Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 138

[A Psalm] of David.

¹ I will confess and praise You [O God] with my whole heart; before the gods will I sing praises to You.

² I will worship toward Your holy temple and praise Your name for Your loving-kindness and for Your truth and faithfulness; for You have exalted above all else Your name and Your word and You have magnified Your word above all Your name!

³ In the day when I called, You answered me; and You strengthened me with strength (might and inflexibility to temptation) in my inner self.

⁴ All the kings of the land shall give You credit and praise You, O Lord, for they have heard of the promises of Your mouth [which were fulfilled].

⁵ Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord and joyfully celebrate His mighty acts, for great is the glory of the Lord.

⁶ For though the Lord is high, yet has He respect to the lowly [bringing them into fellowship with Him]; but the proud and haughty He knows and recognizes [only] at a distance.^(A)

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me.^(B)

⁸ The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever—forsake not the works of Your own hands.^(C)

4 Now when Mordecai learned all that was done, [he] rent his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes and went out into the midst of the city and cried with a loud and bitter cry.

² He came and stood before the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth.

³ And in every province, wherever the king’s commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping, and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

⁴ When Esther’s maids and her attendants came and told it to her, the queen was exceedingly grieved and distressed. She sent garments to clothe Mordecai, with orders to take his sackcloth from off him, but he would not receive them.

⁵ Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s attendants whom he had appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what this was and why it was.

⁶ So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city, which was in front of the king’s gate.

⁷ And Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king’s treasuries for the Jews to be destroyed.

⁸ [Mordecai] also gave him a copy of the decree to destroy them, that was given out in Shushan, that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and charge her to go to the king, make supplication to him, and plead with him for the lives of her people.

⁹ And Hathach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

¹⁰ Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying,

¹¹ All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that any person, be it man or woman, who shall go into the inner court to the king without being called shall be put to death; there is but one law for him, except [him] to whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter, that he may live. But I have not been called to come to the king for these thirty days.

¹² And they told Mordecai what Esther said.

¹³ Then Mordecai told them to return this answer to Esther, Do not flatter yourself that you shall escape in the king’s palace any more than all the other Jews.

¹⁴ For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise for the Jews from elsewhere, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this and for this very occasion?

¹⁵ Then Esther told them to give this answer to Mordecai,

¹⁶ Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast for me; and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I also and my maids will fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.

¹⁷ So Mordecai went away and did all that Esther had commanded him.

²² One of those days He and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, Let us go across to the other side of the lake. So they put out to sea.

²³ But as they were sailing, He fell off to sleep. And a ^[a] whirlwind revolving from below upwards swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in great danger.

²⁴ And the disciples came and woke Him, saying, Master, Master, we are perishing! And He, being thoroughly awakened, ^[b]censured and ^[c]blamed and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; and they ceased, and there came a calm.

²⁵ And He said to them, [Why are you so fearful?] Where is your faith (your trust, your confidence in Me—in My veracity and My integrity)? And they were seized with alarm and profound and reverent dread, and they marveled, saying to one another, Who then is this, that He commands even wind and sea, and they obey Him?