Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

God Cares for His People

139 O Lord, You have looked through me and have known me. ² You know when I sit down and when I get up. You understand my thoughts from far away. ³ You look over my path and my lying down. You know all my ways very well. ⁴ Even before I speak a word, O Lord, You know it all. ⁵ You have closed me in from behind and in front. And You have laid Your hand upon me. ⁶ All You know is too great for me. It is too much for me to understand.

⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I run away from where You are? ⁸ If I go up to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in the place of the dead, You are there! ⁹ If I take the wings of the morning or live in the farthest part of the sea, ¹⁰ even there Your hand will lead me and Your right hand will hold me. ¹¹ If I say, “For sure the darkness will cover me and the light around me will be night,” ¹² even the darkness is not dark to You. And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to You.

¹³ For You made the parts inside me. You put me together inside my mother. ¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for the greatness of the way I was made brings fear. Your works are great and my soul knows it very well. ¹⁵ My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret and put together with care in the deep part of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes saw me before I was put together. And all the days of my life were written in Your book before any of them came to be.

¹⁷ Your thoughts are of great worth to me, O God. How many there are! ¹⁸ If I could number them, there would be more than the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.

Naaman Is Healed

5 Naaman the captain of the army of the king of Syria was an important man to his king. He was much respected, because by him the Lord had made Syria win in battle. Naaman was a strong man of war, but he had a bad skin disease. ² Now the Syrians had gone out in groups of soldiers, and had taken a little girl from the land of Israel. She served Naaman’s wife. ³ And she said to her owner, “I wish that my owner’s husband were with the man of God who is in Samaria! Then he would heal his bad skin disease.” ⁴ So Naaman went in and told his king, “This is what the girl from the land of Israel said.” ⁵ The king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman went and took with him silver weighing as much as ten men, 6,000 pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothes. ⁶ He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, “I have sent my servant Naaman to you with this letter, that you may heal his bad skin disease.” ⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive? Is this why this man sends word to me to heal a man’s bad skin disease? Think about it. He wants to start a fight with me.” ⁸ Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes. So he sent word to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me. Then he will know that there is a man of God in Israel.” ⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and his war-wagons, and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a man to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times. And your flesh will be made well and you will be clean.” ¹¹ But Naaman was very angry and went away. He said, “I thought he would come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God. I thought he would wave his hand over the place, and heal the bad skin disease. ¹² Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away very angry. ¹³ Then his servants came and said to him, “My father, if the man of God had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash and be clean’?” ¹⁴ So Naaman went down into the Jordan River seven times, as the man of God had told him. And his flesh was made as well as the flesh of a little child. He was clean.

⁸ Come close to God and He will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Clean up your hearts, you who want to follow the sinful ways of the world and God at the same time. ⁹ Be sorry for your sins and cry because of them. Be sad and do not laugh. Let your joy be turned to sorrow. ¹⁰ Let yourself be brought low before the Lord. Then He will lift you up and help you.

Do Not Talk Against Each Other

¹¹ Christian brothers, do not talk against anyone or speak bad things about each other. If a person says bad things about his brother, he is speaking against him. And he will be speaking against God’s Law. If you say the Law is wrong, and do not obey it, you are saying you are better than the Law. ¹² Only God can say what is right or wrong. He made the Law. He can save or put to death. How can we say if our brother is right or wrong?

¹³ Listen! You who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this city and stay a year and make money.” ¹⁴ You do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? It is like fog. You see it and soon it is gone. ¹⁵ What you should say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ But instead you are proud. You talk loud and big about yourselves. All such pride is sin. ¹⁷ If you know what is right to do but you do not do it, you sin.