Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 145

[A Psalm] of praise. Of David.

¹ I will extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever [with grateful, affectionate praise].

² Every day [with its new reasons] will I bless You [affectionately and gratefully praise You]; yes, I will praise Your name forever and ever.

³ Great is the Lord and highly to be praised; and His greatness is [so vast and deep as to be] unsearchable.^(A)

⁴ One generation shall laud Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts.

⁵ On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wondrous works I will meditate.

⁶ Men shall speak of the might of Your tremendous and terrible acts, and I will declare Your greatness.

⁷ They shall pour forth [like a fountain] the fame of Your great and abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of Your rightness and justice.

⁸ The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness.

⁹ The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works [the entirety of things created].

¹⁰ All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your loving ones shall bless You [affectionately and gratefully shall Your saints confess and praise You]!

¹¹ They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power,

¹² To make known to the sons of men God’s mighty deeds and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.

¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

¹⁴ The Lord upholds all those [of His own] who are falling and raises up all those who are bowed down.

¹⁵ The eyes of all wait for You [looking, watching, and expecting] and You give them their food in due season.

¹⁶ You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing with favor.

¹⁷ The Lord is [rigidly] righteous in all His ways and gracious and merciful in all His works.

¹⁸ The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him sincerely and in truth.

¹⁹ He will fulfill the desires of those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him; He also will hear their cry and will save them.

²⁰ The Lord preserves all those who love Him, but all the wicked will He destroy.

²¹ My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord; and let all flesh bless (affectionately and gratefully praise) His holy name forever and ever.

4 How fair you are, my love [he said], how very fair! Your eyes behind your veil [remind me] of those of a dove; your hair [makes me think of the black, wavy fleece] of a flock of [the Arabian] goats which one sees trailing down Mount Gilead [beyond the Jordan on the frontiers of the desert].

² Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes which have come up from the washing, of which all are in pairs, and none is missing among them.

³ Your lips are like a thread of scarlet, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil.

⁴ Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an arsenal, whereon hang a thousand bucklers, all of them shields of warriors.

⁵ Your two breasts are like two fawns, like twins of a gazelle that feed among the lilies.

⁶ Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, [in my thoughts] I will get to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense [to him whom my soul adores].

⁷ [He exclaimed] O my love, how beautiful you are! There is no flaw in you!^(A)

⁸ Come ^[a]away with me from Lebanon, my [promised] bride, come with me from Lebanon. Depart from the top of Amana, from the peak of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.^(B)

³ Grace (favor and spiritual blessing) be to you and [heart] peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ I thank my God at all times for you because of the grace (the favor and spiritual blessing) of God which was bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,

⁵ [So] that in Him in every respect you were enriched, in full power and readiness of speech [to speak of your faith] and complete knowledge and illumination [to give you full insight into its meaning].

⁶ In this way [our] witnessing concerning Christ (the Messiah) was so confirmed and established and made sure in you

⁷ That you are not [consciously] falling behind or lacking in any special spiritual endowment or Christian grace [^[a]the reception of which is due to the power of divine grace operating in your souls by the Holy Spirit], while you wait and watch [constantly living in hope] for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and [His] being made visible to all.

⁸ And He will establish you to the end [keep you steadfast, give you strength, and guarantee your vindication; He will be your warrant against all accusation or indictment so that you will be] guiltless and irreproachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah).

⁹ God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy, and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended on); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹⁰ But I urge and entreat you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in perfect harmony and full agreement in what you say, and that there be no dissensions or factions or divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in your common understanding and in your opinions and judgments.

¹¹ For it has been made clear to me, my brethren, by those of Chloe’s household, that there are contentions and wrangling and factions among you.

¹² What I mean is this, that each one of you [either] says, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to Cephas (Peter), or I belong to Christ.

¹³ Is Christ (the Messiah) divided into parts? Was Paul crucified on behalf of you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?

¹⁴ I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

¹⁵ Lest anyone should say that I baptized in my own name.

¹⁶ [Yes] I did baptize the household of Stephanas also. More than these, I do not remember that I baptized anyone.

¹⁷ For Christ (the Messiah) sent me out not to baptize but [to evangelize by] preaching the glad tidings (the Gospel), and that not with verbal eloquence, lest the cross of Christ should be deprived of force and emptied of its power and rendered vain (fruitless, void of value, and of no effect).