You, O LORD, have searched me and you know me;

You, O LORD, have searched me and you know me; when I sit or rise, to you is known. From afar my inner thoughts you ponder— both my going out and lying down. All my ways you know; I speak no word but you know it perfectly, O LORD.

For you hem me in before and after, and upon me you have laid your hand. Such a knowledge is beyond my grasping, higher far than I can understand. From your Spirit where can I be free? From your presence whither can I flee?

If I fly to heaven, you are present; or if in the depths I make my home. If I rise up on the wings of morning, or beyond the farthest sea I roam, Even there your hand will guide my way; your right hand will never let me stray.

If I say, “The dark will surely hide me, and the light around me will be night,” Even night would not be dark before you, and the dark would shine for you as light. Darkness can hide nothing from your view, and the blackness is as light to you.

For you made and formed my inmost being; in my mother’s womb you moulded me. I will praise you, for I have been fashioned by you fearfully and wondrously. All your works are wonderful, I know— I acknowledge this and stand in awe.

From your sight my frame was never hidden in the secret place before my birth, For your eyes beheld my unformed body when I was conceived in depths of earth. You wrote all the days ordained for me in your book before one came to be.

Precious are your thoughts, O God, about me! they exceed my power to understand. If I were to try to count their number, they are more than all the grains of sand. When I waken in the morn anew, I continue still, O LORD, with you.

O that you, my God, would slay the wicked! Go from me, all you who thirst for blood! With an evil mind they speak against you; your foes take your name in vain, O God. Do not I, O LORD, your foes despise? I abhor them as my enemies.

Search me, LORD, and know my inmost feelings; test me now and know my anxious mind. See if there is anything offensive in my way of life that you can find; And direct me, O my God, I pray, in your good and everlasting way.