Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
To the Director: A Davidic Psalm. When the prophet Nathan came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
A Prayer for Cleansing and Pardon
51 Have mercy, God, according to your gracious love,
according to your unlimited compassion,
erase my transgressions.
2 Wash me from my iniquity,
cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgression;
my sin remains continuously before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned,
and done what was evil in your sight.
As a result, you are just in your pronouncement
and clear in your judgment.
5 Indeed, in iniquity I was brought forth;
in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Indeed, you are pleased with truth in the inner person,
and you will teach me wisdom in my[a] innermost parts.
7 Purge me with hyssop,
and I will be clean.
Wash me,
and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me know[b] joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your countenance from my sins
and erase the record of my iniquities.
10 God, create a pure heart in me,
and renew a right attitude within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence;
do not take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and let a willing attitude control me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors about your ways,
and sinners will turn to you.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of shedding blood,[c]
God, God of my salvation.
Then my tongue will sing about your righteousness.
15 Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 Indeed, you do not delight in sacrifices,
or I would give them,
nor do you desire burnt offerings.
17 True sacrifice to God[d] is a broken spirit.
A broken and chastened heart, God,
you will not despise.
18 Show favor to Zion in your good pleasure;
and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will be pleased with right sacrifices,
with burnt offerings, and with whole burnt offerings.
Then they will offer bulls on your altar.
Jonah’s Anger at God’s Kindness
4 Greatly displeased, Jonah flew into a rage. 2 So he prayed to the Lord, “Lord, isn’t this what I said while I was still in my home country? That’s why I fled previously to Tarshish, because I knew you’re a compassionate God, slow to anger, overflowing with gracious love, and reluctant[a] to send trouble. 3 Therefore, Lord, please kill me, because it’s better for me to die than to live!”
4 The Lord replied, “Does being angry make you right?”
Jonah’s Discouragement
5 Then Jonah left the city and sat down on the eastern side.[b] There he made a shelter for himself and sat down under its shade to see what would happen to the city. 6 The Lord God prepared a vine plant,[c] and it grew over Jonah to shade his head and provide relief from his misery. Jonah was happy—indeed, he was ecstatic—about the vine plant. 7 But at dawn the next day, God provided a worm that attacked the vine plant so that it withered away. 8 When the sun rose, God prepared a harsh east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah’s head, he became faint, and he begged to die. “It is better for me to die than to live!” he said.
9 Then God asked Jonah, “Is your anger about the vine plant justified?”
And he answered, “Absolutely! I’m so angry I could die!”
10 But the Lord asked, “You cared about a vine plant that you neither worked on nor cultivated? A vine plant that grew up overnight and died overnight? 11 So why shouldn’t I be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 human beings who do not know their right hand from their left,[d] as well as a lot of livestock?
Paul’s Prayer and Desire to Visit Rome
8 First of all, I thank my God through Jesus the Messiah[a] for all of you, because the news about your faith is being reported throughout the world. 9 For God, whom I serve with my spirit by preaching the gospel about his Son, is my witness how constantly I mention you 10 in my prayers at all times, asking that somehow by God’s will I may at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I am longing to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong, 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now), so that I might reap a harvest among you, just as I have among the rest of the gentiles. 14 Both to Greeks and to barbarians,[b] both to wise and to foolish people, I am a debtor. 15 That is why I am so eager to proclaim the gospel to you who live in Rome,[c] too.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel,[d] because it is God’s power for the salvation of everyone who believes, of the Jew first and of the Greek as well. 17 For in the gospel[e] God’s righteousness is being revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous will live by faith.”[f]
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