Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 38
A Penitent Sufferer’s Plea for Healing
A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering.
1 O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.(A)
2 For your arrows have sunk into me,
and your hand has come down on me.(B)
3 There is no soundness in my flesh
because of your indignation;
there is no health in my bones
because of my sin.(C)
4 For my iniquities have gone over my head;
they weigh like a burden too heavy for me.(D)
5 My wounds grow foul and fester
because of my foolishness;(E)
6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate;
all day long I go around mourning.(F)
7 For my loins are filled with burning,
and there is no soundness in my flesh.(G)
8 I am utterly spent and crushed;
I groan because of the tumult of my heart.(H)
9 O Lord, all my longing is known to you;
my sighing is not hidden from you.(I)
10 My heart throbs; my strength fails me;
as for the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.
11 My friends and companions stand aloof from my affliction,
and my neighbors stand far off.(J)
12 Those who seek my life lay their snares;
those who seek to hurt me speak of ruin
and meditate on treachery all day long.(K)
13 But I am like the deaf; I do not hear;
like the mute, who cannot speak.(L)
14 Truly, I am like one who does not hear
and in whose mouth is no retort.
15 But it is for you, O Lord, that I wait;
it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.(M)
16 For I pray, “Only do not let them rejoice over me,
those who boast against me when my foot slips.”(N)
God’s Promise to Zion
18 Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
blessed are all those who wait for him.(A)
19 O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you.(B) 20 Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any longer, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.(C) 21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”(D) 22 Then you will defile your silver-covered idols and your gold-plated images. You will scatter them like impure things; you will say to them, “Away with you!”(E)
23 He will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and grain, the produce of the ground, will be rich and plenteous. On that day your cattle will graze in broad pastures,(F) 24 and the oxen and donkeys that till the ground will eat silage that has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 On every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water—on a day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days, on the day when the Lord binds up the injuries of his people and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.(G)
Paul and Barnabas in Lystra and Derbe
8 In Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet and had never walked, for he had been lame from birth.(A) 9 He listened to Paul as he was speaking. And Paul, looking at him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed,(B) 10 said in a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And the man[a] sprang up and began to walk. 11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!”(C) 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes, because he was the chief speaker. 13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city,[b] brought oxen and garlands to the gates; he and the crowds wanted to offer sacrifice. 14 When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, 15 “People,[c] why are you doing this? We are mortals just like you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.(D) 16 In past generations he allowed all peoples to follow their own ways,(E) 17 yet he has not left himself without a witness in doing good, giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.”(F) 18 Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.