Dual Panel1For the leader: for David: a psalm LORD, you have examined me and you know me.
2You know me at rest and in action; you discern my thoughts from afar.
3You trace my journeying and my resting-places, and are familiar with all the paths I take.
4For there is not a word that I speak but you, LORD, know all about it.
5You keep close guard behind and before me and place your hand upon me.
6Knowledge so wonderful is beyond my grasp; it is so lofty I cannot reach it.
7Where can I escape from your spirit, where flee from your presence?
8If I climb up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9If I travel to the limits of the east, or dwell at the bounds of the western sea,
10even there your hand will be guiding me, your right hand holding me fast.
11If I say, “Surely darkness will steal over me, and the day around me turn to night,”
12darkness is not too dark for you and night is as light as day; to you both dark and light are one.
13You it was who fashioned my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14I praise you, for you fill me with awe; wonderful you are, and wonderful your works. You know me through and through:
15my body was no mystery to you, when I was formed in secret, woven in the depths of the earth.
16Your eyes foresaw my deeds, and they were all recorded in your book; my life was fashioned before it had come into being.
17How mysterious, God, are your thoughts to me, how vast in number they are!
18Were I to try counting them, they would be more than the grains of sand; to finish the count, my years must equal yours.
19If only, God, you would slay the wicked! If those murderers would but leave me in peace!
20They rebel against you with evil intent and as your adversaries they rise in malice.
21How I hate those that hate you, LORD! I loathe those who defy you;
22I hate them with undying hatred; I reckon them my own enemies.
23Examine me, God, and know my mind; test me, and understand my anxious thoughts.
24Watch lest I follow any path that grieves you; lead me in the everlasting way.