Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Praise to God for His Salvation and Providence
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A Song.
65 Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion;
And to You the [a]vow shall be performed.
2 O You who hear prayer,
(A)To You all flesh will come.
3 Iniquities prevail against me;
As for our transgressions,
You will (B)provide atonement for them.
4 (C)Blessed is the man You (D)choose,
And cause to approach You,
That he may dwell in Your courts.
(E)We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Of Your holy temple.
5 By awesome deeds in righteousness You will answer us,
O God of our salvation,
You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth,
And of the far-off seas;
6 Who established the mountains by His strength,
(F)Being clothed with power;
7 (G)You who still the noise of the seas,
The noise of their waves,
(H)And the tumult of the peoples.
8 They also who dwell in the farthest parts are afraid of Your signs;
You make the outgoings of the morning and evening [b]rejoice.
9 You [c]visit the earth and (I)water it,
You greatly enrich it;
(J)The river of God is full of water;
You provide their grain,
For so You have prepared it.
10 You water its ridges abundantly,
You settle its furrows;
You make it soft with showers,
You bless its growth.
11 You crown the year with Your goodness,
And Your paths drip with abundance.
12 They drop on the pastures of the wilderness,
And the little hills rejoice on every side.
13 The pastures are clothed with flocks;
(K)The valleys also are covered with grain;
They shout for joy, they also sing.
The First Plague: Waters Become Blood
14 So the Lord said to Moses: (A)“Pharaoh’s heart is hard; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning, when he goes out to the (B)water, and you shall stand by the river’s bank to meet him; and (C)the rod which was turned to a serpent you shall take in your hand. 16 And you shall say to him, (D)‘The Lord God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, “Let My people go, (E)that they may [a]serve Me in the wilderness”; but indeed, until now you would not hear! 17 Thus says the Lord: “By this (F)you shall know that I am the Lord. Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and (G)they shall be turned (H)to blood. 18 And the fish that are in the river shall die, the river shall stink, and the Egyptians will (I)loathe[b] to drink the water of the river.” ’ ”
19 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and (J)stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their streams, over their rivers, over their ponds, and over all their pools of water, that they may become blood. And there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in buckets of wood and pitchers of stone.’ ” 20 And Moses and Aaron did so, just as the Lord commanded. So he (K)lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the (L)waters that were in the river were turned to blood. 21 The fish that were in the river died, the river stank, and the Egyptians (M)could not drink the water of the river. So there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
22 (N)Then the magicians of Egypt did (O)so with their [c]enchantments; and Pharaoh’s heart grew hard, and he did not heed them, (P)as the Lord had said. 23 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house. Neither was his heart moved by this. 24 So all the Egyptians dug all around the river for water to drink, because they could not drink the water of the river.
In the Tempest
13 When the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their desire, putting out to sea, they sailed close by Crete. 14 But not long after, a tempestuous head wind arose, called [a]Euroclydon. 15 So when the ship was caught, and could not head into the wind, we let her [b]drive. 16 And running under the shelter of an island called [c]Clauda, we secured the skiff with difficulty. 17 When they had taken it on board, they used cables to undergird the ship; and fearing lest they should run aground on the [d]Syrtis Sands, they struck sail and so were driven. 18 And because we were exceedingly tempest-tossed, the next day they lightened the ship. 19 On the third day (A)we threw the ship’s tackle overboard with our own hands. 20 Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up.
21 But after long abstinence from food, then Paul stood in the midst of them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me, and not have sailed from Crete and incurred this disaster and loss. 22 And now I urge you to take [e]heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23 (B)For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and (C)whom I serve, 24 saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ 25 Therefore take heart, men, (D)for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me. 26 However, (E)we must run aground on a certain island.”
27 Now when the fourteenth night had come, as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors sensed that they were drawing near some land. 28 And they took soundings and found it to be twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a little farther, they took soundings again and found it to be fifteen fathoms. 29 Then, fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern, and [f]prayed for day to come. 30 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, when they had let down the skiff into the sea, under pretense of putting out anchors from the prow, 31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off.
33 And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing. 34 Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, (F)since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you.” 35 And when he had said these things, he took bread and (G)gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broken it he began to eat. 36 Then they were all encouraged, and also took food themselves. 37 And in all we were two hundred and seventy-six (H)persons on the ship. 38 So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.