Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 89
A Contemplative Maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.
1 I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever;
with my mouth I will make known Your faithfulness to all generations.
2 For I have said, “Mercy shall be built up forever;
Your faithfulness shall be established in the heavens.”
3 You have said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one;
I have sworn to David my servant:
4 ‘Your offspring I will establish forever,
and build up your throne for all generations.’ ” Selah
5 Let the heavens praise Your wonders, O Lord;
Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones.
6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord?
Who among the heavenly sons is like the Lord?
7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the holy ones
and awesome to all those who surround Him.
8 O Lord God of Hosts, who is a mighty Lord like You,
with Your faithfulness all around You?
9 You rule the raging of the sea;
when the waves arise, You still them.
10 You crushed Rahab like a corpse;
You scattered Your enemies with Your strong arm.
11 The heavens are Yours; the earth also is Yours;
the world and all that is in it, You have founded them.
12 The north and the south, You have created them;
Tabor and Hermon rejoice in Your name.
13 You have a mighty arm,
and strong is Your hand, and victorious is Your right hand.
14 Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;
mercy and truth shall go before Your presence.
15 Blessed are the people who know the joyful shout.
They walk, O Lord, in the light of Your presence.
16 In Your name they rejoice all the day,
and in Your righteousness they shall be exalted.
17 For You are the beauty of their strength;
by Your favor our horn is exalted.
18 For the Lord is our shield of defense,
and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
Manasseh, King of Judah(A)
33 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem for fifty-five years. 2 But he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord previously cast out before the sons of Israel. 3 And he turned again to build the high places that his father Hezekiah had torn down, and he set up altars to the Baals, and made Asherah poles, and worshipped the starry assembly of heaven and served them. 4 And he built altars in the house of the Lord where the Lord said, “In Jerusalem My name will be perpetual.” 5 And he built altars for the starry assembly of heaven in the two courtyards of the house of the Lord. 6 He even made his sons pass through the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom; and he had conjurers, and practitioners of divination and sorcery, and necromancers, and mediums. So he did a great amount of evil in the eyes of the Lord, so that God was provoked.
7 And he set the carved image of a statue that he made and put in the house of God where God said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem where I have chosen from among all the tribes of Israel, there I have set My name perpetually. 8 And I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the ground that I have designated to your fathers, if only they will keep on doing everything that I have commanded them, the whole law, statutes, and judgments from the hand of Moses.” 9 So Manasseh made Judah and those living in Jerusalem to wander and to perform more evil than the nations that the Lord destroyed from before Israel.
Manasseh’s Repentance
10 The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they did not pay attention. 11 So the Lord brought on them the officials of the army of the king of Assyria. They captured Manasseh with hooks, and they bound him in bronze chains and led him to Babylon. 12 And when he was distressed, he entreated the face of the Lord his God, and he greatly humbled himself before the God of his fathers. 13 And he prayed to God, and He was moved and responded to his plea and returned him to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.
14 After this he built an outer wall for the City of David, west of Gihon, in the valley and toward the entrance of the Fish Gate, where it went around Ophel, and raised it to a very great height. Then he positioned military commanders in all the fortified cities in Judah.
15 And he removed the foreign gods and statues from the house of the Lord, and all the altars that he built on the hill of the house of the Lord and Jerusalem, and he cast them outside the city. 16 He also restored the altar of the Lord, and he sacrificed fellowship and thanksgiving offerings, and he ordered Judah to serve the Lord God of Israel. 17 However, the people continued to sacrifice at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.
Faith
11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old obtained a good report.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was framed by the word of God, so that things that are seen were not made out of things which are visible.
4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain offered. Through this he was approved as righteous, with God testifying concerning his gifts. He still speaks through his faith, though he is dead.
5 By faith Enoch was taken to heaven so that he would not see death. He was not found, because God took him away. For before he was taken, he had this commendation, that he pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark to save his family, by which he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.