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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>Psalm 139 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/psalms/139.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="/bmcc/psalms/139-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com/catholic">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NRSVCE</a> > Psalm 139</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../psalms/138.htm" title="Psalm 138">◄</a> Psalm 139 <a href="../psalms/140.htm" title="Psalm 140">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><div class="text-html"> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Psalm 139</span></h3><h3><span class="text">The Inescapable God</span></h3><h4 class="psalm-title"><span class="text">To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.</span></h4><div class="poetry"><p class="line"><span class="text"><span class="versenum">1</span>O <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, you have searched me and known me.</span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">2</span>You know when I sit down and when I rise up;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">you discern my thoughts from far away.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">3</span>You search out my path and my lying down,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and are acquainted with all my ways.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">4</span>Even before a word is on my tongue,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">O <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>, you know it completely.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">5</span>You hem me in, behind and before,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and lay your hand upon me.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">6</span>Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">it is so high that I cannot attain it.</span></span></p></div> <div class="poetry top-1"><p class="line"><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">7</span>Where can I go from your spirit?</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">Or where can I flee from your presence?</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">8</span>If I ascend to heaven, you are there;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">9</span>If I take the wings of the morning</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">10</span>even there your hand shall lead me,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and your right hand shall hold me fast.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">11</span>If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and the light around me become night,”</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">12</span>even the darkness is not dark to you;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">the night is as bright as the day,</span></span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">for darkness is as light to you.</span></span></p></div> <div class="poetry top-1"><p class="line"><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">13</span>For it was you who formed my inward parts;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">you knit me together in my mother’s womb.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">14</span>I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">Wonderful are your works;</span></span><br /><span class="text">that I know very well.</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">15</span><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span>My frame was not hidden from you,</span></span><br /><span class="text">when I was being made in secret,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">intricately woven in the depths of the earth.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">16</span>Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.</span><br /><span class="text">In your book were written</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">all the days that were formed for me,</span></span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">when none of them as yet existed.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">17</span>How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">How vast is the sum of them!</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">18</span>I try to count them—they are more than the sand;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">I come to the end<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-18328a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote a">a</a>]</span>—I am still with you.</span></span></p></div> <div class="poetry top-1"><p class="line"><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">19</span>O that you would kill the wicked, O God,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">20</span>those who speak of you maliciously,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and lift themselves up against you for evil!<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-18330b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote b">b</a>]</span></span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">21</span>Do I not hate those who hate you, O <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span>?</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">22</span>I hate them with perfect hatred;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">I count them my enemies.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">23</span>Search me, O God, and know my heart;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">test me and know my thoughts.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">24</span>See if there is any wicked<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-18334c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote c">c</a>]</span> way in me,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and lead me in the way everlasting.<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-18334d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote d">d</a>]</span></span></span></p></div> <A name="fen"></a><div class="footnotes"><h4>Footnotes</h4><ol><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Psalm 139:18">Psalm 139:18</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Or <i>I awake</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Psalm 139:20">Psalm 139:20</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain</span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Psalm 139:24">Psalm 139:24</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>hurtful</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Psalm 139:24">Psalm 139:24</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Or <i>the ancient way.</i> Compare Jer 6.16</span></li></ol></div> </div></div></div></div></div> </div> </div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. 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