Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
To the director: A song of David.
21 Lord, your strength makes the king happy.
He is so happy when you give him victory.
2 And you gave him what he wanted.
You gave him what he asked for. Selah
3 You gave the king such wonderful blessings.
You put a golden crown on his head.
4 He asked for life, and you gave it.
You gave him life that goes on forever.
5 You led him to victory that brought him great glory.
You gave him honor and fame.
6 You have given him blessings that will last forever.
You have given him the joy of being near you.
7 The king trusts in the Lord,
and the faithful love of God Most High will keep him from falling.
8 Lord, you will show all your enemies that you are strong.
Your power will defeat those who hate you.
9 When you appear,
you will burn them up like a blazing furnace.
In your anger, Lord, you will completely destroy them;
they will be swallowed by flames of fire.[a]
10 Their families will be destroyed.
They will be removed from the earth.
11 That is because they made evil plans against you.
They wanted to do things they could not do.
12 You will make them turn and run away
when you aim your arrows at their faces.
13 Lord, we lift you up with our songs of praise.
We sing and play songs about your power!
14 People of Israel, descendants of Jacob, you may be weak and worthless,[a]
but do not be afraid.
I myself will help you.”
This is what the Lord himself says.
“I am the Holy One of Israel,
the one who saves you.
15 Look, I have made you like a new threshing board with many sharp teeth.
You will trample mountains and crush them.
You will make the hills[b] like chaff.
16 You will throw them into the air,
and the wind will blow them away and scatter them.
Then you will be happy in the Lord.
You will be proud of the Holy One of Israel.
17 “The poor and needy look for water,
but they cannot find any.
Their tongues are dry with thirst.
I, the Lord, will answer their prayers.
I, the God of Israel, will not leave them to die.
18 I will make rivers flow on dry hills.
I will make springs of water flow through the valleys.
I will change the desert into a lake filled with water.
There will be springs of water in that dry land.
19 I will make trees grow in the desert.
There will be cedar, acacias, olive trees, cypress, fir trees, and pines.
20 I will do this so that people will see it and know who did it.
They will notice what happened.
Then they will understand that the Lord’s hand made it happen,
that the Holy One of Israel created it all.”
Paul Talks About His Work
14 My brothers and sisters, I know without a doubt that you are full of goodness and have all the knowledge you need. So you are certainly able to counsel each other. 15 But I have written to you very openly about some things that I wanted you to remember. I did this because God gave me this special gift: 16 to be a servant of Christ Jesus for those who are not Jews. I serve like a priest whose duty it is to tell God’s Good News. He gave me this work so that you non-Jewish people could be an offering that he will accept—an offering made holy by the Holy Spirit.
17 That is why I feel so good about what I have done for God in my service to Christ Jesus. 18 I will not talk about anything I did myself. I will talk only about what Christ has done with me in leading the non-Jewish people to obey God. They have obeyed him because of what I have said and done. 19 And they obeyed him because of the power of the miraculous signs and wonders that happened—all because of the power of God’s Spirit. I have told people the Good News about Christ in every place from Jerusalem to Illyricum. And so I have finished that part of my work. 20 I always want to tell the Good News in places where people have never heard of Christ. I do this because I don’t want to build on the work that someone else has already started. 21 But as the Scriptures say,
“Those who were not told about him will see,
and those who have not heard about him will understand.” (A)
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International