Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
David wrote this song for the music leader.
God will keep us safe[a]
64 God, please listen to me
as I tell you about my troubles.
Keep me safe from my enemies
when they attack me.
2 When evil men think of ways to hurt me,
hide me in a safe place.
Those people work together as a group
to do wicked things.
3 Their tongues are like
sharp swords that hurt people.
Their cruel words are like
arrows that they shoot at people.
4 They hide in secret places,
and they quickly shoot lies at good people.
They are not afraid that anyone will punish them.
5 They help each other to do evil things.
They decide where they will hide their traps,
and they say, ‘Nobody will see them!’
6 They think of wicked ideas to hurt people.
They say, ‘That is a great idea!’[b]
Nobody really understands what people think
deep inside themselves.
7 But God will punish them!
He will suddenly shoot an arrow at them
and it will hurt them a lot.[c]
8 Their own evil words will turn against them
and make them fall.
Everyone who sees them will shake their heads.
9 People will be afraid.
They will say, ‘Look at what God has done!’
They will think carefully about it all.
10 But people who serve the Lord should be happy
because of what he has done.
They should trust him to keep them safe.
Good, honest people should praise God,
because he is great!
A funeral song for Egypt and its king
32 The Lord gave this message to me on the first day of the 12th month, in the 12th year: 2 ‘Son of man, sing a funeral song about Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Say this to him:
“You have shown your power among the nations,
like a strong lion.
But really you are a monster who lives in the sea.
You live in the rivers of your country.
You beat the water with your feet.
The water of your streams becomes dirty.
3 This is what the Almighty Lord says:
I will bring a big crowd of people together
to catch you in my net.
They will use my net to pull you out of the water.
4 I will throw you onto dry ground
and I will leave you there.
I will bring the birds to fly down from the sky
and sit on you.
I will bring the wild animals to feed themselves on you,
and eat as much as they want.
5 I will put the meat of your body on the mountains.
Your bones will fill the valleys.
6 I will make the ground wet with your blood.
It will pour out of you, up to the mountains.
And it will fill the deep valleys.
7 When I completely destroy you,
I will cover the sky and make the stars become dark.
I will cover the sun with a cloud.
The moon will no longer give any light.
8 I will make the sky over you become dark,
with no lights in it.
Your whole country will become dark.
That is what the Almighty Lord says.
9 When many other nations know that I have destroyed you,
they will be afraid.
Foreign nations that you do not know will be very upset.
10 The people of many countries will be afraid
when they see what I have done to you.
Their kings will shake with fear.
When I wave my sword in front of them,
they will not stop shaking!
At the time that your life finishes,
they will also fear death.
Jesus makes a boy well
37 The next day Jesus came down from the mountain with the three disciples. A large crowd met him. 38 A man from the crowd shouted to him. ‘Teacher, please, I ask you to help my son. He is my only child. 39 Sometimes a bad spirit takes hold of him and then he screams. The spirit throws his body first one way then another and water comes out of his mouth. The spirit gives him a lot of pain and it does not leave him alone very much. 40 I asked your disciples to send the bad spirit out of him. But they could not do it.’
41 Jesus said, ‘You people today still do not believe in God. You have turned away from him. I have been with you for a long time and still you do not believe. It is difficult for me to be patient with you.’ Then Jesus said to the man, ‘Bring your son here.’
42 While the boy was coming, the bad spirit threw him to the ground. It threw the boy first one way and then the other. ‘Stop!’ Jesus said to it. He then made the boy well and he gave him back to his father.
43 Everybody was very surprised at what they saw. They knew that God was very powerful.
Jesus speaks again about his death
The people were still thinking with surprise about everything that Jesus was doing. Then he began to talk to his disciples.
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