Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 65[a]
Thanksgiving for God’s Blessings
1 For the leader. A psalm of David. A song.
I
2 To you we owe our hymn of praise,
O God on Zion;
To you our vows[b] must be fulfilled,
3 [c]you who hear our prayers.
To you all flesh must come(A)
4 with its burden of wicked deeds.
We are overcome by our sins;
only you can pardon them.(B)
5 Blessed the one whom you will choose and bring
to dwell in your courts.
May we be filled with the good things of your house,
your holy temple!
II
6 You answer us with awesome deeds[d] of justice,
O God our savior,
The hope of all the ends of the earth
and of those far off across the sea.(C)
7 You are robed in power,
you set up the mountains by your might.
8 You still the roaring of the seas,(D)
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples.(E)
9 Distant peoples stand in awe of your marvels;
the places of morning and evening you make resound with joy.
10 [e]You visit the earth and water it,
make it abundantly fertile.(F)
God’s stream[f] is filled with water;
you supply their grain.
Thus do you prepare it:
11 you drench its plowed furrows,
and level its ridges.
With showers you keep it soft,
blessing its young sprouts.
12 You adorn the year with your bounty;
your paths[g] drip with fruitful rain.
13 The meadows of the wilderness also drip;
the hills are robed with joy.
14 The pastures are clothed with flocks,
the valleys blanketed with grain;
they cheer and sing for joy.(G)
Seventh Plague: The Hail. 13 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: Early tomorrow morning present yourself to Pharaoh and say to him: Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go to serve me, 14 for this time I will unleash all my blows upon you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is none like me anywhere on earth. 15 For by now I should have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with such pestilence that you would have vanished from the earth. 16 But this is why I have let you survive: to show you[a] my power and to make my name resound throughout the earth!(A) 17 Will you continue to exalt yourself over my people and not let them go? 18 At this time tomorrow, therefore, I am going to rain down such fierce hail as there has never been in Egypt from the day it was founded up to the present. 19 Therefore, order your livestock and whatever else you have in the open fields to be brought to a place of safety. Whatever human being or animal is found in the fields and is not brought to shelter will die when the hail comes down upon them. 20 Those of Pharaoh’s servants who feared the word of the Lord hurried their servants and their livestock off to shelter. 21 But those who did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left their servants and their livestock in the fields.
22 The Lord then said to Moses: Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that hail may fall upon the entire land of Egypt, on human being and beast alike and all the vegetation of the fields in the land of Egypt. 23 So Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the Lord sent forth peals of thunder and hail.(B) Lightning flashed toward the earth, and the Lord rained down hail upon the land of Egypt. 24 There was hail and lightning flashing here and there through the hail, and the hail was so fierce that nothing like it had been seen in Egypt since it became a nation. 25 Throughout the land of Egypt the hail struck down everything in the fields, human being and beast alike; it struck down all the vegetation of the fields and splintered every tree in the fields. 26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, was there no hail.
27 Then Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time! The Lord is the just one, and I and my people are the ones at fault. 28 Pray to the Lord! Enough of the thunder[b] and hail! I will let you go; you need stay no longer.” 29 Moses replied to him, “As soon as I leave the city I will extend my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail so that you may know that the earth belongs to the Lord. 30 But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.”
31 Now the flax and the barley were ruined, because the barley was in ear and the flax in bud. 32 But the wheat and the spelt were not ruined, for they grow later.
33 When Moses had left Pharaoh and gone out of the city, he extended his hands to the Lord. The thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured down upon the earth. 34 But Pharaoh, seeing that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, sinned again and became obstinate, both he and his servants. 35 In the hardness of his heart, Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had said through Moses.
39 When day came they did not recognize the land, but made out a bay with a beach. They planned to run the ship ashore on it, if they could. 40 So they cast off the anchors and abandoned them to the sea, and at the same time they unfastened the lines of the rudders, and hoisting the foresail into the wind, they made for the beach. 41 But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow was wedged in and could not be moved, but the stern began to break up under the pounding [of the waves]. 42 The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners so that none might swim away and escape, 43 but the centurion wanted to save Paul and so kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to the shore, 44 and then the rest, some on planks, others on debris from the ship. In this way, all reached shore safely.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.