God’s Omnipresence and Omniscience.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

1O LORD, you have searched me [thoroughly] and have known me.

2You know when I sit down and when I rise up [my entire life, everything I do];

You understand my thought from afar.

3You scrutinize my path and my lying down,

And You are intimately acquainted with all my ways.

4Even before there is a word on my tongue [still unspoken],

Behold, O LORD, You know it all.

5You have enclosed me behind and before,

And [You have] placed Your hand upon me.

6Such [infinite] knowledge is too wonderful for me;

It is too high [above me], I cannot reach it.

7Where can I go from Your Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your presence?

8If I ascend to heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead), behold, You are there.

9If I take the wings of the dawn,

If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,

10Even there Your hand will lead me,

And Your right hand will take hold of me.

11If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me,

And the night will be the only light around me,”

12Even the darkness is not dark to You and conceals nothing from You,

But the night shines as bright as the day;

Darkness and light are alike to You.

13For You formed my innermost parts;

You knit me [together] in my mother’s womb.

14I will give thanks and praise to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Your works,

And my soul knows it very well.

15My frame was not hidden from You,

When I was being formed in secret,

And intricately and skillfully formed [as if embroidered with many colors] in the depths of the earth.

16Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;

And in Your book were all written

The days that were appointed for me,

When as yet there was not one of them [even taking shape].

17How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18If I could count them, they would outnumber the sand.

When I awake, I am still with You.

19[a]O that You would kill the wicked, O God;

Go away from me, therefore, men of bloodshed.

20For they speak against You wickedly,

Your enemies take Your name in vain.

21Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?

22I hate them with perfect and utmost hatred;

They have become my enemies.

23Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart;

Test me and know my anxious thoughts;

24And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me,

And lead me in the everlasting way.

[a] 19 In the first eighteen verses of this psalm, the psalmist acknowledges that God knows everything that the psalmist ever does, no matter when or where he does it. Although God’s vast knowledge of an individual’s deeds can be reassuring for the righteous, it should be frightening for the wicked. In verses 19-24, the psalmist distances himself from the wicked and asks God to help him live in such a way that pleases God.