Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 72^[a]

[A Psalm] for Solomon.

¹ Give the king [knowledge of] Your [way of] judging, O God, and [the spirit of] Your righteousness to the king’s son [to control all his actions].

² Let him judge and govern Your people with righteousness, and Your poor and afflicted ones with judgment and justice.

³ The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the hills, through [the general establishment of] righteousness.

⁴ May he judge and defend the poor of the people, deliver the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor,

⁵ So that they may revere and fear You while the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.

⁶ May he [Solomon as a type of King David’s greater Son] be like rain that comes down upon the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.

⁷ In ^[b]His [Christ’s] days shall the [uncompromisingly] righteous flourish and peace abound till there is a moon no longer.^(A)

⁸ He [Christ] shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the River [Euphrates] to the ends of the earth.^(B)

⁹ Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him and His enemies shall lick the dust.

¹⁰ The kings of Tarshish and of the coasts shall bring offerings; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts.

¹¹ Yes, all kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him.^(C)

¹² For He delivers the needy when he calls out, the poor also and him who has no helper.

¹³ He will have pity on the poor and weak and needy and will save the lives of the needy.

¹⁴ He will redeem their lives from oppression and fraud and violence, and precious and costly shall their blood be in His sight.

¹⁵ And He shall live; and to Him shall be given gold of Sheba; prayer also shall be made for Him and through Him continually, and they shall bless and praise Him all the day long.

¹⁶ There shall be abundance of grain in the soil upon the top of the mountains [the least fruitful places in the land]; the fruit of it shall wave like [the forests of] Lebanon, and [the inhabitants of] the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.

¹⁷ His name shall endure forever; His name shall continue as long as the sun [indeed, His name continues before the sun]. And men shall be blessed and bless themselves by Him; all nations shall call Him blessed!

¹⁸ Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, Who alone does wondrous things!

¹⁹ Blessed be His glorious name forever; let the whole earth be filled with His glory! Amen and Amen!

²⁰ The prayers of David son of Jesse are ended.

3 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back or west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb or Sinai, the mountain of God.

² The ^[a]Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, yet was not consumed.

³ And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.

⁴ And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here am I.

⁵ God said, Do not come near; put your shoes off your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.

²³ [Prompted] by faith Moses, after his birth, was kept concealed for three months by his parents, because they saw how comely the child was; and they were not overawed and terrified by the king’s decree.^(A)

²⁴ [Aroused] by faith Moses, when he had grown to maturity and ^[a]become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,^(B)

²⁵ Because he preferred to share the oppression [suffer the hardships] and bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life.

²⁶ He considered the contempt and abuse and shame [borne for] the Christ (the Messiah Who was to come) to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward (recompense).

²⁷ [Motivated] by faith he left Egypt behind him, being unawed and undismayed by the wrath of the king; for he never flinched but held staunchly to his purpose and endured steadfastly as one who gazed on Him Who is invisible.^(C)

²⁸ By faith (simple trust and confidence in God) he instituted and carried out the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood [on the doorposts], so that the destroyer of the firstborn (the angel) might not touch those [of the children of Israel].^(D)

²⁹ [Urged on] by faith the people crossed the Red Sea as [though] on dry land, but when the Egyptians tried to do the same thing they were swallowed up [by the sea].^(E)

³⁰ Because of faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encompassed for seven days [by the Israelites].^(F)

³¹ [Prompted] by faith Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed along with those who refused to believe and obey, because she had received the spies in peace [without enmity].^(G)