Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

² He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside the still waters.

³ He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff shall comfort me.

⁵ Thou shalt prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; thou hast anointed my head with oil; my cup is running over.

⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will rest in the house of the LORD for ever.

¹⁷ ¶ Gather up thy wares out of the lands, O inhabitant of the fortress.

¹⁸ For thus hath the LORD said, Behold, that this time I will throw out the inhabitants of the land with a sling and will afflict them, that they may find it.

¹⁹ Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous, but I said, Truly this is my sickness, and I must bear it.

²⁰ My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my sons were taken from me, and they are lost; there is no one to stretch forth my tent any more and to set up my curtains.

²¹ For the pastors are become carnal and have not sought the LORD; therefore they did not understand, and all their flocks scattered.

²² Behold, the voice of the rumour is come, and a great commotion out of the land of the north wind to make the cities of Judah desolate and a den of dragons.

²³ O LORD, I know that man is not the lord of his own way: it is not in man that walks to order his steps.

²⁴ O LORD, chastise me, but with judgment; not with thine anger lest thou bring me to nothing.

²⁵ Pour out thy fury upon the Gentiles that do not know thee and upon the nations that do not call on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob and devoured him and consumed him and have destroyed his habitation.

¹⁶ ¶ Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city completely given over to idolatry.

¹⁷ Therefore he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout persons and in the market daily with those that he met with.

¹⁸ Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? others, He seems to be a setter forth of new gods, because he preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection.

¹⁹ And they took him and brought him unto the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine is, of which thou speakest?

²⁰ For thou bringest certain new things to our ears; we desire, therefore, to know what these things mean.

²¹ (For all the Athenians and strangers who were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.)

²² ¶ Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus, {Mars’ Hill} and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

²³ For as I passed by and beheld your sanctuaries, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you.

²⁴ The God that made the world and all the things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;

²⁵ neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he gives to all life and breath and all things

²⁶ and has made of one blood all the lineage of men to dwell on all the face of the earth and has determined the seasons (which he has limited) and the bounds of their habitation;

²⁷ that they should seek the Lord, if in any manner they might reach out to touch him and find him though he is not far from each one of us;

²⁸ for in him we live and move and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also of his lineage.

²⁹ Being therefore of the lineage of God, we ought not to think that which is Divine is like unto gold or silver or stone, bearing the mark of art and man’s imagination.

³⁰ For the times of this ignorance God overlooked, but he now commands all men everywhere to repent

³¹ because he has appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; of whom he has given assurance unto all men in that he has raised him from the dead.