Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed.

Aleph

¹ ¶ I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Beth

² My soul shall glory in the LORD; the meek shall hear of this, and be glad.

Gimel

³ O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.

Daleth

⁴ I sought the LORD, and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears.

He

⁵ They looked unto him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed.

Vau

⁶ This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles.

Zain

⁷ The angel of the LORD encamps round about those that fear him and delivers them.

Cheth

⁸ O taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man that shall trust in him.

Teth

⁹ O fear the LORD, ye his saints; for those that fear him lack nothing.

Jod

¹⁰ The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but those that seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.

Caph

¹¹ ¶ Come, ye children, hearken unto me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

Lamed

¹² Who is the man that desires life and loves many days that he may see good?

Mem

¹³ Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.

Nun

¹⁴ Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

Samech

¹⁵ The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

Ain

¹⁶ The anger of the LORD is against those that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.

Pe

¹⁷ The righteous cried out, and the LORD heard and delivered them out of all their troubles.

Tzaddi

¹⁸ The LORD is near unto those that are of a broken heart and saves such as are of a contrite spirit.

Koph

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD shall deliver him out of them all,

Resh

²⁰ keeping all his bones; not one of them shall be broken.

Schin

²¹ Evil shall slay the wicked; and those that hate the righteous shall be declared guilty.

Tau

²² The LORD ransoms the soul of his slaves, and none of those that trust in him shall be declared guilty.

⁵ The Lord GOD of the hosts is he that touches the earth, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn: and it shall all rise up like a river and shall be sunk, as the river of Egypt.

⁶ He that built his degrees in the heaven and has founded his gathering upon the earth; he that calls the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name.

⁷ O sons of Israel, Are ye not as sons of the Ethiopians unto me, said the LORD? Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Palestinians from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?

⁸ Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are against the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, said the LORD.

⁹ For, behold, I will command, and I will cause the house of Israel to be sifted among all the Gentiles like as the grain is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall to the earth.

¹⁰ All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, For our sake the evil shall not come near nor overtake us.

¹¹ ¶ In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up its breaches; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:

¹² that those who are called by my name may possess the remnant of Edom and all the Gentiles, said the LORD that does this.

¹³ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman shall catch up with the reaper, and the treader of grapes with him that sows seed; and the mountains shall drop new wine, and all the hills shall melt.

¹⁴ And I will turn the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them.

¹⁵ For I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, said the LORD thy God.

¹³ Brethren, I do not reckon to have laid hold of it yet, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and extending myself unto those things which are ahead,

¹⁴ I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ ¶ Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded; and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

¹⁶ Nevertheless, in that unto which we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us have the same mind.

¹⁷ ¶ Brethren, be imitators of me and consider those who so walk, as ye have us for a pattern.

¹⁸ (For many walk, of whom I have told you often and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross {Gr. stauros – stake} of Christ;

¹⁹ whose end shall be perdition, whose God is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things).

²⁰ For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

²¹ Who shall transform our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is also able to subdue all things unto himself.

4 ¶ Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.