Psalm 139:1-18
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Psalm 139
The Inescapable God
To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me.(A)
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.(B)
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.(C)
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.(D)
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.(E)
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.(F)
7 Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?(G)
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.(H)
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.(I)
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and night wraps itself around me,”[a](J)
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.(K)
13 For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.(L)
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.(M)
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.(N)
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.[b]
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!(O)
18 I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
I come to the end[c]—I am still with you.
1 Peter 2:9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,[a] in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.(A)
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- 2.9 Gk a people for his possession
Acts 4:24-37
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
24 When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them,(A) 25 it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant:[a]
‘Why did the gentiles rage
and the peoples imagine vain things?(B)
26 The kings of the earth took their stand,
and the rulers have gathered together
against the Lord and against his Messiah.’[b](C)
27 “For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant[c] Jesus, whom you anointed,(D) 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness,(E) 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant[d] Jesus.”(F) 31 When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.(G)
The Believers Share Their Possessions
32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.(H) 33 With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.(I) 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.(J) 35 They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.(K) 36 There was a Levite from Cyprus, Joseph, to whom the apostles gave the name Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”). 37 He sold a field that belonged to him, then brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.(L)
Read full chapterNew Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.