Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 4

My Righteous God, Give Me Relief

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For the choir director. With stringed instruments. A psalm by David.

A Prayer to God

A Rebuke to Enemies

Advice to Friends

Closing Prayer

² In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three whole weeks. ³ I ate no expensive food, and no meat or wine entered my mouth. I did not anoint myself at all until the completion of three whole weeks.

⁴ On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, I was beside the Great River, that is, the Tigris. ⁵ I looked up, and there, right in front of me, I saw a man dressed in linen. Around his waist he was wearing a belt made from gold of Uphaz. ⁶ His body was like topaz, and his face looked like lightning. His eyes were like burning torches, and his arms and feet were like polished bronze. The sound of his words was like the sound of an army.

⁷ Only I, Daniel, saw the vision. The men who were with me did not see the vision, but they were overwhelmed by fear and trembling, so they ran away to hide. ⁸ I was left alone, and I saw this great vision. No strength was left in me. My appearance changed for the worse. I became very pale,^[a] and I had no strength. ⁹ I heard the sound of his words, but as I heard the sound of his words, I was in a deep sleep, facedown, with my face to the ground.

¹⁰ Then a hand touched me and pulled me up, trembling, to my hands and knees. ¹¹ He said to me, “Daniel, you are a highly valued man. Understand the words that I am speaking to you. Stand up where you are, because now I have been sent to you.” When he spoke this word to me, I stood up, shaking.

¹² He said to me, “Do not be afraid, Daniel, because from the first day that you began to commit your heart to gaining understanding and to humbling yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come in response to your words. ¹³ However, an officer of the kingdom of Persia was standing against me for twenty-one days. Yet Michael, one of the chief officers, came to help me, for I had been left there against the kings of Persia. ¹⁴ I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the latter days, because the vision concerns days still to come.”

¹⁵ As he spoke these words to me, I pressed my face to the ground and was silent. ¹⁶ Then someone whose form was like a son of man was touching my lips. So I opened my mouth and spoke and said to the one standing in front of me, “My lord, pain has come upon me in the vision, and I have no strength left in me. ¹⁷ How can this servant of my lord speak with my lord? And I, from now on—no strength remains in me, and no breath is left in me.”

¹⁸ The one whose appearance was like a man touched me again and strengthened me. ¹⁹ He said to me, “Do not be afraid, you highly valued man. Peace to you. Be strong! Be strong!”

As he spoke with me I was strengthened, and I said, “Keep speaking, my lord, because you strengthen me.”

²⁶ I have written these things to you about those who are misleading you. ²⁷ As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you have no need for someone to teach you. Rather, since his anointing teaches you all things and since it is true and is no lie, remain in him, just as it has taught you.

²⁸ So now, dear children, remain in him so that we may be confident when he appears and may be unashamed before him at his coming.