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Chapter 139

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¹ For the leader. A psalm of David. I LORD, you have probed me, you know me:

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² you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar.

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My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar.

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Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all.

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Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me.

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Such knowledge is beyond me, far too lofty for me to reach.

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Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee?

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If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too.

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³ If I fly with the wings of dawn and alight beyond the sea,

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Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast.

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⁴ If I say, "Surely darkness shall hide me, and night shall be my light"  - 

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Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day. Darkness and light are but one.

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You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb.

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I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! My very self you knew;

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⁵ my bones were not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned as in the depths of the earth.

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Your eyes foresaw my actions; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be.

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How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them!

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Were I to count, they would outnumber the sands; to finish, I would need eternity.

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If only you would destroy the wicked, O God, and the bloodthirsty would depart from me!

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Deceitfully they invoke your name; your foes swear faithless oaths.

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Do I not hate, LORD, those who hate you? Those who rise against you, do I not loathe?

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With fierce hatred I hate them, enemies I count as my own.

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Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my concerns.

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⁶ See if my way is crooked, then lead me in the ancient paths.