A David Psalm

1–3  138 Thank you! Everything in me says “Thank you!”

Angels listen as I sing my thanks.

I kneel in worship facing your holy temple

and say it again: “Thank you!”

Thank you for your love,

thank you for your faithfulness;

Most holy is your name,

most holy is your Word.

The moment I called out, you stepped in;

you made my life large with strength.

4–6  When they hear what you have to say, God,

all earth’s kings will say “Thank you.”

They’ll sing of what you’ve done:

“How great the glory of God!”

And here’s why: God, high above, sees far below;

no matter the distance, he knows everything about us.

7–8  When I walk into the thick of trouble,

keep me alive in the angry turmoil.

With one hand

strike my foes,

With your other hand

save me.

Finish what you started in me, God.

Your love is eternal—don’t quit on me now.

A David Psalm

1–6  139 God, investigate my life;

get all the facts firsthand.

I’m an open book to you;

even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.

You know when I leave and when I get back;

I’m never out of your sight.

You know everything I’m going to say

before I start the first sentence.

I look behind me and you’re there,

then up ahead and you’re there, too—

your reassuring presence, coming and going.

This is too much, too wonderful—

I can’t take it all in!

7–12  Is there any place I can go to avoid your Spirit?

to be out of your sight?

If I climb to the sky, you’re there!

If I go underground, you’re there!

If I flew on morning’s wings

to the far western horizon,

You’d find me in a minute—

you’re already there waiting!

Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!

At night I’m immersed in the light!”

It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;

night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.

13–16  Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;

you formed me in my mother’s womb.

I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!

Body and soul, I am marvelously made!

I worship in adoration—what a creation!

You know me inside and out,

you know every bone in my body;

You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,

how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;

all the stages of my life were spread out before you,

The days of my life all prepared

before I’d even lived one day.

17–22  Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!

God, I’ll never comprehend them!

I couldn’t even begin to count them—

any more than I could count the sand of the sea.

Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!

And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!

And you murderers—out of here!—

all the men and women who belittle you, God,

infatuated with cheap god-imitations.

See how I hate those who hate you, God,

see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;

I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.

Your enemies are my enemies!

23–24  Investigate my life, O God,

find out everything about me;

Cross-examine and test me,

get a clear picture of what I’m about;

See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—

then guide me on the road to eternal life.

A David Psalm

1–5  140 God, get me out of here, away from this evil;

protect me from these vicious people.

All they do is think up new ways to be bad;

they spend their days plotting war games.

They practice the sharp rhetoric of hate and hurt,

speak venomous words that maim and kill.

God, keep me out of the clutch of these wicked ones,

protect me from these vicious people;

Stuffed with self-importance, they plot ways to trip me up,

determined to bring me down.

These crooks invent traps to catch me

and do their best to incriminate me.

6–8  I prayed, “God, you’re my God!

Listen, God! Mercy!

God, my Lord, Strong Savior,

protect me when the fighting breaks out!

Don’t let the wicked have their way, God,

don’t give them an inch!”

9–11  These troublemakers all around me—

let them drown in their own verbal poison.

Let God pile hellfire on them,

let him bury them alive in crevasses!

These loudmouths—

don’t let them be taken seriously;

These savages—

let the Devil hunt them down!

12–13  I know that you, God, are on the side of victims,

that you care for the rights of the poor.

And I know that the righteous personally thank you,

that good people are secure in your presence.