Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

To the Overcomer upon: The silent dove in a distant land, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath.

¹ ¶ Be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up; he oppresses me fighting me daily.

² My enemies would daily swallow me up, for they are many that fight against me, O thou most High.

³ When I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

⁴ In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

⁵ Every day my life is filled with sorrow; all their thoughts are against me for evil.

⁶ They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps when they wait for my soul.

⁷ Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the peoples, O God.

⁸ ¶ Thou tellest my wanderings; put my tears into thy bottle; are they not in thy book?

⁹ When I cry unto thee, then shall my enemies be turned back; in this I know that God is for me.

¹⁰ In God I will praise his word; in the LORD I will praise his word.

¹¹ In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid of what man can do unto me.

¹² Thy promises are upon me, O God; I will render praises unto thee.

¹³ For thou hast delivered my life from death; thou hast kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.

⁸ ¶ And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying,

⁹ Arise, go to Zarephath of Zidon, and thou shalt dwell there; behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

¹⁰ So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks; and he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.

¹¹ And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her again and said, Bring me also, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand.

¹² And she said, As the LORD thy God lives, I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a pitcher and a little oil in a cruse; and now I was gathering two sticks that I may go in and prepare it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.

¹³ And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said; but first make me a little cake of bread baked under the ashes and bring it unto me, and afterwards thou shalt make for thee and for thy son.

¹⁴ For thus hath said the LORD God of Israel, The pitcher of meal shall not be consumed, neither shall the cruse of oil fail until that day when the LORD shall send rain upon the earth.

¹⁵ And she went and did as Elijah told her; and he and she and her house ate for many days.

¹⁶ And the pitcher of meal was not consumed, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD which he spoke by Elijah.

⁶ ¶ For we speak perfect wisdom of God, and not the wisdom of this age nor of the princes of this age, that come to nought,

⁷ but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages unto our glory,

⁸ which none of the princes of this age knew (for had they known it, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory).

⁹ But as it is written, That which eye has not seen nor ear heard neither has entered into the heart of man is that which God has prepared for those that love him.

¹⁰ But God has revealed this unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

¹¹ For who among men knows the things of man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so no one has known the things of God, but the Spirit of God.

¹² Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that God has given us.

¹³ Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but with doctrine of the Holy Spirit, jointly fitting spiritual things by spiritual means.

¹⁴ But the natural man does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

¹⁵ But he that is spiritual discerns all things, yet he is discerned by no one.

¹⁶ For who has known the understanding of the Lord? Who has instructed him? But we have the understanding of Christ.