Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

David wrote this psalm for the music leader.

It was when the prophet Nathan came to him, after David had sex with Bathsheba.

Please forgive me, Lord^[a]

Jonah is angry

4 But Jonah was not happy when God decided not to destroy Nineveh. He became very angry. ² He prayed to the Lord. He said, ‘Lord, this is what I thought would happen when I was still at home. So I decided to run away to Tarshish, so that you could not be kind to the people of Nineveh. I know that you are a God who is very kind and you forgive people. You do not become angry quickly. You always show your faithful love for people. Even when you have said that you will punish people, you decide that you will not do it. ³ Lord, please kill me now! I would rather die than continue to live.’

⁴ The Lord replied to Jonah, ‘You are not right to be so angry.’

⁵ Jonah went out of Nineveh. He built a little hut on the east side of the city. He sat in the shade of the hut. He waited to see what would happen to the city.^[a]

⁶ The Lord God made a little plant grow there. He caused it to grow up over Jonah's head to give him shade from the hot sun. This comforted Jonah in his trouble. Jonah was very happy about the plant.

⁷ But at dawn the next day, God sent a worm to attack the plant. So then the plant died. ⁸ When the sun rose, God caused a hot wind to blow from the east. The hot sun shone on Jonah's head so that he became very weak. He wanted to die. He said, ‘I would rather die than continue to live.’

⁹ But God said to Jonah, ‘You are not right to be so angry about the plant.’

Jonah said, ‘I am right to be angry! I am so angry that I want to die.’

¹⁰ But the Lord said to Jonah, ‘You are upset about what happened to this little plant. But you did not plant it. You did not help it to grow. It grew up quickly during one night and by the next night it had died. You are sorry about such a little thing! ¹¹ So it is right for me to be sorry about Nineveh. It is a great city. More than 120,000 people live in it. They cannot understand the difference between what is right and what is wrong. They also have many farm animals.’

Paul wants to visit Rome

⁸ First, because of what Jesus Christ has done for us, I thank my God for all of you. Everywhere in the world, people are talking about how you trust in Jesus Christ. ⁹ God is the one that I serve with all my spirit. I tell people the message about his Son, which is good news. God himself knows that I pray for you all the time. ¹⁰ Every time that I pray for you, I ask God for a chance that I might visit you soon. I pray that he will make it possible if that is what he wants.

¹¹ I want very much to come and see you. Then I can give some gift from God's Spirit to you. That will help you to be strong as you serve God. ¹² We can help each other to be strong like that, because both you and I trust Christ. ¹³ My Christian friends, I want you to know that I have tried often to visit you. But until now, something has always stopped me. I want to help you to serve God well, in the way that I have already helped other Gentiles.

¹⁴ Because God has been kind to me, I must tell his message to all people. I must tell his good news to people who have learned many things, and to those who have never been to school. I must tell it to people who are wise as well as to those who are not very clever. ¹⁵ Because of that, I want very much to tell God's good news also to you people who live in Rome.^[a]

¹⁶ I am not ashamed to tell people the good news. God uses that good news to show his great power. He uses it to save all people who believe in Jesus Christ. First, God saves all Jews who are believers. And he also saves all Gentiles who are believers. ¹⁷ The good news explains how God accepts people as right with himself. He does this when they believe in Christ. It is only because of their faith. Nothing else. This is what was written in the Bible long ago: