Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Prayer of Repentance and Plea for Mercy
For the music director. A psalm of David.
When Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.[a]
51 Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loyal love.
According to your abundant mercies,
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and from my sin cleanse me.
3 For I myself know[b] my transgressions,[c]
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, only you, I have sinned
and have done this evil[d] in your eyes,
so that you are correct when you speak,
you are blameless when you judge.
5 Behold, in iniquity I was born,
and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden parts you make me to know wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and all my iniquities blot out.
10 Create a clean heart for me, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.[e]
20 And Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and he took from all the clean animals and from all the clean birds, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And Yahweh smelled the soothing fragrance, and Yahweh said to himself,[a] “Never again will I curse[b] the ground for the sake of humankind, because the inclination of the heart of humankind is evil from his youth. Nor will I ever again destroy[c] all life as I have done. 22 As long as the earth endures,[d] seed and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.
God’s Covenant with Noah and Humankind
9 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And fear of you and dread of you shall be upon every animal of the earth, and on every bird of heaven,[e] and on everything that moves upon the ground, and on all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they shall be given. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be for you as food. As I gave the green plants to you, I have now given you everything. 4 Only you shall not eat raw flesh with blood in it.[f] 5 And[g] your lifeblood[h] I will require; from every animal[i] I will require it. And from the hand of humankind, from the hand of each man to his brother I will require the life of humankind.
6 “As for the one shedding the blood of humankind,
by humankind his blood shall be shed,
for God made humankind in his own image.
7 “And you, be fruitful and multiply, swarm on the earth and multiply in it.”
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf approaching and abandons the sheep and runs away—and the wolf seizes them and scatters them[a]— 13 because he is a hired hand and he is not concerned[b] about the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep which are not from this fold. I must bring these also, and they will hear my voice, and they will become one flock—one shepherd. 17 Because of this the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take possession of it again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down voluntarily.[c] I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take possession of it again. This commandment I received from my Father.”
19 Again there was a division among the Jews because of these words. 20 And many of them were saying, “He has a demon and is out of his mind! Why do you listen to him?” 21 Others were saying, “These are not the words of one who is possessed by a demon! A demon is not able to open the eyes of the blind, is it?”[d]
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