[1] LORD, you have examined me. You know me. [2] You know when I sit down and when I stand up. Even from far away, you comprehend my plans. [3] You study my traveling and resting. You are thoroughly familiar with all my ways. [4] There isn’t a word on my tongue, LORD, that you don’t already know completely. [5] You surround me—front and back. You put your hand on me. [6] That kind of knowledge is too much for me; it’s so high above me that I can’t reach it. [7] Where could I go to get away from your spirit? Where could I go to escape your presence? [8] If I went up to heaven, you would be there. If I went down to the grave, you would be there too! [9] If I could fly on the wings of dawn, stopping to rest only on the far side of the ocean— [10] even there your hand would guide me; even there your strong hand would hold me tight! [11] If I said, “The darkness will definitely hide me; the light will become night around me,” [12] even then the darkness isn’t too dark for you! Nighttime would shine bright as day, because darkness is the same as light to you! [13] You are the one who created my innermost parts; you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb. [14] I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart. Your works are wonderful—I know that very well. [15] My bones weren’t hidden from you when I was being put together in a secret place, when I was being woven together in the deep parts of the earth. [16] Your eyes saw my embryo, and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me, before any one of them had yet happened. [17] God, your plans are incomprehensible to me! Their total number is countless! [18] If I tried to count them—they outnumber grains of sand! If I came to the very end—I’d still be with you. [19] If only, God, you would kill the wicked! If only murderers would get away from me— [20] the people who talk about you, but only for wicked schemes; the people who are your enemies, who use your name as if it were of no significance. [21] Don’t I hate everyone who hates you? Don’t I despise those who attack you? [22] Yes, I hate them—through and through! They’ve become my enemies too. [23] Examine me, God! Look at my heart! Put me to the test! Know my anxious thoughts! [24] Look to see if there is any idolatrous way in me, then lead me on the eternal path!
