Bible Study

Psalm 139

Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

    [1] O LORD, you have searched me and known me! 

    [2] You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

        you discern my thoughts from afar. 

    [3] You search out my path and my lying down

        and are acquainted with all my ways. 

    [4] Even before a word is on my tongue,

        behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. 

    [5] You hem me in, behind and before,

        and lay your hand upon me. 

    [6] Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

        it is high; I cannot attain it.

    [7] Where shall I go from your Spirit?

        Or where shall I flee from your presence? 

    [8] If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

        If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! 

    [9] If I take the wings of the morning

        and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 

    [10] even there your hand shall lead me,

        and your right hand shall hold me. 

    [11] If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

        and the light about me be night,” 

    [12] even the darkness is not dark to you;

        the night is bright as the day,

        for darkness is as light with you.

    [13] For you formed my inward parts;

        you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. 

    [14] I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

    Wonderful are your works;

        my soul knows it very well. 

    [15] My frame was not hidden from you,

    when I was being made in secret,

        intricately woven in the depths of the earth. 

    [16] Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

    in your book were written, every one of them,

        the days that were formed for me,

        when as yet there was none of them.

    [17] How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

        How vast is the sum of them! 

    [18] If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

        I awake, and I am still with you.

    [19] Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!

        O men of blood, depart from me! 

    [20] They speak against you with malicious intent;

        your enemies take your name in vain. 

    [21] Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?

        And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? 

    [22] I hate them with complete hatred;

        I count them my enemies.

    [23] Search me, O God, and know my heart!

        Try me and know my thoughts! 

    [24] And see if there be any grievous way in me,

        and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalm 51

Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

    [1] Have mercy on me, O God,

        according to your steadfast love;

    according to your abundant mercy

        blot out my transgressions. 

    [2] Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

        and cleanse me from my sin!

    [3] For I know my transgressions,

        and my sin is ever before me. 

    [4] Against you, you only, have I sinned

        and done what is evil in your sight,

    so that you may be justified in your words

        and blameless in your judgment. 

    [5] Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,

        and in sin did my mother conceive me. 

    [6] Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,

        and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

    [7] Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

        wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

    [8] Let me hear joy and gladness;

        let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 

    [9] Hide your face from my sins,

        and blot out all my iniquities. 

    [10] Create in me a clean heart, O God,

        and renew a right spirit within me. 

    [11] Cast me not away from your presence,

        and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 

    [12] Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

        and uphold me with a willing spirit.

    [13] Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

        and sinners will return to you. 

    [14] Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,

        O God of my salvation,

        and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 

    [15] O Lord, open my lips,

        and my mouth will declare your praise. 

    [16] For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;

        you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 

    [17] The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

        a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

    [18] Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;

        build up the walls of Jerusalem; 

    [19] then will you delight in right sacrifices,

        in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;

        then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Jeremiah 1:4-5

The Call of Jeremiah

[4] Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

    [5] “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

    and before you were born I consecrated you;

    I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Isaiah 49:1-5

The Servant of the LORD

    [1] Listen to me, O coastlands,

        and give attention, you peoples from afar.

    The LORD called me from the womb,

        from the body of my mother he named my name. 

    [2] He made my mouth like a sharp sword;

        in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

    he made me a polished arrow;

        in his quiver he hid me away. 

    [3] And he said to me, “You are my servant,

        Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” 

    [4] But I said, “I have labored in vain;

        I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;

    yet surely my right is with the LORD,

        and my recompense with my God.”

    [5] And now the LORD says,

        he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,

    to bring Jacob back to him;

        and that Israel might be gathered to him—

    for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD,

        and my God has become my strength—