Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
To the Director: For flutes. A Davidic Psalm
A Prayer for God’s Help
5 Lord, listen to my words,
consider my groaning.
2 Pay attention to my cry for help,[a]
my king and my God,
for unto you will I pray.
3 Lord, in the morning you will hear my voice;
in the morning I will pray[b] to you,
and I will watch for your answer.[c]
4 Indeed, you aren’t a God who delights in wickedness;
evil will never dwell with you.
5 Boastful ones will not stand before you;
you hate all those who practice wickedness.
6 You will destroy those who speak lies.
The Lord abhors the person of bloodshed and deceit.
7 But I, because of the abundance of your gracious love,
may come into your house.
In awe of you, I will worship in your holy Temple.
8 Lord, lead me in your righteousness because of my enemies.
Make your path straight before me.
9 But as for the wicked,[d]
they do not speak truth at all.
Inside them there is only wickedness.
Their throat is an open grave,
on their tongue is deceitful flattery.
10 Declare them guilty, God!
Let them fall by their own schemes.
Drive them away because of their many transgressions,
for they have rebelled against you.
11 Let all those who take refuge in you rejoice!
Let them shout for joy forever,
and may you protect them.
Let those who love your name exult in you.
12 Indeed, you will bless the righteous one, Lord,
like a large shield, you will surround him with favor.
Jonah’s Anger at God’s Kindness
4 Greatly displeased, Jonah flew into a rage. 2 So he prayed to the Lord, “Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my home country? That’s why I fled previously to Tarshish, because I knew you’re a compassionate God, slow to anger, overflowing with gracious love, and reluctant[a] to send trouble. 3 Therefore, Lord, please kill me, because it’s better for me to die than to live!”
4 The Lord replied, “Does being angry make you right?”
Jonah’s Discouragement
5 Then Jonah left the city and sat down on the eastern side.[b] There he made a shelter for himself and sat down under its shade to see what would happen to the city. 6 The Lord God prepared a vine plant,[c] and it grew over Jonah to shade his head and provide relief from his misery. Jonah was happy—indeed, he was ecstatic—about the vine plant. 7 But at dawn the next day, God provided a worm that attacked the vine plant so that it withered away. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a harsh east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head, he became faint, and he begged to die. “It is better for me to die than to live!” he said.
9 Then God asked Jonah, “Is your anger about the vine plant justified?”
And he answered, “Absolutely! I’m so angry I could die!”
10 But the Lord asked, “You cared about a vine plant that you neither worked on nor cultivated? A vine plant that grew up overnight and died overnight? 11 So why shouldn’t I be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 human beings who do not know their right hand from their left,[d] as well as a lot of livestock?
Philip Tells an Ethiopian about Jesus
26 Now an angel of the Lord told Philip, “Get up and go south on the road that leads from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a deserted road.” 27 So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, who was a member of the court of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. He was in charge of all her treasures and had come up to Jerusalem to worship. 28 Now he was returning home, seated in his chariot, and reading from the prophet Isaiah.
29 The Spirit told Philip, “Approach that chariot and stay near it.” 30 So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah out loud.
Philip[a] asked, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”
31 The man[b] replied, “How can I unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to get in and sit with him. 32 This was the passage of Scripture he was reading:
“Like a sheep he was led away to be slaughtered,
and like a lamb is silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation, justice was denied him.
Who can describe his descendants?[c]
For his life is taken away from the earth.”[d]
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet talking about? Himself? Or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began to speak, and, starting from this Scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus.
36 As they were going along the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s some water. What keeps me from being baptized?”[e] 38 So he ordered the chariot to stop, and Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water, and Philip[f] baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch went on his way rejoicing and did not see Philip[g] again. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus. As he was passing through that region,[h] he kept proclaiming the good news in all the towns until he came to Caesarea.
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