Search Me, O God, and Know My Heart

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

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 afar.

³You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

⁵You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

⁷Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall 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 dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

¹⁰even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

¹²even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

¹³For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.1

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it 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 saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

¹⁷How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.

¹⁹Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!

O men of blood, depart from me!

²⁰They speak against you with malicious intent;

your enemies take your name in vain.2

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 complete hatred;

I count them my enemies.

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

Try me and know my thoughts!3

²⁴And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting!4

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