Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 51

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David; when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had sinned with Bathsheba.

¹ Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to the multitude of Your tender mercy and loving-kindness blot out my transgressions.

² Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin!

³ For I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them; my sin is ever before me.

⁴ Against You, You only, have I sinned and done that which is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified in Your sentence and faultless in Your judgment.^(A)

⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity; my mother was sinful who conceived me [and I too am sinful].^(B)

⁶ Behold, You desire truth in the inner being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart.

⁷ Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean [ceremonially]; wash me, and I shall [in reality] be whiter than snow.

⁸ Make me to hear joy and gladness and be satisfied; let the bones which You have broken rejoice.

⁹ Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my guilt and iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.

6 When men began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them,

² The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair, and they took wives of all they desired and chose.

³ Then the Lord said, My Spirit shall not forever dwell and strive with man, for he also is flesh; but his days shall yet be 120 years.

⁴ There were giants on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God lived with the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

⁵ The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually.

⁶ And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved at heart.

1 Paul, an apostle (special messenger) of Christ Jesus by appointment and command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus (the Messiah), our Hope,

² To Timothy, my true son in the faith: Grace (spiritual blessing and favor), mercy, and [heart] peace [be yours] from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

³ As I urged you when I was on my way to Macedonia, stay on where you are at Ephesus in order that you may warn and admonish and charge certain individuals not to teach any different doctrine,

⁴ Nor to give importance to or occupy themselves with legends (fables, myths) and endless genealogies, which foster and promote useless speculations and questionings rather than acceptance in faith of God’s administration and the divine training that is in faith (^[a]in that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence)—

⁵ Whereas the object and purpose of our instruction and charge is love, which springs from a pure heart and a good (clear) conscience and sincere (unfeigned) faith.

⁶ But certain individuals have missed the mark on this very matter [and] have wandered away into vain arguments and discussions and purposeless talk.

⁷ They are ambitious to be doctors of the Law (teachers of the Mosaic ritual), but they have no understanding either of the words and terms they use or of the subjects about which they make [such] dogmatic assertions.

⁸ Now we recognize and know that the Law is good if anyone uses it lawfully [for the purpose for which it was designed],

⁹ Knowing and understanding this: that the Law is not enacted for the righteous (the upright and just, who are in right standing with God), but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinful, for the irreverent and profane, for those who strike and beat and [even] murder fathers and strike and beat and [even] murder mothers, for manslayers,

¹⁰ [For] impure and immoral persons, those who abuse themselves with men, kidnapers, liars, perjurers—and whatever else is opposed to wholesome teaching and sound doctrine

¹¹ As laid down by the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.