Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Song of God’s Majesty and Love
(A)A Praise of David.
145 I will [a]extol You, my God, O King;
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
3 (B)Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And (C)His greatness is [b]unsearchable.
4 (D)One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
5 [c]I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And [d]on Your wondrous works.
6 Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
7 They shall [e]utter the memory of Your great goodness,
And shall sing of Your righteousness.
8 (E)The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
3 The shields of his mighty men are made red,
The valiant men are in scarlet.
The chariots come with flaming torches
In the day of his preparation,
And [a]the spears are brandished.
4 The chariots rage in the streets,
They jostle one another in the broad roads;
They seem like torches,
They run like lightning.
5 He remembers his nobles;
They stumble in their walk;
They make haste to her walls,
And the defense is prepared.
6 The gates of the rivers are opened,
And the palace is dissolved.
7 [b]It is decreed:
She shall be led away captive,
She shall be brought up;
And her maidservants shall lead her as with the voice of doves,
Beating their breasts.
8 Though Nineveh of old was like a pool of water,
Now they flee away.
[c]“Halt! Halt!” they cry;
But no one turns back.
9 [d]Take spoil of silver!
Take spoil of (A)gold!
There is no end of treasure,
Or wealth of every desirable prize.
10 She is empty, desolate, and waste!
The heart melts, and the knees shake;
Much pain is in every side,
And all their faces [e]are drained of color.
11 Where is the dwelling of the (B)lions,
And the feeding place of the young lions,
Where the lion walked, the lioness and lion’s cub,
And no one made them afraid?
12 The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs,
[f]Killed for his lionesses,
(C)Filled his caves with prey,
And his dens with [g]flesh.
13 “Behold, (D)I am against you,” says the Lord of hosts, “I will burn [h]your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your (E)messengers shall be heard no more.”
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, (A)that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you [a]are (B)disqualified. 6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.
Paul Prefers Gentleness
7 Now [b]I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though (C)we may seem disqualified. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9 For we are glad (D)when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, (E)that you may be made complete. 10 (F)Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the (G)authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.