Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 144
A King’s Prayer
Davidic.
1 May the Lord, my rock, be praised,(A)
who trains my hands for battle
and my fingers for warfare.(B)
2 He is my faithful love and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer.
He is my shield,(C) and I take refuge in Him;(D)
He subdues my people[a] under me.(E)
3 Lord, what is man, that You care for him,
the son of man, that You think of him?(F)
4 Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow.(G)
5 Lord, part Your heavens and come down.(H)
Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.(I)
6 Flash Your lightning and scatter the foe;[b]
shoot Your arrows and rout them.(J)
7 Reach down[c] from heaven;(K)
rescue me from deep water, and set me free
from the grasp of foreigners(L)
8 whose mouths speak lies,
whose right hands are deceptive.(M)
9 God, I will sing a new song to You;
I will play on a ten-stringed harp for You(N)—
10 the One who gives victory to kings,
who frees His servant David
from the deadly sword.(O)
11 Set me free and rescue me
from the grasp of foreigners(P)
whose mouths speak lies,
whose right hands are deceptive.(Q)
12 Then our sons will be like plants
nurtured in their youth,
our daughters, like corner pillars
that are carved in the palace style.(R)
13 Our storehouses will be full,
supplying all kinds of produce;(S)
our flocks will increase by thousands
and tens of thousands in our open fields.(T)
14 Our cattle will be well fed.[d]
There will be no breach in the walls,
no going into captivity,[e]
and no cry of lament in our public squares.(U)
15 Happy are the people with such blessings.
Happy are the people whose God is Yahweh.(V)
5 Y Who is this(A) coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on the one she loves?
W I awakened you under the apricot tree.(B)
There your mother conceived you;
there she conceived and gave you birth.
6 Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm.(C)
For love is as strong as death;(D)
ardent love is as unrelenting as Sheol.
Love’s flames are fiery flames(E)—
the fiercest of all.[a]
7 Mighty waters cannot extinguish love;
rivers cannot sweep it away.
If a man were to give all his wealth[b] for love,(F)
it would be utterly scorned.
8 B Our sister is young;
she has no breasts.(G)
What will we do for our sister
on the day she is spoken for?
9 If she is a wall,
we will build a silver parapet on it.
If she is a door,
we will enclose it with cedar planks.[c](H)
10 W I am[d] a wall
and my breasts like towers.
So in his eyes I have become
like one who finds peace.[e]
11 Solomon owned a vineyard in Baal-hamon.(I)
He leased the vineyard to tenants.(J)
Each was to bring for his fruit
1,000 pieces of silver.(K)
12 I have my own vineyard.[f](L)
The 1,000 are for you, Solomon,
but 200 for those who guard its fruits.
14 W Hurry to me, my love,
and be like a gazelle
or a young stag
on the mountains of spices.(O)
The Plot to Kill Jesus
45 Therefore, many of the Jews who came to Mary and saw what He did believed in Him.(A) 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees(B) and told them what Jesus had done.
47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin(C) and said, “What are we going to do since this man does many signs? 48 If we let Him continue in this way, everyone will believe in Him! Then the Romans(D) will come and remove both our place[a] and our nation.”
49 One of them, Caiaphas,(E) who was high priest(F) that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50 You’re not considering that it is to your[b] advantage that one man should die for the people rather than the whole nation perish.”(G) 51 He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was going to die(H) for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but also to unite the scattered children(I) of God. 53 So from that day on they plotted to kill Him.(J) 54 Therefore Jesus no longer walked openly(K) among the Jews but departed from there to the countryside near the wilderness,(L) to a town called Ephraim. And He stayed there with the disciples.
55 The Jewish Passover(M) was near, and many went up to Jerusalem(N) from the country to purify[c] themselves before the Passover. 56 They were looking for Jesus and asking one another as they stood in the temple complex:(O) “What do you think? He won’t come to the festival,(P) will He?” 57 The chief priests(Q) and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where He was, he should report it so they could arrest Him.
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