Add parallel Print Page Options

Psalm 139

God’s Attributes—Too Wonderful for Me!

Heading
For the choir director. By David. A psalm.

God Is All-Knowing

Lord, you have investigated me,
and you know.
You know when I sit down and when I get up.
You understand my thoughts from far off.
You keep track of when I travel and when I stay,[a]
and you are familiar with all my ways.
Before there is a word on my tongue,
    you, Lord, already know it completely.
You put a fence behind me and in front of me,
and you have placed your hand on me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It is too high—I cannot grasp it.

God Is Present Everywhere

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your Presence?[b]
If I go up to heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in hell—there you are!
I rise on the wings of dawn.
I settle on the far side of the sea.
10 Even there your hand guides me,
and your right hand holds on to me.
11 And if I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light will become night around me,”
12 then even the darkness will not be too dark for you.
The night will be as light as the day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.

God Is Powerful and Good

13 For you created my inner organs.[c]
You wove me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful,
and my soul knows that very well.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unfinished body.
In your book all of them were written.
Days were determined, before any of them existed.
17 Your thoughts to me are so precious, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

God Is Holy

19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God,
so that bloody men would depart from me,
20 men who speak against you maliciously.
Your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord,
and detest those who rise up against you?
22 I absolutely hate them. To me they are enemies.
23 Investigate me, God, and know my heart.
Test me and know my troubled thoughts.
24 See if there is any way in me that causes pain,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 139:3 Literally you winnow my path and my crouching down
  2. Psalm 139:7 Or presence. Presence can be a name for God or for the second person of the Trinity.
  3. Psalm 139:13 Literally kidneys. The kidneys were thought of as a center of emotion.

“As the Father has loved me, so also I have loved you. Remain in my love. 10 If you hold on to my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have held on to my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that my joy would continue to be in you and that your joy would be complete.

12 “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you continue to do the things I instruct you. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will endure, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 These things I am instructing you, so that you love one another.

Read full chapter

The Armor of God

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can stand against the schemes of the Devil. 12 For our[a] struggle is not against flesh and blood,[b] but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 For this reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to take a stand on the evil day and, after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness fastened in place, 15 and with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace tied to your feet like sandals. 16 At all times hold up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. 17 Also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Ephesians 6:12 Some witnesses to the text read your.
  2. Ephesians 6:12 Literally blood and flesh