Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 51[a]
For the music director, a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba.[b]
51 Have mercy on me, O God, because of[c] your loyal love.
Because of[d] your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts.[e]
2 Wash away my wrongdoing.[f]
Cleanse me of my sin.[g]
3 For I am aware of[h] my rebellious acts;
I am forever conscious of my sin.[i]
4 Against you—you above all[j]—I have sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
So[k] you are just when you confront me;[l]
you are right when you condemn me.[m]
5 Look, I was guilty of sin from birth,
a sinner the moment my mother conceived me.[n]
6 Look,[o] you desire[p] integrity in the inner man;[q]
you want me to possess wisdom.[r]
7 Cleanse me[s] with hyssop[t] and I will be pure;[u]
wash me[v] and I will be whiter than snow.[w]
8 Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven.[x]
May the bones[y] you crushed rejoice.[z]
9 Hide your face[aa] from my sins.
Wipe away[ab] all my guilt.
10 Create for me a pure heart, O God.[ac]
Renew a resolute spirit within me.[ad]
11 Do not reject me.[ae]
Do not take your holy Spirit[af] away from me.[ag]
12 Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance.
Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey.[ah]
13 Then I will teach[ai] rebels your merciful ways,[aj]
and sinners will turn[ak] to you.
14 Rescue me from the guilt of murder,[al] O God, the God who delivers me.
Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your righteousness.[am]
15 O Lord, give me the words.[an]
Then my mouth will praise you.[ao]
16 Certainly[ap] you do not want a sacrifice, or else I would offer it;[aq]
you do not desire a burnt sacrifice.[ar]
17 The sacrifice God desires is a humble spirit[as]—
O God, a humble and repentant heart[at] you will not reject.[au]
18 Because you favor Zion, do what is good for her.[av]
Fortify[aw] the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will accept[ax] the proper sacrifices, burnt sacrifices and whole offerings;
then bulls will be sacrificed[ay] on your altar.[az]
Jonah Responds to God’s Kindness
4 This displeased Jonah terribly[a] and he became very angry.[b] 2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “Oh, Lord, this is just what I thought[c] would happen[d] when I was in my own country.[e] This is what I tried to prevent[f] by attempting to escape to Tarshish,[g] because I knew[h] that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger[i] and abounding[j] in mercy, and one who relents concerning threatened judgment.[k] 3 So now, Lord, kill me instead,[l] because I would rather die than live!”[m] 4 The Lord said, “Are you really so very[n] angry?”[o]
5 Jonah left the city and sat down east[p] of it.[q] He made a shelter for himself there and sat down under it in the shade to see what would happen to the city.[r] 6 The Lord God appointed[s] a little plant[t] and caused it to grow up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to rescue[u] him from his misery.[v] Now Jonah was very delighted[w] about the little plant.
7 So God sent[x] a worm at dawn the next day, and it attacked the little plant so that it dried up. 8 When the sun began to shine, God sent[y] a hot[z] east wind. So the sun beat down[aa] on Jonah’s head, and he grew faint. So he despaired of life[ab] and said, “I would rather die than live!”[ac]
9 God said to Jonah, “Are you really so very angry[ad] about the little plant?” And he said, “I am as angry[ae] as I could possibly be!”[af] 10 The Lord said, “You were upset[ag] about this little[ah] plant, something for which you did not work, nor did you do anything to make it grow. It grew up overnight and died the next day.[ai] 11 Should I[aj] not be more[ak] concerned[al] about Nineveh, this enormous city?[am] There are more than 120,000 people in it who do not know right from wrong,[an] as well as many animals.”[ao]
Paul’s Desire to Visit Rome
8 First of all,[a] I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel[b] of his Son, is my witness that[c] I continually remember you 10 and I always ask[d] in my prayers, if perhaps now at last I may succeed in visiting you according to the will of God.[e] 11 For I long to see you, so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift[f] to strengthen you, 12 that is, that we may be mutually comforted by one another’s faith,[g] both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware,[h] brothers and sisters,[i] that I often intended to come to you (and was prevented until now), so that I may have some fruit even among you, just as I already have among the rest of the Gentiles.[j] 14 I am a debtor[k] both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 Thus I am eager[l] also to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome.
The Power of the Gospel
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.[m] 17 For the righteousness[n] of God is revealed in the gospel[o] from faith to faith,[p] just as it is written, “The righteous by faith will live.”[q]
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