Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
18 This song of David was written at a time when the Lord had delivered him from his many enemies, including Saul.
Lord, how I love you! For you have done such tremendous things for me.
2 The Lord is my fort where I can enter and be safe; no one can follow me in and slay me. He is a rugged mountain where I hide; he is my Savior, a rock where none can reach me, and a tower of safety. He is my shield. He is like the strong horn of a mighty fighting bull. 3 All I need to do is cry to him—oh, praise the Lord—and I am saved from all my enemies!
20 The Lord rewarded me for doing right and being pure. 21 For I have followed his commands and have not sinned by turning back from following him. 22 I kept close watch on all his laws; I did not refuse a single one. 23 I did my best to keep them all, holding myself back from doing wrong. 24 And so the Lord has paid me with his blessings, for I have done what is right, and I am pure of heart. This he knows, for he watches my every step.
25 Lord, how merciful you are to those who are merciful. And you do not punish those who run from evil.[a] 26 You give blessings to the pure but pain to those who leave your paths. 27 You deliver the humble but condemn the proud and haughty ones. 28 You have turned on my light! The Lord my God has made my darkness turn to light. 29 Now in your strength I can scale any wall, attack any troop.
30 What a God he is! How perfect in every way! All his promises prove true. He is a shield for everyone who hides behind him. 31 For who is God except our Lord? Who but he is as a rock?
32 He fills me with strength and protects me wherever I go.
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffing rulers in Jerusalem:
15 You have struck a bargain with death, you say, and sold yourselves to the devil[a] in exchange for his protection against the Assyrians. “They can never touch us,” you say, “for we are under the care of one who will deceive and fool them.”
16 But the Lord God says, “See, I am placing a Foundation Stone in Zion—a firm, tested, precious Cornerstone that is safe to build on. He who believes need never run away again. 17 I will take the line and plummet of justice to check the foundation wall you built; it looks so fine, but it is so weak a storm of hail will knock it down! The enemy will come like a flood and sweep it away, and you will be drowned. 18 I will cancel your agreement of compromise with death and the devil, so when the terrible enemy floods in, you will be trampled into the ground. 19 Again and again that flood will come and carry you off, until at last the unmixed horror of the truth of my warnings will finally dawn on you.”
20 The bed you have made is far too short to lie on; the blankets are too narrow to cover you. 21 The Lord will come suddenly and in anger, as at Mount Perazim and Gibeon, to do a strange, unusual thing—to destroy his own people! 22 So scoff no more, lest your punishment be made even greater, for the Lord God has plainly told me that he is determined to crush you.
6 Jesus now proceeded to Bethany, to the home of Simon the leper. 7 While he was eating, a woman came in with a bottle of very expensive perfume and poured it over his head.
8-9 The disciples were indignant. “What a waste of good money,” they said. “Why, she could have sold it for a fortune and given it to the poor.”
10 Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, “Why are you criticizing her? For she has done a good thing to me. 11 You will always have the poor among you, but you won’t always have me. 12 She has poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial. 13 And she will always be remembered for this deed. The story of what she has done will be told throughout the whole world, wherever the Good News is preached.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.