Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Prayer of David.

¹ ¶ Hear righteousness, O LORD, attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that does not go out of feigned lips.

² Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold uprightness.

³ Thou hast proved my heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast refined me and hast found no iniquity; that which I thought did not pass through my mouth.

⁴ Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have observed the ways of the violent.

⁵ Sustain my steps in thy ways that my footsteps not slip.

⁶ I have called upon thee, because thou dost hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me and hear my speech.

⁷ Show thy mercy to be marvellous, O Saviour of those who put their trust in thee, from those that rise up against thy right hand.

⁸ ¶ Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me with the shadow of thy wings,

⁹ from the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

¹⁰ They are closed in with their own fat; with their mouth they speak proudly.

¹¹ They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes upon throwing us down to the earth

¹² like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

¹³ Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, with thy sword;

¹⁴ from men, with thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, who have their portion in this life and whose belly thou dost fill with thy provision: they satisfy their sons and leave the rest to their family.

¹⁵ As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.

²⁷ And when the mourning was past, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and gave birth to a son unto him. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.

12 ¶ And the LORD sent Nathan unto David. And he came unto him and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich and the other poor.

² The rich man had exceeding many sheep and cows,

³ but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him and with his children; it ate of his own food and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter.

⁴ And a traveller came unto the rich man, who did not wish to take of his own sheep and of his own cows to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him, but took the poor man’s lamb and dressed it for the man that had come to him.

⁵ And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the LORD lives, the man that has done this thing is worthy of death,

⁶ and he shall pay for the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus hath said the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul,

⁸ and I gave thee thy master’s house and thy master’s wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah, and if that is too little, I shall add unto thee such and such things.

⁹ Why, therefore, hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah, the Hittite, with the sword and hast taken his wife to be thy wife and hast slain him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.

¹⁰ Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from thy house because thou hast despised me and hast taken the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, to be thy wife.

¹¹ Thus hath the LORD said, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thy own house, and I will take thy wives before thy eyes and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.

¹² For thou hast done it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.

¹³ Then David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also has taken away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

¹⁴ However, because by this deed, thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme; the son that is born unto thee shall surely die.

¹⁵ ¶ And Nathan departed unto his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had given birth unto David, and it was very sick.

⁷ ¶ And to the angel of the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} in Philadelphia write; These things, saith he that is Holy and True, he who has the key of David, who opens and no one shuts and shuts, and no one opens;

⁸ I know thy works; behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no one can shut it, for thou hast a little strength and hast kept my word and hast not denied my name.

⁹ Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but do lie; behold, I will constrain them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that I have loved thee.

¹⁰ Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the entire world, to try those that dwell upon the earth.

¹¹ Behold, I come quickly; hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown.

¹² He that overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God which is the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from and with my God, and I will write upon him my new name.

¹³ He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the congregations. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}