Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 40
I Desire to Do Your Will
(Psalm 40:13-17 parallels Psalm 70)
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For the choir director. By David. A psalm.
Messiah’s Prayer of Thanks
1 I waited and waited for the Lord.
Then he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 Then he pulled me up from the deadly quicksand,
from the mud and muck.
He made my feet stand on a rock to keep my steps from slipping.
3 Then he put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear.
They will trust in the Lord.
4 How blessed is everyone who trusts in the Lord,
who does not look to the proud
or to those who turn aside to falsehood.
5 Many are the wonders you have done, O Lord my God.
No one can explain to you all your thoughts for us.[a]
If I try to speak and tell about them,
they are too many to count.
Messiah’s Willing Sacrifice
Return to the Lord!
14 Israel, return to the Lord your God,
for you have stumbled because of your guilt.
2 Take words with you[a] and return to the Lord.
Say to him, “Forgive all our guilt,
and receive us graciously,
and let us present the fruit of our lips as bulls.[b]
3 Assyria cannot save us.
We will not ride on horses.
We will no longer call the work of our hands our gods!
For in you the fatherless child finds compassion.”
4 I will cure them of their unfaithfulness.
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.
5 I will be refreshing like dew to Israel.
It will blossom like a lily.
It will take root like a cedar of Lebanon.
6 Its young shoots will sprout.
Its beauty will be like an olive tree.
Its fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7 Those who live in Israel’s shade will once again grow grain.
They will blossom like a grape vine.
Its fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim, how much more do I have to put up with from idols?
I am the one who has answered, and I look after him.
I am like a fresh fir tree.
Your fruit comes from me.
9 Who is wise? Let him understand these things.
Who is discerning? Let him know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right,
and the righteous walk in them,
but the rebellious stumble in them.
Lord of the Sabbath
12 At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick heads of grain and eat them. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, what your disciples are doing is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
3 But he said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered God’s house and ate the Bread of the Presence, which was lawful only for the priests to eat, not for him or his companions. 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath days, the priests in the temple violate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 But I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. 7 Yet if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.