Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

30 I will praise you, Lord, for you have saved me from my enemies. You refuse to let them triumph over me. ² O Lord my God, I pleaded with you, and you gave me my health again. ³ You brought me back from the brink of the grave, from death itself, and here I am alive!

⁴ Oh, sing to him you saints of his; give thanks to his holy name. ⁵ His anger lasts a moment; his favor lasts for life! Weeping may go on all night, but in the morning there is joy.

^6-7 In my prosperity I said, “This is forever; nothing can stop me now! The Lord has shown me his favor. He has made me steady as a mountain.” Then, Lord, you turned your face away from me and cut off your river of blessings.^[a] Suddenly my courage was gone; I was terrified and panic-stricken. ⁸ I cried to you, O Lord; oh, how I pled: ⁹ “What will you gain, O Lord, from killing me? How can I praise you then to all my friends? How can my dust in the grave speak out and tell the world about your faithfulness? ¹⁰ Hear me, Lord; oh, have pity and help me.” ¹¹ Then he turned my sorrow into joy! He took away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy ¹² so that I might sing glad praises to the Lord instead of lying in silence in the grave. O Lord my God, I will keep on thanking you forever!

¹¹ Woe to you who get up early in the morning to go on long drinking bouts that last till late at night—woe to you drunken bums. ¹² You furnish lovely music at your grand parties; the orchestras are superb! But for the Lord you have no thought or care. ¹³ Therefore I will send you into exile far away because you neither know nor care that I have done so much for you. Your great and honored men will starve, and the common people will die of thirst.

¹⁴ Hell is licking its chops in anticipation of this delicious morsel, Jerusalem. Her great and small shall be swallowed up, and all her drunken throngs. ¹⁵ In that day the haughty shall be brought down to the dust; the proud shall be humbled; ¹⁶ but the Lord Almighty is exalted above all, for he alone is holy, just, and good. ¹⁷ In those days flocks will feed among the ruins. Lambs and calves and kids will pasture there!

¹⁴ “Write this letter to the leader of the church in Laodicea:

“This message is from the one who stands firm,^[a] the faithful and true Witness of all that is or was or evermore shall be, the primeval source of God’s creation:

¹⁵ “I know you well—you are neither hot nor cold; I wish you were one or the other! ¹⁶ But since you are merely lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth!

¹⁷ “You say, ‘I am rich, with everything I want; I don’t need a thing!’ And you don’t realize that spiritually you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

¹⁸ “My advice to you is to buy pure gold from me, gold purified by fire—only then will you truly be rich. And to purchase from me white garments, clean and pure, so you won’t be naked and ashamed; and to get medicine from me to heal your eyes and give you back your sight. ¹⁹ I continually discipline and punish everyone I love; so I must punish you unless you turn from your indifference and become enthusiastic about the things of God.

²⁰ “Look! I have been standing at the door, and I am constantly knocking. If anyone hears me calling him and opens the door, I will come in and fellowship with him and he with me. ²¹ I will let everyone who conquers sit beside me on my throne, just as I took my place with my Father on his throne when I had conquered. ²² Let those who can hear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”