Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Happiness of Those Whose Help Is the Lord
146 Praise[a] the Lord!
(A)Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 (B)While I live I will praise the Lord;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.
3 (C)Do not put your trust in princes,
Nor in [b]a son of man, in whom there is no [c]help.
4 (D)His spirit departs, he returns to his earth;
In that very day (E)his plans perish.
5 (F)Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help,
Whose hope is in the Lord his God,
6 (G)Who made heaven and earth,
The sea, and all that is in them;
Who keeps truth forever,
7 (H)Who executes justice for the oppressed,
(I)Who gives food to the hungry.
(J)The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners.
8 (K)The Lord opens the eyes of the blind;
(L)The Lord raises those who are bowed down;
The Lord loves the righteous.
9 (M)The Lord watches over the strangers;
He relieves the fatherless and widow;
(N)But the way of the wicked He [d]turns upside down.
10 (O)The Lord shall reign forever—
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!
3 A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself,
But the simple pass on and are (C)punished.
4 By humility and the fear of the Lord
Are riches and honor and life.
5 Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse;
He who guards his soul will be far from them.
7 The (E)rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower is servant to the lender.
10 (I)Cast out the scoffer, and contention will leave;
Yes, strife and reproach will cease.
11 (J)He who loves purity of heart
And has grace on his lips,
The king will be his friend.
12 The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge,
But He overthrows the words of the faithless.
13 (K)The lazy man says, “There is a lion outside!
I shall be slain in the streets!”
14 (L)The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit;
(M)He who is abhorred by the Lord will fall there.
15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;
(N)The rod of correction will drive it far from him.
16 He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches,
And he who gives to the rich, will surely come to poverty.
Christ Our Pattern
8 (A)I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, (B)that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become (C)rich.
10 And in this (D)I give advice: (E)It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and (F)were desiring to do a year ago; 11 but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. 12 For (G)if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.
13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened; 14 but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack—that there may be equality. 15 As it is written, (H)“He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.