Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Song of Thanks

144 Praise and thanks be to the Lord, my rock. He makes my hands ready for war, and my fingers for battle. ² He is my loving-kindness and my walls of strength, my strong place and the One Who sets me free, my safe-covering and the One in Whom I trust. He brings my people under my rule. ³ O Lord, what is man that You think of him, the son of man that You remember him? ⁴ Man is like a breath. His days are like a passing shadow. ⁵ O Lord, divide Your heavens and come down. Touch the mountains so they will smoke. ⁶ Send out lightning and divide them. Send out Your arrows and trouble them. ⁷ Put out Your hand from above. Take me out of trouble and away from the many waters, from the power of those from other lands. ⁸ Their mouths speak lies. And their right hand is a right hand that is false.

⁹ I will sing a new song to You, O God. I will sing praises to You on a harp of ten strings. ¹⁰ You save kings. You take Your servant David away from the sharp sword. ¹¹ Take me out of trouble and away from the power of those from other lands. Their mouths speak lies. And their right hand is a right hand that is false.

¹² May our young sons be like plants that are full-grown. And may our daughters be like the corner pieces of a great house. ¹³ May our store-houses be full of all kinds of food. And may our sheep grow by the thousands and ten thousands in our fields. ¹⁴ Let our cattle give birth without trouble and without loss. And may there be no cry of trouble in our streets. ¹⁵ Happy are the people who have all this. Yes, happy are the people whose God is the Lord!

Israel Set Free

27 In that day the Lord will punish Leviathan, the large snake-like sea animal, with His sharp and great and powerful sword. He will punish Leviathan the turning snake, and kill the big dragon that lives in the sea.

² In that day it will be said: “Sing about a grape-field of wine! ³ I, the Lord, am its keeper. I water it all the time. I watch over it day and night so no one will hurt it. ⁴ I am not angry. If someone were to give Me thistles and thorns in battle, I would step on them. I would burn them together. ⁵ Or let him trust in Me to keep him safe. Let him make peace with Me. Yes, let him make peace with Me.” ⁶ In the days to come Jacob will take root. Israel will flower and begin to grow, and fill the whole world with fruit.

¹⁷ For if a man belongs to Christ, he is a new person. The old life is gone. New life has begun. ¹⁸ All this comes from God. He is the One Who brought us to Himself when we hated Him. He did this through Christ. Then He gave us the work of bringing others to Him. ¹⁹ God was in Christ. He was working through Christ to bring the whole world back to Himself. God no longer held men’s sins against them. And He gave us the work of telling and showing men this. ²⁰ We are Christ’s missionaries. God is speaking to you through us. We are speaking for Christ and we ask you from our hearts to turn from your sins and come to God. ²¹ Christ never sinned but God put our sin on Him. Then we are made right with God because of what Christ has done for us.