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!
Promise of the Lord’s Help
14 “I have held My peace a long time,
I have been still and restrained Myself.
Now I will cry like a woman in [a]labor,
I will pant and gasp at once.
15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills,
And dry up all their vegetation;
I will make the rivers coastlands,
And I will dry up the pools.
16 I will bring the blind by a way they did not know;
I will lead them in paths they have not known.
I will make darkness light before them,
And crooked places straight.
These things I will do for them,
And not forsake them.
17 They shall be (A)turned back,
They shall be greatly ashamed,
Who trust in carved images,
Who say to the molded images,
‘You are our gods.’
18 “Hear, you deaf;
And look, you blind, that you may see.
19 (B)Who is blind but My servant,
Or deaf as My messenger whom I send?
Who is blind as he who is perfect,
And blind as the Lord’s servant?
20 Seeing many things, (C)but you do not observe;
Opening the ears, but he does not hear.”
Israel’s Obstinate Disobedience
21 The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake;
He will exalt the law and make it honorable.
Preeminence of Christ
9 (A)For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask (B)that you may be filled with (C)the knowledge of His will (D)in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 (E)that you may walk worthy of the Lord, (F)fully pleasing Him, (G)being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the (H)knowledge of God; 11 (I)strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, (J)for all patience and longsuffering (K)with joy; 12 (L)giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of (M)the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from (N)the power of darkness (O)and [a]conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 (P)in whom we have redemption [b]through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.