---
title: "Psalm 138 (139) – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/psalms/138/
description: "Psalm 138 (Psalm 139 in Hebrew numbering) in the CPDV, with the Latin Vulgate. Domine, probasti. God's special providence over his servants."
---

# Psalm 138 (139)

Psalm 138 in the Vulgate numbering Bless follows is Psalm 139 in Hebrew numbering (the NABRE, RSV and KJV). Here are all 24 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Domine, probasti. God's special providence over his servants.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Psalm 138 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Unto the end. A Psalm of David. O Lord, you have examined me, and you have known me.
2. You have known my sitting down and my rising up again.
3. You have understood my thoughts from afar. My path and my fate, you have investigated.
4. And you have foreseen all my ways. For there is no word in my tongue.
5. Behold, O Lord, you have known all things: the newest and the very old. You have formed me, and you have placed your hand over me.
6. Your knowledge has become a wonder to me. It has been reinforced, and I am not able to prevail against it.
7. Where will I go from your Spirit? And where will I flee from your face?
8. If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I descend into Hell, you are near.
9. If I assume my feathers in early morning, and dwell in the utmost parts of the sea,
10. even there, your hand will lead me forth, and your right hand will hold me.
11. And I said: Perhaps darkness will overwhelm me, and the night will be my illumination, to my delight.
12. But darkness will not be impenetrable to you, and night will illuminate like the day: for just as its darkness is, so also is its light.
13. For you have possessed my temperament. You have supported me from the womb of my mother.
14. I will confess to you, for you have been magnified terribly. Your works are miraculous, as my soul knows exceedingly well.
15. My bone, which you have made in secret, has not been hidden from you, and my substance is in accord with the lower parts of the earth.
16. Your eyes saw my imperfection, and all this shall be written in your book. Days will be formed, and no one shall be in them.
17. But to me, O God, your friends have been greatly honored. Their first ruler has been exceedingly strengthened.
18. I will number them, and they will be more numerous than the sand. I rose up, and I am still with you.
19. O God, if only you would cut down sinners. You men of blood: depart from me.
20. For you say in thought: They will accept your cities in vain.
21. Have I not hated those who hated you, Lord, and wasted away because of your enemies?
22. I have hated them with a perfect hatred, and they have become enemies to me.
23. Examine me, O God, and know my heart. Question me, and know my paths.
24. And see if there might be in me the way of iniquity, and lead me in the way of eternity.

## Psalm 138 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. In finem, psalmus David. Domine, probasti me, et cognovisti me;
2. tu cognovisti sessionem meam et resurrectionem meam.
3. Intellexisti cogitationes meas de longe; semitam meam et funiculum meum investigasti:
4. et omnes vias meas prævidisti, quia non est sermo in lingua mea.
5. Ecce, Domine, tu cognovisti omnia, novissima et antiqua. Tu formasti me, et posuisti super me manum tuam.
6. Mirabilis facta est scientia tua ex me; confortata est, et non potero ad eam.
7. Quo ibo a spiritu tuo? et quo a facie tua fugiam?
8. Si ascendero in cælum, tu illic es; si descendero in infernum, ades.
9. Si sumpsero pennas meas diluculo, et habitavero in extremis maris,
10. etenim illuc manus tua deducet me, et tenebit me dextera tua.
11. Et dixi: Forsitan tenebræ conculcabunt me; et nox illuminatio mea in deliciis meis.
12. Quia tenebræ non obscurabuntur a te, et nox sicut dies illuminabitur: sicut tenebræ ejus, ita et lumen ejus.
13. Quia tu possedisti renes meos; suscepisti me de utero matris meæ.
14. Confitebor tibi, quia terribiliter magnificatus es; mirabilia opera tua, et anima mea cognoscit nimis.
15. Non est occultatum os meum a te, quod fecisti in occulto; et substantia mea in inferioribus terræ.
16. Imperfectum meum viderunt oculi tui, et in libro tuo omnes scribentur. Dies formabuntur, et nemo in eis.
17. Mihi autem nimis honorificati sunt amici tui, Deus; nimis confortatus est principatus eorum.
18. Dinumerabo eos, et super arenam multiplicabuntur. Exsurrexi, et adhuc sum tecum.
19. Si occideris, Deus, peccatores, viri sanguinum, declinate a me:
20. quia dicitis in cogitatione: Accipient in vanitate civitates tuas.
21. Nonne qui oderunt te, Domine, oderam, et super inimicos tuos tabescebam?
22. Perfecto odio oderam illos, et inimici facti sunt mihi.
23. Proba me, Deus, et scito cor meum; interroga me, et cognosce semitas meas.
24. Et vide si via iniquitatis in me est, et deduc me in via æterna.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 2270: Respect for Human Life ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## The saints

- “The Psalms are a mirror in which you see yourself and the movements of your own soul.” — St. Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus, c. 350 (On this verse: verse 23)

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 4: 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.
- Verse 20: 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.
- Verse 22: “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.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Thu, Jun 24, 2027 (computed): Nativity of St. John the Baptist — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15
- Wed, Aug 25, 2027 (computed): Wednesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 139:7-8, 9-10, 11-12ab
- Mon, Nov 8, 2027 (computed): Monday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 139:1b-3, 4-6, 7-8, 9-10
- Sat, Jun 24, 2028 (computed): Nativity of St. John the Baptist — Responsorial Psalm, Psalm 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15

2 more dates through December 31, 2028, in the [liturgical calendar](https://blessbible.app/calendar/).

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish. Mass citations number the Psalms in the Hebrew way.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).