Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 72
Prayer for Guidance and Support for the King
Of Solomon.
1 Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to a king’s son.(A)
2 May he judge your people with righteousness
and your poor with justice.(B)
3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness.(C)
4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the needy,
and crush the oppressor.(D)
19 O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you.(A) 20 Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any longer, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.(B) 21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”(C) 22 Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like impure things; you will say to them, “Away with you!”(D)
23 He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures,(E) 24 and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage that has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water—on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the injuries of his people and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.(F)
16 So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak:
“Fellow Israelites[a] and others who fear God, listen. 17 The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with uplifted arm he led them out of it.(A) 18 For about forty years he put up with[b] them in the wilderness.(B) 19 After he had destroyed seven peoples in the land of Canaan, he gave them their land as an inheritance(C) 20 for about four hundred fifty years. After that he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel.(D) 21 Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, who reigned for forty years.(E) 22 When he had removed him, he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.’(F) 23 Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised;(G) 24 before his coming John had already proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.(H) 25 And as John was finishing his work, he said, ‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but one is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the strap of the sandals[c] on his feet.’(I)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.