Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 139

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

¹ O Lord, you have searched me [thoroughly] and have known me.

² You know my downsitting and my uprising; You understand my thought afar off.^(A)

³ You sift and search out my path and my lying down, and You are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴ For there is not a word in my tongue [still unuttered], but, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.^(B)

⁵ You have beset me and shut me in—behind and before, and You have laid Your hand upon me.

⁶ Your [infinite] knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high above me, I cannot reach it.

¹³ For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery].

¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.

¹⁷ How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!^(A)

¹⁸ If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with You.

¹⁶ But the Lord raised up judges, who delivered them out of the hands of those who robbed them.

¹⁷ And yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed down to them. They turned quickly out of the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and they did not so.

¹⁸ When the Lord raised them up judges, then He was with the judge and delivered them out of the hands of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord was moved to relent because of their groanings by reason of those who oppressed and vexed them.

¹⁹ But when the judge was dead, they turned back and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, following and serving other gods, and bowing down to them. They did not cease from their practices or their stubborn way.

²⁰ So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel; and He said, Because this people have transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers and have not listened to My voice,

²¹ I from now on will also not drive out from before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died,

²² That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not.

²³ So the Lord left those nations, without driving them out at once, nor had He delivered them into Joshua’s power.

¹⁶ So Paul arose, and motioning with his hand said, Men of Israel and you who reverence and fear God, listen!

¹⁷ The God of this people Israel selected our forefathers and made this people great and important during their stay in the land of Egypt, and then with an uplifted arm He led them out from there.^(A)

¹⁸ And for about forty years ^[a]like a fatherly nurse He cared for them in the wilderness and endured their behavior.^(B)

¹⁹ When He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He gave them [the Hebrews] their land as an inheritance [distributing it to them by lot; all of which took] about 450 years.^(C)

²⁰ After that, He gave them judges until the prophet Samuel.

²¹ Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years.

²² And when He had deposed him, He raised up David to be their king; of him He bore witness and said, I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart, who will do all My will and carry out My program fully.^(D)

²³ Of this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel a Savior [in the person of Jesus], according to His promise.

²⁴ Before His coming John had [already] preached baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.

²⁵ And as John was ending his course, he asked, What or ^[b]who do you secretly think that I am? I am not He [the Christ. No], but note that after me One is coming, the sandals of Whose feet I am not worthy to untie!