Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹¹ But Lord, my sins! How many they are. Oh, pardon them for the honor of your name.

¹² Where is the man who fears the Lord? God will teach him how to choose the best.

¹³ He shall live within God’s circle of blessing, and his children shall inherit the earth.

¹⁴ Friendship with God is reserved for those who reverence him. With them alone he shares the secrets of his promises.

¹⁵ My eyes are ever looking to the Lord for help, for he alone can rescue me. ¹⁶ Come, Lord, and show me your mercy, for I am helpless, overwhelmed, in deep distress; ¹⁷ my problems go from bad to worse. Oh, save me from them all! ¹⁸ See my sorrows; feel my pain; forgive my sins. ¹⁹ See how many enemies I have and how viciously they hate me! ²⁰ Save me from them! Deliver my life from their power! Oh, let it never be said that I trusted you in vain!

24 “Why doesn’t God open the court and listen to my case? Why must the godly wait for him in vain? ² For a crime wave has engulfed us—landmarks are moved, flocks of sheep are stolen, ³ and even the donkeys of the poor and fatherless are taken. Poor widows must surrender the little they have as a pledge to get a loan. ⁴ The needy are kicked aside; they must get out of the way. ⁵ Like the wild donkeys in the desert, the poor must spend all their time just getting barely enough to keep soul and body together. They are sent into the desert to search for food for their children. ⁶ They eat what they find that grows wild and must even glean the vineyards of the wicked. ⁷ All night they lie naked in the cold, without clothing or covering. ⁸ They are wet with the showers of the mountains and live in caves for want of a home.

2 Dear brothers, how can you claim that you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, if you show favoritism to rich people and look down on poor people?

² If a man comes into your church dressed in expensive clothes and with valuable gold rings on his fingers, and at the same moment another man comes in who is poor and dressed in threadbare clothes, ³ and you make a lot of fuss over the rich man and give him the best seat in the house and say to the poor man, “You can stand over there if you like or else sit on the floor”—well, ⁴ judging a man by his wealth shows that you are guided by wrong motives.

⁵ Listen to me, dear brothers: God has chosen poor people to be rich in faith, and the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs, for that is the gift God has promised to all those who love him. ⁶ And yet, of the two strangers, you have despised the poor man. Don’t you realize that it is usually the rich men who pick on you and drag you into court? ⁷ And all too often they are the ones who laugh at Jesus Christ, whose noble name you bear.