Psalm 139-141

New Life Version

God Cares for His People

139 O Lord, You have looked through me and have known me. ² You know when I sit down and when I get up. You understand my thoughts from far away. ³ You look over my path and my lying down. You know all my ways very well. ⁴ Even before I speak a word, O Lord, You know it all. ⁵ You have closed me in from behind and in front. And You have laid Your hand upon me. ⁶ All You know is too great for me. It is too much for me to understand.

⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I run away from where You are? ⁸ If I go up to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in the place of the dead, You are there! ⁹ If I take the wings of the morning or live in the farthest part of the sea, ¹⁰ even there Your hand will lead me and Your right hand will hold me. ¹¹ If I say, “For sure the darkness will cover me and the light around me will be night,” ¹² even the darkness is not dark to You. And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to You.

¹³ For You made the parts inside me. You put me together inside my mother. ¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for the greatness of the way I was made brings fear. Your works are great and my soul knows it very well. ¹⁵ My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret and put together with care in the deep part of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw me before I was put together. And all the days of my life were written in Your book before any of them came to be.

¹⁷ Your thoughts are of great worth to me, O God. How many there are! ¹⁸ If I could number them, there would be more than the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.

¹⁹ If only You would kill the sinful, O God, and the men of blood would go away from me! ²⁰ For they speak against You in sin. Those who hate You use Your name in a wrong way. ²¹ Do I not hate those who hate You, O Lord? And do I not hate those who rise up against You? ²² I hate them with the strongest hate. They have become men who hate me.

²³ Look through me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. ²⁴ See if there is any sinful way in me and lead me in the way that lasts forever.

A Prayer for Help

140 O Lord, take me away from sinful men. Keep me safe from men who want to hurt others. ² They make sinful plans in their hearts. They always start wars. ³ They make their tongues sharp like a snake’s. And the poison of a snake is under their lips.

⁴ O Lord, keep me from the hands of the sinful. Keep me safe from men who want to hurt others and have planned to trip my feet. ⁵ The proud have hidden a trap for me. With ropes they have spread a net. They have set traps for me beside the road. ⁶ I said to the Lord, “You are my God. Listen to the voice of my prayers, O Lord. ⁷ O God the Lord, the strength that saves me, You have covered my head in the day of battle. ⁸ O Lord, do not give the sinful what they want. Do not let their plans work, or they will be honored.

⁹ “As for those who gather around me, may the wrong-doing of their lips come upon their heads. ¹⁰ May burning coals fall upon them. May they be thrown into the fire, into deep holes, and rise no more. ¹¹ Do not let the man whose talking hurts people stand in the land. May trouble hurry to catch and destroy the man who wants to hurt others.”

¹² I know that the Lord will stand by those who suffer and do what is right for the poor. ¹³ For sure those who are right and good will give thanks to Your name. Those who are right will live with You.

An Evening Prayer

141 I call upon You, O Lord. Hurry to me! Hear my voice when I call to You! ² May my prayer be like special perfume before You. May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening gift given on the altar in worship. ³ O Lord, put a watch over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. ⁴ Do not let my heart turn to any sinful thing, to do wrong with men who sin. And do not let me eat their fine food.

⁵ Let those who are right with God punish me and speak strong words to me in kindness. It is oil upon my head. Do not let my head turn away from it. Yet my prayer is always against the sinful works of those who sin. ⁶ When their rulers are thrown down from high rocks, they will hear my words, for they are true. ⁷ Our bones have been spread around the mouth of the grave like the broken ground behind the plow.

⁸ For my eyes are toward You, O God the Lord. In You I have a safe place. Do not leave me without help. ⁹ Keep me from the trap they have set for me. Keep me from the nets of those who do wrong. ¹⁰ Let the sinful fall into their own nets, while I pass by and am safe.