◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 139:1-12 23-24 (You have searched me and known me); Ezekiel 39:21-29 (I will restore the fortunes of Jacob); Hebrews 6:13-20 (The certainty of God’s promises) (New English Translation)

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July 21, 2023

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 139:1-12

Psalm 139^[a]

For the music director, a psalm of David.

139 O Lord, you examine me^[b] and know me.
²You know when I sit down and when I get up;
even from far away you understand my motives.
³You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest;^[c]
you are aware of everything I do.^[d]
⁴Certainly^[e] my tongue does not frame a word
without you, O Lord, being thoroughly aware of it.^[f]
⁵You squeeze me in from behind and in front;
you place your hand on me.
⁶Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension;
it is so far beyond me, I am unable to fathom it.^[g]
⁷Where can I go to escape your Spirit?
Where can I flee to escape your presence?^[h]
⁸If I were to ascend^[i] to heaven, you would be there.
If I were to sprawl out^[j] in Sheol, there you would be.^[k]
⁹If I were to fly away^[l] on the wings of the dawn,^[m]
and settle down on the other side^[n] of the sea,
¹⁰even there your hand would guide me,
your right hand would grab hold of me.
¹¹If I were to say, “Certainly the darkness will cover me,^[o]
and the light will turn to night all around me,”^[p]
¹²even the darkness is not too dark for you to see,^[q]
and the night is as bright as^[r] day;
darkness and light are the same to you.^[s]

Footnotes

Psalm 139:1 sn Psalm 139. The psalmist acknowledges that God, who created him, is aware of his every action and thought. He invites God to examine his motives, for he is confident they are pure.
Psalm 139:1 tn The statement is understood as generalizing—the psalmist describes what God typically does.
Psalm 139:3 tn Heb “my traveling and my lying down you measure.” The verb זָרָה (zarah, “to measure”) is probably here a denominative from זֶרֶת (zeret, “a span; a measure”), though some derive it from זָרָה (zarat, “to winnow; to sift”; see BDB 279-80 s.v. זָרָה).
Psalm 139:3 tn Heb “all my ways.”
Psalm 139:4 tn Or “for.”
Psalm 139:4 tn Heb “look, O Lord, you know all of it.”
Psalm 139:6 tn Heb “too amazing [is this] knowledge for me, it is elevated, I cannot attain to it.”
Psalm 139:7 tn Heb “Where can I go from your spirit, and where from your face can I flee?” God’s “spirit” may refer here (1) to his presence (note the parallel term, “your face,” and see Ps 104:29-30, where God’s “face” is his presence and his “spirit” is the life-giving breath he imparts) or (2) to his personal Spirit (see Ps 51:10).
Psalm 139:8 tn The Hebrew verb סָלַק (salaq, “to ascend”) occurs only here in the OT, but the word is well-attested in Aramaic literature from different time periods and displays a wide semantic range (see DNWSI 2:788-90).
Psalm 139:8 tn The verb יָצַע (yatzaʿ) is rare in the Bible (see Isa 58:5 also Hiphil, and Isa 1:14; Est 4:3 for Hophal examples). There are three main options for understanding this phrase. It may mean “to descend to Sheol,” as in the LXX. This takes the motion in the verb as very generic for this context and understands “Sheol” without a preposition as the default “to Sheol.” Many translations take it as spreading out [something] to act as a bed, couch, or area to lie down. It is uncertain that the idea of a bed has to be implied and this does not required to fit the other contexts. Or, as taken here, it may “to spread [oneself] out, to sprawl.” Each view has merits and it is difficult to decide because the are so few examples.
Psalm 139:8 tn Heb “look, you.”
Psalm 139:9 tn Heb “rise up.”
Psalm 139:9 sn On the wings of the dawn. This personification of the “dawn” may find its roots in mythological traditions about the god Shachar, whose birth is described in an Ugaritic myth (see G. R. Driver, Canaanite Myths and Legends, 126) and who is mentioned in Isa 14:12 as the father of Helel.
Psalm 139:9 tn Heb “at the end.”
Psalm 139:11 tn The Hebrew verb שׁוּף (shuf), which means “to crush; to wound,” in Gen 3:15 and Job 9:17, is problematic here. For a discussion of attempts to relate the verb to Arabic roots, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 251. Many emend the form to יְשׂוּכֵּנִי (y^esukkeni), from the root שָׂכַך (sakhakh, “to cover,” an alternate form of סָכַך [sakhakh]), a reading assumed in the present translation.
Psalm 139:11 tn Heb “and night, light, around me.”
Psalm 139:12 tn The words “to see” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
Psalm 139:12 tn Heb “shines like.”
Psalm 139:12 tn Heb “like darkness, like light.”

Psalm 139:23-24

²³Examine me, O God, and probe my thoughts.^[a]
Test me, and know my concerns.^[b]
²⁴See if there is any idolatrous way^[c] in me,
and lead me in the everlasting way.^[d]

Ezekiel 39:21-29

²¹“I will display my majesty^[a] among the nations. All the nations will witness the judgment I have executed and the power I have exhibited^[b] among them. ²²Then the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward. ²³The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile due to their iniquity,^[c] for they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies; all of them died by the sword. ²⁴According to their uncleanness and rebellion I have dealt with them, and I hid my face from them.

²⁵“Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Now I will restore^[d] the fortunes of Jacob, and I will have mercy on the entire house of Israel. I will be zealous for my holy name. ²⁶They will bear their shame for all their unfaithful acts against me, when they live securely on their land with no one to make them afraid. ²⁷When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will magnify myself among them in the sight of many nations. ²⁸Then they will know that I am the Lord their God because I sent them into exile among the nations and then gathered them into their own land. I will not leave any of them in exile^[e] any longer. ²⁹I will no longer hide my face from them, when I pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel,^[f] declares the Sovereign Lord.”

Hebrews 6:13-20

¹³Now when God made his promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, ¹⁴saying, “Surely I will bless you greatly and multiply your descendants abundantly.”^[a] ¹⁵And so by persevering, Abraham^[b] inherited the promise. ¹⁶For people^[c] swear by something greater than themselves,^[d] and the oath serves as a confirmation to end all dispute.^[e] ¹⁷In the same way^[f] God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable,^[g] and so he intervened with an oath, ¹⁸so that we who have found refuge in him^[h] may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie. ¹⁹We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and steadfast, which reaches inside behind the curtain,^[i] ²⁰where Jesus our forerunner entered on our behalf, since he became a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.^[j]

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 139[a]

For the music director, a psalm of David.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 139^[a]