Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Supplication for deliverance, and grateful trust in God.
For the Chief Musician; set to [a]Jonath elem rehokim. A Psalm of David. Michtam; when the Philistines took him in Gath.
56 Be merciful unto me, O God; for man would swallow me up:
All the day long he fighting oppresseth me.
2 [b]Mine enemies would swallow me up all the day long;
For they are many that fight proudly against me.
3 What time I am afraid,
I will put my trust in thee.
4 In God (I will praise his word),
In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid;
What can flesh do unto me?
5 All the day long they wrest my words:
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They gather themselves together, they hide themselves,
They mark my steps,
[c]Even as they have waited for my soul.
7 [d]Shall they escape by iniquity?
In anger cast down the peoples, O God.
8 Thou numberest my wanderings:
Put thou my tears into thy bottle;
Are they not in thy [e]book?
9 Then shall mine enemies turn back in the day that I call:
This I know, [f]that God is for me.
10 In God (I will praise his word),
In Jehovah (I will praise his word),
11 In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid;
What can man do unto me?
12 Thy vows are upon me, O God:
I will render thank-offerings unto thee.
13 For thou hast delivered my soul from death:
Hast thou not delivered my feet from falling,
That I may walk before God
In the light of [g]the living?
5 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man [a]with his master, and honorable, because by him Jehovah had given [b]victory unto Syria: he was also a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2 And the Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maiden; and she [c]waited on Naaman’s wife. 3 And she said unto her mistress, Would that my lord were [d]with the prophet that is in Samaria! then would he recover him of his leprosy. 4 And [e]one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maiden that is of the land of Israel. 5 And the king of Syria said, Go now, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand [f]pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. 6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, And now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. 7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? but consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh [g]a quarrel against me.
8 And it was so, when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. 9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and [h]thou shalt be clean. 11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and recover the leper. 12 Are not [i]Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. 13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? 14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
13 Wherefore let him that speaketh in a tongue pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. 15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. 16 Else if thou bless with the spirit, how shall he that filleth the place of [a]the unlearned say the Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he knoweth not what thou sayest? 17 For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not [b]edified. 18 I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all: 19 howbeit in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
20 Brethren, be not children in mind: yet in malice be ye babes, but in mind be [c]men. 21 In the law it is written, [d]By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers will I speak unto this people; and not even thus will they hear me, saith the Lord. 22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to the unbelieving: but prophesying is for a sign, not to the unbelieving, but to them that believe. 23 If therefore the whole church be assembled together and all speak with tongues, and there come in men unlearned or unbelieving, will they not say that ye are mad? 24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is [e]reproved by all, he is judged by all; 25 the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so he will fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is [f]among you indeed.
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