Psalm 139
A David psalm
1GOD, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
2I'm an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
3You know when I leave and when I get back;
I'm never out of your sight.
4You know everything I'm going to say
before I start the first sentence.
5I look behind me and you're there,
then up ahead and you're there, too--
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
6This is too much, too wonderful--
I can't take it all in!
7Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
8If I climb to the sky, you're there!
If I go underground, you're there!
9If I flew on morning's wings
to the far western horizon,
10You'd find me in a minute--
you're already there waiting!
11Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I'm immersed in the light!"
12It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.
13Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
14I thank you, High God--you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration--what a creation!
15You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
16Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.
17Your thoughts--how rare, how beautiful!
God, I'll never comprehend them!
18I couldn't even begin to count them--
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
19And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers--out of here!-
20all the men and women who belittle you, God,
infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
21See how I hate those who hate you, GOD,
see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
22I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies are my enemies!
23Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I'm about;
24See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong--
then guide me on the road to eternal life.
From The Message
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by
Eugene H. Peterson