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!
14 Lord, you alone can heal me, you alone can save, and my praises are for you alone.
15 Men scoff at me and say, “What is this word of the Lord you keep talking about? If these threats of yours are really from God, why don’t they come true?”
16 Lord, I don’t want the people crushed by terrible calamity. The plan is yours, not mine. It is your message I’ve given them, not my own. I don’t want them doomed! 17 Lord, don’t desert me now! You alone are my hope. 18 Bring confusion and trouble on all who persecute me, but give me peace. Yes, bring double destruction upon them!
19 Then the Lord said to me, Go and stand in the gates of Jerusalem, first at the gate where the king goes out, and then at each of the other gates, 20 and say to all the people: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and all the people of this nation, and all you citizens of Jerusalem. 21-22 The Lord says: Take warning and live; do no unnecessary[a] work on the Sabbath day, but make it a holy day. I gave this commandment to your fathers, 23 but they didn’t listen or obey. They stubbornly refused to pay attention and be taught.
24 But if you obey me, says the Lord, and refuse to work on the Sabbath day and keep it separate, special and holy, 25 then this nation shall continue forever. There shall always be descendants of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem; there shall always be kings and princes riding in pomp and splendor among the people, and this city shall remain forever. 26 And from all around Jerusalem and from the cities of Judah and Benjamin, from the Negeb and from the lowlands west of Judah, the people shall come with their burnt offerings and grain offerings and incense, bringing their sacrifices to praise the Lord in his Temple.
27 But if you will not listen to me, if you refuse to keep the Sabbath holy, if on the Sabbath you bring in loads of merchandise through these gates of Jerusalem, just as on other days, then I will set fire to these gates. The fire shall spread to the palaces and utterly destroy them, and no one shall be able to put out the raging flames.
34 “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! No, rather, a sword. 35 I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— 36 a man’s worst enemies will be right in his own home! 37 If you love your father and mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. 38 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.
39 “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give it up for me, you will save it.
40 “Those who welcome you are welcoming me. And when they welcome me they are welcoming God who sent me. 41 If you welcome a prophet because he is a man of God, you will be given the same reward a prophet gets. And if you welcome good and godly men because of their godliness, you will be given a reward like theirs.
42 “And if, as my representatives, you give even a cup of cold water to a little child, you will surely be rewarded.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.