To the Music Director: A Davidic Song

God’s Knowledge and Presence

1LORD, you have examined me;

you have known me.

2You know when I resta

and when I am active.b

You understand what I am thinking

when I am distant from you.c

3You scrutinize my life and my rest;d

you are familiar with all of my ways.

4Even before I have formed a word with my tongue,

you, LORD, know it completely!

5You encircle me from back to front,

placing your hand upon me.

6Knowledge like this is too amazing for me.

It is beyond my reach,

and I cannot fathom it.

The Magnitude of God

7Where can I flee from your spirit?

Or where will I run from your presence?

8If I rise to heaven, there you are!

If I lay down with the dead,e there you are!

9If I take wings with the dawn

and settle down on the western horizonf

10your hand will guide me there, too,

while your right hand keeps a firm grip on me.

11If I say, “Darkness will surely conceal me,

and the light around me will become night,”g

12even darkness isn’t dark to you,

darkness and light are the same to you.h

13It was you who formed my internal organs,i

fashioning me within my mother’s womb.

14I praise you,

because you are fearful and wondrous!j

Your work is wonderful,

and I am fully aware of it.

15My frame was not hidden from you

while I was being crafted in a hidden place,

knit together in the depths of the earth.

16Your eyes looked upon my embryo,

and everything was recorded in your book.

The days scheduledk for my formation were inscribed,

even though not one of them had come yet.l

17How deepm are your thoughts, God!

How great is their number!

18Were I to count them,

they would number more than the sand.

When I awake, I will be with you.

19God, if only you would execute the wicked,

so thatn the men guilty of bloodshed would get away from me,

20who speak against you with evil motives,

your enemies who are acting in vain.

21I hate those who hate you, LORD, do I not?

I loathe those who rebel against you, do I not ?

22With consummate hatred I hate them;

I consider them my enemies.

23Examine me, God, and know my mind,

test me, and know my thoughts.

24See if there is any offensive tendencyo in me,

and lead me in the eternal way.