Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
O Lord, Be Gracious to Me
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
41 (A)Blessed is the one who considers the poor![a]
(B)In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
2 the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you (C)do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
3 The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health.[b]
4 As for me, I said, “O Lord, (D)be gracious to me;
(E)heal me,[c] for I have sinned against you!”
5 My enemies say of me in malice,
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6 And when one comes to see me, (F)he utters empty words,
while his heart gathers iniquity;
when he goes out, he tells it abroad.
7 All who hate me whisper together about me;
they imagine the worst for me.[d]
8 They say, “A deadly thing is poured out[e] on him;
he will not rise again from where he lies.”
9 Even my (G)close friend in whom I trusted,
who (H)ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
10 But you, O Lord, be gracious to me,
and raise me up, that I may repay them!
11 By this I know that (I)you delight in me:
my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
12 But (J)you have upheld me because of (K)my integrity,
and (L)set me in your presence (M)for ever.
13 (N)Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.
12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer (A)and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 (B)When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, 14 if my people who are called by my name (C)humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 (D)Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. 16 (E)For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there for ever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. 17 And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, doing according to all that I have commanded you and keeping my statutes and my rules, 18 then I will establish your royal throne, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, (F)‘You shall not lack a man to rule Israel.’
19 (G)“But if you[a] turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 (H)then I will pluck you[b] up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it (I)a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21 And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, (J)‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ 22 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshipped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’”
2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. 3 For (A)I rejoiced greatly when the brothers[a] came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that (B)my children are walking in the truth.
Support and Opposition
5 Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for (C)these brothers, (D)strangers as they are, 6 who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner (E)worthy of God. 7 For they have gone out for the sake of (F)the name, (G)accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.