Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ O LORD, thou hast searched me and known me.

² Thou knowest my sitting down and my rising up, thou dost understand my thoughts from afar.

³ Thou hast girded my walk and my rest, and hast prepared all my ways.

⁴ For the word is not even upon my tongue, and, behold, O LORD, thou dost know it altogether.

⁵ Thou hast formed my face and my insides and laid thine hand upon me.

⁶ Thy knowledge is wonderful beyond my ability to comprehend; it is high, I cannot understand it.

¹³ For thou hast possessed my kidneys: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvellous are thy works, and that, my soul knows right well.

¹⁵ My body was not hid from thee, even though I was made in secret and brought together in the lowest parts of the earth.

¹⁶ Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which were then formed, without lacking one of them.

¹⁷ ¶ Therefore, how precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them!

¹⁸ If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with thee.

⁶ ¶ For Joshua had let the people go, and the sons of Israel had each gone unto his inheritance to possess the land.

⁷ And the people had served the LORD all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua who had seen all the great works of the LORD that he had done with Israel.

⁸ And Joshua, the son of Nun, the slave of the LORD, died, being one hundred and ten years old.

⁹ And they buried him within the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres in the mount of Ephraim on the north side of the mount of Gaash.

¹⁰ And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, and there arose another generation after them which did not know the LORD nor the work which he had done to Israel.

¹¹ And the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baalim.

¹² And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them and provoked the LORD to anger.

¹³ And they forsook the LORD and served Baal and Ashtaroth.

¹⁴ And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies.

¹⁵ Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for evil, as the LORD had said and as the LORD had sworn unto them; and thus they were greatly distressed.

10 ¶ Now I, Paul, myself beseech you by the meekness and clemency of the Christ (who in presence am low among you, but being absent am bold toward you)

² but I beseech you that I need not be bold when I am present with that confidence, with which I am esteemed to use against some who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh.

³ For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh

⁴ (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God for the destruction of strong holds),

⁵ casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and leading captive every thought into the obedience of the Christ

⁶ and having a readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

⁷ ¶ Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If anyone trusts to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s.

⁸ For though I should glory somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord has given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed,

⁹ That I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters.

¹⁰ For his letters, they say, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.

¹¹ Let such a one think this, that such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also in deed when we are present.