Psalms 139

139

Psalm 139

The Inescapable God

To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.

1 # Ps 17.3; Jer 12.3 O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

2 # 2 Kings 19.27; Mt 9.4; Jn 2.24 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from far away.

3 # Job 31.4 You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

4 # Heb 4.13 Even before a word is on my tongue,

O Lord, you know it completely.

5 # Job 9.33; Ps 34.7 You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

6 # Job 42.3; Rom 11.33 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is so high that I cannot attain it.

7 # Jer 23.24; Jon 1.3 Where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

8 # Job 26.6; Prov 15.11; Am 9.2–4 If 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,

10 # Ps 23.2, 3 even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me fast.

11 # Job 22.13 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and night wraps itself around me,”#139.11 Q ms: MT and the light around me become night

12 # Job 34.22; Dan 2.22; Heb 4.13 even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is as bright as the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

13 # Job 10.11; Ps 119.73 For it was you who formed my inward parts;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 # Ps 40.5 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

that I know very well.

15 # Job 10.8–10; Ps 63.9 My 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.#139.16 Meaning of Heb uncertain

17 # Ps 40.5 How 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 end#139.18 Or I awake—I am still with you.

19 # Ps 119.115; Isa 11.4 O that you would kill the wicked, O God,

and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—

20 # Jude 15 those who speak of you maliciously

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

21 # Ps 119.158 Do 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.

23 # Job 31.6; Ps 26.2; Jer 11.20 Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my thoughts.

24 # Ps 5.8; 143.10; Prov 15.9 See if there is any wicked#139.24 Heb hurtful way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.#139.24 Or the ancient way

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Psalms 139: NRSVUE

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