Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 40
Thanksgiving and a Cry for Help
For the choir director. A Davidic psalm.
1 I waited patiently for the Lord,
and He turned to me and heard my cry for help.(A)
2 He brought me up from a desolate[a] pit,
out of the muddy clay,(B)
and set my feet on a rock,
making my steps secure.(C)
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.(D)
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the Lord.(E)
4 How happy is the man
who has put his trust in the Lord
and has not turned to the proud
or to those who run after lies!(F)
5 Lord my God, You have done many things—
Your wonderful works and Your plans for us;
none can compare with You.
If I were to report and speak of them,
they are more than can be told.(G)
6 You do not delight in sacrifice and offering;
You open my ears to listen.[b]
You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering.(H)
7 Then I said, “See, I have come;
it is written about me in the volume of the scroll.(I)
8 I delight to do Your will, my God;(J)
Your instruction lives within me.”[c](K)
9 I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
see, I do not keep my mouth closed[d]—
as You know, Lord.(L)
10 I did not hide Your righteousness in my heart;
I spoke about Your faithfulness and salvation;
I did not conceal Your constant love and truth
from the great assembly.(M)
11 Lord, do not withhold Your compassion from me;
Your constant love and truth will always guard me.(N)
An Oracle against Shebna
15 The Lord God of Hosts said: “Go to Shebna,(A) that steward who is in charge of the palace, and say to him: 16 What are you doing here? Who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here, carving your tomb on the height and cutting a crypt for yourself out of rock?(B) 17 Look, you strong man! The Lord is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you, 18 wind you up into a ball, and sling you into a wide land.[a] There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will be—a disgrace to the house of your lord. 19 I will remove you from your office; you will be ousted from your position.
20 “On that day I will call for my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.(C) 21 I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority into his hand, and he will be like a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah.(D) 22 I will place the key(E) of the House of David on his shoulder; what he opens, no one can close; what he closes, no one can open.(F) 23 I will drive him, like a peg, into a firm place. He will be a throne of honor for his father’s house. 24 They will hang on him the whole burden of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots—all the small vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar. 25 On that day”—the declaration of the Lord of Hosts—“the peg that was driven into a firm place will give way, be cut off, and fall, and the load on it will be destroyed.” Indeed, the Lord has spoken.
No Other Gospel
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called(A) you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another gospel,(B) but there are some(C) who are troubling you and want to change the good news[a] about the Messiah. 8 But even if we or an angel(D) from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you,(E) a curse be on him![b] 9 As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received,(F) a curse be on him!
10 For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God?(G) Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.
Paul Defends His Apostleship
11 Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not based on human thought.[c] 12 For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation(H) from Jesus Christ.(I)
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