You Have Searched Me and Known Me

1For the one directing. A Psalm of David.

1 O YHWH, You have searched me

and know me.

2You know my sitting down and my rising up;

You discern my thought from afar.

3You have fanned My wandering and my lying down,

and You are aware of all my ways.

4For there is not a word on my tongue—

behold, O YHWH, You have known it all.

5Behind and before, You hem me in,

and You have laid Your hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is wonderful for me;

it is high, I am not able to atttain it.

7Where can I go from Your Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your face?

8If I ascend to the heavens, there You are;

and if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You!

9If I lift up the wings of the morning,

if I settle in the furthest part of the sea,

10even there Your hand will guide me,

and Your right hand will hold me fast.

11And I said, “Surely the darkness will cover me,

and the light become night around me”—

12even the darkness is not dark to You,

and the night shines like the day—

as the darkness, so is the light.

13For You have possessed my kidneys;

You covered me in the womb of my mother.

14I give You praise

upon that fearfully I have been distinguished;

wonderful are Your works,

and my soul knows it very well.

15My bone was not hidden from You

when I was made in secret,

woven together

in the depths of earth.

16Your eyes saw my unformed body,

and in Your book all of them were written—

the days fashioned for me,

and not one was yet among them!

17And how precious are Your thoughts to me,† O God!

How vast is their sum!

18If I could count them,

they would number more than the sand!

I awaken,

and I am still with You.

19If only You would slay, O God, the wicked;

and the men of blood, may they turn aside from me—

20who speak against You for wickedness;

Your enemies are lifted up to vanity.†

21Do I not hate those hating you, O YHWH,

and I loathe those standing against You?

22I have hated them with perfect hatred;

they have become as enemies to me!

23Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me, and know my thoughts.

24And see if a way of wickedness is in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.