Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

146 Praise the Lord! Yes, really praise him! ² I will praise him as long as I live, yes, even with my dying breath.

³ Don’t look to men for help; their greatest leaders fail; ⁴ for every man must die. His breathing stops, life ends, and in a moment all he planned for himself is ended. ⁵ But happy is the man who has the God of Jacob as his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God— ⁶ the God who made both earth and heaven, the seas and everything in them. He is the God who keeps every promise, ⁷ who gives justice to the poor and oppressed and food to the hungry. He frees the prisoners ⁸ and opens the eyes of the blind; he lifts the burdens from those bent down beneath their loads. For the Lord loves good men. ⁹ He protects the immigrants and cares for the orphans and widows. But he turns topsy-turvy the plans of the wicked.

¹⁰ The Lord will reign forever. O Jerusalem,^[a] your God is King in every generation! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

⁹ It is because of all this evil that you aren’t finding God’s blessings; that’s why he doesn’t punish those who injure you. No wonder you are in darkness when you expected light. No wonder you are walking in the gloom. ¹⁰ No wonder you grope like blind men and stumble along in broad daylight, yes, even at brightest noontime, as though it were the darkest night! No wonder you are like corpses when compared with vigorous young men! ¹¹ You roar like hungry bears; you moan with mournful cries like doves. You look for God to keep you, but he doesn’t. He has turned away. ¹² For your sins keep piling up before the righteous God and testify against you.

Yes, we know what sinners we are. ¹³ We know our disobedience; we have denied the Lord our God. We know what rebels we are and how unfair we are, for we carefully plan our lies. ¹⁴ Our courts oppose the righteous man; fairness is unknown. Truth falls dead in the streets, and justice is outlawed.

¹⁵ Yes, truth is gone, and anyone who tries a better life is soon attacked. The Lord saw all the evil and was displeased to find no steps taken against sin. ¹⁶ He saw no one was helping you and wondered that no one intervened. Therefore he himself stepped in to save you through his mighty power and justice. ¹⁷ He put on righteousness as armor and the helmet of salvation on his head. He clothed himself with robes of vengeance and of godly fury. ¹⁸ He will repay his enemies for their evil deeds—fury for his foes in distant lands. ¹⁹ Then at last they will reverence and glorify the name of God from west to east. For he will come like a flood tide driven by Jehovah’s breath.

9 But Paul, threatening with every breath and eager to destroy every Christian, went to the High Priest in Jerusalem. ² He requested a letter addressed to synagogues in Damascus, requiring their cooperation in the persecution of any believers he found there, both men and women, so that he could bring them in chains to Jerusalem.

³ As he was nearing Damascus on this mission, suddenly a brilliant light from heaven spotted down upon him! ⁴ He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Paul! Paul! Why are you persecuting me?”

⁵ “Who is speaking, sir?” Paul asked.

And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! ⁶ Now get up and go into the city and await my further instructions.”

⁷ The men with Paul stood speechless with surprise, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! ^8-9 As Paul picked himself up off the ground, he found that he was blind. He had to be led into Damascus and was there three days, blind, going without food and water all that time.

¹⁰ Now there was in Damascus a believer named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, calling, “Ananias!”

“Yes, Lord!” he replied.

¹¹ And the Lord said, “Go over to Straight Street and find the house of a man named Judas and ask there for Paul of Tarsus. He is praying to me right now, for ¹² I have shown him a vision of a man named Ananias coming in and laying his hands on him so that he can see again!”

¹³ “But Lord,” exclaimed Ananias, “I have heard about the terrible things this man has done to the believers in Jerusalem! ¹⁴ And we hear that he has arrest warrants with him from the chief priests, authorizing him to arrest every believer in Damascus!”

¹⁵ But the Lord said, “Go and do what I say. For Paul is my chosen instrument to take my message to the nations and before kings, as well as to the people of Israel. ¹⁶ And I will show him how much he must suffer for me.”

¹⁷ So Ananias went over and found Paul and laid his hands on him and said, “Brother Paul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road, has sent me so that you may be filled with the Holy Spirit and get your sight back.”

¹⁸ Instantly (it was as though scales fell from his eyes) Paul could see and was immediately baptized. ¹⁹ Then he ate and was strengthened.

He stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days ²⁰ and went at once to the synagogue to tell everyone there the Good News about Jesus—that he is indeed the Son of God!