Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 18
Royal Thanksgiving for Victory
To the leader. A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this song to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said:
20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.(A)
21 For I have kept the ways of the Lord
and have not wickedly departed from my God.(B)
22 For all his ordinances were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.(C)
23 I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from guilt.
24 Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.(D)
25 With the loyal you show yourself loyal;
with the blameless you show yourself blameless;(E)
26 with the pure you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you show yourself shrewd.(F)
27 For you deliver a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down.(G)
28 It is you who light my lamp;
the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.(H)
29 By you I can outrun a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.(I)
30 This God—his way is perfect;
the promise of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.(J)
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers
who rule this people in Jerusalem.(A)
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
and with Sheol we have an agreement;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through
it will not come to us,
for we have made lies our refuge,
and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;(B)
16 therefore thus says the Lord God,
“See, I am laying[a] in Zion a foundation stone,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation:
‘One who trusts will not panic.’(C)
17 And I will make justice the line
and righteousness the plummet;
hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and waters will overwhelm the shelter.(D)
18 Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
you will be beaten down by it.(E)
19 As often as it passes through, it will take you,
for morning by morning it will pass through,
by day and by night,
and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.”(F)
20 For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on it,
and the covering is too narrow to wrap oneself in it.
21 For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim;
he will rage as in the valley of Gibeon
to do his deed—strange is his deed!—
and to work his work—alien is his work!(G)
22 Now therefore do not scoff,
or your bonds will be made stronger,
for I have heard a decree of destruction
from the Lord God of hosts upon the whole land.(H)
The Anointing at Bethany
6 Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,[a](A) 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. 8 But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “Why this waste? 9 For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum and the money given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has performed a good service for me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.(B) 12 By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial.(C) 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this good news[b] is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.