Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
19 O Lord, don’t stay away. O God my Strength, hurry to my aid. 20 Rescue me from death; spare my precious life from all these evil men.[a] 21 Save me from these lions’ jaws and from the horns of these wild oxen. Yes, God will answer me and rescue me.
22 I will praise you to all my brothers; I will stand up before the congregation and testify of the wonderful things you have done. 23 “Praise the Lord, each one of you who fears him,” I will say. “Each of you[b] must fear and reverence his name. Let all Israel sing his praises, 24 for he has not despised my cries of deep despair; he has not turned and walked away. When I cried to him, he heard and came.”
25 Yes, I will stand and praise you[c] before all the people. I will publicly fulfill my vows in the presence of all who reverence your name.
26 The poor[d] shall eat and be satisfied; all who seek the Lord shall find him and shall praise his name. Their hearts shall rejoice with everlasting joy. 27 The whole earth shall see it and return to the Lord; the people of every nation shall worship him.
28 For the Lord is King and rules the nations.
59 Listen now! The Lord isn’t too weak to save you. And he isn’t getting deaf! He can hear you when you call! 2 But the trouble is that your sins have cut you off from God. Because of sin he has turned his face away from you and will not listen anymore. 3 For your hands are those of murderers and your fingers are filthy with sin. You lie and grumble and oppose the good. 4 No one cares about being fair and true. Your lawsuits are based on lies; you spend your time plotting evil deeds and doing them. 5 You spend your time and energy in spinning evil plans that end up in deadly actions. 6 You cheat and shortchange everyone. Everything you do is filled with sin; violence is your trademark. 7 Your feet run to do evil and rush to murder; your thoughts are only of sinning, and wherever you go you leave behind a trail of misery and death. 8 You don’t know what true peace is, nor what it means to be just and good; you continually do wrong and those who follow you won’t experience any peace either.
27 As Jesus was leaving her home, two blind men followed along behind, shouting, “O Son of King David, have mercy on us.”
28 They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, “Do you believe I can make you see?”
“Yes, Lord,” they told him, “we do.”
29 Then he touched their eyes and said, “Because of your faith it will happen.”
30 And suddenly they could see! Jesus sternly warned them not to tell anyone about it, 31 but instead they spread his fame all over the town.[a]
32 Leaving that place, Jesus met a man who couldn’t speak because a demon was inside him. 33 So Jesus cast out the demon, and instantly the man could talk. How the crowds marveled! “Never in all our lives have we seen anything like this,” they exclaimed.
34 But the Pharisees said, “The reason he can cast out demons is that he is demon-possessed himself—possessed by Satan, the demon king!”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.