Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer to Be Kept Safe from Enemies

25 I lift up my soul to You, O Lord. ² O my God, I trust in You. Do not let me be ashamed. Do not let those who fight against me win. ³ Yes, let no one who hopes in You be put to shame. But put to shame those who hurt others without a reason.

⁴ Show me Your ways, O Lord. Teach me Your paths. ⁵ Lead me in Your truth and teach me. For You are the God Who saves me. I wait for You all day long. ⁶ Remember Your loving-pity and Your loving-kindness, O Lord. For they have been from old. ⁷ Do not remember my sins from when I was young, or my sinful ways. By Your loving-kindness remember me for You are good, O Lord.

⁸ Good and right is the Lord. So He teaches sinners in His ways. ⁹ He leads those without pride into what is right, and teaches them His way. ¹⁰ All the paths of the Lord are loving and true for those who keep His agreement and keep His Laws.

Daniel’s Prayer for the People

9 Darius the son of Ahasuerus, who was born a Mede, was made king over the nation of the Babylonians. ² In the first year of his rule, I, Daniel, understood the books which were given by the Lord through Jeremiah that Jerusalem would lie waste for seventy years. ³ So I turned to the Lord God in prayer and did not eat. I dressed in cloth made from hair, and threw ashes on myself. ⁴ I prayed to the Lord my God and told him the sins of my people, saying, “O Lord, you are great and we fear You. You keep Your agreement and show loving-kindness to those who love You and keep Your Laws.

⁵ “But we have sinned. We have done wrong and have acted in sin. We have turned against You and against Your Laws. ⁶ We have not listened to Your servants who spoke for You, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our leaders, our fathers, and all the people of the land. ⁷ You are right and good, O Lord. But we are all covered with shame, all the men of Judah, the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel. The people both near and far away in all the countries where You have driven us are covered with shame because they have not been faithful to You. ⁸ We, our kings, our leaders and our fathers are all covered with shame, O Lord, because we have sinned against You. ⁹ O Lord our God, You are kind and forgiving, even when we would not obey You. ¹⁰ We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by following the Laws He gave us through His servants who spoke for Him. ¹¹ All Israel has sinned against Your Law and turned away, not obeying Your voice. So the curses and punishments have been poured out on us, which were written about in the Law of God’s servant Moses. For we have sinned against Him. ¹² He has done what He said He would do against us and our leaders, and has brought much trouble upon us. For under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. ¹³ All this trouble has come upon us just as it is written in the Law of Moses. Yet we have not looked for the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sin and following Your truth. ¹⁴ So the Lord brought trouble upon us. For the Lord our God is right and good in all He does, but we have not obeyed His voice.

³ We are preaching what we have heard and seen. We want you to share together with us what we have with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. ⁴ We are writing this to you so our joy may be full.

Christians Are to Live in the Light

⁵ This is what we heard Him tell us. We are passing it on to you. God is light. There is no darkness in Him. ⁶ If we say we are joined together with Him but live in darkness, we are telling a lie. We are not living the truth. ⁷ If we live in the light as He is in the light, we share what we have in God with each other. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, makes our lives clean from all sin. ⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we lie to ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we tell Him our sins, He is faithful and we can depend on Him to forgive us of our sins. He will make our lives clean from all sin. ¹⁰ If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar. And His Word is not in our hearts.