Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 72
The Rule of the Righteous King
Heading
By Solomon.
The King’s Justice
1 God, give your authority to judge to the King.
Give your righteousness to the Son of the King.
2 He will judge your people with righteousness.
He will judge your afflicted ones with justice.
3 The mountains will deliver peace to the people.
The hills will produce righteousness.
4 He will obtain justice for the afflicted among the people.
He will save the children of the poor,
but he will crush the oppressor.
The King’s Eternal Reign
5 They will fear you[a] as long as the sun remains,
and as long as the moon endures, through all generations.
6 He will come down like rain on a mown field,
like showers, like a downpour on the earth.
7 In his days the righteous will flourish,
and peace will be plentiful till the moon is no more.
Closing Doxology
18 Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel,
who alone does marvelous deeds.
19 Blessed be his glorious name forever.
May the whole earth be filled with his glory.
Amen and Amen.
19 So people will live in Zion. In Jerusalem you will weep no more. The Lord will be very gracious to you when he hears your cry. When he hears you, he will answer you. 20 Though the Lord has given you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, he is your teacher.[a] He will not be hidden any longer. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. 21 Whenever you are tempted to turn to the right or to the left, you will hear his voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.” 22 You will defile your idols that are plated with silver and your images overlaid with gold. You will throw them away like a filthy cloth,[b] saying, “Get away from me!”
23 Then he will give you rain so that you can sow seed in the ground. The bread from your land’s harvest will be excellent and plentiful. On that day your livestock will graze in wide pastures. 24 The oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat the best feed[c]—winnowed with a shovel and a winnowing fork. 25 On every lofty mountain and on every high hill there will be streams flowing with water.
It will be a day of terrible slaughter, when towers fall. 26 The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day when the Lord will bind up the wounds of his people and heal the injuries he inflicted.
16 Then Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and said, “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. 17 The God of the people of Israel chose our fathers and made them a great people during their stay in the land of Egypt, and with his uplifted arm, he led them out of it. 18 He put up with them[a] for about forty years in the wilderness. 19 Then he destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, and he gave their land to his people as an inheritance. 20 All this took about 450 years. After that, he gave them judges[b] until the time of Samuel the prophet.
21 “Then the people asked for a king, and God gave them Saul, son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. 22 After removing him, he raised up David as their king. God testified about him: ‘I have found David the son of Jesse to be a man after my own heart. He will do all that I want him to do.’[c]
23 “From this man’s descendants[d] God brought the Savior Jesus to Israel, in keeping with his promise. 24 Before he appeared publicly, John had preached a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. 25 As John was finishing his course, he said, ‘Who do you suppose I am? I am not that One. But look! That One is coming after me, and I am not worthy to untie the sandals on his feet.’[e]
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.