Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

¹ ¶ Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy mercy; according unto the multitude of thy compassion eradicate my rebellion.

² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I acknowledge my rebellion; and my sin is ever before me.

⁴ Against thee, against thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou be declared just in thy word and pure in thy judgment.

⁵ Behold, the pain of my iniquity has caused me to writhe; my mother conceived me so that sin might be removed from me.

⁶ Behold, thou dost desire truth in the inward parts, and in the secret things thou hast made me to know wisdom.

⁷ ¶ Remove the sin in me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

⁸ Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

⁹ Hide thy face from my sins and eradicate all my iniquities.

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

¹¹ Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

¹² Restore unto me the joy of thy saving health, and thy spirit of liberty shall uphold me.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

¹⁴ ¶ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.

¹⁶ For thou dost not desire sacrifice or else would I give it; thou dost not delight in burnt offering.

¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

¹⁸ Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion; build thou the walls of Jerusalem.

¹⁹ Then thou shalt be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, the burnt offering, the offering that has been totally consumed by the fire; then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

58 ¶ Cry aloud, do not hold back; lift up thy voice like a shofar and preach to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sin.

² That they seek me daily and want to know my ways, as people that do righteousness and have not forsaken the rights of their God: they ask me of the rights of righteousness and desire to approach God.

³ ¶ Why have we fasted, they say, and thou dost not see? why have we afflicted our soul, and thou dost take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure and exact your own estates.

⁴ Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day to make your voice to be heard on high.

⁵ Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast and an acceptable day to the LORD?

⁶ Is not rather the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the ties of oppression, to release into freedom those who are broken, and that ye break every yoke?

⁷ Is it not to share thy bread with the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou not hide thyself from thy brother?

⁸ ¶ Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall gather thee.

⁹ Then shalt thou call, and thou shalt hear the LORD; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;

¹⁰ and if thou pour out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

¹¹ And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

¹² And they shall build up out of thee the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the fallen foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

18 ¶ At the same time the disciples came unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens?

² And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them

³ and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of the heavens.

⁴ Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of the heavens.

⁵ And whosoever shall receive one such little child in my name receives me.

⁶ But whosoever shall cause one of these little ones who believe in me to fall, it would be better for him that a millstone such as is turned by an ass be hanged about his neck and that he be sunk in the depth of the sea.

⁷ ¶ Woe unto the world because of offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!