Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

139 ⁽⁰⁾ For the leader. A psalm of David:

⁽¹⁾ Adonai, you have probed me, and you know me.
² You know when I sit and when I stand up,
you discern my inclinations from afar,
³ you scrutinize my daily activities.
You are so familiar with all my ways
⁴ that before I speak even a word, Adonai,
you know all about it already.
⁵ You have hemmed me in both behind and in front
and laid your hand on me.
⁶ Such wonderful knowledge is beyond me,
far too high for me to reach.

¹³ For you fashioned my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I thank you because I am awesomely made,
wonderfully; your works are wonders —
I know this very well.
¹⁵ My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes could see me as an embryo,
but in your book all my days were already written;
my days had been shaped
before any of them existed.
¹⁷ God, how I prize your thoughts!
How many of them there are!
¹⁸ If I count them, there are more than grains of sand;
if I finish the count, I am still with you.

2 Then Hannah prayed; she said:

“My heart exults in Adonai!
My dignity has been restored by Adonai!
I can gloat over my enemies,
because of my joy at your saving me.

² “No one is as holy as Adonai,
because there is none to compare with you,
no rock like our God.

³ “Stop your proud boasting!
Don’t let arrogance come from your mouth!
For Adonai is a God of knowledge,
and he appraises actions.
⁴ The bows of the mighty are broken,
while the feeble are armed with strength.
⁵ The well-fed hire themselves for bread,
while those who were hungry hunger no more.
The barren woman has borne seven,
while the mother of many wastes away.

⁶ “Adonai kills and makes alive;
he brings down to the grave, and he brings up.
⁷ Adonai makes poor, and he makes rich;
he humbles, and he exalts.
⁸ He raises the poor from the dust,
lifts up the needy from the trash pile;
he gives them a place with leaders
and assigns them seats of honor.
“For the earth’s pillars belong to Adonai;
on them he has placed the world.
⁹ He will guard the steps of his faithful,
but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.
For it is not by strength that a person prevails —
¹⁰ those who fight Adonai will be shattered;
he will thunder against them in heaven —
Adonai will judge the ends of the earth.
He will strengthen his king
and enhance the power of his anointed.”