LEADER.
O LORD,
you have examined me, and you know me.
CONGREGATION.
You alone know when I sit down and
when I get up.
You read my thoughts from far away.
You watch me when I travel and when I rest.
You are familiar with all my ways.
LEADER.
Even before there is a single word on my tongue,
you know all about it, LORD.
CONGREGATION.
You are all around me--in front of me and in back of me.
You lay your hand on me.
Such knowledge is beyond my graph.
It is so high I cannot reach it.
LEADER.
Where can I go to get away from your Spirit?
Where can I run to get away from you?
CONGREGATION.
If I go up to heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in hell, you are there.
If I climb upward on the rays of the morning sun
or land on the most distant shore of the sea where the sun sets,
even there your hand would guide me
and your right hand would hold on to me.
LEADER.
If I say, "Let the darkness hide me
and let the light around me turn into night,"
even the darkness is not too dark for you.
CONGREGATION.
Night is as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
LEADER.
You alone created my inner being.
You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
CONGREGATION.
I will give thanks to you
because I have been so amazingly and miraculously made.
Your works are miraculous, and my soul is fully aware of this.
LEADER.
My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
when I was being skillfully woven in the depths of the earth.
CONGREGATION.
Your eyes saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book
before one of them had taken place.
LEADER.
How precious are your thoughts concerning me, O God!
How vast in number they are!
If I try to count them,
there would be more of them than there are grains of sand.
When I wake up, I am still with you.
CONGREGATION.
Examine me, O God, and know my mind.
Test me, and know my thoughts.
See whether I am on an evil path.
Then lead me on the everlasting path.