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Psalm 139:13-18
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 139:13-18
New Catholic Bible
13 [a]You created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am wonderfully made;
awesome are your works,
as I know very well.
15 My body was not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
you saw me in the womb.[b]
16 [c]The sum total of my days
were all recorded in your book.[d]
My life was fashioned
before it had come into being.
17 How precious to me are your designs, O God!
How vast in number they are!
18 If I were to attempt to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,[e]
I am still with you.
Footnotes
- Psalm 139:13 God not only sees all and penetrates the inaccessible, but he is completely operative there, creating people and providing a purpose for all.
- Psalm 139:15 God knows all human beings intimately.
- Psalm 139:16 The text of these verses is obscure in several places.
- Psalm 139:16 [They] were all recorded in your book: an image familiar to the Prophets (see Neh 13:14; Dan 7:10; Mal 3:16) as well as the psalmists (see Pss 69:29; 109:13), which was reprised in the Dies Irae (the Sequence formerly used at Masses for the Dead): Liber scriptus proferetur, in quo totum continetur: “Lo, the book exactly worded, in which all has been recorded.” See note on Ps 56:9.
- Psalm 139:18 When I awake: in this context, these words may express a glimpse of the resurrection on the part of the psalmist, as in Ps 17:15 (see note there).
