PSALM 139

Yahweh, you examine me and know me,
you know if I am standing or sitting,
you read my thoughts from far away,
whether i walk or lie down, you are watching,
you know every detail of my conduct.

The word is not even on my tongue,
Yahweh, before you know all about it ;
close behind and close in front you fence me around,
shielding me with your hand.
Such knowledge is beyond my understanding,
a height to which my mind cannot attain.

Where could I go to escape your spirit?
Where could I go to flee from your presence?
If I climb the heavens, you are there,
there too, if I lie in Sheol.

If I flew to the point of sunrise,
or westward across the sea,
your hand would still be guiding me,
your right hand holding me.

If I ask darkness to cover me,
and light to become night around me,
the darkness would not be dark to you,
night would be as light as day.

It was you who created my inmost self,
and put me together in my mother's womb ;
for all these mysteries I thank you :
for the wonder of myself, for the wonder of your works.

You know me through and through,
from having watch my bones take shape
when i was being form in secret,
knitted together in the limbo of the womb.

You had scrutinised my every action,
all were recorded in your book,
my days listed and determined,
even before the first of them occurred.

God, how hard it is to grasp your thoughts !
How impossible to count them !
I count no more count them than I could the sand,
and suppose I could, you would still be there with me.

God, if only you would kill the wicked !
Men of blood, away from me !
They talk blasphemously about you,
regard your thoughts as nothing.

Yahweh, do I not hate does who hate you,
and loathe those who defy you ?
I hate them with a total hatred,
I regard them as my own enemies.

God, examine me and know my heart,
probe me and know my thoughts ;
make sure I do not follow pernicious ways,
and guide me in the way that is everylasting.

Amen