Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

139 Jehovah, thou hast searched me, and known [me].

² *Thou* knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off;

³ Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways;

⁴ For there is not yet a word on my tongue, [but] lo, O Jehovah, thou knowest it altogether.

⁵ Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me.

⁶ O knowledge too wonderful for me! it is high, I cannot [attain] unto it.

¹³ For thou hast possessed my reins; thou didst cover me in my mother's womb.

¹⁴ I will praise thee, for I am fearfully, wonderfully made. Marvellous are thy works; and [that] my soul knoweth right well.

¹⁵ My bones were not hidden from thee when I was made in secret, curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth.

¹⁶ Thine eyes did see my unformed substance, and in thy book all [my members] were written; [during many] days were they fashioned, when [as yet] there was none of them.

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

¹⁸ [If] I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with thee.

¹⁰ Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole land! I have not lent on usury, nor have they lent to me on usury; [yet] every one of them doth curse me.

¹¹ Jehovah said, Verily I will set thee free for [thy] good; verily I will cause the enemy to meet thee kindly in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.

¹² Will iron break? iron from the north? and bronze?

¹³ Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, and in all thy borders;

¹⁴ and I will make [them] to pass with thine enemies into a land that thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger; it shall burn upon you.

¹⁵ Jehovah, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; in thy long-suffering take me not away: know that for thy sake I bear reproach.

¹⁶ Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by thy name, O Jehovah, God of hosts.

¹⁷ I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor exulted: I sat alone because of thy hand; for thou hast filled me with indignation.

¹⁸ Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable? It refuseth to be healed. Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a treacherous [spring], [as] waters that fail?

¹⁹ Therefore thus saith Jehovah: If thou return, then will I bring thee again, thou shalt stand before me; and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth. Let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.

²⁰ And I will make thee unto this people a strong brazen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, to save thee and to deliver thee, saith Jehovah;

²¹ yea, I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

²⁵ but I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-workman and fellow-soldier, but your messenger and minister to my need,

²⁶ since he had a longing desire after you all, and was distressed because ye had heard that he was sick;

²⁷ for he was also sick close to death, but God had mercy on him, and not indeed on him alone, but also on me, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow.

²⁸ I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that seeing him ye might again rejoice, and that *I* might be the less sorrowful.

²⁹ Receive him therefore in [the] Lord with all joy, and hold such in honour;

³⁰ because for the sake of the work he drew near even to death, venturing his life that he might fill up what lacked in your ministration toward me.