Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Lord an Abundant Helper.
146 Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2
While I live I will praise the Lord;
I will sing praises to my God as long as I live.
3
Do not trust in princes,
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation (help).
4
When his spirit leaves him, he returns to the earth;
In that very day his thoughts and plans perish.(A)
5
How blessed and graciously favored is he whose help is the God of Jacob (Israel),
Whose hope is in the Lord his God,(B)
6
Who made heaven and earth,
The sea, and all that is in them,
Who keeps truth and is faithful forever,(C)
7
Who executes justice for the oppressed,
Who gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets free the prisoners.
8
The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the [a]righteous [the upright in heart].(D)
9
The Lord protects the strangers;
He supports the fatherless and the widow;
But He makes crooked the way of the wicked.
10
The Lord shall reign forever,
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)(E)
The Glorious Future
32 Behold, a [a]King will reign in righteousness,
And princes will rule with justice.
2
Each [one of them] will be like a hiding place from the wind
And a shelter from the storm,
Like streams of water in a dry land,
Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched and weary land [to those who turn to them].
3
Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded,
And the ears of those who hear will listen attentively.
4
The heart (mind) of those who act impulsively will discern the truth,
And the tongue of the stammerers will hurry to speak clearly.
5
The fool (the good-for-nothing) will no longer be called noble,
Nor the rogue said to be generous.
6
For the fool speaks nonsense,
And his heart (mind) plans wickedness:
To practice ungodliness and to speak error concerning the Lord,
To keep the craving of the hungry unsatisfied
And to deprive the thirsty of drink.
7
As for the rogue, his weapons are evil;
He conceives wicked plans
To ruin the poor with lies,
Even when the plea of the needy one is just and right.
8
But the noble man conceives noble and magnificent things;
And he stands by what is noble and magnificent.
12 For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without [regard to] the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged and condemned by the Law. 13 For it is not those who merely hear the Law [as it is read aloud] who are just or righteous before God, but it is those who [actually] obey the Law who will be [a]justified [pronounced free of the guilt of sin and declared acceptable to Him]. 14 When Gentiles, who do not have the Law [since it was given only to Jews], do [b]instinctively the things the Law requires [guided only by their conscience], they are a law to themselves, though they do not have the Law. 15 They show that the [c]essential requirements of the Law are written in their hearts; and their conscience [their sense of right and wrong, their moral choices] bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or perhaps defending them 16 on that day when, [d]as my gospel proclaims, God will judge the secrets [all the hidden thoughts and concealed sins] of men through Christ Jesus.(A)
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