Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
116 I love the Lord because he hears my voice, my pleas for mercy.
2 I will call on him as long as I live
because he turns his ear toward me.
3 The ropes of death became tangled around me.
The horrors of the grave took hold of me.
I experienced pain and agony.
4 But I kept calling on the name of the Lord:
“Please, Lord, rescue me!”
12 How can I repay the Lord
for all the good that he has done for me?
13 I will take the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord.
14 I will keep my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his faithful ones.
16 O Lord, I am indeed your servant.
I am your servant,
the son of your female servant.
You have freed me from my chains.
17 I will bring a song of thanksgiving to you as a sacrifice.
I will call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will keep my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courtyards of the Lord’s house,
in the middle of Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!
The Lord Protects the Weak
25 O Lord, you are my God.
I will highly honor you; I will praise your name.
You have done miraculous things.
You have been completely reliable
in carrying out your plans from long ago.
2 You have turned cities into ruins,
fortified cities into piles of rubble,
and foreigners’ palaces into cities that will never be rebuilt.
3 That is why strong people will honor you,
and cities ruled by the world’s tyrants will fear you.
4 You have been a refuge for the poor,
a refuge for the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rain, and shade from the heat.
(A tyrant’s breath is like a rainstorm against a wall,
5 like heat in a dry land.)
You calm the uproar of foreigners.
The song of tyrants is silenced
like heat that is ⌞reduced⌟ by the shadow of a cloud.
8 Although you have never seen Christ, you love him. You don’t see him now, but you believe in him. You are extremely happy with joy and praise that can hardly be expressed in words 9 as you obtain the salvation that is the goal of your faith.
10 The prophets carefully researched and investigated this salvation. Long ago they spoke about God’s kindness [a] that would come to you. 11 So they tried to find out what time or situation the Spirit of Christ kept referring to whenever he predicted Christ’s sufferings and the glory that would follow. 12 God revealed to the prophets that the things they had spoken were not for their own benefit but for yours. What the prophets had spoken, the Holy Spirit, who was sent from heaven, has now made known to you by those who spread the Good News among you. These are things that even the angels want to look into.
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