[To the chiefe musition,
a psalme of Dauid.]
1
O God thou hast searched me to the quicke: and thou hast knowen me.
2
Thou knowest my downe sitting & myne vprising: thou vnderstandest my thoughtes long before they be.
3
Thou compassest about my path, and my iourney into all coastes: and thou vsest all my wayes.
4
For there is not a word in my tongue: but beholde thou O Lorde knowest it altogether.
5
Thou hast fashioned me behinde and before: and layde thyne hande vpon me.
6
The knowledge that [thou hast] of me is marueylous: it is so high that I can not [attayne] vnto it.
7
Whyther can I go from thy spirite: or whyther can I flee away from thy face?
8
If I ascende vp into heauen, thou art there: if I lay me downe in hell, thou art there also.
9
If I take the wynges of the morning: and [go to] dwell in the vttermost part of the sea.
10
Euen there also thy hande shall leade me: and thy right hande shall holde me.
11
And yf I say peraduenture the darknesse shall couer me: and the night shalbe day for me,
12
Truely the darknesse shall not darken any thing from thee, and the night shalbe as lyghtsome as the day: darknesse and lyght [to thee] are both a lyke.
13
For thou hast my reynes in thy possession: thou didst couer me in my mothers wombe.
14
I wyll confesse it vnto thee, for that thy [doynges] are to be dreaded, I am made after a marueylous sort: thy workes be marueylous, and that my soule knoweth ryght well.
15
The substaunce of my [body] was not hyd from thee: when I was made in secrete and fashioned with distinct members in my mothers wombe.
16
Thyne eyes dyd see me when I was most imperfect: and in thy booke were written euery day of them [wherin the partes of my body] were shaped, and no one of them were knowen vnto thee.
17
Howe pretious be thy cogitations towardes me O God?
howe greatly be the summe of them increased?
18
I go about to count them, I fynde that they are mo in number then the sande: and yet whyle I am wakyng I am styll with thee.
19
For truely thou wylt slay O Lord the wicked man: and the blood thirstie men [to whom I euer say] depart ye from me.
20
Who do speake vnto thee in guilefull maner: [thou art O God] exalted in vayne to thyne enemies.
21
Do not I hate them O God that hate thee?
and am not I greeued with those that rise vp agaynst thee?
22
Yea I hate them from the bottome of myne heart: euen as though they were myne enemies.
23
Searche me to the quicke O Lorde, and knowe thou myne heart: proue me and knowe thou my thoughtes.
24
And loke well yf there be any way of peruersnesse in me: and [then] leade me in the way of the worlde.