Pre- and Post-Procedure Psalms

On Monday, when I underwent my heart catheterization and stent implant, I asked that two psalms be read aloud by my family before and after the procedure. My wife read Psalm 46 in the morning and in the evening, my son read Psalm 139. My wife and I were able to pray before I was wheeled in for my cath. I was, once upon a time, an atheist; but I can't imagine life without the God Who has ultimately revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ. Here are the two psalms.

Psalm 46

¹God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
²Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
³though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. Selah
⁴There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.
⁵God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns.
⁶The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.
⁷The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah
⁸Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations he has brought on the earth.
⁹He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.
¹⁰“Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.”
¹¹The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

Psalm 139

¹O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
²You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
³You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
⁵You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
⁷Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?
⁸If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
⁹If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
¹⁰even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,”
¹²even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.
¹³For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.
¹⁵My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.
¹⁷How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.
¹⁹O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
²⁰those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil!
²¹Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
²²I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.
²³Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.
²⁴See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.