Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Prayer in Time of Chastening
A Psalm of David. (A)To bring to remembrance.
38 O Lord, do not (B)rebuke me in Your wrath,
Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure!
2 For Your arrows pierce me deeply,
And Your hand presses me down.
3 There is no soundness in my flesh
Because of Your anger,
Nor any health in my bones
Because of my sin.
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head;
Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
5 My wounds are foul and festering
Because of my foolishness.
6 I am [a]troubled, I am bowed down greatly;
I go mourning all the day long.
7 For my loins are full of inflammation,
And there is no soundness in my flesh.
8 I am feeble and severely broken;
I groan because of the turmoil of my heart.
9 Lord, all my desire is before You;
And my sighing is not hidden from You.
10 My heart pants, my strength fails me;
As for the light of my eyes, it also has gone from me.
11 My loved ones and my friends (C)stand aloof from my plague,
And my relatives stand afar off.
12 Those also who seek my life lay snares for me;
Those who seek my hurt speak of destruction,
And plan deception all the day long.
13 But I, like a deaf man, do not hear;
And I am like a mute who does not open his mouth.
14 Thus I am like a man who does not hear,
And in whose mouth is no response.
15 For [b]in You, O Lord, (D)I hope;
You will [c]hear, O Lord my God.
16 For I said, “Hear me, lest they rejoice over me,
Lest, when my foot slips, they exalt themselves against me.”
17 (E)For I am ready to fall,
And my sorrow is continually before me.
18 For I will (F)declare my iniquity;
I will be (G)in [d]anguish over my sin.
19 But my enemies are vigorous, and they are strong;
And those who hate me wrongfully have multiplied.
20 Those also (H)who render evil for good,
They are my adversaries, because I follow what is good.
21 Do not forsake me, O Lord;
O my God, (I)be not far from me!
22 Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation!
God Will Be Gracious
18 Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be (A)gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
(B)Blessed are all those who (C)wait for Him.
19 For the people (D)shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem;
You shall (E)weep no more.
He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry;
When He hears it, He will (F)answer you.
20 And though the Lord gives you
(G)The bread of adversity and the water of [a]affliction,
Yet (H)your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore,
But your eyes shall see your teachers.
21 Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying,
“This is the way, walk in it,”
Whenever you (I)turn to the right hand
Or whenever you turn to the left.
22 (J)You will also defile the covering of your images of silver,
And the ornament of your molded images of gold.
You will throw them away as an unclean thing;
(K)You will say to them, “Get away!”
23 (L)Then He will give the rain for your seed
With which you sow the ground,
And bread of the increase of the earth;
It will be [b]fat and plentiful.
In that day your cattle will feed
In large pastures.
24 Likewise the oxen and the young donkeys that work the ground
Will eat cured fodder,
Which has been winnowed with the shovel and fan.
25 There will be (M)on every high mountain
And on every high hill
Rivers and streams of waters,
In the day of the (N)great slaughter,
When the towers fall.
26 Moreover (O)the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun,
And the light of the sun will be sevenfold,
As the light of seven days,
In the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people
And heals the stroke of their wound.
Idolatry at Lystra
8 (A)And in Lystra a certain man without strength in his feet was sitting, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who had never walked. 9 This man heard Paul speaking. [a]Paul, observing him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, 10 said with a loud voice, (B)“Stand up straight on your feet!” And he leaped and walked. 11 Now when the people saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices, saying in the Lycaonian language, (C)“The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” 12 And Barnabas they called [b]Zeus, and Paul, [c]Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, (D)intending to sacrifice with the multitudes.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard this, (E)they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out 15 and saying, “Men, (F)why are you doing these things? (G)We also are men with the same nature as you, and preach to you that you should turn from (H)these useless things (I)to the living God, (J)who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, 16 (K)who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. 17 (L)Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, (M)gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with (N)food and gladness.” 18 And with these sayings they could scarcely restrain the multitudes from sacrificing to them.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.