Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 30

A Psalm; a Song at the Dedication of the Temple. [A Psalm] of David.

¹ I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

² O Lord my God, I cried to You and You have healed me.

³ O Lord, You have brought my life up from Sheol (the place of the dead); You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit (the grave).

⁴ Sing to the Lord, O you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

⁵ For His anger is but for a moment, but His favor is for a lifetime or in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.^(A)

⁶ As for me, in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.

⁷ By Your favor, O Lord, You have established me as a strong mountain; You hid Your face, and I was troubled.

⁸ I cried to You, O Lord, and to the Lord I made supplication.

⁹ What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit (the grave)? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth and faithfulness to men?

¹⁰ Hear, O Lord, have mercy and be gracious to me! O Lord, be my helper!

¹¹ You have turned my mourning into dancing for me; You have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness,

¹² To the end that my tongue and my heart and everything glorious within me may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

¹² Then the woman said, Let your handmaid, I pray you, speak one word to my lord the king. He said, Say on.

¹³ [She] said, Why then have you planned such a thing against God’s people? For in speaking this word the king is like one who is guilty, in that [he] does not bring home his banished one.

¹⁴ We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. And God does not take away life, but devises means so that he who is banished may not be an utter outcast from Him.

¹⁵ And now I have come to speak of this thing to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. And I thought, I will speak to the king; it may be that he will perform the request of his servant.

¹⁶ For the king will hear to deliver his handmaid from the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together from [Israel] the inheritance of God.

¹⁷ And the woman said, The word of my lord the king will now give me rest and security, for as an angel of God is my lord the king to hear and discern good and evil. May the Lord your God be with you!

¹⁸ Then the king said to the woman, Hide not from me anything I ask you. And the woman said, Let my lord the king speak.

¹⁹ The king said, Is the hand of Joab with you in all this? And the woman answered, As your soul lives, my lord the king, none can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything my lord the king has said. It was your servant Joab who directed me; he put all these words in my mouth.

²⁰ In order to change the course of matters [between Absalom and his father] your servant Joab did this. But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God—to know all things that are on the earth.

²¹ Then the king said to Joab, Behold now, I grant this; go, bring back the young man Absalom.

²² And Joab fell to the ground on his face and did obeisance and thanked the king. And Joab said, Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, O king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant.

²³ So Joab arose, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

²⁴ And the king said, Let him go to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the king’s face.

26 Then Agrippa said to Paul, You are permitted to speak on your own behalf. At that Paul stretched forth his hand and made his defense [as follows]:

² I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that it is before you that I am to make my defense today in regard to all the charges brought against me by [the] Jews,

³ [Especially] because you are so fully and unusually conversant with all the Jewish customs and controversies; therefore, I beg you to hear me patiently.

⁴ My behavior and manner of living from my youth up is known by all the Jews; [they are aware] that from [its] commencement my youth was spent among my own race in Jerusalem.

⁵ They have had knowledge of me for a long time, if they are willing to testify to it, that in accordance with the strictest sect of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee.

⁶ And now I stand here on trial [to be judged on the ground] of the hope of that promise made to our forefathers by God,^(A)

⁷ Which hope [of the Messiah and the resurrection] our twelve tribes confidently expect to realize as they fervently worship [without ceasing] night and day. And for that hope, O king, I am accused by Jews and considered a criminal!

⁸ Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

⁹ I myself indeed was [once] persuaded that it was my duty to do many things contrary to and in defiance of the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰ And that is what I did in Jerusalem; I [not only] locked up many of the [faithful] saints (holy ones) in prison by virtue of authority received from the chief priests, but when they were being condemned to death, I cast my vote against them.

¹¹ And frequently I punished them in all the synagogues to make them blaspheme; and in my bitter fury against them, I harassed (troubled, molested, persecuted) and pursued them even to foreign cities.