Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
21 But do Thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name’s sake; because Thy mercy is good, deliver Thou me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth; I am tossed up and down as the locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh faileth of fatness.
25 I have become a reproach also unto them; when they looked upon me they shook their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God! O save me according to Thy mercy,
27 that they may know that this is Thy hand—that Thou, Lord, hast done it.
28 Let them curse, but Thou bless; when they arise let them be ashamed, but let Thy servant rejoice.
29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.
30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise Him among the multitude.
31 For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.
18 “‘But I said unto their children in the wilderness: “Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols.
19 I am the Lord your God: Walk in My statutes, and keep My judgments, and do them;
20 and hallow My Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.”
21 Notwithstanding, the children rebelled against Me. They walked not in My statutes, neither kept My judgments to do them, which if a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted My Sabbaths. “‘Then I said I would pour out My fury upon them to accomplish My anger against them in the wilderness.
22 Nevertheless I withdrew Mine hand and wrought for My name’s sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth.
23 I lifted up Mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen and disperse them through the countries,
24 because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes and had polluted My Sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols.
25 Therefore I gave them also statutes that were not good and judgments whereby they should not live;
26 and I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all who openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord.’
27 “Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel and say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they have committed a trespass against Me.
28 For when I had brought them into the land for which I lifted up Mine hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering. There also they made their sweet savor, and poured out there their drink offerings.
29 Then I said unto them: What is the high place whereunto ye go?’” (And the name thereof is called Bamah unto this day.)
30 “Therefore say unto the house of Israel, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? And commit ye whoredom after their abominations?
31 For when ye offer your gifts, when ye make your sons pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day. And shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live, saith the Lord God, I will not be inquired of by you.
32 “‘And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all: in that ye say, “We will be as the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve wood and stone.”
7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth:
8 I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. For thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My Word, and hast not denied My name.
9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but do lie — behold, I will make them to come and worship at thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
10 Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth.
11 Behold, I come quickly; hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more; and I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God, and I will write upon him My new name.
13 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches!’
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.