Chapter 139

  To the chief music-maker. A Psalm. Of David.
O Lord, you have knowledge of me, searching out all my secrets.  

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  You have knowledge when I am seated and when I get up, you see my thoughts from far away.  

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  You keep watch over my steps and my sleep, and have knowledge of all my ways.  

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  For there is not a word on my tongue which is not clear to you, O Lord.  

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  I am shut in by you on every side, and you have put your hand on me.  

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  Such knowledge is a wonder greater than my powers; it is so high that I may not come near it.  

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  Where may I go from your spirit? how may I go in flight from you?  

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  If I go up to heaven, you are there: or if I make my bed in the underworld, you are there.  

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  If I take the wings of the morning, and go to the farthest parts of the sea;  

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  Even there will I be guided by your hand, and your right hand will keep me.  

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  If I say, Only let me be covered by the dark, and the light about me be night;  

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  Even the dark is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day: for dark and light are the same to you.  

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  My flesh was made by you, and my parts joined together in my mother's body.  

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  I will give you praise, for I am strangely and delicately formed; your works are great wonders, and of this my soul is fully conscious.  

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  My frame was not unseen by you when I was made secretly, and strangely formed in the lowest parts of the earth.  

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  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book all my days were recorded, even those which were purposed before they had come into being.  

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  How dear are your thoughts to me, O God! how great is the number of them!  

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  If I made up their number, it would be more than the grains of sand; when I am awake, I am still with you.  

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  If only you would put the sinners to death, O God; go far from me, you men of blood.  

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  For they go against you with evil designs, and your haters make sport of your name.  

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  Are not your haters hated by me, O Lord? are not those who are lifted up against you a cause of grief to me?  

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  My hate for them is complete; my thoughts of them are as if they were making war on me.  

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  O God, let the secrets of my heart be uncovered, and let my wandering thoughts be tested:  

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  See if there is any way of sorrow in me, and be my guide in the eternal way.  

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