Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 18(A)
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord. He spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said:
1 I love You, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my pillar, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
3 I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I will be saved from my enemies.
20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands He has repaid me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all His judgments were before me,
and I did not put away His statutes from me.
23 I was also upright before Him,
and I kept myself from my iniquity.
24 Therefore the Lord has repaid me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in His view.
25 With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful;
with the blameless man You will show Yourself blameless;
26 with the pure You will show Yourself pure;
and with the crooked You will show Yourself crooked.
27 For You will save the afflicted people,
but will bring down prideful eyes.
28 For You will cause my lamp to shine;
the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
29 For by You I can run through a troop,
and by my God I can leap a wall.
30 As for God, His way has integrity;
the word of the Lord is proven;
He is a shield
to all those who take refuge in Him.
31 For who is God except the Lord?
Or who is a rock besides our God?
32 It is God who clothes me with strength,
and gives my way integrity.
14 Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, O scoffers,
who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
15 because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
and with hell we are in agreement.
The overflowing scourge shall not come to us
when it passes through,
for we have made lies our refuge
and under falsehood we have hid ourselves.”
A Cornerstone in Zion
16 Therefore, thus says the Lord God:
See, I lay in Zion a stone,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, firmly placed;
he who believes shall not act hastily.
17 I shall make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the plummet;
then the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies
and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 Your covenant with death shall be annulled,
and your agreement with hell shall not stand;
when the overflowing scourge passes through,
then you shall be trodden down by it.
19 As often as it passes through, it shall seize you;
for morning by morning it shall pass through,
anytime by day or night.
It shall be terror only
to understand the report.
20 The bed is too short to stretch out,
and the covering is too small to wrap oneself in it.
21 For the Lord shall rise up as at Mount Perazim,
He shall be wrathful as in the Valley of Gibeon
to do His work, His unusual work,
and bring to pass His task, His exceptional task.
22 Now therefore, do not continue as mockers,
lest your bonds be made stronger;
for I have heard from the Lord God of Hosts
of determined destruction upon the whole earth.
The Anointing at Bethany(A)
6 When Jesus was in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, 7 a woman came to Him having an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment and poured it on His head as He sat at supper.
8 When His disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “For what purpose is this waste? 9 This ointment might have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.”
10 When Jesus perceived it, He said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has done a good work for Me. 11 For you have the poor always with you, but you do not always have Me. 12 In pouring this ointment on My body, she did it for My burial. 13 Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will be told in memory of her.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.