Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Thanksgiving for Deliverance from Death.
A Psalm; a Song at the Dedication of the House (Temple). A Psalm of David.
30 I will extol and praise You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up,
And have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
2
O Lord my God,
I cried to You for help, and You have healed me.
3
O Lord, You have brought my life up from Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead);
You have kept me alive, so that I would not go down to the pit (grave).
4
Sing to the Lord, O you His godly ones,
And give thanks at the mention of His holy name.
5
For His anger is but for a moment,
[a]His favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may endure for a night,
But a shout of joy comes in the morning.(A)
6
As for me, in my prosperity I said,
“I shall never be moved.”
7
By Your favor and grace, O Lord, you have made my mountain stand strong;
You hid Your face, and I was horrified.
8
I called to You, O Lord,
And to the Lord I made supplication (specific request).
9
“What profit is there in my blood (death), if I go down to the pit (grave)?
Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness [to man]?
10
“Hear, O Lord, be gracious and show favor to me;
O Lord, be my helper.”
11
You have turned my mourning into dancing for me;
You have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
12
That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
God’s Anger over Israel
2 How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem)
With a cloud in His anger!
He has cast down from heaven to the earth
The glory and splendor of Israel
And has not remembered His footstool
In the day of His anger.
2
The Lord has swallowed up; He has not spared
All the country places of Jacob.
In His wrath He has thrown down
The strongholds of the Daughter of Judah (Jerusalem).
He has brought them down to the ground [in disgrace];
He has debased the kingdom and its princes.
3
In fierce anger He has cut off and destroyed
Every [a]horn of Israel.
He has withdrawn His right hand
From the presence of the enemy.
And He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire
Consuming all around.
4
He has bent His bow like an enemy;
He has set His right hand like an adversary
And slain all that were delightful and pleasing to the eye;
In the tent of the Daughter of Zion
He has poured out His wrath like fire.
5
The Lord has become like an enemy;
He has swallowed up Israel.
He has swallowed up all its palaces;
He has destroyed its strongholds
And multiplied in the Daughter of Judah
Mourning and lamentation (expressions of grief).
6
And He has violently broken down His temple like a [fragile] garden hedge;
He has destroyed His appointed meeting place.
The Lord has caused the appointed feast and Sabbath
To be forgotten in Zion
And has despised and rejected the king and the priest
In the indignation of His anger.
7
The Lord has rejected His altar;
He has abandoned His sanctuary.
He has given into the hand of the enemy
The walls of her palaces;
They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
As on a day of an appointed feast.
8
The Lord determined to lay in ruins
The [city] wall of the Daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out a line,
He has not stopped His hand from destroying.
He has caused the rampart and the wall to lament (mourn in grief);
They have languished together.
9
Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are [exiled] among the nations;
The law is no more.
Also, her prophets no longer find
Vision from the Lord.
10
The elders of the Daughter of Zion
Sit on the ground keeping silent;
They have thrown dust on their heads,
They have covered themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Have bowed their heads to the ground.
11
My eyes fail because of tears [mourns Jeremiah],
My spirit is deeply disturbed;
My heart is poured out on the earth [in grief]
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people [Jerusalem],
When little ones and infants faint
In the streets of the city.
12
They cry to their mothers,
“Where is grain and wine?”
As they faint like a wounded man
In the streets of the city,
As their life [slips away and] is poured out
In their mothers’ arms.
Great Generosity
8 Now, brothers and sisters, we want to tell you about the grace of God which has been evident in the churches of Macedonia [awakening in them a longing to contribute]; 2 for during an ordeal of severe distress, their abundant joy and their deep poverty [together] overflowed in the wealth of their lavish generosity. 3 For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave voluntarily, 4 begging us insistently for the privilege of participating in the service for [the support of] the saints [in Jerusalem]. 5 Not only [did they give materially] as we had hoped, but first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us [as His representatives] by the will of God [disregarding their personal interests and giving as much as they possibly could]. 6 So we urged Titus that, as he began it, he should also complete this gracious work among you as well.
7 But just as you excel in everything, [and lead the way] in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in genuine concern, and in your love for us, see that you excel in this gracious work [of giving] also.
Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.