Psalm 139-141

Common English Bible

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,^[a] 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,^[b]
    before any one of them had yet happened.^[c]
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.^[d]

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.^[e]
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^[f] in me,
    then lead me on the eternal path!

⁴ Protect me from the power of the wicked, Lord!
    Guard me from violent people
        who plot to trip me up!
⁵ Arrogant people have laid a trap for me with ropes.
    They’ve spread out a net alongside the road.
    They’ve set snares for me. Selah

⁶ I tell the Lord, “You are my God!
    Listen to my request for mercy, Lord!”
⁷ My Lord God, my strong saving help—
    you’ve protected my head on the day of battle.
⁸ Lord, don’t give the wicked what they want!
    Don’t allow their plans to succeed,
    or they’ll exalt themselves even more!^[h] Selah

⁹ Let the heads of the people surrounding me
    be covered with the trouble their own lips caused!^[i]
10 Let burning coals fall on them!
    Let them fall into deep pits and never get out again!
¹¹ Let no slanderer be safe in the land.
    Let calamity hunt down violent people—and quickly!^[j]

¹² I know that the Lord will take up the case of the poor
    and will do what is right for the needy.
¹³ Yes, the righteous will give thanks to your name,
    and those who do right will live in your presence.

³ Set a guard over my mouth, Lord;
    keep close watch over the door that is my lips.
⁴ Don’t let my heart turn aside to evil things
        so that I don’t do wicked things with evildoers,
        so I don’t taste their delicacies.

⁵ Instead, let the righteous discipline me;
    let the faithful correct me!
Let my head never reject that kind of fine oil,
    because my prayers are always against the deeds of the wicked.^[k]
6 Their leaders will fall from jagged cliffs,
    but my words will be heard because they are pleasing.^[l]
7 Our bones^[m] have been scattered at the mouth of the grave,^[n]
    just like when the ground is broken up and plowed.^[o]

⁸ But my eyes are on you, my Lord God.
    I take refuge in you; don’t let me die!
⁹ Protect me from the trap they’ve set for me;
    protect me from the snares of the evildoers.
¹⁰ Let the wicked fall into their own nets—all together!—
    but let me make it through safely.