Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A Prayer for the King[a]
72 Teach the king to judge with your righteousness, O God;
share with him your own justice,
2 so that he will rule over your people with justice
and govern the oppressed with righteousness.
3 May the land enjoy prosperity;
may it experience righteousness.
4 May the king judge the poor fairly;
may he help the needy
and defeat their oppressors.
5 May your people worship you as long as the sun shines,
as long as the moon gives light, for ages to come.
6 May the king be like rain on the fields,
like showers falling on the land.
7 May righteousness flourish in his lifetime,
and may prosperity last as long as the moon gives light.
18 Praise the Lord, the God of Israel!
He alone does these wonderful things.
19 Praise his glorious name forever!
May his glory fill the whole world.
Amen! Amen!
God Will Bless His People
19 You people who live in Jerusalem will not weep any more. The Lord is compassionate, and when you cry to him for help, he will answer you. 20 The Lord will make you go through hard times, but he himself will be there to teach you, and you will not have to search for him any more. 21 If you wander off the road to the right or the left, you will hear his voice behind you saying, “Here is the road. Follow it.” 22 You will take your idols plated with silver and your idols covered with gold, and will throw them away like filth, shouting, “Out of my sight!” 23 Whenever you plant your crops, the Lord will send rain to make them grow and will give you a rich harvest, and your livestock will have plenty of pasture. 24 The oxen and donkeys that plow your fields will eat the finest and best fodder. 25 On the day when the forts of your enemies are captured and their people are killed, streams of water will flow from every mountain and every hill. 26 The moon will be as bright as the sun, and the sun will be seven times brighter than usual, like the light of seven days in one. This will all happen when the Lord bandages and heals the wounds he has given his people.
16 Paul stood up, motioned with his hand, and began to speak:
“Fellow Israelites and all Gentiles here who worship God: hear me! 17 (A)The God of the people of Israel chose our ancestors and made the people a great nation during the time they lived as foreigners in Egypt. God brought them out of Egypt by his great power, 18 (B)and for forty years he endured[a] them in the desert. 19 (C)He destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan and made his people the owners of the land. 20 (D)All of this took about 450 years.
“After this[b] he gave them judges until the time of the prophet Samuel. 21 (E)And when they asked for a king, God gave them Saul son of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin, to be their king for forty years. 22 (F)After removing him, God made David their king. This is what God said about him: ‘I have found that David son of Jesse is the kind of man I like, a man who will do all I want him to do.’ 23 It was Jesus, a descendant of David, whom God made the Savior of the people of Israel, as he had promised. 24 (G)Before Jesus began his work, John preached to all the people of Israel that they should turn from their sins and be baptized. 25 (H)And as John was about to finish his mission, he said to the people, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not the one you are waiting for. But listen! He is coming after me, and I am not good enough to take his sandals off his feet.’
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.