Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.
David wrote this prayer when the Philistines took hold of him in Gath.
Trust in God[a]
56 God, please be kind to me, and help me,
because people are fighting me.
My enemies are attacking me every day.
2 They chase me all the time!
Those proud people want to catch me,
and there are many of them!
3 But when I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
4 By God's help, I will praise his word.
By God's help, I will trust in him.
I will not be afraid.
People can do nothing to hurt me![b]
5 All the time, they bring trouble on me.
They are always thinking of ways to hurt me.
6 They hide and they watch me.
They watch me wherever I go,
and they hope to kill me.
7 God, they want to do wicked things,
so punish them!
Destroy these people,
because you are angry with them.
8 Every time that I am upset,
you know about it.
Put all my tears in your bottle!
Yes, write down every tear in your book.[c]
9 When I call to you for help,
my enemies will turn back.
I am sure of this: God is with me,
to fight for me.
10 By God's help, I will praise his promise.
Yes, by the Lord's help,
I will praise his word.
11 I am not afraid,
because I trust in God.
People can do nothing to hurt me.
12 I have made special promises to you, God,
and I will do what I have promised.
I will offer to you a sacrifice to say ‘thank you’.
13 You have saved my life from death.
You keep me safe so that I do not fall.
As a result, I will serve you, God,
as you give me light to live here on earth.
8 Then the Lord told Elijah, 9 ‘Go now to Zarephath in the region of Sidon. Go and live there. I have told a widow who lives there that she must give you food to eat.’
10 So Elijah went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the town gate, he met a widow.[a] She was picking up some sticks. Elijah asked her, ‘Please bring me some water in a jar, so that I can drink it.’ 11 While she went to get it, he said, ‘Please bring me a piece of bread too.’ 12 She replied, ‘As surely as the Lord your God lives, I do not have any bread. I have only a small amount of flour in a bowl and some olive oil in a small jar. I am now picking up a few sticks to take home. Then I will cook a meal for myself and for my son. We will eat it. Then we will die because there is nothing else to eat.’
13 Elijah said to her, ‘Do not be afraid. Go home and do what you have said. But first, use some of your flour to make a small piece of bread for me. Then bring it to me. After that, you should make something for yourself and for your son. 14 This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says: “You will not use all the flour in your bowl. You will not use all the oil in your jar. They will not become empty until the day when the Lord causes rain to fall on the ground again.” ’
15 Then the widow went home. She did what Elijah had told her to do. After that, there was enough food every day for Elijah and for the widow and her family. 16 The flour in the bowl and the olive oil in the jar never finished. The Lord had promised Elijah that this would happen.
6 But we do speak about wise thoughts to those of you who know Christ very well. But those wise thoughts do not belong to this world. They are not the ideas that the rulers of this world think are important. Those rulers will not be powerful for long. 7 No, the wise thoughts that we speak about belong to God. He has hidden them from people until now. But before God made the world, he decided to let us know these secrets. He wanted us to enjoy his glory. 8 None of the rulers of this world understood God's wise plan. If they had understood, they would not have killed Jesus on a cross. He is the Lord who rules heaven and earth. 9 This is written in the Bible:
‘Nobody ever saw or heard anything about this.
Nobody ever thought that it could happen.
But these are the things that God has prepared for his people who love him.’[a]
10 But God has sent his Spirit to show these secrets to us. God's Spirit looks carefully into everything. He even knows God's secret thoughts. 11 Only a person's own spirit can know everything that is in his thoughts. And it is the same with God. Only God's Spirit knows everything that is in God's thoughts. 12 We have received God's own Spirit, not a spirit that belongs to this world. As a result, we can understand all the good things that God has given to us. 13 Those are the things that we speak about. We do not use clever words to speak about human ideas. Instead, we speak the message that God's Spirit has taught us. In that way, we explain a spiritual message to people who have God's Spirit.
14 If someone does not believe in God, they cannot accept the message that comes from God's Spirit. They think that God's message is silly. They cannot even understand those things. Only God's Spirit can explain them to people. 15 But we have God's Spirit with us. So we can understand the true value of all things. But other people cannot truly understand us, who belong to God. 16 As it says in the Bible:
‘Nobody can know what the Lord God is thinking.
Nobody can tell him what he should do.’[b]
But we think about these things in the same way that Christ thinks.
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