Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 146
The God of Compassion
1 Hallelujah!
My soul, praise the Lord.(A)
2 I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing to my God as long as I live.(B)
3 Do not trust in nobles,
in man, who cannot save.(C)
4 When his breath[a] leaves him,
he returns to the ground;
on that day his plans die.(D)
5 Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,(E)
6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea and everything in them.(F)
He remains faithful forever,(G)
7 executing justice for the exploited
and giving food to the hungry.(H)
The Lord frees prisoners.(I)
8 The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.(J)
The Lord raises up those who are oppressed.[b](K)
The Lord loves the righteous.(L)
9 The Lord protects foreigners
and helps the fatherless and the widow,(M)
but He frustrates the ways of the wicked.(N)
10 The Lord reigns forever;
Zion, your God reigns for all generations.(O)
Hallelujah!
14 “I have kept silent from ages past;
I have been quiet and restrained Myself.(A)
But now, I will groan like a woman in labor,(B)
gasping breathlessly.
15 I will lay waste mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation.
I will turn rivers into islands
and dry up marshes.(C)
16 I will lead the blind by a way they did not know;(D)
I will guide them on paths they have not known.
I will turn darkness to light in front of them(E)
and rough places into level ground.(F)
This is what I will do for them,
and I will not forsake them.(G)
17 They will be turned back and utterly ashamed—
those who trust in idols
and say to metal-plated images:
You are our gods!(H)
Israel’s Blindness and Deafness
18 “Listen, you deaf!
Look, you blind, so that you may see.(I)
19 Who is blind but My servant,(J)
or deaf like My messenger I am sending?
Who is blind like My dedicated one,[a]
or blind like the servant of the Lord?
20 Though seeing many things,[b] you do not obey.
Though his ears are open, he does not listen.”(K)
21 The Lord was pleased, because of His righteousness,
to magnify His instruction and make it glorious.
Prayer for Spiritual Growth
9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking(A) that you may be filled with the knowledge(B) of His will(C) in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,[a] 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work(D) and growing in the knowledge of God.(E) 11 May you be strengthened(F) with all power,(G) according to His glorious(H) might, for all endurance and patience, with joy 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you[b] to share in the saints’[c] inheritance in the light.(I) 13 He has rescued(J) us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom(K) of the Son(L) He loves.(M) 14 We have redemption,[d] the forgiveness of sins, in Him.
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