"O God, Thy all-discerning eyes..."

Conjubilant With Song, a great blog about hymns, hymn writers, and hymn tunes, has discovered that John Quincy Adams, President, son of a President, ambassador, Congressman, was also a hymnwriter, and wrote paraphrases of the entire Psalter. Adams's paraphrase of Psalm 139 as provided by Conjubilant:

O God, thy all-discerning eyes
My inmost purpose see;
My deeds, my words, my thoughts arise
Alike disclosed to thee;
My sitting down, my rising up,
Broad noon and deepest night,
My path, my pillow, and my cup
Are open to thy sight.

Before, behind, I meet thine eye,
And feel thy guiding hand;
Such knowledge is for me too high
To reach or understand:
What of thy wonders can I know?
What of thy purpose see?
Where from thy spirit shall I go?
Where from thy presence flee?

If I ascend to heav'n on high.
Or make my bed in hell;
Or take the morning's wings, and fly
O'er ocean's bounds to dwell;
Or seek, from thee, a hiding place
Amid the gloom of night,
Alike to thee are time and space,
The darkness and the light.

Conjubilant With Song: John Quincy Adams