Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

80 O Shepherd of Israel who leads Israel like a flock; O God enthroned above the Guardian Angels, bend down your ear and listen as I plead. Display your power and radiant glory. ² Let Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh see you rouse yourself and use your mighty power to rescue us.

³ Turn us again to yourself, O God. Look down on us in joy and love;^[a] only then shall we be saved.

⁴ O Jehovah, God of heaven’s armies, how long will you be angry and reject our prayers? ⁵ You have fed us with sorrow and tears ⁶ and have made us the scorn of the neighboring nations. They laugh among themselves.

⁷ Turn us again to yourself, O God of Hosts. Look down on us in joy and love;^[b] only then shall we be saved.

¹⁷ Strengthen the man you love,^[a] the son of your choice, ¹⁸ and we will never forsake you again. Revive us to trust in you.

¹⁹ Turn us again to yourself, O God of the armies of heaven. Look down on us, your face aglow with joy and love—only then shall we be saved.

¹⁸ Then David went into the Tabernacle and sat before the Lord and prayed, “O Lord God, why have you showered your blessings on such an insignificant person as I am? ¹⁹ And now, in addition to everything else, you speak of giving me an eternal dynasty! Such generosity is far beyond any human standard! O Lord God! ²⁰ What can I say? For you know what I am like! ²¹ You are doing all these things just because you promised to and because you want to! ²² How great you are, Lord God! We have never heard of any other God like you. And there is no other God.

4 But remember this, that if a father dies and leaves great wealth for his little son, that child is not much better off than a slave until he grows up, even though he actually owns everything his father had. ² He has to do what his guardians and managers tell him to until he reaches whatever age his father set.

³ And that is the way it was with us before Christ came. We were slaves to Jewish laws and rituals, for we thought they could save us. ⁴ But when the right time came, the time God decided on, he sent his Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew, ⁵ to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own sons. ⁶ And because we are his sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, so now we can rightly speak of God as our dear Father. ⁷ Now we are no longer slaves but God’s own sons. And since we are his sons, everything he has belongs to us, for that is the way God planned.