Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
How Precious Your Thoughts!
Psalm 139
1 For the music director: a psalm of David.
Adonai, You searched me and know me.
2 Whenever I sit down or stand up, You know it.
You discern my thinking from afar.
3 You observe my journeying and my resting
and You are familiar with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, Adonai, You know all about it.
5 You hemmed me in behind and before,
and laid Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
13 For You have created my conscience.
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise You, for I am awesomely, wonderfully made!
Wonderful are Your works—
and my soul knows that very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw me when I was unformed,
and in Your book were written the days that were formed—
when not one of them had come to be.
17 How precious are Your thoughts, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand!
When I awake, I am still with You.
10 Oy to me, my mother,
that you gave birth to me—
a man of strife and conflict to all the land!
I did not lend or borrow,
yet everyone curses me.
11 Adonai said:
“Surely I will release you for good.
Surely I will make the enemy appeal to you
in a time of trouble, in a time of affliction.
12 Can anyone smash iron—
iron and bronze from the north?
13 Your wealth and your treasures
I will give as plunder without cost,
for all your sins, in all your borders.
14 I will take you away with your enemies
into a land you do not know,
for a fire is kindled in My nostril,
which will burn against you.”
15 Adonai, you know.
Remember me and think of me.
Avenge me against my persecutors.
Because of Your long-suffering,
do not take me away.
Know that for Your sake I endure scorn.
16 Your words were found, so I ate them.
Your words were a delight to me
and the joy of my heart.
For I am called by Your Name,
Adonai-Elohei-Tzva’ot.
17 I never sat in the company of revelers
nor made merry.
Because of Your hand I sat alone,
for You filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain unending
and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will You be to me like a mirage
of water that is undependable?
19 Therefore thus says Adonai:
“If you return, I will restore you,
you will stand before Me.
If you extract the precious from the worthless,
you will be as My mouth.
Let them turn to you,
but you must not turn to them.
20 I will make you a fortified bronze wall to this people.
They will fight against you,
but will not prevail against you,
for I am with you to save you
and deliver you.”
It is a declaration of Adonai.
21 “So I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,
and I will redeem you out of the grasp of the ruthless.”
25 But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus—my brother and co-worker and fellow soldier, as well as your messenger and aide to my need. 26 For he was longing for you all and troubled because you heard that he was sick. 27 He certainly was sick, close to death. But God had mercy on him—and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I have sent him with special urgency, so that when you see him again you might rejoice and I might be less worried about you. 29 So welcome him in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard, 30 because he came close to death for the work of Messiah, risking his life to make up for what was lacking in your service to me.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.