Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
This psalm is for Solomon.
A prayer for the king[a]
72 God, please help the king
to judge people in a right way.
Help the king's son to be honest and fair,
as you are.[b]
2 Then he will rule your people in a good way,
so that even poor people receive justice.
3 The mountains and the hills will bring peace,
so that the people can live honest lives.
4 Please help the king to judge poor people fairly.
May he save the children of weak people,
and destroy those cruel people who hurt them.
5 May people always respect your authority, God,
through all time,
as long as the sun and the moon remain in the sky.[c]
6 May the king be a blessing to his people,
like rain that falls on grass that lies in the fields.
May he be like rain
that brings water to the soil.
7 While he rules as king,
those people who serve God will do well.
There will be peace in all the land,
for as long as the moon remains in the sky.
18 Praise the Lord, Israel's God,
as he deserves.
Only he does such wonderful things.
19 Praise his great name for ever!
May his glory fill the whole earth!
Amen! May that all happen!
Good news
2 In that day, the branch of the Lord will be great and beautiful. The land will give fruit and crops. Those people who remain in Israel will be proud and happy because of the food that the land supplies. 3 Everyone who remains in Zion and Jerusalem will be called holy. All their names will be on a list of Jerusalem's people who live there. 4 At that time, the Lord God will wash away the dirt from Zion's women. He will make Jerusalem clean from the blood that murderers have left. He will do that as judge, and he will punish people as with fire. 5 The Lord himself will be above all of Mount Zion, and over all the people who meet together there. There will be cloud and smoke over them during the day. There will be bright flames of fire at night. The Lord's glory will cover over them all. 6 During the day, it will give people shade from the sun's heat. It will also keep them safe from storms and heavy rain.
The apostles choose Matthias
12 Then the apostles left the Mount of Olives.[a] They returned to Jerusalem. This was a walk of about 1 kilometre. 13 When the apostles arrived back in Jerusalem, they went to their room. The room where they were staying was upstairs. Those apostles were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; also James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James.[b]
14 All these apostles often met together to pray. Mary who was Jesus' mother, other women and Jesus' brothers also met with them. 15 One day, about 120 people who believed in Jesus were meeting together. Peter stood up and he said to them, 16 ‘My friends, long ago, the Holy Spirit gave King David a message to speak from God.[c] He spoke about the things that Judas would do. Judas was the one who showed the soldiers how to catch Jesus. These things had to happen in the way that David wrote in the Bible long ago.[d] 17 Judas belonged to our group of disciples. Jesus chose him to work together with us.’
21 Peter then said, ‘Because of this, we must choose another man instead of Judas. That man must have been one of our group all the time that the Lord Jesus was with us. 22 That is, from the time when John was baptizing people until the time when Jesus went up to heaven. He must be someone who saw Jesus become alive again after he died, as we did.’
23 So the apostles agreed the names of two men. One of them was Joseph. People also called him Barsabbas and sometimes people called him Justus. The other man was called Matthias. 24 Then the whole group prayed, ‘Lord, you know what everybody is really like. Please show us which man you have chosen. 25 Which of these two men do you want to be an apostle instead of Judas? Judas left his work as an apostle. He has now gone to the place where he belongs.’
26 Then the group used lots to choose the name of one man. It happened that they chose Matthias. So Matthias now became the 12th apostle, together with the other 11 men.
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