Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David, the slave of the LORD, who spoke unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,
1 ¶ I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
3 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies.
4 The pain of death compassed me, and the rivers of Belial made me afraid.
5 The pain of Sheol compassed me about: the snares of death came before me.
6 In my distress I called upon the LORD and cried unto my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
7 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of the mountains collapsed and were removed because he was wroth.
8 Smoke went up out of his nostrils, and fire devoured out of his mouth; coals were kindled by it.
9 He lowered the heavens and came down; and darkness was under his feet.
10 And he rode upon a cherub and flew: yea, he flew upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his hiding place; in his tabernacle round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the heavens.
12 At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire.
13 The LORD thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire.
14 He sent out his arrows and scattered them; he shot out lightnings and destroyed them.
15 Then the depths of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
16 He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, even though they were too strong for me.
18 They were ready for me in the day of my calamity, but the LORD was my staff.
19 He brought me forth also into a wide place; he delivered me because he delighted in me.
19 ¶ And the two angels came to Sodom at evening; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground,
2 and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your slave’s house and tarry all night and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early and go on your ways. And they said, No, but we will abide in the street all night.
3 And he pressed upon them greatly, and they turned in unto him and entered into his house, and he made them a banquet and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 ¶ But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter;
5 and they called unto Lot and said unto him, Where are the men who came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us that we may know them.
6 And Lot went out at the door unto them and shut the door after him
7 and said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
8 Behold now, I have two daughters who have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you and do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these men do nothing, for they have come under the shadow of my roof.
9 And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This fellow came in to sojourn and is he to lift himself up as judge? Now will we deal worse with thee than with them. And they did great violence to the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.
10 Then the men put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house with them and shut the door.
11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great so that they wearied themselves to find the door.
12 ¶ And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou anyone else here? Sons-in-law and thy sons and thy daughters and whatever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place;
13 For we will destroy this place because the cry of them is waxed great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it.
14 And Lot went out and spoke unto his sons-in-law, those who were to marry his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law.
15 ¶ And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters who are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
16 And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful unto him; and they brought him forth and set him outside the city.
17 And it came to pass as they brought them forth outside, that he said, Escape; for thy soul, do not look behind thee, neither stop thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
18 And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my lords;
19 behold now, thy slave has found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die.
20 Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one; Oh, let me escape there, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live.
21 And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also that I will not overthrow the city for which thou hast spoken.
22 Make thee haste, escape there; for I cannot do anything until thou hast arrived there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
23 The sun was rising upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.
24 ¶ Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of the heavens;
25 and he overthrew those cities and all that plain, with all the inhabitants of those cities, and the fruit of the ground.
26 ¶ Then the wife of Lot looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 ¶ And Abraham rose up early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
28 And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of that plain and beheld that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
29 And it came to pass as God destroyed the cities of the plain that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the destruction when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.
14 ¶ What shall we say then? Is there injustice in God? No, in no wise.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that has mercy.
17 For the scripture saith of Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18 Therefore he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he hardens whom he will.
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why does he become angry? For who shall resist his will?
20 Rather, O man, who art thou to reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much meekness the vessels of wrath, prepared for death,
23 and making known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared unto glory?
24 Even us, whom he has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles!
25 ¶ As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, who were not my people, and her beloved, who was not beloved.
26 And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called sons of the living God.
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant shall be saved;
28 when the consumption comes to an end, righteousness shall overflow, because a short sentence will the Lord execute upon the earth.
29 And as Isaiah said before, Except the Lord of the hosts had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrha.
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