The Knowledge of God

¹ For the music director. Of David. A psalm.¹ O Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me.

1. The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm

² You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought from afar.

³ You search out¹ my wandering and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

1. Hebrew “winnow”; or perhaps from another root, “measure”

⁴ For there is not a word yet on my tongue, but behold, O Yahweh, you know it completely.

⁵ You barricade me behind and in front, and set your hand upon me.

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is set high; I cannot prevail against it.

⁷ Where I can go from your Spirit, or where can I flee from your presence?

⁸ If I ascend to heaven, there you are, and if I make my bed in Sheol, look! There you are.

⁹ If I lift up the wings of the dawn, and I alight on the far side of the sea,

¹⁰ even there your hand would lead me, and your right hand would hold me fast.

¹¹ And if I should say, “Surely darkness will cover me, and the light around me will be as night,”

¹² even the darkness is not too dark for you,¹ and the night shines as the day— the darkness and the light are alike for you.

1. Or “does not obscure from you”

¹³ Indeed you created my ⌞inward parts⌟;¹ you wove me in my mother’s womb.

1. Literally “kidneys”

¹⁴ I praise you, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.¹ Wonderful are your works, and my soul knows it well.

1. Or “I am made wonderful fearfully”

¹⁵ My ⌞frame⌟¹ was not hidden from you, when I was created secretly,² and intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

1. Literally “bone”
2. Or “in the secret place”

¹⁶ Your eyes saw my embryo,¹ and in your book they all were written— days fashioned for me when there was not one of them.

1. Hebrew “unformed substance”

¹⁷ And to me, how precious¹ are your thoughts, O God; how vast is their sum.

1. Or “difficult”

¹⁸ If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. I awaken, and I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you would kill the wicked, O God— so get away from me, you ⌞bloodthirsty men⌟—¹

1. Literally “men of bloods”

²⁰ who speak against you deceitfully. Your enemies take your name in vain.

²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O Yahweh? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

²² I hate them with a complete hatred; they have become my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

²⁴ And see if there is in me ⌞the worship of false gods⌟,¹ and lead me in the way everlasting.

1. Literally “a way of an idol”