Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

42 As the deer pants for water, so I long for you, O God. ² I thirst for God, the living God. Where can I find him to come and stand before him? ³ Day and night I weep for his help, and all the while my enemies taunt me. “Where is this God of yours?” they scoff.

^4-5 Take courage, my soul! Do you remember those times (but how could you ever forget them!) when you led a great procession to the Temple on festival days, singing with joy, praising the Lord? Why then be downcast? Why be discouraged and sad? Hope in God! I shall yet praise him again. Yes, I shall again praise him for his help.^[a]

⁶ Yet I am standing here depressed and gloomy, but I will meditate upon your kindness to this lovely land where the Jordan River flows and where Mount Hermon and Mount Mizar stand. ⁷ All your waves and billows have gone over me, and floods of sorrow pour upon me like a thundering cataract.^[b]

⁸ Yet day by day the Lord also pours out his steadfast love upon me, and through the night I sing his songs and pray to God who gives me life.

⁹ “O God my Rock,” I cry, “why have you forsaken me? Why must I suffer these attacks from my enemies?” ¹⁰ Their taunts pierce me like a fatal wound; again and again they scoff, “Where is that God of yours?” ¹¹ But, O my soul, don’t be discouraged. Don’t be upset. Expect God to act! For I know that I shall again have plenty of reason to praise him for all that he will do. He is my help! He is my God!

¹⁷ Soon—and it will not be very long—the wilderness of Lebanon will be a fruitful field again, a lush and fertile forest. ¹⁸ In that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the blind will see my plans. ¹⁹ The meek will be filled with fresh joy from the Lord, and the poor shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. ²⁰ Bullies will vanish and scoffers will cease, and all those plotting evil will be killed— ²¹ the violent man who fights at the drop of a hat, the man who waits in hiding to beat up the judge who sentenced him, and the men who use any excuse to be unfair.

²² That is why the Lord who redeemed Abraham says: “My people will no longer pale with fear or be ashamed. ²³ For when they see the surging birthrate and the expanding economy,^[a] then they will fear and rejoice in my name; they will praise the Holy One of Israel and stand in awe of him. ²⁴ Those in error will believe the truth, and complainers will be willing to be taught!

¹² Meanwhile, the apostles were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Hall, and they did many remarkable miracles among the people. ¹³ The other believers didn’t dare join them, though, but all had the highest regard for them. ¹⁴ And more and more believers were added to the Lord, crowds both of men and women. ¹⁵ Sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow would fall across some of them as he went by! ¹⁶ And crowds came in from the Jerusalem suburbs, bringing their sick folk and those possessed by demons; and every one of them was healed.