Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
To the director: With instruments. A song of praise.
67 God, show mercy to us and bless us.
Please accept us! Selah
2 Let everyone on earth learn about you.
Let every nation see how you save people.
3 May people praise you, God!
May all people praise you.
4 May all nations rejoice and be happy
because you judge people fairly.
You rule over every nation.
5 May the people praise you, God!
May all people praise you.
6 God, our God, bless us.
Let our land give us a great harvest.
7 May God bless us,
and may all people on earth fear and respect him.
A Prayer for God to Help His People
15 Please, look down from the heavens.
See what is happening now.
Look down at us from your great and holy home in heaven.
Where is your strong love[a] for us?
Where is your compassion?
Why are you hiding your kind love from me?
16 Look, you are our father!
Abraham does not know us.
Israel does not recognize us.
Lord, you are our father!
You are the one who has always saved us!
17 Lord, why are you pushing us away from you?
Why are you making it hard for us to follow you?
Come back to us!
We are your servants.
Come to us and help us!
Our tribes belong to you.
18 Your holy people had their land only a short time.
Then our enemies trampled down your holy Temple.
19 Some people don’t follow you.
They don’t wear your name.
And we have been like them
for a very long time.
19 Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and persuaded the people to turn against Paul. So they threw stones at him and dragged him out of the town. They thought they had killed him. 20 But when the followers of Jesus gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town. The next day he and Barnabas left and went to the city of Derbe.
The Return to Antioch in Syria
21 They also told the Good News in the city of Derbe, and many people became followers of Jesus. Then Paul and Barnabas returned to the cities of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. 22 In those cities they helped the followers grow stronger in their faith and encouraged them to continue trusting God. They told them, “We must suffer many things on our way into God’s kingdom.” 23 They also chose elders for each church and stopped eating for a period of time to pray for them. These elders were men who had put their trust in the Lord Jesus, so Paul and Barnabas put them in his care.
24 Paul and Barnabas went through the country of Pisidia. Then they came to the country of Pamphylia. 25 They told people the message of God in the city of Perga, and then they went down to the city of Attalia. 26 And from there they sailed away to Antioch in Syria. This is the city where the believers had put them into God’s care and sent them to do this work. Now they had finished it.
27 When Paul and Barnabas arrived, they gathered the church together. They told them everything God had used them to do. They said, “God opened a door for the non-Jewish people to believe!” 28 And they stayed there a long time with the Lord’s followers.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International