Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Thanksgiving for the King
For the director of music. A song of David.
21 Lord, the king rejoices because of your strength.
He is so happy when you save him!
2 You gave the king what he wanted.
You did not refuse what he asked for. Selah
3 You put good things before him.
You placed a gold crown on his head.
4 He asked you for life.
And you gave it to him.
His years go on and on.
5 He has great glory because you gave him victories.
You gave him honor and praise.
6 You always gave him blessings.
You made him glad because you were with him.
7 The king truly trusts the Lord.
Because God Most High always loves him,
he will not be overwhelmed.
8 Your hand is against all your enemies.
Those who hate you will feel your power.
9 When you appear, you will burn them like wood in a furnace.
In your anger you will eat them up.
Your fire will burn them up.
10 You will destroy their families from the earth.
Their children will not live.
11 They made evil plans against you.
But their traps won’t work.
12 You will make them turn their backs
when you aim your arrows at them.
13 Be supreme, Lord, in your power.
We sing and praise your greatness.
14 You few people of Israel who are left,
do not be afraid even though you are weak as a worm.
I myself will help you,” says the Lord.
“I am the one who saves you, the Holy One of Israel.
15 Look, I have made you like a threshing board.
You are new, with many sharp teeth.
So you will walk on mountains and crush them.
You will make the hills like chaff.
16 You will throw them into the air. And the wind will carry them away.
A windstorm will scatter them.
Then you will be happy in the Lord.
You will be proud of the Holy One of Israel.
17 “The poor and needy people look for water.
But they can’t find any.
Their tongues are dry with thirst.
But I, the Lord, will answer their prayers.
I, the God of Israel, will not leave them to die.
18 I will make rivers flow on the dry hills.
I will make springs of water flow through the valleys.
I will change the desert into a lake of water.
I will change the dry land into springs of water.
19 I will make trees grow in the desert.
There will be cedars, acacia, myrtle and olive trees.
I will put pine, fir and cypress trees
growing together in the desert.
20 People will see these things and understand.
Together they will think carefully about these things.
They will know that the Lord’s power did this.
They will know that the Holy One of Israel made these things.”
Paul Talks About His Work
14 My brothers, I am sure that you are full of goodness. I know that you have all the knowledge you need and that you are able to teach each other. 15 But I have written to you very openly about some things that I wanted you to remember. I did this because God gave me this special gift: 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the non-Jewish people. I served God by teaching his Good News, so that the non-Jewish people could be an offering that God would accept—an offering made holy by the Holy Spirit.
17 So I am proud of what I have done for God in Christ Jesus. 18 I will not talk about anything I did myself. I will talk only about what Christ has done through me in leading the non-Jewish people to obey God. They have obeyed God because of what I have said and done. 19 And they have obeyed God because of the power of miracles and the great things they saw, and the power of the Holy Spirit. I preached the Good News from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum. And so I have finished that part of my work. 20 I always want to preach the Good News in places where people have never heard of Christ. I do this because I do not want to build on the work that someone else has already started. 21 But it is written in the Scriptures:
“Those who were not told about him will see,
and those who have not heard about him will understand.” Isaiah 52:15
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.