PSALTERIVM

PSALMVS CXXXVIII — DOMINE PROBASTI

Lord, Thou Hast Proved Me and Known Me

Domine probasti me is the great psalm of divine omniscience, meditating on God's perfect knowledge of all human thoughts and ways. The profound theology - 'Whither shall I go from thy spirit?' - expresses both the inescapability and the comfort of God's presence. In the 1962 Breviary it appears at Vespers on Fridays. The 'fearful and wonderful' formation in the womb grounds the sanctity of human life from conception.

LATINE
Domine, probasti me, et cognovisti me: tu cognovisti sessionem meam, et resurrectionem meam.
Intellexisti cogitationes meas de longe: semitam meam, et funiculum meum investigasti.
Et omnes vias meas praevidisti: quia non est sermo in lingua mea.
Ecce, Domine, tu cognovisti omnia, novissima et antiqua: tu formasti me, et posuisti super me manum tuam.
Mirabilis facta est scientia tua ex me: confortata est, et non potero ad eam.
Quo ibo a spiritu tuo? et quo a facie tua fugiam?
Si ascendero in caelum, tu illic es: si descendero in infernum, ades.
Si sumpsero pennas meas diluculo, et habitavero in extremis maris:
Etenim illuc manus tua deducet me: et tenebit me dextera tua.
Proba me, Deus, et scito cor meum: interroga me, et cognosce semitas meas.
Et vide, si via iniquitatis in me est: et deduc me in via aeterna.
ENGLISH
Lord, thou hast proved me, and known me: thou hast known my sitting down, and my rising up.
Thou hast understood my thoughts afar off: my path and my line thou hast searched out.
And thou hast foreseen all my ways: for there is no speech in my tongue.
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.
Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me: it is high, and I cannot reach to it.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy face?
If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I descend into hell, thou art present.
If I take my wings early in the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea:
Even there also shall thy hand lead me: and thy right hand shall hold me.
Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths.
And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way.
NOTA
FONS
Douay-Rheims (1609) / Vulgata
USUS
Examination of conscience, God's omniscience
CONTEXT
Psalm 139 in Hebrew numbering. Foundational for the theology of divine providence and the sanctity of life (vv. 13-16 on being formed in the womb).