Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 147

¹ Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God, for He is gracious and lovely; praise is becoming and appropriate.

² The Lord is building up Jerusalem; He is gathering together the exiles of Israel.

³ He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds [curing their pains and their sorrows].^(A)

⁴ He determines and counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names.

⁵ Great is our Lord and of great power; His understanding is inexhaustible and boundless.

⁶ The Lord lifts up the humble and downtrodden; He casts the wicked down to the ground.

⁷ Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praises with the harp or the lyre to our God!—

⁸ Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.

⁹ He gives to the beast his food, and to the young ravens that for which they cry.

¹⁰ He delights not in the strength of the horse, nor does He take pleasure in the legs of a man.

¹¹ The Lord takes pleasure in those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy and loving-kindness.^(B)

²⁰ He has not dealt so with any [other] nation; they have not known (understood, appreciated, given heed to, and cherished) His ordinances. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)^(A)

36 Elihu proceeded and said,

² Bear with me and wait a little longer, and I will show you, for I have something still to say on God’s behalf.

³ I will bring my knowledge from afar and will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

⁴ For truly my words shall not be false; He Who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

⁵ Behold! God is mighty, and yet despises no one nor regards anything as trivial; He is mighty in power of understanding and heart.

⁶ He does not prolong the life of the wicked, but gives the needy and afflicted their right.

⁷ He withdraws not His eyes from the righteous (the upright in right standing with God); but He sets them forever with kings upon the throne, and they are exalted.

⁸ And if they are bound in fetters [of adversity] and held by cords of affliction,^(A)

⁹ Then He shows to them [the true character of] their deeds and their transgressions, that they have acted arrogantly [with presumption and self-sufficiency].

¹⁰ He also opens their ears to instruction and discipline, and commands that they return from iniquity.

¹¹ If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasantness and joy.

¹² But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword [of God’s destructive judgments], and they shall die in ignorance of true knowledge.

¹³ But the godless and profane in heart heap up anger [at the divine discipline]; they do not cry to Him when He binds them [with cords of affliction].^(B)

¹⁴ They die in youth, and their life perishes among the unclean (those who are sodomites).

¹⁵ He delivers the afflicted in their affliction and opens their ears [to His voice] in adversity.

¹⁶ Indeed, God would have allured you out of the mouth of distress into a broad place where there is no situation of perplexity or privation; and that which would be set on your table would be full of fatness.

¹⁷ But if you [Job] are filled with the judgment of the wicked, judgment and justice will keep hold on you.

¹⁸ For let not wrath entice you into scorning chastisements; and let not the greatness of the ransom [the suffering, if rightly endured] turn you aside.

¹⁹ Will your cry be sufficient to keep you from distress, or will all the force of your strength do it?

²⁰ Desire not the night, when peoples are cut off from their places;

²¹ Take heed, turn not to iniquity, for this [the iniquity of complaining against God] you have chosen rather than [submission in] affliction.

²² Behold, God exalts and does loftily in His power; who is a ruler or a teacher like Him?

²³ Who has appointed God His way? Or who can say, You have done unrighteousness?

9 Am I not an apostle (a special messenger)? Am I not free (unrestrained and exempt from any obligation)? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you [yourselves] not [the product and proof of] my workmanship in the Lord?

² Even if I am not considered an apostle (a special messenger) by others, at least I am one to you; for you are the seal (the certificate, the living evidence) of my apostleship in the Lord [confirming and authenticating it].

³ This is my [real ground of] defense (my vindication of myself) to those who would put me on trial and cross-examine me.

⁴ Have we not the right to our food and drink [at the expense of the churches]?

⁵ Have we not the right also to take along with us a Christian sister as wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas (Peter)?

⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from doing manual labor for a livelihood [in order to go about the work of the ministry]?

⁷ [Consider this:] What soldier at any time serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of the fruit of it? Who tends a flock and does not partake of the milk of the flock?

⁸ Do I say this only on human authority and as a man reasons? Does not the Law endorse the same principle?

⁹ For in the Law of Moses it is written, You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the corn. Is it [only] for oxen that God cares?^(A)

¹⁰ Or does He speak certainly and entirely for our sakes? [Assuredly] it is written for our sakes, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher ought to thresh in expectation of partaking of the harvest.

¹¹ If we have sown [the seed of] spiritual good among you, [is it too] much if we reap from your material benefits?

¹² If others share in this rightful claim upon you, do not we [have a still better and greater claim]? However, we have never exercised this right, but we endure everything rather than put a hindrance in the way [of the spread] of the good news (the Gospel) of Christ.

¹³ Do you not know that those men who are employed in the services of the temple get their food from the temple? And that those who tend the altar share with the altar [in the offerings brought]?^(B)

¹⁴ [On the same principle] the Lord directed that those who publish the good news (the Gospel) should live (get their maintenance) by the Gospel.

¹⁵ But I have not made use of any of these privileges, nor am I writing this [to suggest] that any such provision be made for me [now]. For it would be better for me to die than to have anyone make void and deprive me of my [ground for] glorifying [in this matter].

¹⁶ For if I [merely] preach the Gospel, that gives me no reason to boast, for I feel compelled of necessity to do it. Woe is me if I do not preach the glad tidings (the Gospel)!