Refrain:Search me out, O God, and know my heart. 1O Lord, you have searched me out and known me; • you know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 2You mark out my journeys and my resting place • and are acquainted with all my ways. 3For there is not a word on my tongue, • but you, O Lord, know it altogether. 4You encompass me behind and before • and lay your hand upon me. 5Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, • so high that I cannot attain it. R 6Where can I go then from your spirit? • Or where can I flee from your presence? 7If I climb up to heaven, you are there; • if I make the grave my bed, you are there also. 8If I take the wings of the morning • and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 9Even there your hand shall lead me, • your right hand hold me fast. 10If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me • and the light around me turn to night,’ 11Even darkness is no darkness with you; the night is as clear as the day; • darkness and light to you are both alike. R 12For you yourself created my inmost parts; • you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 13I thank you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; • marvellous are your works, my soul knows well. 14My frame was not hidden from you, • when I was made in secret and woven in the depths of the earth. 15Your eyes beheld my form, as yet unfinished; • already in your book were all my members written, 16As day by day they were fashioned • when as yet there was none of them. 17How deep are your counsels to me, O God! • How great is the sum of them! 18If I count them, they are more in number than the sand, • and at the end, I am still in your presence. R 19O that you would slay the wicked, O God, • that the bloodthirsty might depart from me! 20They speak against you with wicked intent; • your enemies take up your name for evil. 21Do I not oppose those, O Lord, who oppose you? • Do I not abhor those who rise up against you? 22I hate them with a perfect hatred; • they have become my own enemies also. 23Search me out, O God, and know my heart; • try me and examine my thoughts. 24See if there is any way of wickedness in me • and lead me in the way everlasting. Refrain:Search me out, O God, and know my heart. Creator God, may every breath we take be for your glory, may every footstep show you as our way, that, trusting in your presence in this world, we may, beyond this life, still be with you where you are alive and reign for ever and ever. |
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