Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

21 How the king rejoices in your strength, O Lord! How he exults in your salvation. ² For you have given him his heart’s desire, everything he asks you for!

³ You welcomed him to the throne with success and prosperity. You set a royal crown of solid gold upon his head. ⁴ He asked for a long, good life, and you have granted his request; the days of his life stretch on and on forever. ⁵ You have given him fame and honor. You have clothed him with splendor and majesty. ⁶ You have endowed him with eternal happiness. You have given him the unquenchable joy of your presence. ⁷ And because the king trusts in the Lord, he will never stumble, never fall; for he depends upon the steadfast love of the God who is above all gods.

⁸ Your hand, O Lord, will find your enemies, all who hate you. ^9-10 When you appear, they will be destroyed in the fierce fire of your presence. The Lord will destroy them and their children. ¹¹ For these men plot against you, Lord, but they cannot possibly succeed. ¹² They will turn and flee when they see your arrows aimed straight at them.

¹³ Accept our praise, O Lord, for all your glorious power. We will write songs to celebrate your mighty acts!

¹⁴ Despised though you are, fear not, O Israel; for I will help you. I am the Lord, your Redeemer; I am the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁵ You shall be a new and sharp-toothed threshing instrument to tear all enemies apart, making chaff of mountains. ¹⁶ You shall toss them in the air; the wind shall blow them all away; whirlwinds shall scatter them. And the joy of the Lord shall fill you full; you shall glory in the God of Israel.

¹⁷ When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongues are parched from thirst, then I will answer when they cry to me. I, Israel’s God, will never forsake them. ¹⁸ I will open up rivers for them on high plateaus! I will give them fountains of water in the valleys! In the deserts will be pools of water, and rivers fed by springs shall flow across the dry, parched ground. ¹⁹ I will plant trees—cedars, myrtle, olive trees, cypress, fir, and pine—on barren land. ²⁰ Everyone will see this miracle and understand that it is God who did it, Israel’s Holy One.

¹⁴ I know that you are wise and good, my brothers, and that you know these things so well that you are able to teach others all about them. ^15-16 But even so I have been bold enough to emphasize some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder from me; for I am, by God’s grace, a special messenger from Jesus Christ to you Gentiles, bringing you the Gospel and offering you up as a fragrant sacrifice to God; for you have been made pure and pleasing to him by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁷ So it is right for me to be a little proud of all Christ Jesus has done through me. ¹⁸ I dare not judge how effectively he has used others, but I know this: he has used me to win the Gentiles to God. ¹⁹ I have won them by my message and by the good way I have lived before them and by the miracles done through me as signs from God—all by the Holy Spirit’s power. In this way I have preached the full Gospel^[a] of Christ all the way from Jerusalem clear over into Illyricum.

²⁰ But all the while my ambition has been to go still farther, preaching where the name of Christ has never yet been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. ²¹ I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures where Isaiah says that those who have never heard the name of Christ before will see and understand.