Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 86

A Prayer of David.

¹ Incline Your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and distressed, needy and desiring.

² Preserve my life, for I am godly and dedicated; O my God, save Your servant, for I trust in You [leaning and believing on You, committing all and confidently looking to You, without fear or doubt].

³ Be merciful and gracious to me, O Lord, for to You do I cry all the day.

⁴ Make me, Your servant, to rejoice, O Lord, for to You do I lift myself up.

⁵ For You, O Lord, are good, and ready to forgive [our trespasses, sending them away, letting them go completely and forever]; and You are abundant in mercy and loving-kindness to all those who call upon You.

⁶ Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; and listen to the cry of my supplications.

⁷ In the day of my trouble I will call on You, for You will answer me.

⁸ There is none like unto You among the gods, O Lord, neither are their works like unto Yours.

⁹ All nations whom You have made shall come and fall down before You, O Lord; and they shall glorify Your name.

¹⁰ For You are great and work wonders! You alone are God.

³ Say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster [of sluggish and unwieldy strength] that lies in the midst of his [delta] streams, [boastfully] declaring, My river Nile is my own and I have made it for myself.

⁴ But I will put hooks in your jaws [O Egyptian dragon] and I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick to your scales, and I will draw you up out of the midst of your streams with all the fish of your streams which stick to your scales.

⁵ And I will cast you forth into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers; you shall fall upon the open field and not be gathered up or buried. I have given you for food to the [wild] beasts of the earth and the birds of the heavens.

⁶ And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know (understand and realize) that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service], because they have been a [deceitful] staff [made of fragile] reeds to the house of Israel.

⁷ When they grasped you with the hand and leaned upon you, you broke and tore their whole shoulder, and [by injuring their muscles made them so stiff and rigid that] they could do no more than stand.

⁵³ As He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees [followed Him closely, and they] began ^[a]to be enraged with and set themselves violently against Him and to draw Him out and provoke Him to speak of many things,

⁵⁴ Secretly watching and plotting and lying in wait for Him, to seize upon something He might say [that they might accuse Him].

12 In the meanwhile, when so many thousands of the people had gathered that they were trampling on one another, Jesus commenced by saying primarily to His disciples, Be on your guard against the leaven (ferment) of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy [producing unrest and violent agitation].

² Nothing is [so closely] covered up that it will not be revealed, or hidden that it will not be known.

³ Whatever you have spoken in the darkness shall be heard and listened to in the light, and what you have whispered in [people’s] ears and behind closed doors will be proclaimed upon the housetops.