Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Blessing and Suffering of the Godly
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
41 Blessed is he who considers the [a]poor;
The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.
2 The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive,
And he will be blessed on the earth;
(A)You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
3 The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness;
You will [b]sustain him on his sickbed.
4 I said, “Lord, be merciful to me;
(B)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 he comes to see me, he speaks [c]lies;
His heart gathers iniquity to itself;
When he goes out, he tells it.
7 All who hate me whisper together against me;
Against me they [d]devise my hurt.
8 “An[e] evil disease,” they say, “clings to him.
And now that he lies down, he will rise up no more.”
9 (C)Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted,
(D)Who ate my bread,
Has [f]lifted up his heel against me.
10 But You, O Lord, be merciful to me, and raise me up,
That I may repay them.
11 By this I know that You are well pleased with me,
Because my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
And (E)set me before Your face forever.
13 (F)Blessed be the Lord God of Israel
From everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.
God’s Second Appearance to Solomon(A)
12 Then the Lord (B)appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, (C)and have chosen this (D)place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13 (E)When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are (F)called by My name will (G)humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, (H)then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15 Now (I)My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 16 For now (J)I have chosen and [a]sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and [b]My eyes and [c]My heart will be there perpetually. 17 (K)As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, 18 then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, (L)‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’
19 (M)“But if you 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 (N)then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have [d]sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a (O)byword among all peoples.
21 “And as for (P)this [e]house, which [f]is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be (Q)astonished and say, (R)‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house?’ 22 Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’ ”
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. 3 For I (A)rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater (B)joy than to hear that (C)my children walk in [a]truth.
Gaius Commended for Generosity
5 Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren [b]and for strangers, 6 who have borne witness of your love before the church. If you send them forward on their journey in a manner worthy of God, you will do well, 7 because they went forth for His name’s sake, (D)taking nothing from the Gentiles. 8 We therefore ought to (E)receive[c] such, that we may become fellow workers for the truth.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.