Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods I will sing praises unto thee.

² I will worship the temple of thy holiness and praise thy name above thy mercy and thy truth; for thou hast made thy name to be magnificent and raised up thy spoken word above all things.

³ In the day when I called, thou didst answer me and strengthen me with strength in my soul.

⁴ All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hearken unto the spoken words from thy mouth.

⁵ Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.

⁶ ¶ For the LORD, who is high and lifted up, looks upon the humble, but the proud he does not know.

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me; thou shalt stretch forth thy hand against the wrath of my enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

⁸ The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; thy mercy, O LORD, endures for ever; forsake not the works of thine own hands.

⁷ ¶ In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day and from month to month, and the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar was taken.

⁸ And Haman said unto King Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of thy kingdom, and their laws are different from all other people; neither do they observe the king’s laws: therefore, it is not profitable for the king to allow them to remain.

⁹ If it pleases the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed; and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the public works, to bring it into the king’s treasuries.

¹⁰ And the king took his ring from his hand and gave it unto Haman, the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy.

¹¹ And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seems good to thee.

¹² Then the king’s scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and it was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king’s lieutenants and to the governors that were over each province and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof and to every people after their language; in the name of King Ahasuerus it was written and sealed with the king’s ring.

¹³ And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.

¹⁴ The copy of the writing was to be given as law in every province that it be published unto all the peoples, that they should be ready against that day.

¹⁵ The posts went out in haste by the king’s commandment, and the law was given in Shushan, the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city of Shushan was perplexed.

²² Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know,

²³ him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,

²⁴ whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

²⁵ For David speaks concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved,

²⁶ therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover even my flesh shall rest in hope

²⁷ because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

²⁸ Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

²⁹ Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

³⁰ Therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne;

³¹ he, seeing this before, spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, neither did his flesh see corruption.

³² This Jesus God has raised up, of whom we all are witnesses.

³³ Therefore being raised up by the right hand of God and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye now see and hear.

³⁴ For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand

³⁵ until I make thy foes thy footstool.

³⁶ Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.