Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Prayer of Trust in God

56 Show me Your loving-kindness, O God, for man has walked on me. All day long the one who tries to keep me down fights with me. ² All day long those who hate me have walked on me. For there are many who fight against me with pride. ³ When I am afraid, I will trust in You. ⁴ I praise the Word of God. I have put my trust in God. I will not be afraid. What can only a man do to me? ⁵ All day long they change my words to say what I did not say. They are always thinking of ways to hurt me. ⁶ They go after me as in a fight. They hide themselves. They watch my steps, as they have waited to take my life. ⁷ Because they are bad, do not let them get away. Bring down the people in Your anger, O God.

⁸ You have seen how many places I have gone. Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book? ⁹ Then those who hate me will turn back when I call. I know that God is for me. ¹⁰ I praise the Word of God. I praise the Word of the Lord. ¹¹ In God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? ¹² I am under an agreement with You, O God. I will give You gifts of thanks. ¹³ For You have set my soul free from death. You have kept my feet from falling, so I may walk with God in the light of life.

Naaman Is Healed

5 Naaman the captain of the army of the king of Syria was an important man to his king. He was much respected, because by him the Lord had made Syria win in battle. Naaman was a strong man of war, but he had a bad skin disease. ² Now the Syrians had gone out in groups of soldiers, and had taken a little girl from the land of Israel. She served Naaman’s wife. ³ And she said to her owner, “I wish that my owner’s husband were with the man of God who is in Samaria! Then he would heal his bad skin disease.” ⁴ So Naaman went in and told his king, “This is what the girl from the land of Israel said.” ⁵ The king of Syria said, “Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel.” So Naaman went and took with him silver weighing as much as ten men, 6,000 pieces of gold, and ten changes of clothes. ⁶ He brought the letter to the king of Israel, which said, “I have sent my servant Naaman to you with this letter, that you may heal his bad skin disease.” ⁷ When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, “Am I God, to kill and to make alive? Is this why this man sends word to me to heal a man’s bad skin disease? Think about it. He wants to start a fight with me.” ⁸ Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes. So he sent word to the king, saying, “Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me. Then he will know that there is a man of God in Israel.” ⁹ So Naaman came with his horses and his war-wagons, and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰ Elisha sent a man to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times. And your flesh will be made well and you will be clean.” ¹¹ But Naaman was very angry and went away. He said, “I thought he would come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God. I thought he would wave his hand over the place, and heal the bad skin disease. ¹² Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away very angry. ¹³ Then his servants came and said to him, “My father, if the man of God had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash and be clean’?” ¹⁴ So Naaman went down into the Jordan River seven times, as the man of God had told him. And his flesh was made as well as the flesh of a little child. He was clean.

¹³ So the man who speaks in special sounds should pray for the gift to be able to tell what they mean.

¹⁴ If I pray in special sounds, my spirit is doing the praying. My mind does not understand. ¹⁵ What should I do? I will pray with my spirit and I will pray with my mind also. I will sing with my spirit and I will sing with my mind also. ¹⁶ If you honor and give thanks to God with your spirit in sounds nobody understands, how can others honor and give thanks also if they do not know what you are saying? ¹⁷ You are honoring and giving thanks to God, but it is not helping other people.

¹⁸ I thank God that I speak in special sounds more than all of you. ¹⁹ But in a meeting of the church, it is better if I say five words that others can understand and be helped by than 10,000 words in special sounds.

²⁰ Christian brothers, do not be like children in your thinking. Be full-grown, but be like children in not knowing how to sin. ²¹ God says in the Holy Writings, “I will speak to My people. I will speak through men from other lands in other languages. Even then My people will not listen to Me.” ^{(A) 22} So then speaking in special sounds is for those who do not believe. It is not for those who believe. But speaking God’s Word is for those who believe. It is not for those who do not believe.

Church Meetings

²³ If some people who are not Christians come to your church meeting while all the people are speaking in special sounds, they will think you are crazy. ²⁴ But if a man who is not a Christian comes to your church meeting while you are all speaking God’s Word, he will understand that he is a sinner by what he hears. He will know he is guilty. ²⁵ The secrets of his heart will be brought into the open. He will get on his knees and worship God. He will say, “For sure, God is here with you!”