God, you examine me and you know me!
You know me when I sit down or when I get up,
you read my thoughts from any distance.You scrutinise me whether I am at work or taking leisure,
you are familiar with everything I do.Even before a word lies on my tongue
you know what I am going to say.
You surround me - you are in front of me and at my back,
your hand touches me.
Your knowledge of me is too deep,
it passes beyond my understanding.Where could I get away from your Spirit?
Where could I escape from your Presence?
If I climb up to heaven, you are there,
if descend to the world of the dead, you are there.
If I fly on the wings of the dawn to the furthest east
or travel across the oceans to the furthest west,
your hand would be there to lead me,
your right hand would give me support.If I say to myself: "Let darkness hide me,
let the light around me turn into night!",
even darkness is not dark to you,
the night is as bright as the day.
For darkness is transparent as light to you.You created me, moulding my inmost parts,
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I give you credit - you fill me with awe!
What you have done to me is truly amazing!
You know me through and through.
My frame lay open to you
when I was being formed in secret,
intricately woven in my mother's depths!Your eyes looked at me
while I was still an unfinished foetus.
In your book were recorded, yes every one of them,
the days of life allotted to me
before my first day had even begun!O God, such thoughts about you challenge me.
Their magnitude overwhelms me.
If I counted their number
there would be more than the grains of sand . . . .When I return to my senses, - you are still with me!
Psalm 139, freely translated
