from Oratory: Place of Prayer (hard copy / PDF download)

Psalm 139:1-18, 23-24

O Lord, you search me and you know me,

you know my resting and my rising,

you discern my purpose from afar.

You mark when I walk or lie down,

all my ways lie open to you.

Before every a word is on my tongue

you know it, O Lord, through and through.

Behind and before you besiege me,

your hand ever laid upon me.

Too wonderful for me, this knowledge,

too high, beyond my reach.

O where can I go from your spirit,

or where can I flee from your face?

If I climb the heavens, you are there.

If I lie in the grave, you are there.

If I take the wings of the dawn

and dwell at the sea's furthest end,

even there your hand would lead me,

you right hand would hold me fast.

If I say: "Let the darkness hide me

and the light around me be night,"

even darkness is not dark for you

and night is a clear as the day.

For it was you who created my being,

knit me together in my mother's womb.

I think you for the wonder of my being,

for the wonders of all your creation.

Already you knew my soul,

my body held no secret from you

when I was being fashioned in secret

and molded in the depths of the earth.

You eyes saw all my actions,

they were all of them written in your book;

every one of my days was decreed

before one of them came into being.

To me, how mysterious your thoughts,

the sum of them not to be numbered!

If I count them, they are more than the sand;

to finish, I must be eternal, like you.

O search me, God, and know my heart.

O test me and know my thoughts.

See that I follow not the wrong path

and lead me in the path of life eternal.