Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

³ Do not put your trust in princes,
    in mortals, in whom there is no help.
⁴ When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
    on that very day their plans perish.

⁵ Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
    whose hope is in the Lord their God,
⁶ who made heaven and earth,
    the sea, and all that is in them;
who keeps faith for ever;
⁷     who executes justice for the oppressed;
    who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
⁸     the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
    the Lord loves the righteous.
⁹ The Lord watches over the strangers;
    he upholds the orphan and the widow,
    but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

¹⁰ The Lord will reign for ever,
    your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord!

¹⁴ For a long time I have held my peace,
    I have kept still and restrained myself;
now I will cry out like a woman in labour,
    I will gasp and pant.
¹⁵ I will lay waste mountains and hills,
    and dry up all their herbage;
I will turn the rivers into islands,
    and dry up the pools.
¹⁶ I will lead the blind
    by a road they do not know,
by paths they have not known
    I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light,
    the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I will do,
    and I will not forsake them.
¹⁷ They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame—
    those who trust in carved images,
who say to cast images,
    ‘You are our gods.’

¹⁸ Listen, you that are deaf;
    and you that are blind, look up and see!
¹⁹ Who is blind but my servant,
    or deaf like my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind like my dedicated one,
    or blind like the servant of the Lord?
²⁰ He sees many things, but does^[a] not observe them;
    his ears are open, but he does not hear.