Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
This is a song that David wrote for the music leader.
A prayer for help
12 Lord, please help me!
All the good people have gone away!
No kind or faithful people remain.
2 Everybody tells lies to one another.
When they say nice things,
they do it to deceive their friends.
3 Lord, please shut their mouths!
When they deceive people or they boast,
stop them doing that!
4 They say:
‘Nobody can tell us what to do!
We will say what we like to get what we want!’
5 But the Lord says:
‘Now I will do something!
I know the cruel things that wicked people do to poor people.
When weak people cry with pain, I hear them.
So I will make them safe,
as they want me to do for them.’
6 The Lord's promises are true.
We can trust them,
because they are pure.
They are as pure as silver
that people have put in a hot fire seven times.[a]
7 Yes Lord, you will take care of the poor people.
You will always keep each one of them safe
from all those evil people.
8 But if people praise evil things,
then wicked people will boast more and more.
10 Evil things are the food that wicked people eat to live.
They are not kind to anyone, even their friends.
11 When a proud person receives punishment,
silly people become wise.
When you teach a wise person,
he learns more knowledge.
12 The Righteous One knows what happens in the homes of wicked people.[a]
He punishes them as they deserve.
13 If you refuse to listen when poor people ask for help,
you too will receive no help when you need it.
14 If someone is angry with you, give him a gift secretly.
A secret bribe will make him quiet, even if he is very angry.
15 When there is justice, righteous people are happy,
but wicked people are afraid.
16 If someone decides to turn away from wisdom,
he will soon be in his grave.
Jesus speaks against the teachers of God's Law
45 All the people were listening to Jesus. Jesus then said to his disciples, 46 ‘Be careful not to do the same as the teachers of God's Law. They want people to think that they are important. So they walk about in beautiful long clothes. They like people to praise them in the market place. They choose to sit in the best seats in the meeting place. They like to sit in the most important places at special meals. 47 They take things away from women after their husbands have died, even their houses. Then they pray for a long time so that other people will praise them. Because they do these things, God will punish those men much more than other people.’
Jesus talks about people who give things to God
21 Then Jesus looked up and saw something that was happening in the temple. There was a box for money there. Many rich people were putting their gifts of money into the box.
2 Then he saw a woman coming there. Her husband had died and she was very poor. She put two small coins that had only a little value into the box. 3 ‘Let me tell you this,’ Jesus said. ‘This poor woman has put a better gift into the box than all the other people have put in there. 4 All those rich people have plenty of money. They only gave a small part of that. But this woman has almost nothing. She put everything that she had into the box. That money was what she needed to live.’
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