Psalm 139-141

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

⁷ Where can I go from your spirit?
    Or where can I flee from your presence?^(G)
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
    if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.^(H)
9 If I take the wings of the morning
    and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me fast.^(I)
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and night wraps itself around me,”^[a](J)
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is as bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.^(K)

¹³ For it was you who formed my inward parts;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.^(L)
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
    Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.^(M)
15     My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.^(N)
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
    all the days that were formed for me,
    when none of them as yet existed.^[b]
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!^(O)
18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
    I come to the end^[c]—I am still with you.

¹⁹ O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
    and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—^(P)
20 those who speak of you maliciously
    and lift themselves up against you for evil!^[d](Q)
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?^(R)
22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
    I count them my enemies.
²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my thoughts.^(S)
24 See if there is any wicked^[e] way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting.^[f](T)

⁴ Guard me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked;
    protect me from the violent
    who have planned my downfall.^(X)
5 The arrogant have hidden a trap for me,
    and with cords they have spread a net,^[g]
    along the road they have set snares for me. Selah^(Y)

⁶ I say to the Lord, “You are my God;
    give ear, O Lord, to the voice of my supplications.”^(Z)
7 O Lord, my Lord, my strong deliverer,
    you have covered my head in the day of battle.^(AA)
8 Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked;
    do not further their evil plot.^[h] Selah^(AB)

⁹ Those who surround me lift up their heads;^[i]
    let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them!^(AC)
10 Let burning coals fall on them!
    Let them be flung into pits, no more to rise!^(AD)
11 Do not let the slanderer be established in the land;
    let evil speedily hunt down the violent!^(AE)

¹² I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy
    and executes justice for the poor.^(AF)
13 Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name;
    the upright shall live in your presence.^(AG)

³ Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord;
    keep watch over the door of my lips.
⁴ Do not turn my heart to any evil,
    to busy myself with wicked deeds
in company with those who work iniquity;
    do not let me eat of their delicacies.^(AJ)

⁵ Let the righteous strike me;
    let the faithful correct me.
Never let the oil of the wicked anoint my head,^[j]
    for my prayer is continually^[k] against their wicked deeds.^(AK)
6 When they are given over to those who shall condemn them,
    then they shall learn that my words were pleasant.
⁷ Like a rock that one breaks apart and shatters on the land,
    so shall their bones be strewn at the mouth of Sheol.^[l](AL)

⁸ But my eyes are turned toward you, O God, my Lord;
    in you I seek refuge; do not leave me defenseless.^(AM)
9 Keep me from the trap that they have laid for me
    and from the snares of evildoers.^(AN)
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
    while I alone escape.^(AO)