Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
139 O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. 2 You know when I sit or stand. When far away you know my every thought. 3 You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am. 4 You know what I am going to say before I even say it. 5 You both precede and follow me and place your hand of blessing on my head.
6 This is too glorious, too wonderful to believe!
13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit them together in my mother’s womb. 14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it. 15 You were there while I was being formed in utter seclusion! 16 You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book!
17-18 How precious it is, Lord, to realize that you are thinking about me constantly! I can’t even count how many times a day your thoughts turn toward me.[a] And when I waken in the morning, you are still thinking of me!
16 the Lord raised up judges to save them from their enemies.
17 Yet even then Israel would not listen to the judges, but broke faith with Jehovah by worshiping other gods instead. How quickly they turned away from the true faith of their ancestors, for they refused to obey God’s commands. 18 Each judge rescued the people of Israel from their enemies throughout his lifetime, for the Lord was moved to pity by the groaning of his people under their crushing oppressions; so he helped them as long as that judge lived. 19 But when the judge died, the people turned from doing right and behaved even worse than their ancestors had. They prayed to heathen gods again, throwing themselves to the ground in humble worship. They stubbornly returned to the evil customs of the nations around them.
20 Then the anger of the Lord would flame out against Israel again. He declared, “Because these people have violated the treaty I made with their ancestors, 21 I will no longer drive out the nations left unconquered by Joshua when he died. 22 Instead, I will use these nations to test my people, to see whether or not they will obey the Lord as their ancestors did.”
23 So the Lord left those nations in the land and did not drive them out, nor let Israel destroy them.
16 So Paul stood, waved a greeting to them[a] and began. “Men of Israel,” he said, “and all others here who reverence God, let me begin my remarks with a bit of history.
17 “The God of this nation Israel chose our ancestors and honored them in Egypt by gloriously leading them out of their slavery. 18 And he nursed them through forty years of wandering around in the wilderness. 19-20 Then he destroyed seven nations in Canaan and gave Israel their land as an inheritance. Judges ruled for about four hundred and fifty years and were followed by Samuel the prophet.
21 “Then the people begged for a king, and God gave them Saul (son of Kish), a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. 22 But God removed him and replaced him with David as king, a man about whom God said, ‘David (son of Jesse) is a man after my own heart, for he will obey me.’ 23 And it is one of King David’s descendants, Jesus, who is God’s promised Savior of Israel!
24 “But before he came, John the Baptist preached the need for everyone in Israel to turn from sin to God. 25 As John was finishing his work he asked, ‘Do you think I am the Messiah? No! But he is coming soon—and in comparison with him, I am utterly worthless.’
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.