Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Thanksgiving for Escaping Death
A psalm of David. A song for giving the Temple to the Lord.
30 I will praise you, Lord,
because you rescued me.
You did not let my enemies laugh at me.
2 Lord, my God, I prayed to you,
and you healed me.
3 You lifted me out of the grave;
you spared me from going down to the place of the dead.
4 Sing praises to the Lord, you who belong to him;
praise his holy name.
5 His anger lasts only a moment,
but his kindness lasts for a lifetime.
Crying may last for a night,
but joy comes in the morning.
6 When I felt safe, I said,
“I will never fear.”
7 Lord, in your kindness you made my mountain safe.
But when you turned away, I was frightened.
8 I called to you, Lord,
and asked you to have mercy on me.
9 I said, “What good will it do if I die
or if I go down to the grave?
Dust cannot praise you;
it cannot speak about your truth.
10 Lord, hear me and have mercy on me.
Lord, help me.”
11 You changed my sorrow into dancing.
You took away my clothes of sadness,
and clothed me in happiness.
12 I will sing to you and not be silent.
Lord, my God, I will praise you forever.
The Lord Destroyed Jerusalem
2 Look how the Lord in his anger
has brought Jerusalem to shame.
He has thrown down the greatness of Israel
from the sky to the earth;
he did not remember the Temple, his footstool,
on the day of his anger.
2 The Lord swallowed up without mercy
all the houses of the people of Jacob;
in his anger he pulled down
the strong places of Judah.
He threw her kingdom and its rulers
down to the ground in dishonor.
3 In his anger he has removed
all the strength of Israel;
he took away his power from Israel
when the enemy came.
He burned against the people of Jacob like a flaming fire
that burns up everything around it.
4 Like an enemy, he prepared to shoot his bow,
and his hand was against us.
Like an enemy, he killed
all the good-looking people;
he poured out his anger like fire
on the tents of Jerusalem.
5 The Lord was like an enemy;
he swallowed up Israel.
He swallowed up all her palaces
and destroyed all her strongholds.
He has caused more moaning and groaning
for Judah.
6 He cut down his Temple like a garden;
he destroyed the meeting place.
The Lord has made Jerusalem forget
the set feasts and Sabbath days.
He has rejected the king and the priest
in his great anger.
7 The Lord has rejected his altar
and abandoned his Temple.
He has handed over to the enemy
the walls of Jerusalem’s palaces.
Their uproar in the Lord’s Temple
was like that of a feast day.
8 The Lord planned to destroy
the wall around Jerusalem.
He measured the wall
and did not stop himself from destroying it.
He made the walls and defenses sad;
together they have fallen.
9 Jerusalem’s gates have fallen to the ground;
he destroyed and smashed the bars of the gates.
Her king and her princes are among the nations.
The teaching of the Lord has stopped,
and the prophets do not have
visions from the Lord.
10 The elders of Jerusalem
sit on the ground in silence.
They throw dust on their heads
and put on rough cloth to show their sadness.
The young women of Jerusalem
bow their heads to the ground in sorrow.
11 My eyes have no more tears,
and I am sick to my stomach.
I feel empty inside,
because my people have been destroyed.
Children and babies are fainting
in the streets of the city.
12 They ask their mothers,
“Where is the grain and wine?”
They faint like wounded soldiers
in the streets of the city
and die in their mothers’ arms.
Christian Giving
8 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace God gave the churches in Macedonia. 2 They have been tested by great troubles, and they are very poor. But they gave much because of their great joy. 3 I can tell you that they gave as much as they were able and even more than they could afford. No one told them to do it. 4 But they begged and pleaded with us to let them share in this service for God’s people. 5 And they gave in a way we did not expect: They first gave themselves to the Lord and to us. This is what God wants. 6 So we asked Titus to help you finish this special work of grace since he is the one who started it. 7 You are rich in everything—in faith, in speaking, in knowledge, in truly wanting to help, and in the love you learned from us.[a] In the same way, be strong also in the grace of giving.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.