Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 21[a]
Thanksgiving for Messianic Blessings
1 For the director.[b] A psalm of David.
2 O Lord, the king rejoices in your strength;
your victories fill him with great joy.[c]
3 You have granted him the desire of his heart[d]
and not withheld from him the request of his lips. Selah
4 You welcomed him with choice blessings[e]
and placed a crown of pure gold upon his head.
5 He asked you for life, and you gave it to him,
length of days forever and ever.[f]
6 He has achieved great glory through your victory;
you have bestowed upon him splendor and majesty.[g]
7 You have conferred everlasting blessings[h] on him;
you gladdened him with the joy of your presence.
8 For the king places his trust in the Lord;
through the kindness[i] of the Most High he will not fall.
9 [j]Your hand will lay hold of all your enemies;
your right hand will overcome all your foes.
10 On the day when you appear,[k]
you will cast them into a fiery furnace.
The Lord’s anger will engulf them,
and fire will consume them.
11 You will blot out their descendants from the earth
and rid the human race of their posterity.[l]
12 They have devised wicked schemes against you,
but, plot though they may, they will not succeed.
13 For you will force them to retreat
when you aim your bows at them.
14 Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength;[m]
we will sing and praise your power.
14 Do not fear, you worm, Jacob,
you maggot, Israel.
I will help you, says the Lord;
your redeemer[a] is the Holy One of Israel.
15 Now I will make of you a threshing sledge,
sharp, new, with numerous teeth.
You will thresh the mountains and crush them,
and you will reduce the hills to chaff.
16 You will winnow them,
the wind will carry them away,
and the gale will scatter them.
Then you will rejoice in the Lord
and glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 When the poor and needy search for water
and there is none,
and their tongues are parched with thirst,
I the Lord will come to their aid;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18 I will open up rivers on the barren heights
and fountains in the midst of valleys.
I will turn the wilderness into a lake
and the dry land into springs of water.
19 In the wilderness I will plant cedars,
acacias, myrtles, and olive trees;
in the wasteland I will place cypress trees
to grow side by side with plane trees and pine trees,
20 so that all may see and know,
observe and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Epilogue[a]
14 Apostle to the Gentiles.[b] Brethren, I myself am convinced that you yourselves are immersed in goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. 15 Nevertheless, I have written to you rather boldly to refresh your memory in some respects because of the grace given to me by God. 16 He has appointed me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, in order that the Gentiles might become an acceptable offering consecrated by the Holy Spirit.
17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to glory in my service of God. 18 I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to lead the Gentiles to obedience to God by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God.
So from Jerusalem[c] and the surrounding area, even as far as Illyricum, I have completed the preaching of the gospel of Christ. 20 Moreover, I have always striven to preach the gospel of Christ where the name of Christ is not known, not wanting to build on someone else’s foundation. 21 Rather, as it is written:
“Those who have never been told of him shall see,
and those who have never heard of him shall understand.”
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