Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

143 Hear my prayer, O Lord; answer my plea because you are faithful to your promises.^{[a] 2} Don’t bring me to trial! For as compared with you, no one is perfect.

³ My enemies chased and caught me. They have knocked me to the ground. They force me to live in the darkness like those in the grave. ⁴ I am losing all hope; I am paralyzed with fear.

⁵ I remember the glorious miracles you did in days of long ago. ⁶ I reach out for you. I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain. ⁷ Come quickly, Lord, and answer me, for my depression deepens; don’t turn away from me or I shall die. ⁸ Let me see your kindness to me in the morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for my prayer is sincere. ⁹ Save me from my enemies. O Lord, I run to you to hide me. ¹⁰ Help me to do your will, for you are my God. Lead me in good paths, for your Spirit is good.

¹¹ Lord, saving me will bring glory to your name. Bring me out of all this trouble because you are true to your promises. ¹² And because you are loving and kind to me, cut off all my enemies and destroy those who are trying to harm me; for I am your servant.

¹⁷ But one day the woman’s son became sick and died.

¹⁸ “O man of God,” she cried, “what have you done to me? Have you come here to punish my sins by killing my son?”

¹⁹ “Give him to me,” Elijah replied. And he took the boy’s body from her and carried it upstairs to the guest room where he lived, and laid the body on his bed, ²⁰ and then cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, why have you killed the son of this widow with whom I am staying?”

²¹ And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried out to the Lord, “O Lord my God, please let this child’s spirit return to him.”

²² And the Lord heard Elijah’s prayer; and the spirit of the child returned, and he became alive again! ²³ Then Elijah took him downstairs and gave him to his mother.

“See! He’s alive!” he beamed.

²⁴ “Now I know for sure that you are a prophet,” she told him afterward,^[a] “and that whatever you say is from the Lord!”

⁷ On Sunday^[a] we gathered for a Communion service, with Paul preaching. And since he was leaving the next day, he talked until midnight! ⁸ The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps; ⁹ and as Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, went fast asleep and fell three stories to his death below. ^10-12 Paul went down and took him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s all right!” And he was! What a wave of awesome joy swept through the crowd! They all went back upstairs and ate the Lord’s Supper together; then Paul preached another long sermon—so it was dawn when he finally left them!