A Genuine Faith

¹³ You are the one who created my innermost parts; you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart. Your works are wonderful—I know that very well. ¹⁵ My bones weren’t hidden from you when I was being put together in a secret place, when I was being woven together in the deep parts of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw my embryo, and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me, before any one of them had yet happened. ¹⁷ God, your plans are incomprehensible to me! Their total number is countless! ¹⁸ If I tried to count them—they outnumber grains of sand! If I came to the very end—I’d still be with you. ¹⁹ If only, God, you would kill the wicked! If only murderers would get away from me ²⁰ the people who talk about you, but only for wicked schemes; the people who are your enemies, who use your name as if it were of no significance. ²¹ Don’t I hate everyone who hates you? Don’t I despise those who attack you? ²² Yes, I hate them—through and through! They’ve become my enemies too. ²³ Examine me, God! Look at my heart! Put me to the test! Know my anxious thoughts! ²⁴ Look to see if there is any idolatrous way in me, then lead me on the eternal path!