Psalm 139
(verses 1 - 18)
The Inescapable God
O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I
sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far
away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted
with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord,
you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and
lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I fall from
your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make
my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your
hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If
I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light
around me become night," even the darkness is not dark to
you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light
to you.
For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together
in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame
was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately
woven in the depths of the earth. Your 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. How weighty to me are
your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count
them -- they are more than the sand; I come to the end -- I am
still with you.
New Revised Standard Version
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