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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.
12  For you yourself created my inmost parts; ♦︎
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
13  I thank you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; ♦︎
   marvellous are your works, my soul knows well.
14  My frame was not hidden from you, ♦︎
   when I was made in secret
      and woven in the depths of the earth.
15  Your eyes beheld my form, as yet unfinished; ♦︎
   already in your book were all my members written,
16  As day by day they were fashioned ♦︎
   when as yet there was none of them.
17  How deep are your counsels to me, O God! ♦︎
   How great is the sum of them!
18  If I count them, they are more in number than the sand, ♦︎
   and at the end, I am still in your presence.

16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who delivered them out of the power of those who plundered them. ¹⁷Yet they did not listen even to their judges; for they lusted after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their ancestors had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the Lord; they did not follow their example. ¹⁸Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the Lord would be moved to pity by their groaning because of those who persecuted and oppressed them. ¹⁹But whenever the judge died, they would relapse and behave worse than their ancestors, following other gods, worshipping them and bowing down to them. They would not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. ²⁰So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel; and he said, ‘Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their ancestors, and have not obeyed my voice, ²¹I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died.’ ²²In order to test Israel, whether or not they would take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their ancestors did, ²³the Lord had left those nations, not driving them out at once, and had not handed them over to Joshua.

¹⁶So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak:

‘You Israelites,^* and others who fear God, listen. ¹⁷The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it. ¹⁸For about forty years he put up with^* them in the wilderness. ¹⁹After he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance ²⁰for about four hundred and fifty years. After that he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. ²¹Then they asked for a king; and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years. ²²When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, “I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.” ²³Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Saviour, Jesus, as he promised; ²⁴before his coming John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. ²⁵And as John was finishing his work, he said, “What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of the sandals^* on his feet.”