Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me

and you know me.

Your know when I sit

and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out

and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

you know it completely,

O Lord.

You hem me in -behind and before;

you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

Too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens,

you are there;

If I make my bed in the depths,

you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,"

even the darkness will not

be dark to you;

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my

mother's womb.

I praise you because

I am fearfully and wonderfully made:

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place.

Wen I was woven together

in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your

thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,

they would outnumber

the grains of sand.

When I awake,

I am still with you.

If only you would slay the wicked

O God!

Away from me,

you bloodthirsty men!

They speak of you with evil intent:

your adversaries misuse your name.

Do I not hate those who hate you,

O Lord,

and abhor those who rise up

against you?

I have nothing but hatred for them;

I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God,

and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,

and lead me in the way

everlasting.

- a psalm of David

NIV