Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

146 Praise the Lord! Yes, really praise him! ² I will praise him as long as I live, yes, even with my dying breath.

³ Don’t look to men for help; their greatest leaders fail; ⁴ for every man must die. His breathing stops, life ends, and in a moment all he planned for himself is ended. ⁵ But happy is the man who has the God of Jacob as his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God— ⁶ the God who made both earth and heaven, the seas and everything in them. He is the God who keeps every promise, ⁷ who gives justice to the poor and oppressed and food to the hungry. He frees the prisoners ⁸ and opens the eyes of the blind; he lifts the burdens from those bent down beneath their loads. For the Lord loves good men. ⁹ He protects the immigrants and cares for the orphans and widows. But he turns topsy-turvy the plans of the wicked.

¹⁰ The Lord will reign forever. O Jerusalem,^[a] your God is King in every generation! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

³ When a poor man oppresses those even poorer, he is like an unexpected flood sweeping away their last hope.

⁴ To complain about the law is to praise wickedness. To obey the law is to fight evil.

⁵ Evil men don’t understand the importance of justice, but those who follow the Lord are much concerned about it.

⁶ Better to be poor and honest than rich and a cheater.

⁷ Young men who are wise obey the law; a son who is a member of a lawless gang is a shame to his father.

⁸ Income from exploiting the poor will end up in the hands of someone who pities them.

⁹ God doesn’t listen to the prayers of those who flout the law.

¹⁰ A curse on those who lead astray the godly. But men who encourage the upright to do good shall be given a worthwhile reward.

2 Once you were under God’s curse, doomed forever for your sins. ² You went along with the crowd and were just like all the others, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air, who is at work right now in the hearts of those who are against the Lord. ³ All of us used to be just as they are, our lives expressing the evil within us, doing every wicked thing that our passions or our evil thoughts might lead us into. We started out bad, being born with evil natures, and were under God’s anger just like everyone else.

⁴ But God is so rich in mercy; he loved us so much ⁵ that even though we were spiritually dead and doomed by our sins, he gave us back our lives again^[a] when he raised Christ from the dead—only by his undeserved favor have we ever been saved— ⁶ and lifted us up from the grave into glory along with Christ, where we sit with him in the heavenly realms—all because of what Christ Jesus did. ⁷ And now God can always point to us as examples of how very, very rich his kindness is, as shown in all he has done for us through Jesus Christ.

⁸ Because of his kindness, you have been saved through trusting Christ. And even trusting is not of yourselves;^[b] it too is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good we have done, so none of us can take any credit for it. ¹⁰ It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others.