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Psalm 139: Domine, probasti

Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 794. In the 30-day Psalter it is read on day 29, at Morning Prayer.

1

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 trace my journeys and my resting-places *

and are acquainted with all my ways.

3

Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, *

but you, O LORD, know it altogether.

4

You press upon me behind and before *

and lay your hand upon me.

5

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; *

it is so high that I cannot attain to it.

6

Where can I go then from your Spirit? *

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 will lead me *

and 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

Darkness is not dark to you;

the night is as bright 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.

13

I will thank you because I am marvelously made; *

your works are wonderful, and I know it well.

14

My body was not hidden from you, *

while I was being made in secret

and woven in the depths of the earth.

15

Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb;

all of them were written in your book; *

they were fashioned day by day,

when as yet there was none of them.

16

How deep I find your thoughts, O God! *

how great is the sum of them!

17

If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand; *

to count them all, my life span would need to be like yours.

18

Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God! *

You that thirst for blood, depart from me.

19

They speak despitefully against you; *

your enemies take your Name in vain.

20

Do I not hate those, O LORD, who hate you? *

and do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

21

I hate them with a perfect hatred; *

they have become my own enemies.

22

Search me out, O God, and know my heart; *

try me and know my restless thoughts.

23

Look well whether there be any wickedness in me *

and lead me in the way that is everlasting.

When it is appointed