Prayer: Psalm 139 (with measured pauses)

This Psalm is to be read antiphonally by two of more people at a slow and measured pace with a pause after the first line. Too often we rush through our devotional prayers.

O LORD, you have probed me, you know me: ( …pause…)
you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar.

My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar. ( …pause…)
Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all.

Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me. ( …pause…)
Such knowledge is beyond me, far too lofty for me to reach.

Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee? (…pause…)
If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too.

If I fly with the wings of dawn and alight beyond the sea, ( …pause…)
Even there your hand will guide me, your right hand hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely darkness shall hide me, and night shall be my light" --( …pause…)
Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day. Darkness and light are but one.

You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb. ( …pause…)
I praise you, so wonderfully you made me; wonderful are your works! My very self you knew;

My bones were not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned as in the depths of the earth. ( …pause…)
Your eyes foresaw my actions; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be.

How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them! ( …pause…)
Were I to count, they would outnumber the sands; to finish, I would need eternity.

If only you would destroy the wicked, O God, and the bloodthirsty would depart from me! ( …pause…)
Deceitfully they invoke your name; your foes swear faithless oaths.

Do I not hate, LORD, those who hate you? Those who rise against you, do I not loathe? ( …pause…)
With fierce hatred I hate them, enemies I count as my own.

Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my concerns. ( …pause…)
See if my way is crooked, then lead me in the ancient paths.

Glory be to the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit ( …pause…)
As it was in the beginning it is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen