Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Knowledge of God
For the music director. Of David. A psalm.[a]
139 O Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up.
You understand my thought from afar.
3 You search out[b] my wandering and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word yet on my tongue,
but behold, O Yahweh, you know it completely.
5 You barricade me behind and in front,
and set your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
It is set high; I cannot prevail against it.
7 Where I can go from your Spirit,
or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, there you are,
and if I make my bed in Sheol, look! There you are.
9 If I lift up the wings of the dawn,
and I alight on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand would lead me,
and your right hand would hold me fast.
11 And if I should say, “Surely darkness will cover me,
and the light around me will be as night,”
12 even the darkness is not too dark for you,[c]
and the night shines as the day—
the darkness and the light are alike for you.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 And see if there is in me the worship of false gods,[a]
and lead me in the way everlasting.
21 “And I will display my glory among the nations, and all of the nations will see my judgment that I have executed and my hand that I have laid upon them.
22 “And the house of Israel will know that I am Yahweh their God from that day and beyond, 23 and the nations will know that because of their guilt the house of Israel went into exile, because[a] they acted unfaithfully against me, and I hid my face from them, and I gave them into the hand of their foes, and they fell by the sword, all of them. 24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgression I dealt with them, and I hid my face from them.
25 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob, and I will have compassion on all of the house of Israel, and I will be jealous[b] for my holy name.[c] 26 And they will forget their disgrace and all of their infidelity that they displayed against me when they dwelt on their soil in safety[d] with nobody making them afraid.[e] 27 When I restore them from the nations and I gather them from the countries of their enemies, then I will show myself holy through them before the eyes of many nations. 28 And they will know that I am Yahweh their God, because of when I deported them into the nations, and I reassembled them to their soil, and I will not let any of them remain there any longer.[f] 29 And I will not hide my face again from them when I pour out my Spirit over[g] the house of Israel,” declares[h] the Lord Yahweh.
The Reliability of God’s Promise
13 For when[a] God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying,
15 And so, by[d] persevering, he obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by what is greater than themselves, and the oath for confirmation is the end of all dispute for them. 17 In the same way God, because he[e] wanted to show even more to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his resolve, guaranteed it with an oath, 18 in order that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge may have powerful encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us, 19 which we have like an anchor of the soul, both firm and steadfast, and entering into the inside of the curtain, 20 where Jesus, the forerunner for us, entered, because he[f] became a high priest forever[g] according to the order of Melchizedek.
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