Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
9 Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
10 For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
11 I am a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and a fear to mine acquaintances; they that see me in the streets flee from me.
12 I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind; I am like a broken vessel.
13 For I have heard the slander of many; fear was on every side; while they took counsel together against me, they schemed to take away my life.
14 But I have trusted in Thee, O Lord; I said, “Thou art my God.”
15 My times are in Thy hand; deliver me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me.
16 Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant; save me for Thy mercies’ sake.
13 “Hold your peace; let me alone that I may speak, and let come on me what will.
14 Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?
15 Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him; but I will argue mine own ways before Him.
16 He also shall be my salvation, for a hypocrite shall not come before Him.
17 Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears.
18 Behold now, I have prepared my cause; I know that I shall be justified.
19 Who is he that will plead with me? For now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.
21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor; yet what I shall choose, I know not.
23 For I am in a strait between the two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better;
24 nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
25 And having this confidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy in faith,
26 that your rejoicing for me may be more abundant in Jesus Christ by my coming to you again.
27 Only let your manner of living be as becometh the Gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else am absent, I may hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gospel,
28 and terrified in nothing by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that from God.
29 For unto you it is given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,
30 having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me.
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.