Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 115
Not to Us
To God Alone Be Glory
1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to your name give glory,
because of your mercy,
because of your truth.
No Glory in Idols
2 Why should the nations say,
“So where is their God now?”
3 In fact, our God is in the heavens.
He does everything that pleases him.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
5 They have a mouth, but they do not speak.
They have eyes, but they do not see.
6 They have ears, but they do not hear.
They have a nose, but they do not smell.
7 Their hands—they do not even feel.
Their feet—they do not even walk around.
They do not even make a sound with their throats.
8 Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them.
Trust in the Lord
9 Israel, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and their shield.
10 House of Aaron, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord—
he is their help and their shield.
12 The Lord remembers us. He will bless.
He will bless the house of Israel.
He will bless the house of Aaron.
13 He will bless those who fear the Lord—
the small with the great.
14 May the Lord add blessings to you,
to you and to your children.
15 May you be blessed by the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
Serve the Lord
5 At the time of the evening sacrifice, I arose from my self-humiliation, and with my clothing and my robe torn, I got down on my knees and stretched out my hands to the Lord my God.
Ezra’s Prayer
6 I said:
My God, I am ashamed and too embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, because our sinful deeds[a] have risen above our heads, and our guilt is so great that it reaches to the heavens. 7 From the days of our ancestors until today, we have been extremely guilty. Because of our sinful deeds, we, our kings, and our priests have been turned over to the kings of the lands—by sword, by captivity, by plunder, and today by humiliation.
8 Now, for a short time, mercy has been shown to us from the Lord our God, in order to leave us a remnant that has escaped and to give us a stake in his Holy Place, so that our God may give light to our eyes and give us a little relief in our slavery, 9 because we are slaves. However, even in our slavery our God has not abandoned us but has extended favor to us before the kings of Persia in order to give us relief, to raise up the house of our God and to restore its ruins, and to give us a protective wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
10 Now, what can we say after this, our God? For we have forsaken your commandments, 11 which you commanded through your servants the prophets when you said, “The land which you are entering to possess is a land polluted with the filth of the peoples of the lands and with their detestable practices that fill it from end to end with their impurity. 12 So now, do not give your daughters to their sons, and do not take their daughters as wives for your sons. Never seek their welfare or their prosperity, so that you may be strong and may eat the good things of the land and leave it as an inheritance for your children forever.”
13 After everything that has come upon us because of our evil acts and our extreme guilt, nevertheless you, our God, have punished us less than we deserved and have given us a remnant that has escaped like this. 14 Should we break your commandments again by intermarrying with the peoples who commit these detestable practices? Wouldn’t you remain angry with us until you completely destroyed us and left us without a survivor or a remnant that has escaped?
15 Lord, God of Israel, it is because you are righteous that we are left with a remnant today. Here we are before you in our guilt, but no one can stand before you because of this.
16 “In a little while you are not going to see me anymore, and again in a little while you will see me, because I am going away to the Father.”[a]
17 Therefore some of his disciples asked one another, “What does he mean when he tells us, ‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going away to the Father’?” 18 So they kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he’s saying.”
19 Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you trying to determine with one another what I meant by saying, ‘In a little while you are not going to see me, and again in a little while you will see me’? 20 Amen, Amen, I tell you: You will weep and wail, but the world will rejoice. You will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy. 21 A woman giving birth has pain, because her time has come. But when she has delivered the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, because of her joy that a person has been born into the world.
22 “So you also have sorrow now. But I will see you again. Your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. 23 In that day you will not ask me anything. Amen, Amen, I tell you: Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be made complete.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.