Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God’s Perfect Knowledge of Man
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
139 O Lord, (A)You have searched me and known me.
2 (B)You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You (C)understand my thought afar off.
3 (D)You [a]comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, (E)You know it altogether.
5 You have [b]hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
6 (F)Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.
13 For You formed my inward parts;
You [a]covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for [b]I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
15 (A)My [c]frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.
17 (B)How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.
16 Nevertheless, (A)the Lord raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but they (B)played the harlot with other gods, and bowed down to them. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the Lord; they did not do so. 18 And when the Lord raised up judges for them, (C)the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; (D)for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. 19 And it came to pass, (E)when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way.
20 Then the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and He said, “Because this nation has (F)transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not heeded My voice, 21 I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua (G)left when he died, 22 so (H)that through them I may (I)test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the Lord, to walk in them as their fathers kept them, or not.” 23 Therefore the Lord left those nations, without driving them out immediately; nor did He deliver them into the hand of Joshua.
16 Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and (A)you who fear God, listen: 17 The God of this people [a]Israel (B)chose our fathers, and exalted the people (C)when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with [b]an uplifted arm He (D)brought them out of it. 18 Now (E)for a time of about forty years He put up with their ways in the wilderness. 19 And when He had destroyed (F)seven nations in the land of Canaan, (G)He distributed their land to them by allotment.
20 “After that (H)He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, (I)until Samuel the prophet. 21 (J)And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them (K)Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 And (L)when He had removed him, (M)He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, (N)‘I have found David the son of Jesse, (O)a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ 23 (P)From this man’s seed, according (Q)to the promise, God raised up for Israel (R)a[c] Savior—Jesus— 24 (S)after John had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 And as John was finishing his course, he said, (T)‘Who do you think I am? I am not He. But behold, (U)there comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.