Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 41
Victory in spite of Betrayal
For the choir director. A psalm of David.
1 Happy is one who is considerate of the poor;
the Lord will save him in a day of adversity.(A)
2 The Lord will keep him and preserve him;
he will be blessed in the land.(B)
You will not give him over to the desire of his enemies.(C)
3 The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed;
you will heal him on the bed where he lies.(D)
4 I said, “Lord, be gracious to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against you.”(E)
5 My enemies speak maliciously about me:
“When will he die and be forgotten?” (F)
6 When one of them comes to visit, he speaks deceitfully;
he stores up evil in his heart;
he goes out and talks.(G)
7 All who hate me whisper together about me;
they plan to harm me.(H)
8 “Something awful has overwhelmed him,[a]
and he won’t rise again from where he lies!” (I)
9 Even my friend[b] in whom I trusted,
one who ate my bread,
has raised his heel against me.(J)
10 But you, Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up;
then I will repay them.(K)
11 By this I know that you delight in me:(L)
my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.(M)
12 You supported me because of my integrity(N)
and set me in your presence forever.(O)
13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and amen.(P)
The Lord’s Response
12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him:
I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple of sacrifice.(A) 13 If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people,(B) 14 and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.(C) 15 My eyes will now be open and my ears attentive to prayer from this place.(D) 16 And I have now chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there at all times.(E)
17 As for you, if you walk before me as your father David walked, doing everything I have commanded you, and if you keep my statutes and ordinances, 18 I will establish your royal throne, as I promised your father David: You will never fail to have a man ruling in Israel.(F)
19 However, if you turn away and abandon my statutes and my commands that I have set before you and if you go and serve other gods and bow in worship to them,(G) 20 then I will uproot Israel from the soil that I gave them, and this temple that I have sanctified for my name I will banish from my presence;(H) I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.(I) 21 As for this temple, which was exalted, everyone who passes by will be appalled and will say,(J) “Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?” 22 Then they will say, “Because they abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt. They clung to other gods and bowed in worship to them and served them. Because of this, he brought all this ruin on them.”
2 Dear friend, I pray that you are prospering in every way and are in good health,(A) just as your whole life is going well.[a] 3 For I was very glad when fellow believers came and testified(B) to your fidelity to the truth—how you are walking in truth.(C) 4 I have no greater joy(D) than this: to hear that my children(E) are walking in truth.
Gaius Commended
5 Dear friend, you are acting faithfully in whatever you do for the brothers and sisters, especially when they are strangers. 6 They have testified to your love before the church.(F) You will do well to send them on their journey(G) in a manner worthy of God,(H) 7 since they set out for the sake of the Name,(I) accepting nothing from pagans.[b](J) 8 Therefore, we ought to support such people so that we can be coworkers with the truth.
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