Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Thanksgiving for Victory
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
21 In thy strength the king rejoices, O Lord;
and in thy help how greatly he exults!
2 Thou hast given him his heart’s desire,
and hast not withheld the request of his lips.Selah
3 For thou dost meet him with goodly blessings;
thou dost set a crown of fine gold upon his head.
4 He asked life of thee; thou gavest it to him,
length of days for ever and ever.
5 His glory is great through thy help;
splendor and majesty thou dost bestow upon him.
6 Yea, thou dost make him most blessed for ever;
thou dost make him glad with the joy of thy presence.
7 For the king trusts in the Lord;
and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.
8 Your hand will find out all your enemies;
your right hand will find out those who hate you.
9 You will make them as a blazing oven
when you appear.
The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath;
and fire will consume them.
10 You will destroy their offspring from the earth,
and their children from among the sons of men.
11 If they plan evil against you,
if they devise mischief, they will not succeed.
12 For you will put them to flight;
you will aim at their faces with your bows.
13 Be exalted, O Lord, in thy strength!
We will sing and praise thy power.
14 Fear not, you worm Jacob,
you men of Israel!
I will help you, says the Lord;
your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
15 Behold, I will make of you a threshing sledge,
new, sharp, and having teeth;
you shall thresh the mountains and crush them,
and you shall make the hills like chaff;
16 you shall winnow them and the wind shall carry them away,
and the tempest shall scatter them.
And you shall rejoice in the Lord;
in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.
17 When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them,
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together;
20 that men may see and know,
may consider and understand together,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Paul’s Reason for Writing So Boldly
14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brethren, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to instruct one another. 15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. 17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. 18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, 19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that from Jerusalem and as far round as Illyr′icum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ, 20 thus making it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on another man’s foundation, 21 but as it is written,
“They shall see who have never been told of him,
and they shall understand who have never heard of him.”
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.