Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Davidic[a]
A Prayer for Help and Forgiveness
25 I will lift up my soul to you, Lord.
2 I trust in you, my God,
do not let me be ashamed;
do not let my enemies triumph over me.
3 Indeed, no one who waits on you will be ashamed,
but those who offend for no reason will be put to shame.
4 Cause me to understand your ways, Lord;
teach me your paths.
5 Guide me in your truth and teach me;
for you are the God who delivers me.
All day long I have waited for you.
6 Remember, Lord, your tender mercies and your gracious love;
indeed, they are eternal!
7 Do not remember my youthful sins and transgressions;
but remember me in light of your gracious love,
in light of your goodness, Lord.
Daniel’s Prayer
9 “In the first year of the reign of Darius son of Ahasuerus, a descendant of the Medes, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans[a]— 2 in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, noted in the Scripture the total years that were assigned[b] by the message from the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem: 70 years.
3 “So I turned my attention to the Lord God, seeking him in prayer and supplication, accompanied with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. 4 I prayed to the Lord my God, confessing and saying:
‘Lord! Great and awesome God, who keeps his[c] covenant and gracious love for those who love him and obey his commandments, 5 we’ve sinned, we’ve practiced evil, we’ve acted wickedly, and we’ve rebelled, turning away from your commands and from your regulations. 6 Furthermore, we haven’t listened to your servants, the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, to our officials, to our ancestors, and to all of the people of the land.
7 ‘To you, Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us, open humiliation—even to this day, to the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, both those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the lands to which you drove them because of their unfaithful acts that they committed against you.
8 ‘Open humiliation belongs to us, Lord, to our kings, our officials, and our ancestors, because we’ve sinned against you. 9 But to the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we’ve rebelled against him 10 and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws that he gave us through his servants the prophets. 11 And all Israel flouted your Law, turning aside from it and not obeying your voice. Because we’ve sinned against him, the curse has been poured upon us, along with the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God.
12 ‘He has confirmed his accusation[d] that he spoke against us and against our rulers who governed us by bringing upon us great calamity, because nowhere in the universe[e] has anything been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. 13 As it’s written in the Law of Moses,[f] all this calamity has befallen us, but we still haven’t sought the Lord our God by turning from our lawlessness to pay attention to your truth. 14 So the Lord watched for the right time to bring the calamity upon us, because the Lord our God is righteous regarding everything he does, but we have not obeyed his voice.
3 What we have seen and heard we declare to you so that you, too, can have fellowship with us. Now this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus, the Messiah.[a] 4 We are writing these things[b] so that our[c] joy may be full.
Living in the Light
5 This is the message that we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness—none at all! 6 If we claim that we have fellowship with him but keep living in darkness, we are lying and not practicing the truth. 7 But if we keep living in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we do not have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves and we’re not being truthful to ourselves. 9 If we make it our habit to confess our sins, in his faithful righteousness he forgives us for those sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have never sinned, we make him a liar and his word has no place in us.
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