The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Message Bible MSG
1 For the leader. A psalm of David: ADONAI, you have probed me, and you know me.
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God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
2 You know when I sit and when I stand up, you discern my inclinations from afar,
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I'm an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
3 you scrutinize my daily activities. You are so familiar with all my ways
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You know when I leave and when I get back; I'm never out of your sight.
4 that before I speak even a word, ADONAI, you know all about it already.
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You know everything I'm going to say before I start the first sentence.
5 You have hemmed me in both behind and in front and laid your hand on me.
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I look behind me and you're there, then up ahead and you're there, too - your reassuring presence, coming and going.
6 Such wonderful knowledge is beyond me, far too high for me to reach.
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This is too much, too wonderful - I can't take it all in!
7 Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
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Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight?
8 If I climb up to heaven, you are there; if I lie down in Sh'ol, you are there.
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If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there!
9 If I fly away with the wings of the dawn and land beyond the sea,
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If I flew on morning's wings to the far western horizon,
10 even there your hand would lead me, your right hand would hold me fast.
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You'd find me in a minute - you're already there waiting!
11 If I say, "Let darkness surround me, let the light around me be night,"
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Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!"
12 even darkness like this is not too dark for you; rather, night is as clear as day, darkness and light are the same.
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It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.
13 For you fashioned my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb.
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Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother's womb.
14 I thank you because I am awesomely made, wonderfully; your works are wonders -I know this very well.
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I thank you, High God - you're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration - what a creation!
15 My bones were not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
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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.
16 Your eyes could see me as an embryo, but in your book all my days were already written; my days had been shaped before any of them existed.
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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 God, how I prize your thoughts! How many of them there are!
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Your thoughts - how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll never comprehend them!
18 If I count them, there are more than grains of sand; if I finish the count, I am still with you.
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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!
19 God, if only you would kill off the wicked! Men of blood, get away from me!
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And please, God, do away with wickedness for good! And you murderers - out of here! -
20 They invoke your name for their crafty schemes; yes, your enemies misuse it.
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all the men and women who belittle you, God, infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
21 ADONAI, how I hate those who hate you! I feel such disgust with those who defy you!
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See how I hate those who hate you, God, see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
22 I hate them with unlimited hatred! They have become my enemies too.
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I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred. Your enemies are my enemies!
23 Examine me, God, and know my heart; test me, and know my thoughts.
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Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I'm about;
24 See if there is in me any hurtful way, and lead me along the eternal way.
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See for yourself whether I've done anything wrong - then guide me on the road to eternal life.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.