Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Praise and Prayer for Help
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
40 I waited patiently for the Lord.
He turned to me and heard my cry.
2 He lifted me out of the pit of destruction,
out of the sticky mud.
He stood me on a rock
and made my feet steady.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many people will see this and worship him.
Then they will trust the Lord.
4 Happy is the person
who trusts the Lord,
who doesn’t turn to those who are proud
or to those who worship false gods.
5 Lord my God, you have done many miracles.
Your plans for us are many.
If I tried to tell them all,
there would be too many to count.
6 You do not want sacrifices and offerings.
But you have made a hole in my ear
to show that my body and life are yours.
You do not ask for burnt offerings
and sacrifices to take away sins.
7 Then I said, “Look, I have come.
It is written about me in the book.
8 My God, I want to do what you want.
Your teachings are in my heart.”
Israel Returns to God
14 Israel, return to the Lord your God,
because your sins have made you fall.
2 Come back to the Lord
and say these words to him:
“Take away all our sin
and kindly receive us,
and we will keep the promises we made to you.
3 Assyria cannot save us,
nor will we trust in our horses.
We will not say again, ‘Our gods,’
to the things our hands have made.
You show mercy to orphans.”
4 The Lord says,
“I will forgive them for leaving me
and will love them freely,
because I am not angry with them anymore.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel,
and they will blossom like a lily.
Like the cedar trees in Lebanon,
their roots will be firm.
6 They will be like spreading branches,
like the beautiful olive trees
and the sweet-smelling cedars in Lebanon.
7 The people of Israel will again live under my protection.
They will grow like the grain,
they will bloom like a vine,
and they will be as famous as the wine of Lebanon.
8 Israel, have nothing to do with idols.
I, the Lord, am the one who answers your prayers and watches over you.
I am like a green pine tree;
your blessings come from me.”
9 A wise person will know these things,
and an understanding person will take them to heart.
The Lord’s ways are right.
Good people live by following them,
but those who turn against God die because of them.
Jesus Is Lord of the Sabbath
12 At that time Jesus was walking through some fields of grain on a Sabbath day. His followers were hungry, so they began to pick the grain and eat it. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Jesus, “Look! Your followers are doing what is unlawful to do on the Sabbath day.”
3 Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and the people with him were hungry? 4 He went into God’s house, and he and those with him ate the holy bread, which was lawful only for priests to eat. 5 And have you not read in the law of Moses that on every Sabbath day the priests in the Temple break this law about the Sabbath day? But the priests are not wrong for doing that. 6 I tell you that there is something here that is greater than the Temple. 7 The Scripture says, ‘I want kindness more than I want animal sacrifices.’[a] You don’t really know what those words mean. If you understood them, you would not judge those who have done nothing wrong.
8 “So the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath day.”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.