Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 51
For the Music Director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to Your lovingkindness;
according to the abundance of Your compassion,
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,
and done this evil in Your sight,
so that You are justified when You speak,
and You are blameless when You judge.
5 I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin my mother conceived me.
6 You desire truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part You make me to know wisdom.
7 Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones that You have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
and uphold me with Your willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
and sinners will return to You.
14 Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God,
God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare Your praise.
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and a contrite heart,
O God, You will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in Your good pleasure;
build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then You will be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
then they will offer young bulls on Your altar.
The Chosen Fast
58 Cry aloud, do not hold back;
lift up your voice like a trumpet,
and show My people their transgression
and the house of Jacob their sins.
2 Yet they seek Me daily
and delight to know My ways,
as a nation that has done righteousness
and has not forsaken the ordinance of their God.
They ask Me for the ordinances of justice;
they take delight in approaching God.
3 “Why have we fasted
and You do not see?
Why have we humbled ourselves
and You take no notice?”
Certainly, on the day of your fast you find your desire
and are exacting on all your laborers.
4 Certainly, you fast for strife and debate
and to strike with the fist of wickedness.
You do not fast as you do this day,
to make your voice to be heard on high.
5 Is it such a fast that I have chosen,
a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush,
and to spread out sackcloth and ashes under him?
Will you call this a fast
and an acceptable day to the Lord?
6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens,
and to let the oppressed go free,
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
and bring the poor who are outcasts into your house?
When you see the naked, to cover him
and not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light shall break forth as the morning,
and your healing shall spring forth quickly,
and your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your reward.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord shall answer;
you shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am.
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
10 and if you give yourself to the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted soul,
then your light shall rise in obscurity,
and your darkness shall become as the noonday.
11 And the Lord shall guide you continually,
and satisfy your soul in drought,
and strengthen your bones;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
12 Those from among you shall rebuild the old waste places;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
and you shall be called, the Repairer of the Breach,
the Restorer of Paths in which to Dwell.
The Greatest in the Kingdom(A)
18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
2 Jesus called a little child to Him and set him in their midst, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore whoever humbles himself like this little child is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives one such little child in My name receives Me.
Temptations to Sin(B)
6 “But whoever misleads one of these little ones who believe in Me, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung about his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of temptations! For it must be that temptations come, but woe to that man by whom the temptation comes!
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.