Psalm 139
1 O Lord, you have searched me out and known me; ♦
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
2 You mark out my journeys and my resting place ♦
and are acquainted with all my ways.
3 For there is not a word on my tongue, ♦
but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
4 You encompass me behind and before ♦
and lay your hand upon me.
5 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, ♦
so high that I cannot attain it.
6 Where can I go then from your spirit? ♦
Or where can I flee from your presence?
7 If I climb up to heaven, you are there; ♦
if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.
8 If I take the wings of the morning ♦
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
9 Even there your hand shall lead me, ♦
your right hand hold me fast.
10 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me ♦
and the light around me turn to night,’
11 Even darkness is no darkness with you;
the night is as clear as the day; ♦
darkness and light to you are both alike.
12 For you yourself created my inmost parts; ♦
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
23 Search me out, O God, and know my heart; ♦
try me and examine my thoughts.
24 See if there is any way of wickedness in me ♦
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Romans 7:15-25a
I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.
