Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 41

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

¹ Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is he who considers the weak and the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the time of evil and trouble.

² The Lord will protect him and keep him alive; he shall be called blessed in the land; and You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.

³ The Lord will sustain, refresh, and strengthen him on his bed of languishing; all his bed You [O Lord] will turn, change, and transform in his illness.

⁴ I said, Lord, be merciful and gracious to me; heal my inner self, for I have sinned against You.

⁵ My enemies speak evil of me, [saying], When will he die and his name perish?

⁶ And when one comes to see me, he speaks falsehood and empty words, while his heart gathers mischievous gossip [against me]; when he goes away, he tells it abroad.

⁷ All who hate me whisper together about me; against me do they devise my hurt [imagining the worst for me].

⁸ An evil disease, say they, is poured out upon him and cleaves fast to him; and now that he is bedfast, he will not rise up again.

⁹ Even my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted (relied on and was confident), who ate of my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.^(A)

¹⁰ But You, O Lord, be merciful and gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.

¹¹ By this I know that You favor and delight in me, because my enemy does not triumph over me.

¹² And as for me, You have upheld me in my integrity and set me in Your presence forever.

¹³ Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting [from this age to the next, and forever]! Amen and Amen (so be it).

¹² And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night and said to him: I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.

¹³ If I shut up heaven so no rain falls, or if I command locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people,

¹⁴ If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

¹⁵ Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer offered in this place.

¹⁶ For I have chosen and sanctified (set apart for holy use) this house, that My Name may be here forever, and My eyes and My heart will be here perpetually.

¹⁷ As for you [Solomon], if you will walk before me as David your father walked, and do all I have commanded you, and observe My statutes and My ordinances,^(A)

¹⁸ Then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, There shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel.

¹⁹ But if you [people] turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you and go and serve other gods and worship them,

²⁰ Then will I pluck [Israel] up by the roots out of My land which I have given [them]; and this house which I have hallowed for My Name will I cast out of My sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.^(B)

²¹ And this house, which was so high, shall be an astonishment to everyone passing it, and they will say, Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?

²² Then men will say, Because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, Who brought them out of Egypt, and they laid hold of other gods and worshiped and served them; therefore has He brought all this evil upon them.

² Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers.

³ In fact, I greatly rejoiced when [some of] the brethren from time to time arrived and spoke [so highly] of the sincerity and fidelity of your life, as indeed you do live in the Truth [the whole Gospel presents].

⁴ I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my [spiritual] children are living their lives in the Truth.

⁵ Beloved, it is a fine and faithful work that you are doing when you give any service to the [Christian] brethren, and [especially when they are] strangers.

⁶ They have testified before the church of your love and friendship. You will do well to forward them on their journey [and you will please do so] in a way worthy of God’s [service].

⁷ For these [traveling missionaries] have gone out for the Name’s sake (for His sake) and are accepting nothing from the Gentiles (the heathen, the non-Israelites).

⁸ So we ourselves ought to support such people [to welcome and provide for them], in order that we may be fellow workers in the Truth (the whole Gospel) and cooperate with its teachers.