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.

⁷ Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence?

⁸ If I ascend up into heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol (the place of the dead), behold, You are there.^(C)

⁹ If I take the wings of the morning or dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

¹⁰ Even there shall Your hand lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me.

¹¹ If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me and the night shall be [the only] light about me,

¹² Even the darkness hides nothing from You, but the night shines as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to You.^(D)

²³ Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!

²⁴ And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

²¹ And I will manifest My honor and glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgment and justice [in the punishment] which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them.

²² So the house of Israel shall know, understand, and realize beyond all question that I am the Lord their God from that day forward.

²³ And the nations shall know, understand, and realize positively that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they trespassed against Me; and I hid My face from them. So I gave them into the hand of their enemies and they all fell [into captivity or were slain] by the power of the sword.^(A)

²⁴ According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them and hid My face from them.

²⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now will I reverse the captivity of Jacob and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel and will be jealous for My holy name.

²⁶ They shall forget their shame and self-reproach and all their treachery and unfaithfulness in which they have transgressed against Me, when they dwell securely in their land and there is none who makes them afraid.

²⁷ When I have brought them again from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and My justice and holiness are set apart and vindicated through them in the sight of many nations,

²⁸ Then shall they know, understand, and realize positively that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into captivity and exile among the nations and then gathered them to their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations any more [in the latter days].

²⁹ Neither will I hide My face any more then from them, when I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God.

¹³ For when God made [His] promise to Abraham, He swore by Himself, since He had no one greater by whom to swear,

¹⁴ Saying, Blessing I certainly will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you.^(A)

¹⁵ And so it was that he [Abraham], having waited long and endured patiently, realized and obtained [in the birth of Isaac as a pledge of what was to come] what God had promised him.

¹⁶ Men indeed swear by a greater [than themselves], and with them in all disputes the oath taken for confirmation is final [ending strife].

¹⁷ Accordingly God also, in His desire to show more convincingly and beyond doubt to those who were to inherit the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose and plan, intervened (mediated) with an oath.

¹⁸ This was so that, by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God ever to prove false or deceive us, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope appointed for us and set before [us].

¹⁹ [Now] we have this [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul [it cannot slip and it cannot ^[a]break down under whoever steps out upon it—a hope] that reaches ^[b]farther and enters into [the very certainty of the Presence] within the veil,^(B)

²⁰ Where Jesus has entered in for us [in advance], a Forerunner having become a High Priest forever after the order (with ^[c]the rank) of Melchizedek.^(C)