Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
56 Be merciful to me, O God; for man desires to swallow me up. He fights continually and troubles me.
2 My enemies would swallow me up daily; for many fight against me, O You Most High.
3 When I was afraid, I trusted in You.
4 I will rejoice in God because of His Word. I trust in God and will not fear what flesh can do to me.
5 My own words grieve me daily. All their thoughts are against me, to do me hurt.
6 They gather together and keep themselves close. They mark my steps because they wait for my soul.
7 They think they shall escape by iniquity. O God, cast these people down in Your anger.
8 You have counted my wanderings. Put my tears into Your bottle. Are they not in Your register?
9 When I cry, then my enemies shall turn back. This I know; for God is with me.
10 I will rejoice in God because of His Word. I will rejoice in the LORD because of His Word.
11 In God do I trust. I will not be afraid what man can do to me.
12 Your vows are upon me, O God. I will render praises to You.
13 For You have delivered my soul from death—and also my feet from falling—so that I may walk before God in the light of the living. To him who excels: Do not destroy. A Psalm of David, on Michtam, when he fled from Saul in the cave
5 Now was there one Naaman, captain of the army of the king of Aram, a great man, and honorable in the sight of his lord, because by him the LORD had delivered the Aramites. He also was a mighty man and valiant, but a leper.
2 And the Aramites had gone out by bands and had taken a little maid from the land of Israel. And she served Naaman’s wife.
3 And she said to her mistress, “I wish my lord were with the Prophet that is in Samaria. He would soon deliver him of his leprosy.”
4 And he went in and told his lord, saying, “(Thus and thus) says the maid who is from the land of Israel.”
5 And the king of Aram said, “Go your way there. And I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” And he departed and took ten talents of silver with him, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothing,
6 and brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read to this effect, “Now when this letter has come to you, understand that I have sent you Naaman, my servant, so that you may heal him of his leprosy.”
7 And when the king of Israel had read the letter, he tore his clothes, and said, “Am I God, to kill and to give life that he sends to me, so that I could heal a man from his leprosy? Therefore, please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.”
8 But when Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me now, and he shall know that there is a Prophet in Israel.”
9 Then Naaman came with his horses, and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash yourself in Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall come back to you, and you shall be cleansed.”
11 But Naaman was angry and went away, and said, “Behold, I thought to myself, ‘He will surely come out and stand and call on the Name of the LORD his God and put his hand on the place and heal the leprosy.’
12 “Are not Abanah and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash myself in them and be cleansed?” So, he turned and departed in displeasure.
13 But his servants came and spoke to him, and said, “Father, if the Prophet had commanded you a great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean?’”
14 Then he went down and washed himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God. And his flesh came back, like the flesh of a little child. And he was clean.
13 Therefore, let him who speaks a tongue, pray that he may interpret.
14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is without fruit.
15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit. but I will sing with the understanding also.
16 Or else, when you bless with the spirit, how shall the one who fills the place of the unlearned say, ‘Amen’, at your giving of thanks, seeing he does not know what you say?
17 For truly you give thanks well, but the other is not edified.
18 I thank my God I speak languages more than you all.
19 Yet I would rather speak five words in my own understanding while also instructing others in the Church, than speak ten thousand words in a tongue.
20 Brothers, do not be children in understanding, but concerning wickedness be children; in understanding be of a ripe age.
21 In the Law it is written, “‘By other tongues, and by other languages, will I speak to this people. Yet so shall they not hear me’, says the Lord.”
22 Therefore, tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to those who do not believe. And prophesying is not for unbelievers, but for believers.
23 If therefore, when the whole church comes together as one, and all speak tongues, and there come in those who are unlearned, or those who do not believe, will they not say that you are out of your wits?
24 But if all prophesy, and there comes in one who does not believe, or one unlearned, he is rebuked by all and is examined by all.
25 And so are the secrets of his heart made manifest. And so he will fall down on his face and worship God, and say plainly that God is in you indeed.
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