Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Hymn of Thanksgiving
For the director of music. A psalm of David. A song.
65 God, you will be praised in Jerusalem.
We will keep our promises to you.
2 You hear our prayers.
All people will come to you.
3 Our guilt overwhelms us,
but you forgive our sins.
4 Happy are the people you choose
and invite to stay in your court.
We are filled with good things in your house,
your holy Temple.
5 You answer us in amazing ways,
God our Savior.
People everywhere on the earth
and beyond the sea trust you.
6 You made the mountains by your strength;
you are dressed in power.
7 You stopped the roaring seas,
the roaring waves,
and the uproar of the nations.
8 Even those people at the ends of the earth fear your miracles.
You are praised from where the sun rises to where it sets.
9 You take care of the land and water it;
you make it very fertile.
The rivers of God are full of water.
Grain grows because you make it grow.
10 You send rain to the plowed fields;
you fill the rows with water.
You soften the ground with rain,
and then you bless it with crops.
11 You give the year a good harvest,
and you load the wagons with many crops.
12 The desert is covered with grass
and the hills with happiness.
13 The pastures are full of flocks,
and the valleys are covered with grain.
Everything shouts and sings for joy.
The Hail
13 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and go to the king of Egypt. Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: Let my people go to worship me. 14 If you don’t, this time I will punish you, your officers, and your people, with all my power. Then you will know there is no one in the whole land like me. 15 By now I could have used my power and caused a terrible disease that would have destroyed you and your people from the earth. 16 But I have let you live for this reason: to show you my power so that my name will be talked about in all the earth. 17 You are still against my people and do not want to let them go. 18 So at this time tomorrow, I will send a terrible hailstorm, the worst in Egypt since it became a nation. 19 Now send for your animals and whatever you have in the fields, and bring them into a safe place. The hail will fall on every person or animal that is still in the fields. If they have not been brought in, they will die.’” 20 Some of the king’s officers respected the word of the Lord and hurried to bring their slaves and animals inside. 21 But others ignored the Lord’s message and left their slaves and animals in the fields.
22 The Lord told Moses, “Raise your hand toward the sky. Then the hail will start falling in all the land of Egypt. It will fall on people, animals, and on everything that grows in the fields of Egypt.” 23 When Moses raised his walking stick toward the sky, the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the earth. So he caused hail to fall upon the land of Egypt. 24 There was hail, and lightning flashed as it hailed—the worst hailstorm in Egypt since it had become a nation. 25 The hail destroyed all the people and animals that were in the fields in all the land of Egypt. It also destroyed everything that grew in the fields and broke all the trees in the fields. 26 The only place it did not hail was in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived.
27 The king sent for Moses and Aaron and told them, “This time I have sinned. The Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. 28 Pray to the Lord. We have had enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go; you do not have to stay here any longer.”
29 Moses told the king, “When I leave the city, I will raise my hands to the Lord in prayer, and the thunder and hail will stop. Then you will know that the earth belongs to the Lord. 30 But I know that you and your officers do not yet fear the Lord God.”
31 The flax was in bloom, and the barley had ripened, so these crops were destroyed. 32 But both wheat crops ripen later, so they were not destroyed.
33 Moses left the king and went outside the city. He raised his hands to the Lord, and the thunder and hail stopped. The rain also stopped falling to the ground. 34 When the king saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had stopped, he sinned again, and he and his officers became stubborn. 35 So the king became stubborn and refused to let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had said through Moses.
The Ship Is Destroyed
39 When daylight came, the sailors saw land. They did not know what land it was, but they saw a bay with a beach and wanted to sail the ship to the beach if they could. 40 So they cut the ropes to the anchors and left the anchors in the sea. At the same time, they untied the ropes that were holding the rudders. Then they raised the front sail into the wind and sailed toward the beach. 41 But the ship hit a sandbank. The front of the ship stuck there and could not move, but the back of the ship began to break up from the big waves.
42 The soldiers decided to kill the prisoners so none of them could swim away and escape. 43 But Julius, the officer, wanted to let Paul live and did not allow the soldiers to kill the prisoners. Instead he ordered everyone who could swim to jump into the water first and swim to land. 44 The rest were to follow using wooden boards or pieces of the ship. And this is how all the people made it safely to land.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.