¹O Lord, thou hast me search’d and known.

²Thou know’st my sitting down,

And rising up; yea, all my thoughts

afar to thee are known.

³My footsteps, and my lying down,

thou compassest always;

Thou also most entirely art

acquaint with all my ways.

⁴For in my tongue, before I speak,

not any word can be,

But altogether, lo, O Lord,

it is well known to thee.

⁵Behind, before, thou hast beset,

and laid on me thine hand.

⁶Such knowledge is too strange for me,

too high to understand.

⁷From thy Sp’rit whither shall I go?

or from thy presence fly?

⁸Ascend I heav’n, lo, thou art there;

there, if in hell I lie.

⁹Take I the morning wings, and dwell

in utmost parts of sea;

¹⁰Ev’n there, Lord, shall thy hand me lead,

thy right hand hold shall me.

¹¹If I do say that darkness shall

me cover from thy sight,

Then surely shall the very night

about me be as light.

¹²Yea, darkness hideth not from thee,

but night doth shine as day:

To thee the darkness and the light

are both alike alway.

¹³For thou possessed hast my reins,

and thou hast cover’d me,

When I within my mother’s womb

inclosed was by thee.

¹⁴Thee will I praise; for fearfully

and strangely made I am;

Thy works are marv’llous, and right well

my soul doth know the same.

¹⁵My substance was not hid from thee,

when as in secret I

Was made; and in earth’s lowest parts

was wrought most curiously.

¹⁶Thine eyes my substance did behold,

yet being unperfect;

And in the volume of thy book

my members all were writ;

Which after in continuance

were fashion’d ev’ry one,

When as they yet all shapeless were,

and of them there was none.

¹⁷How precious also are thy thoughts,

O gracious God, to me!

And in their sum how passing great

and numberless they be!

¹⁸If I should count them, than the sand

they more in number be:

What time soever I awake,

I ever am with thee.

¹⁹Thou, Lord, wilt sure the wicked slay:

hence from me bloody men.

²⁰Thy foes against thee loudly speak,

and take thy name in vain.

²¹Do not I hate all those, O Lord,

that hatred bear to thee?

With those that up against thee rise

can I but grieved be?

²²With perfect hatred them I hate,

my foes I them do hold.

²³Search me, O God, and know my heart,

try me, my thoughts unfold:

²⁴And see if any wicked way

there be at all in me;

And in thine everlasting way

to me a leader be.