Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
BOOK FOUR(A)
Of God and Human Beings[a]
90 O Lord, you have always been our home.
2 Before you created the hills
or brought the world into being,
you were eternally God,
and will be God forever.
3 You tell us to return to what we were;
you change us back to dust.
4 (B)A thousand years to you are like one day;
they are like yesterday, already gone,
like a short hour in the night.
5 You carry us away like a flood;
we last no longer than a dream.
We are like weeds that sprout in the morning,
6 that grow and burst into bloom,
then dry up and die in the evening.
7 We are destroyed by your anger;
we are terrified by your fury.
8 You place our sins before you,
our secret sins where you can see them.
9 Our life is cut short by your anger;
it fades away like a whisper.
10 (C)Seventy years is all we have—
eighty years, if we are strong;
yet all they bring us is trouble and sorrow;
life is soon over, and we are gone.
11 Who has felt the full power of your anger?
Who knows what fear your fury can bring?
12 Teach us how short our life is,
so that we may become wise.
13 How much longer will your anger last?
Have pity, O Lord, on your servants!
14 Fill us each morning with your constant love,
so that we may sing and be glad all our life.
15 Give us now as much happiness as the sadness you gave us
during all our years of misery.
16 Let us, your servants, see your mighty deeds;
let our descendants see your glorious might.
17 Lord our God, may your blessings be with us.
Give us success in all we do!
David's Prayer of Thanksgiving(A)
18 Then King David went into the Tent of the Lord's presence, sat down and prayed, “Sovereign Lord, I am not worthy of what you have already done for me, nor is my family. 19 Yet now you are doing even more, Sovereign Lord; you have made promises about my descendants in the years to come. And you let a man see this,[a] Sovereign Lord! 20 What more can I say to you! You know me, your servant. 21 It was your will and purpose to do this; you have done all these great things in order to instruct me. 22 How great you are, Sovereign Lord! There is none like you; we have always known that you alone are God. 23 (B)There is no other nation on earth like Israel, whom you rescued from slavery to make them your own people. The great and wonderful things you did for them[b] have spread your fame throughout the world. You drove out[c] other nations and their gods as your people advanced, the people whom you set free from Egypt to be your own. 24 You have made Israel your own people forever, and you, Lord, have become their God.
25 “And now, Lord God, fulfill for all time the promise you made about me and my descendants, and do what you said you would. 26 Your fame will be great, and people will forever say, ‘The Lord Almighty is God over Israel.’ And you will preserve my dynasty for all time. 27 Lord Almighty, God of Israel! I have the courage to pray this prayer to you, because you have revealed all this to me, your servant, and have told me that you will make my descendants kings.
28 “And now, Sovereign Lord, you are God; you always keep your promises, and you have made this wonderful promise to me. 29 I ask you to bless my descendants so that they will continue to enjoy your favor. You, Sovereign Lord, have promised this, and your blessing will rest on my descendants forever.”
12 (A)“Listen!” says Jesus. “I am coming soon! I will bring my rewards with me, to give to each one according to what he has done. 13 (B)I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
14 (C)Happy are those who wash their robes clean and so have the right to eat the fruit from the tree of life and to go through the gates into the city. 15 But outside the city are the perverts and those who practice magic, the immoral and the murderers, those who worship idols and those who are liars both in words and deeds.
16 (D)“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to announce these things to you in the churches. I am descended from the family of David; I am the bright morning star.”
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.