Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 65[a]
For the music director, a psalm of David, a song.
65 Praise awaits you,[b] O God, in Zion.
Vows made to you are fulfilled.
2 You hear prayers;[c]
all people approach you.[d]
3 Our record of sins overwhelms me,[e]
but you forgive[f] our acts of rebellion.
4 How blessed[g] is the one whom you choose,
and allow to live in your palace courts.[h]
May we be satisfied with the good things of your house—
your holy palace.[i]
5 You answer our prayers by performing awesome acts of deliverance,
O God, our savior.[j]
All the ends of the earth trust in you,[k]
as well as those living across the wide seas.[l]
6 You created the mountains by your power,[m]
and demonstrated your strength.[n]
7 You calmed the raging seas[o]
and their roaring waves,
as well as the commotion made by the nations.[p]
8 Even those living in the remotest areas are awestruck by your acts;[q]
you cause those living in the east and west to praise you.[r]
9 You visit the earth and give it rain;[a]
you make it rich and fertile.[b]
God’s streams are full of water;[c]
you provide grain for the people of the earth,[d]
for you have prepared the earth in this way.[e]
10 You saturate[f] its furrows,
and soak[g] its plowed ground.[h]
With rain showers you soften its soil,[i]
and make its crops grow.[j]
11 You crown the year with your good blessings,[k]
and you leave abundance in your wake.[l]
12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture,[m]
and the hills are clothed with joy.[n]
13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,
and the valleys are covered with grain.
They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.
6 You have heard; now look at all the evidence![a]
Will you not admit that what I say is true?[b]
From this point on I am announcing to you new events
that are previously unrevealed and you do not know about.[c]
7 Now they come into being,[d] not in the past;
before today you did not hear about them,
so you could not say,
‘Yes,[e] I know about them.’
8 You did not hear,
you do not know,
you were not told beforehand.[f]
For I know that you are very deceitful;[g]
you were labeled[h] a rebel from birth.
9 For the sake of my reputation[i] I hold back my anger;
for the sake of my prestige[j] I restrain myself from destroying you.[k]
10 Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have purified you[l] in the furnace of misery.
11 For my sake alone[m] I will act,
for how can I allow my name to be defiled?[n]
I will not share my glory with anyone else![o]
Paul’s Motivation for Writing the Letter
14 But I myself am fully convinced about you, my brothers and sisters,[a] that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. 15 But I have written more boldly to you on some points so as to remind you, because of the grace given to me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. I serve[b] the gospel of God[c] like a priest, so that the Gentiles may become an acceptable offering,[d] sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
17 So I boast[e] in Christ Jesus about the things that pertain to God. 18 For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in order to bring about the obedience[f] of the Gentiles, by word and deed, 19 in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem even as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. 20 And in this way I desire to preach where Christ has not been named, so as not to build on another person’s foundation, 21 but as it is written: “Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.”[g]
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