Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 88
For the Music Director. A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. To the melody of “Suffering of Affliction.” A Contemplative Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
1 O Lord, God of my salvation,
I cry out day and night before You.
2 Let my prayer come before You;
incline Your ear to my cry.
3 For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted with those who go down to the grave;
I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one who is set free among the dead,
like the slain who lie in the grave,
like those whom You remember no more,
for they are cut off from Your hand.
6 You have laid me in the depths of the pit,
in dark and deep regions.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah
8 You have caused my companions to be far from me;
You have made me an abomination to them;
I am shut up, and I cannot escape;
9 my eye is dim from my affliction.
Lord, I call daily upon You,
and I have stretched out my hands to You.
10 Will You show wonders to the dead?
Shall the dead rise up to praise You? Selah
11 Shall Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Shall Your wonders be known in the darkness
or Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But unto You have I cried, O Lord,
and in the morning my prayer comes before You.
14 O Lord, why do You cast away my soul?
Why do You hide Your face from me?
15 I am afflicted and close to death since my youth;
while I suffer Your terrors I am helpless.
16 Your fierce wrath sweeps over me;
Your terrors destroy me.
17 They come around me daily like a flood;
they encircle me together.
18 You have caused to be far from me my lovers and friends,
and my companion is darkness.
19 If a woman has a discharge, and the discharge from her body is blood, she shall be set apart for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.
20 Everything that she lies on in her menstrual impurity shall be unclean. Also, everything that she sits on shall be unclean. 21 Whoever touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. 22 Whoever touches anything on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. 23 Whether it is the bed or anything on which she sits, when he touches it he shall be unclean until the evening.
24 If any man lies with her, and her menstrual impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed where he lies shall be unclean.
25 If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, not at the time of her menstrual impurity, or if she has a discharge beyond the time of her impurity, all the days of the discharge she shall be in uncleanness, as in the days of her impurity. She shall be unclean. 26 Every bed that she lies on all the days of her discharge shall be for impurity, and whatever she sits on shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her menstrual impurity. 27 Whoever touches those things shall be unclean and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening.
28 But if she is cleansed of her discharge, then she shall count to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean. 29 On the eighth day she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 30 The priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and the priest shall make atonement for her before the Lord for her unclean discharge.
31 Thus you shall separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, so that they do not die in their uncleanness by defiling My tabernacle that is among them.
The Offering for the Saints
9 It is redundant for me to write to you concerning the ministry to the saints. 2 I know your willingness, for which I boast of you to those in Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. 3 Yet I have sent the brothers, lest our boasting of you might be in vain in this case, that, as I said, you may be ready; 4 and lest if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to mention you) should be ashamed of this confident boasting. 5 Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brothers to go ahead to you and arrange beforehand your bountiful gift you previously promised, that it might be prepared as a gift, not as a matter of greed.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.