Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer for Help—Praise for the Answer

28 O Lord, to You I call. O my Rock, listen to me. If You will not hear me, I will be like those who have gone down to the grave. ² Hear my cry for loving-kindness as I call to You for help, and when I lift up my hands to Your holy place. ³ Do not drag me away with the sinful and with those who do bad things. They speak peace with their neighbors, while sin is in their hearts. ⁴ Pay them for their work and for the sins they do. Pay them for the works of their hands. Give them what they have earned. ⁵ They do not think about the works of the Lord and what His hands have done. So He will pull them down and not build them up again.

⁶ May honor and thanks be given to the Lord, because He has heard my prayer. ⁷ The Lord is my strength and my safe cover. My heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. So my heart is full of joy. I will thank Him with my song. ⁸ The Lord is the strength of His people. He is a safe place for His chosen one. ⁹ Save Your people and bring good to what is Yours. Be their shepherd and carry them forever.

The Death of Samson

²³ Now the leaders of the Philistines gathered to give a large gift to their god Dagon. They were happy, for they said, “Our god has given us Samson, the man who has fought against us.” ²⁴ The people praised their god when they saw Samson. They said, “Our god has given us the one who fought against us, destroyed our country, and killed many of us.” ²⁵ After the people had had much to drink, they said, “Bring Samson here so we can have some fun with him.” So they called Samson out of prison and made fun of him. They made him stand between the stone pillars that held up the building. ²⁶ Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, “Let me feel the tall pillars that hold up the building. I want to rest against them.” ²⁷ Now the building was full of men and women. All the leaders of the Philistines were there, and there were about 3,000 men and women on the roof looking down and laughing at Samson.

²⁸ Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, I beg You. Remember me. Give me strength only this once, O God. So I may now punish the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹ Samson took hold of the two center pillars that held up the building. He pushed against them, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other. ³⁰ Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his strength so that the building fell on the leaders and all the people in it. He killed more at his death than he killed in his life. ³¹ Then his brothers and all those of his father’s house came and took him. They brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the grave of his father Manoah. Samson had ruled Israel for twenty years.

² They took a man to Him who was on his bed. This man was not able to move his body. Jesus saw their faith. He said, “Son, take hope. Your sins are forgiven.” ³ Some of the teachers of the Law said to themselves, “This man speaks as if He is God, but He is not!” ⁴ Jesus knew what they were thinking. He said, “Why do you think bad thoughts in your hearts? ⁵ Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk?’ ⁶ But this is to show you that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.” He said to the sick man, “Get up! Take your bed and go home.” ⁷ He got up and went to his home. ⁸ All the people saw this. They were surprised and wondered about it. Then they gave thanks to God because He had given such power to men.