Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 139
God’s Attributes—Too Wonderful for Me!
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For the choir director. By David. A psalm.
God Is All-Knowing
1 Lord, you have investigated me,
and you know.
2 You know when I sit down and when I get up.
You understand my thoughts from far off.
3 You keep track of when I travel and when I stay,[a]
and you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before there is a word on my tongue,
you, Lord, already know it completely.
5 You put a fence behind me and in front of me,
and you have placed your hand on me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It is too high—I cannot grasp it.
God Is Present Everywhere
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your Presence?[b]
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in hell—there you are!
9 I rise on the wings of dawn.
I settle on the far side of the sea.
10 Even there your hand guides me,
and your right hand holds on to me.
11 And if I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light will become night around me,”
12 then even the darkness will not be too dark for you.
The night will be as light as the day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.
God Is Powerful and Good
13 For you created my inner organs.[c]
You wove me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful,
and my soul knows that very well.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unfinished body.
In your book all of them were written.
Days were determined, before any of them existed.
17 Your thoughts to me are so precious, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
21 Joash was seven years old when he became king.
Jehoash (Joash) Son of Ahaziah, King of Judah, Repairs the House of the Lord
12 In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash[a] became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for forty years. His mother’s name was Zibiah from Beersheba.[b]
2 Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord during the whole time that Jehoiada the priest instructed him, 3 but the high places were still not removed. The people were making sacrifices and burning incense on the high places.
4 Jehoash said to the priests, “All the silver from the sacred offerings which is brought into the House of the Lord—the redemption money which is assessed to each man in the census, all the money from the redemption of dedicated things, and all the money which any man brings to the House of the Lord as a gift from his heart— 5 the priests are to take it from the donor[c] and repair whatever damage is found in the temple.”[d]
6 But in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash, the priests had not repaired the damage to the temple. 7 So King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests, and he said to them, “Why aren’t you repairing the damage to the temple? Do not accept any more silver from those who are handing it in to you. Instead, put it toward repairing the damage to the temple.”
8 So the priests agreed that they would not take any silver from the people and that they themselves would not do the work of repairing the damage to the temple.
9 But Jehoiada the priest took a box, drilled a hole in its lid, and placed it at the right side of the altar as one entered the House of the Lord. Then the priests who were guarding the threshold put all the money which came into the House of the Lord there. 10 When they saw that there was a large quantity of silver in the box, the king’s secretary and the high priest went up and tied it in bags and tallied[e] the silver which was found in the House of the Lord.
11 Then they gave the silver which had been weighed out to those who were overseeing the work on the House of the Lord. They paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who were working on the House of the Lord, 12 and to the bricklayers and the stonemasons, who used it to buy wood and stone from the quarry to repair the damage to the House of the Lord and to meet all the expenses for repairing the building.
13 But the silver basins, snuffers, sprinkling bowls, trumpets, and all the gold and silver articles for the House of the Lord were not made from this silver which was brought into the House of the Lord. 14 Rather they paid it to the ones who were doing the work, and they repaired the House of the Lord with it. 15 They did not audit the men to whom they gave the silver to do the work, because they were acting honestly. 16 The silver from the restitution offerings and the silver from the sin offerings was not brought into the House of the Lord. It belonged to the priests.
Woe to the Rich
5 Come now, you who are rich, weep and cry aloud over the miseries that are going to come upon you. 2 Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have stored up treasure in these last days. 4 Listen, the wages that you failed to pay the workers who reaped your fields are crying out! And the cries of the harvesters have entered the ears of the Lord of Armies. 5 You have lived for pleasure on the earth and led a life of luxury. You have fattened your hearts on the day of slaughter. 6 You condemned and murdered the Righteous One.[a] Does he not oppose you?[b]
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.