Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A psalm of David.
144 Give praise to the Lord, my Rock.
He trains my hands for war.
He trains my fingers for battle.
2 He is my loving God and is like a fort to me.
He is my place of safety and the God who saves me.
He is like a shield that keeps me safe.
He brings nations under my control.
3 Lord, what are human beings that you take care of them?
What are mere people that you think about them?
4 Their lives don’t last any longer than a breath.
Their days are like a shadow that quickly disappears.
5 Lord, open up your heavens and come down.
Touch the mountains, and they will pour out smoke.
6 Send flashes of lightning and scatter my enemies.
Shoot your arrows and chase them away.
7 My enemies are like a mighty flood.
Reach down from heaven and save me.
Save me from outsiders who attack me.
8 They tell all kinds of lies with their mouths.
Even when they make a promise by raising their right hands, they don’t mean it.
9 My God, I will sing a new song to you.
I will make music to you on a lyre that has ten strings.
10 You are the God who helps kings win battles.
You save your servant David.
From death by the sword 11 save me.
Set me free from outsiders who attack me.
They tell all kinds of lies with their mouths.
Even when they make a promise by raising their right hands, they don’t mean it.
12 While our sons are young,
they will be like healthy plants.
Our daughters will be like pillars
that have been made to decorate a palace.
13 Our storerooms will be filled
with every kind of food.
The sheep in our fields will increase by thousands.
They will increase by tens of thousands.
14 Our oxen will pull heavy loads.
None of our city walls will be broken down.
No one will be carried off as a prisoner.
No cries of pain will be heard in our streets.
15 Blessed is the nation about whom all these things are true.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.
Israel Will Be Saved
27 At that time
the Lord will punish Leviathan with his sword.
His great, powerful and deadly sword will punish
the serpent that glides through the sea.
He will kill that twisting sea monster.
2 At that time the Lord will sing about his fruitful vineyard. He will say,
3 “I am the Lord. I watch over my vineyard.
I water it all the time.
I guard it day and night.
I do it so no one can harm it.
4 I am not angry with my vineyard.
I wish thorns and bushes would come up in it.
Then I would march out against them in battle.
I would set all of them on fire.
5 So the enemies of my people should come to me for safety.
They should make peace with me.
I will say it again.
They should make peace with me.”
6 In days to come, Jacob’s people will put down roots like a vine.
Israel will bud and bloom.
They will fill the whole world with fruit.
17 When anyone lives in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone! The new is here! 18 All this is from God. He brought us back to himself through Christ’s death on the cross. And he has given us the task of bringing others back to him through Christ. 19 God was bringing the world back to himself through Christ. He did not hold people’s sins against them. God has trusted us with the message that people may be brought back to him. 20 So we are Christ’s official messengers. It is as if God were making his appeal through us. Here is what Christ wants us to beg you to do. Come back to God! 21 Christ didn’t have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us.
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