Psalms 139:1-19

¹For the music director. A psalm of David. Lord, you have examined me from the inside out—you know everything about me!

²You know when I sit down and when I get up. You know what I'm thinking even when I'm a long way away.

³You observe where I go and when I rest. You're familiar with everything I do.

⁴Lord, you even know what I'm going to say before I say it.

⁵You're always there—behind me, in front of me, and all around me. You place your caring hand on me.

⁶This amazing knowledge you have is far beyond me, way beyond my understanding!

⁷Where can I go that you're not already there? Where can I run to escape your presence?

⁸If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I lie down in Sheol, look—you are there too!

⁹If I were to fly away on wings of the dawn to the east; if I were to live on the far western shore of the sea,

¹⁰even there your hand would lead me, your right hand would support me.

¹¹If I asked the darkness to hide me, and light to become night around me,

¹²Even darkness would not be dark for you, and the night would be bright as day, for darkness is like light to you.

¹³You made me from the inside out, shaping me in my mother's womb.

¹⁴I praise you for making me in such an awesome and wonderful way. What you do is incredible—I realize this completely!

¹⁵My growing body was not hidden from you as I was formed in secret, as I was intricately put together “in the depths of the earth.”

¹⁶You saw me as an embryo, and in your book all my days were written down—the days that were made for me before any of them existed.

¹⁷God, your thoughts are so valuable to me! Taken together, they can't be counted!

¹⁸If I tried to count them, they would be more than every grain of sand. Yet when I awake I am still with you.

¹⁹God, if you would only kill the wicked! Murderers, get away from me!