Domine, probasti.
God's special providence over his servants.
138:1. Unto the end, a psalm of David. Lord, thou hast proved me, and
known me:
138:2. Thou hast known my sitting down, and my rising up.
138:3. Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line
thou hast searched out.
138:4. And thou hast foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my
tongue.
There is no speech, etc... Viz., unknown to thee: or when there is no
speech in my tongue; yet my whole interior and my most secret thoughts
are known to thee.
138:5. Behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and those of
old: thou hast formed me, and hast laid thy hand upon me.
138:6. Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot
reach to it.
138:7. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from
thy face?
138:8 If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I descend into hell,
thou art present.
138:9. If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea:
138:10. Even there also shall thy hand lead me: and thy right hand shall
hold me.
138:11. And I said: Perhaps darkness shall cover me: and night shall be
my light in my pleasures.
138:12. But darkness shall not be dark to thee, and night shall be light
all the day: the darkness thereof, and the light thereof are alike to
thee.
138:13. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast protected me from my
mother's womb.
138:14. I will praise thee, for thou art fearfully magnified: wonderful
are thy works, and my soul knoweth right well.
138:15. My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret:
and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.
138:16. Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and in thy book all shall
be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them.
138:17. But to me thy friends, O God, are made exceedingly honourable:
their principality is exceedingly strengthened.
138:18. I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand,
I rose up and am still with thee.
138:19. If thou wilt kill the wicked, O God: ye men of blood, depart
from me:
138:20. Because you say in thought: They shall receive thy cities in
vain.
Because you say in thought, etc... Depart from me, you wicked, who plot
against the servants of God, and think to cast them out of the cities of
their habitation; as if they have received them in vain, and to no
purpose.
138:21. Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated thee: and pined away
because of thy enemies?
138:22. I have hated them with a perfect hatred: and they are become
enemies to me.
I have hated them... Not with an hatred of malice, but a zeal for the
observance of God's commandments; which he saw were despised by the
wicked, who are to be considered enemies to God.
138:23. Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my
paths.
138:24. And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in
the eternal way.