Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 18
Praise for Deliverance
For the choir director. Of the servant of the Lord, David, who spoke the words of this song to the Lord on the day the Lord rescued him from the grasp of all his enemies and from the power of Saul.(A) He said:
1 I love you, Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock,
my fortress, and my deliverer,(B)
my God, my rock where I seek refuge,
my shield(C) and the horn of my salvation,(D)
my stronghold.
3 I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,(E)
and I was saved from my enemies.(F)
4 The ropes of death were wrapped around me;
the torrents of destruction terrified me.(G)
5 The ropes of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.(H)
6 I called to the Lord in my distress,
and I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,(I)
and my cry to him reached his ears.(J)
7 Then the earth shook and quaked;
the foundations of the mountains trembled;(K)
they shook because he burned with anger.
8 Smoke rose from his nostrils,
and consuming fire came from his mouth;
coals were set ablaze by it.[a](L)
9 He bent the heavens and came down,(M)
total darkness beneath his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub and flew,
soaring on the wings of the wind.(N)
11 He made darkness his hiding place,
dark storm clouds his canopy around him.(O)
12 From the radiance of his presence,(P)
his clouds swept onward with hail and blazing coals.
13 The Lord thundered from[b] heaven;
the Most High made his voice heard.[c](Q)
14 He shot his arrows and scattered them;
he hurled[d] lightning bolts and routed them.(R)
15 The depths of the sea became visible,
the foundations of the world were exposed,
at your rebuke, Lord,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.(S)
16 He reached down from on high
and took hold of me;
he pulled me out of deep water.(T)
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy
and from those who hated me,
for they were too strong for me.(U)
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
but the Lord was my support.(V)
19 He brought me out to a spacious place;(W)
he rescued me because he delighted in me.(X)
The Flood
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the sources of the vast watery depths burst open,(A) the floodgates of the sky were opened,(B) 12 and the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On that same day Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, entered the ark, along with Noah’s wife and his three sons’ wives. 14 They entered it with all the wildlife according to their kinds, all livestock according to their kinds, all the creatures that crawl on the earth according to their kinds, every flying creature—all the birds and every winged creature—according to their kinds. 15 Two of every creature that has the breath of life in it came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 Those that entered, male and female of every creature, entered just as God had commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in.
17 The flood continued for forty days on the earth; the water increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth. 18 The water surged and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 Then the water surged even higher on the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered. 20 The mountains were covered as the water surged above them more than twenty feet.[a] 21 Every creature perished—those that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind. 22 Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils(C)—everything on dry land died. 23 He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the earth, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.(D) 24 And the water surged on the earth 150 days.
The Flood Recedes
8 God remembered Noah,(E) as well as all the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to pass over the earth,(F) and the water began to subside. 2 The sources of the watery depths and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky stopped.(G) 3 The water steadily receded from the earth, and by the end of 150 days the water had decreased significantly.(H) 4 The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.(I)
5 The water continued to recede until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible.
4 For if God didn’t spare(A) the angels who sinned but cast them into hell[a](B) and delivered them in chains[b] of utter darkness to be kept for judgment;(C) 5 and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah,(D) a preacher of righteousness, and seven others,[c](E) when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah(F) to ashes and condemned them to extinction,[d] making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly;(G) 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot,(H) distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard(I))— 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue(J) the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,(K) 10 especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority.(L)
Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones;
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