Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 139
For the music leader. Of David. A song.
139 Lord, you have examined me.
You know me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I stand up.
Even from far away, you comprehend my plans.
3 You study my traveling and resting.
You are thoroughly familiar with all my ways.
4 There isn’t a word on my tongue, Lord,
that you don’t already know completely.
5 You surround me—front and back.
You put your hand on me.
6 That kind of knowledge is too much for me;
it’s so high above me that I can’t reach it.
13 You are the one who created my innermost parts;
you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb.
14 I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart.
Your works are wonderful—I know that very well.
15 My bones weren’t hidden from you
when I was being put together in a secret place,
when I was being woven together in the deep parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my embryo,
and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me,[a]
before any one of them had yet happened.[b]
17 God, your plans are incomprehensible to me!
Their total number is countless!
18 If I tried to count them—they outnumber grains of sand!
If I came to the very end—I’d still be with you.[c]
14 Heal me, Lord, and I’ll be healed.
Save me and I’ll be saved,
for you are my heart’s desire.
15 See how they harass me:
“Where’s the Lord’s word?
Let it come now!”
16 Yet I didn’t urge you to bring disaster;[a]
I didn’t want the calamity to happen.
You know what comes out of my mouth;
it’s always before you.
17 Don’t terrorize me;
you are my refuge in time of disaster.
18 Let my tormentors be disgraced, but not me;
let them be terrorized, but not me.
Bring on them the time of disaster,
as they deserve; destroy them repeatedly.
19 The Lord proclaimed to me: Go and stand by the People’s Gate where Judah’s kings go in and out, and then by all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 and say to them: Listen to the Lord’s word, you kings of Judah, all you people of Judah, and anyone living in Jerusalem who passes through these gates. 21 The Lord says: Be on guard not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or conduct business at the gates of Jerusalem. 22 Don’t carry a load from your houses or do any kind of work on the Sabbath day. Rather, keep the Sabbath day holy as I commanded your ancestors, 23 although they didn’t listen or pay attention. They were stubborn and wouldn’t obey or accept correction. 24 If you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and don’t conduct business at the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, if you keep the Sabbath day holy by not working, 25 then through the gates of this city will come kings who occupy the throne of David and their officers, all riding on chariots and horses. They will be accompanied by the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem. And this city will always be inhabited. 26 Others will come from the towns of Judah and Benjamin, from all around Jerusalem, and from the western foothills, the highlands, and the arid southern plain—they will come bringing entirely burned offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, incense, and thanksgiving offerings to the Lord’s temple. 27 But if you don’t obey me by keeping the Sabbath day holy, if you carry your loads and conduct your business at the gates of Jerusalem as usual, then I will set fire to those gates that will completely engulf the fortresses of Jerusalem; it will not be put out.
Trouble in the family
34 “Don’t think that I’ve come to bring peace to the earth. I haven’t come to bring peace but a sword. 35 I’ve come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 People’s enemies are members of their own households.[a]
37 “Those who love father or mother more than me aren’t worthy of me. Those who love son or daughter more than me aren’t worthy of me. 38 Those who don’t pick up their crosses and follow me aren’t worthy of me. 39 Those who find their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives because of me will find them.
Rewards
40 “Those who receive you are also receiving me, and those who receive me are receiving the one who sent me. 41 Those who receive a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. Those who receive a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 I assure you that everybody who gives even a cup of cold water to these little ones because they are my disciples will certainly be rewarded.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible