1To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O Lord, you have searched me and known me! (Ps 7:9; Ps 17:3; Ps 44:21; Jer 12:3)2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. (2Ki 19:27; Job 14:16; Job 31:4; La 3:63; Mt 9:4; Joh 2:24)3You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.4Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. (Heb 4:13)5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. (Job 9:33; Job 19:8)6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. (Job 42:3; Ro 11:33)7Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? (Jer 23:24; Jon 1:3)8If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! (Job 26:6; Am 9:2)9If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,10even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. (Ps 23:3; Ps 139:24)11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” (Job 22:14)12even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. (Job 34:22; Da 2:22)13For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. (De 32:6; Job 10:11)14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[1] Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. (Ps 72:18)15My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. (Job 10:8; Ps 63:9; Ec 11:5)16Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Ps 56:8)17How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! (Ps 92:5)18If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. (Ge 22:17; Ps 40:5)19Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! (Ps 5:6; Ps 6:8; Ps 9:17; Isa 11:4)20They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain.[2] (Ex 20:7; Jud 1:15)21Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? (Ps 26:5; Ps 59:1; Ps 119:158)22I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.23Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts![3] (Ps 26:2)24And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting![4] (Ps 139:10; Jer 6:16; Jer 18:15)