Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 41
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David.
1 Blessed are those who consider the poor;
the Lord will deliver them in the day of trouble.
2 The Lord will preserve them and keep them alive,
and they will be blessed on the earth,
and You will not deliver them to the will of their enemies.
3 The Lord will sustain them on the sickbed;
You will restore all his lying down in his illness.
4 I said, “Lord, be gracious to me;
heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
5 My enemies speak evil of me:
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
6 And if people come to see me, they speak insincerely;
their heart gathers iniquity to itself,
when they go outside, they tell it.
7 All who hate me whisper together against me;
they devise harm against me.
8 “An evil disease clings to him.
And now that he lies down, he will not rise up again.”
9 Yes, my own close friend,
in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread,
has lifted up the 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 You favor me,
because my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
and set me before You forever.
13 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
from everlasting and to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.
The Lord Appears to Solomon(A)
12 Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night, and He said to Solomon,
“I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen for Myself in this place a house of sacrifice.
13 “When I shut up the heaven and there is no rain, or when I command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence on My people, 14 if My people, who are called by My name, will 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 will heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer of this place. 16 So now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name be there continually. My eyes and heart will be there for all days.
17 “And you, if you walk before Me as David your father did to do everything that I command you to do, and you keep My statutes and judgments, 18 then I will set the throne of your kingdom as I made a covenant with David your father saying, ‘You will not lack a man to rule Israel.’
19 “But if the people turn aside and abandon My statutes and commandments that I have given to you, and you walk after and serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will uproot them from My land that I have given to them; and the house that I have consecrated for My name, I will throw it from before Me and set it as a proverb and taunt among the peoples. 21 And even though this house was majestic, it will lie desolate before all who pass by it, and they will say, ‘Why did the Lord do such a thing to this land and this house?’ 22 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them up from the land of Egypt, and they took hold of other gods and worshipped and served them; therefore He has brought on them all this disaster.”
2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, even as your soul is well. 3 For I greatly rejoiced when brothers came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Working Together
5 Beloved, you are faithful in all you do for the brothers and for strangers, 6 who have testified of your love before the church. You will do well to send them along on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For His name’s sake they went out, receiving no help from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to receive such men, that we might be fellow workers for the truth.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.