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Psalm 139

1  O Lord, you have searched me out and known me; ♦︎
   you know my sitting down and my rising up;
      you discern my thoughts from afar.
2  You mark out my journeys and my resting place ♦︎
   and are acquainted with all my ways.
3  For there is not a word on my tongue, ♦︎
   but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
4  You encompass me behind and before ♦︎
   and lay your hand upon me.
5  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, ♦︎
   so high that I cannot attain it.
6  Where can I go then from your spirit? ♦︎
   Or where can I flee from your presence?
7  If I climb up to heaven, you are there; ♦︎
   if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.
8  If I take the wings of the morning ♦︎
   and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
9  Even there your hand shall lead me, ♦︎
   your right hand hold me fast.
10  If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me ♦︎
   and the light around me turn to night,’
11  Even darkness is no darkness with you;
      the night is as clear as the day; ♦︎
   darkness and light to you are both alike.
12  For you yourself created my inmost parts; ♦︎
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
23  Search me out, O God, and know my heart; ♦︎
   try me and examine my thoughts.
24  See if there is any way of wickedness in me ♦︎
   and lead me in the way everlasting.

Israel Restored to the Land

21 I will display my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgement that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid on them. ²²The house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward. ²³And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt treacherously with me. So I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. ²⁴I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them.

25 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for my holy name. ²⁶They shall forget^* their shame, and all the treachery they have practised against me, when they live securely in their land with no one to make them afraid, ²⁷when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands, and through them have displayed my holiness in the sight of many nations. ²⁸Then they shall 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 leave none of them behind; ²⁹and I will never again hide my face from them, when I pour out my spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God.

The Certainty of God’s Promise

13 When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, ¹⁴saying, ‘I will surely bless you and multiply you.’ ¹⁵And thus Abraham,^* having patiently endured, obtained the promise. ¹⁶Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute. ¹⁷In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, ¹⁸so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. ¹⁹We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, ²⁰where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.