Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
118 Oh, thank the Lord, for he’s so good! His loving-kindness is forever.
2 Let the congregation of Israel praise him with these same words: “His loving-kindness is forever.”
19 Open the gates of the Temple[a]—I will go in and give him my thanks. 20 Those gates are the way into the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there. 21 O Lord, thank you so much for answering my prayer and saving me.
22 The stone rejected by the builders has now become the capstone of the arch![b] 23 This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous to see! 24 This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. 25 O Lord, please help us. Save us. Give us success. 26 Blessed is the one who is coming, the one sent by the Lord.[c] We bless you from the Temple.
27-28 Jehovah God is our light. I present to him my sacrifice upon the altar, for you are my God, and I shall give you this thanks and this praise. 29 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is so good! For his loving-kindness is forever.
10-11 The Lord declares that the happy voices of bridegrooms and of brides and the joyous song of those bringing thanksgiving offerings to the Lord will be heard again in this doomed land. The people will sing: “Praise the Lord! For he is good and his mercy endures forever!” For I will make this land happier and more prosperous than it has ever been before. 12 This land—though every man and animal and city is doomed—will once more see shepherds leading sheep and lambs. 13 Once again their flocks will prosper in the mountain villages and in the cities east of the Philistine Plain, in all the cities of the Negeb, in the land of Benjamin, in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and in all the cities of Judah. 14 Yes, the day will come, says the Lord, when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good I promised them.
15 At that time I will bring to the throne the true Son of David,[a] and he shall rule justly. 16 In that day the people of Judah and Jerusalem shall live in safety and their motto will be, “The Lord is our righteousness!”
32 Now they were on the way to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking along ahead; and as the disciples were following they were filled with terror and dread.
Taking them aside, Jesus once more began describing all that was going to happen to him when they arrived at Jerusalem.
33 “When we get there,” he told them, “I, the Messiah,[a] will be arrested and taken before the chief priests and the Jewish leaders, who will sentence me to die and hand me over to the Romans to be killed. 34 They will mock me and spit on me and flog me with their whips and kill me; but after three days I will come back to life again.”
46 And so they reached Jericho. Later, as they left town, a great crowd was following. Now it happened that a blind beggar named Bartimaeus (the son of Timaeus) was sitting beside the road as Jesus was going by.
47 When Bartimaeus heard that Jesus from Nazareth was near, he began to shout out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
48 “Shut up!” some of the people yelled at him.
But he only shouted the louder, again and again, “O Son of David, have mercy on me!”
49 When Jesus heard him, he stopped there in the road and said, “Tell him to come here.”
So they called the blind man. “You lucky fellow,”[a] they said, “come on, he’s calling you!” 50 Bartimaeus yanked off his old coat and flung it aside, jumped up and came to Jesus.
51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked.
“O Teacher,” the blind man said, “I want to see!”
52 And Jesus said to him, “All right, it’s done.[b] Your faith has healed you.”
And instantly the blind man could see and followed Jesus down the road!
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.