Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Song of Thanks for Being Kept Safe

18 I love You, O Lord, my strength. ² The Lord is my rock, and my safe place, and the One Who takes me out of trouble. My God is my rock, in Whom I am safe. He is my safe-covering, my saving strength, and my strong tower. ³ I call to the Lord, Who has the right to be praised. And I am saved from those who hate me.

⁴ The ropes of death were all around me. The floods of death make me afraid. ⁵ The ropes of the grave were all around me. The traps of death were set for me. ⁶ I called to the Lord in my trouble. I cried to God for help. He heard my voice from His holy house. My cry for help came into His ears.

⁷ Then the earth shook. The mountains were shaking. They shook because He was angry. ⁸ Smoke went out from His nose and the fire that kept coming from His mouth burned everything around it. ⁹ He parted the heavens and came down. Dark clouds were under His feet. ¹⁰ He sat upon a cherub and flew. He traveled on the wings of the wind. ¹¹ He made darkness His hiding place, the covering around Him, the dark rain clouds of the sky. ¹² Through the light before Him passed His dark clouds, hail stones and fire. ¹³ The Lord made thunder in the heavens. The voice of the Most High spoke out, hail stones and fire. ¹⁴ He sent out His arrows and divided them. He threw down lightning and sent them running. ¹⁵ Then the deep part of the sea could be seen. And the deep part of the earth was opened up, because of Your sharp words, O Lord, because of the powerful breath from Your nose.

¹⁶ He sent from above, and took me. He lifted me out of many waters. ¹⁷ He took me away from the powerful one who fights against me, and from those who hated me. They were too strong for me. ¹⁸ They stood against me in the day of my trouble. But the Lord was my strength. ¹⁹ He brought me out into a big place. He gave me a safe place, because He was pleased with me.

¹¹ In the year 600 of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, all the wells of water under the earth broke open. The windows of the heavens were opened. ¹² And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, all went into the large boat. ¹⁴ With them went every kind of animal, and all the cattle, and every thing that moved on the earth, and every kind of bird. ¹⁵ They went into the large boat with Noah, two of every living thing.

¹⁶ Male and female of all flesh went in as God had told Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ The flood came upon the earth for forty days. The water got deeper and raised up the large boat so that it was lifted above the earth. ¹⁸ The water was very deep upon the earth. And the boat stayed upon the top of the water. ¹⁹ The water got higher and higher upon the earth until all the high mountains under heaven were covered. ²⁰ But the water went about four times taller than a man above the tops of the mountains. ²¹ All flesh that moved on the earth was destroyed, birds and cattle and wild animals, and every man. ²² Every thing that had the breath of life and lived on dry land died. ²³ God destroyed every living thing upon the land, from man to animals, from things that moved upon the ground to birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the large boat. ²⁴ And the water covered the earth for 150 days.

The Flood Ends

8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the cattle that were with him in the large boat. Then God made a wind blow over the earth until the water went down. ² Also the wells of water under the earth and the windows of the heavens were shut. And it stopped raining. ³ The water kept moving away from the earth. At the end of 150 days the water was less. ⁴ And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the large boat came to rest on Mount Ararat. ⁵ The water kept on going down until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.

⁴ God did not hold back from punishing the angels who sinned, but sent them down to hell. They are to be kept there in the deep hole of darkness until they stand before Him Who judges them. ⁵ God did not hold back from punishing the people of the world who sinned long ago. He brought the flood on the world of sinners. But Noah was a preacher of right living. He and his family of seven were the only ones God saved. ⁶ God said that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty, and He destroyed them with fire. This was to show people who did not worship God what would happen to them. ⁷ Lot was taken away from Sodom because he was right with God. He had been troubled by the sins that bad men did in wild living. ⁸ He saw and heard how the people around him broke the Law. Everyday his own soul which was right with God was troubled because of their sinful ways. ⁹ But the Lord knows how to help men who are right with God when they are tempted. He also knows how to keep the sinners suffering for their wrong-doing until the day they stand before God Who will judge them. ¹⁰ This is true about those who keep on wanting to please their own bodies in sinful desires and those who will not obey laws. They want to please themselves and are not afraid when they laugh and say bad things about the powers in heaven.