what I am thinking
when I am distant from you.[c]
3 You scrutinize my life and my rest;[d]
you are familiar with all of my ways.
4 Even before I have formed a word with my tongue,
you, Lord, know it completely!
5 You encircle me from back to front,
placing your hand upon me.
6 Knowledge like this is too amazing for me.
It is beyond my reach,
and I cannot fathom it.
The Magnitude of God
7 Where can I flee from your spirit?
Or where will I run from your presence?
8 If I rise to heaven, there you are!
If I lay down with the dead,[e] there you are!
9 If I take wings with the dawn
and settle down on the western horizon[f]
10 your hand will guide me there, too,
while your right hand keeps a firm grip on me.
11 If I say, “Darkness will surely conceal me,
and the light around me will become night,”[g]
12 even darkness isn’t dark to you,
darkness and light are the same to you.[h]
13 It was you who formed my internal organs,[i]
fashioning me within my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you,
because you are fearful and wondrous![j]
Your work is wonderful,
and I am fully aware of it.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
while I was being crafted in a hidden place,
knit together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes looked upon my embryo,
and everything was recorded in your book.
The days scheduled[k] for my formation were inscribed,
even though not one of them had come yet.[l]
17 How deep[m] are your thoughts, God!
How great is their number!
18 Were I to count them,
they would number more than the sand.
When I awake, I will be with you.
19 God, if only you would execute the wicked,
so that[n] the men guilty of bloodshed would get away from me,
20 who speak against you with evil motives,
your enemies who are acting in vain.
21 I hate those who hate you, Lord, do I not?
I loathe those who rebel against you, do I not ?
22 With consummate hatred I hate them;
I consider them my enemies.
23 Examine me, God, and know my mind,
test me, and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive tendency[o] in me,
and lead me in the eternal way.
Footnotes
- Psalm 139:2 Lit. know my sitting
- Psalm 139:2 Lit. and my rising
- Psalm 139:2 Or thinking from a distance
- Psalm 139:3 Or death; Lit. my path and my lying down
- Psalm 139:8 Lit. to Sheol; i.e. the realm of the dead
- Psalm 139:9 Lit. the end of the sea
- Psalm 139:11 So MT LXX; DSS 11QPsa reads And let me say, “Surely darkness conceals and night has girded me about.”
- Psalm 139:12 The Heb. lacks to you
- Psalm 139:13 Lit. my kidneys
- Psalm 139:14 So DSS 11QPsa Syr Hieronymus; MT LXX read because I am fearfully and wonderfully made
- Psalm 139:16 The Heb. lacks scheduled
- Psalm 139:16 The Heb. lacks had come yet
- Psalm 139:17 Or precious
- Psalm 139:19 So LXX DSS 11QPsa; MT reads and so that
- Psalm 139:24 Lit. way