◀ All Reading Plans / Old/New Testament / Psalm 129-131 1 Corinthians 11:1-16 (New Catholic Bible)

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August 30, 2025

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Old/New Testament

Each day includes a passage from both the Old Testament and New Testament.

Duration: 365 days

Psalm 129-131

Psalm 129^[a]

Prayer in Time of Persecution

¹^[b]A song of ascents.

They have greatly oppressed me from my youth—^[c]
    let Israel say—
²they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
    but never have my enemies prevailed against me.
³The plowers plowed upon my back,^[d]
    making deep furrows.
⁴However, the Lord is righteous,
    freeing me from the bonds of the wicked.
⁵^[e]May all those who hate Zion
    be thrown back in shame and confusion.^[f]
⁶^[g]May they be like grass on the rooftops
    that withers before it can be plucked,
⁷so that it can never fill the hands of the reapers
    or the arms of the binders of sheaves.
⁸May those who pass by never cry out,
    “The blessing of the Lord be upon you!
    We bless you in the name of the Lord.”

Psalm 130^[h]

Prayer for Pardon and Peace

¹A song of ascents.

Out of the depths^[i] I cry to you, O Lord;
²    O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
    to my cries of supplication.^[j]
³If you, O Lord, kept a record of our sins,
    O Lord, who could stand^[k] upright?
⁴But with you there is forgiveness
    so that you may be revered.^[l]
⁵I wait for the Lord^[m] in anxious expectation;
    I place my hope in his word.
⁶My soul waits for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the dawn.
More than watchmen wait for the dawn^[n]
⁷^[o]let Israel wait for the Lord.
For with the Lord there is kindness,
    as well as plenteous redemption.
⁸He alone will redeem Israel
    from all its sins.

Psalm 131^[p]

Childlike Trust in God

¹A song of ascents. Of David.

O Lord, my heart^[q] is not proud,
    nor are my eyes raised too high.
I do not concern myself with great affairs
    or with things too sublime for me.
²Rather, I have stilled and calmed my soul,^[r]
    hushed it like a weaned child.
Like a weaned child held in its mother’s arms,
    so is my soul within me.
³O Israel, put your hope in the Lord
    both now and forevermore.^[s]

Footnotes

Psalm 129:1 The present psalm repeats the theme of Ps 124, concerning the past endurance of Israel, joining to it a prayer for the prompt defeat and eviction of its enemies. Recalling past oppressions and attacked on all sides, the pilgrims besought the Lord to overthrow the post-Exilic dominations. From the time of their Egyptian bondage, the chosen people have suffered oppression (vv. 1-2), but the Lord has always delivered them from their enemies. The poet expresses his theme by utilizing rural images. He leaves us a prayer of recourse to God—not of resignation—when we are haunted by the memory of fear or too much distress.
Christians can pray this psalm while evoking the continuous assaults that the Church has suffered from her birth and the future triumph that God will assure her over her enemies. The entire Book of Revelation illustrates this theme.
Psalm 129:1 The enemies of Israel, who are at the same time enemies of the Lord, have much stomped on, oppressed, and tried to snuff out the chosen people from their youth in Egypt and during the Exodus. But they have been unable to do so because the Lord has broken their yoke in time. The psalmist may be thinking of the nomads making incursions at the time of the Judges; the Philistines dangerously invading at the time of Saul and David; the Assyrians conquering and destroying Samaria; and the Babylonians conquering and destroying Jerusalem.
Psalm 129:1 From my youth: from the sojourn in Egypt and the entrance into the Promised Land (see Ps 89:46; Ezek 23:3; Hos 2:15).
Psalm 129:3 The plowers plowed upon my back: in Ps 124, the enemies are likened to destructive floods and to a hunter; here, they are likened to a farmer who plows the field with long furrows. The plowers are the warriors, the long furrows are the wounds and adversities, and the field is the back of Israel—a metaphor of Israel’s history of suffering (see Isa 21:10; 41:15; Jer 51:33; Am 1:3; Mic 4:13; Hab 3:12).
Psalm 129:5 The psalmist prays that God may humiliate pagan powers to whom Israel remains subject after the Exile (see notes on Pss 5:11; 35).
Psalm 129:5 Those who hate Zion disregard God and include not only the wicked of the world but also the Israelites, who do not fear the Lord (see Ps 125:5).
Psalm 129:6 May God make the wicked suffer the same fate as the grass that sprouts in the protective coating of clay covering roofs (see 2 Ki 19:26; Isa 37:27), which the dry and burning desert wind brutally withers up or men hastily root out. Just as this grass is taken up neither by the reaper nor by the sower, so may God cause the enemies of Israel, once beaten, to find no one to gather them or lift them up, no ally or reaper to whom others would wish success in his task with the cry, “The Lord be with you,” traditionally addressed by passersby to the harvesters who in turn would respond in kind: “The Lord bless you” (see Ru 2:4). May they thus be a wasted growth.
Psalm 130:1 This is the sixth of the seven Penitential Psalms (see Ps 6) and perhaps the psalm that has been most often recited down the centuries since the time when it became an invocation on behalf of the dead. It is both a prayer of sorrow and a hymn of hope. No other psalm reveals in so marvelous a way the mystery of God who forgives, reconciles, and redeems even those who abandon him. While wonderfully suitable for the deceased, it also befits anyone in the depths of sadness (e.g., Israel), for it makes hope rise for them like the dawn.
Because of the lofty plane on which it moves, this psalm does not need a transformation but only a greater profundity to become a Christian prayer. The parable of the Prodigal Son illustrates this perfectly (Lk 15).
Psalm 130:1 Depths: a metaphor of adversity (see Ps 69:2f, 15; Isa 51:10; Ezek 27:34), connoting alienation from God (see Jon 2:2-5) and approaching death.
Psalm 130:2 In his extremity, the psalmist appeals to the Lord, calling him by his proper name and so obliging him to answer his prayers and intervene. Although the reason for the distress is not indicated here, the petition implies that it is related to sin, and the next verse makes this point explicit.
Psalm 130:3 The unfortunate psalmist is well aware that the nature of his trouble is different from the depression of illness, homesickness, or persecution seen in some other psalms (e.g., Pss 6; 42; 69). It is guilt for sin, an evil that can cease only if God puts an end to the sins that cause the evil. Unless God granted pardon, no one could stand, i.e., pass through his judgment (see Ps 1:5) or enjoy the benefits of his presence (see Ps 24:3).
Psalm 130:4 God is full of forgiveness (see Dan 9:9; see also Pss 86:5; 103:3; Ex 34:7; 1 Jn 2:1f). And he is feared not only because of his great judgment and chastisement but also because of his great love in forgiving. The righteous respond with love and holy fear (see Deut 5:29; 1 Pet 1:17) as well as the desire not to offend him in the future (see Rom 2:4).
Psalm 130:5 After noting that God liberally dispenses pardon, the psalmist expresses in splendid phrases his desire (indeed his certitude) of seeing God come close to him soon to grant him pardon. The words I wait for the Lord indicate that the psalmist ardently desires God and seeks to draw near to him with all his might. In patient waiting, faith looks up to the Lord to grant his grace (see Lam 3:25f). In anxious expectation: literally, “My soul waits”: see note on Ps 6:4. His word: especially his covenant promises (see Pss 119:25, 28, 37, 42, 49, 65, 74, 81, 107, 114, 147) and his word of pardon.
Psalm 130:6 The psalmist waits for the Lord with much greater anticipation and certitude than watchmen wait for the dawn when they will be relieved of duty after guarding the city from night attacks (see Ps 127:1). More than watchmen wait for the dawn: by this twofold repetition after a fourfold expression of “hope” in the Lord, the psalmist succeeds in inculcating a true sense of longing, dependence, and assurance.
Psalm 130:7 Like the psalmist, crushed by miseries, Israel must also hope and wait for the Lord. Rich in grace (compassionate and saving love) and redemption (pardon), God will redeem Israel from all temporal and spiritual miseries; he will deliver the people from all their misfortunes and sins as he delivered them from Egypt once before. The word redemption, at first applied to the deliverance from slavery in Egypt (see Ex 12:27), later designates every type of liberation, every form of salvation (see Pss 25:20; 31:5; 44:27; Isa 43:14); here it signifies the profound liberation effected by the forgiveness of sins. The New Testament uses the word in the same sense—the redemption wrought by Christ (see Lk 2:38; Rom 3:24; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Rev 5:9). Kindness: see note on Ps 6:5.
Psalm 131:1 Certainly the Prophets dared to state that God was like a mother for his people (see Isa 66:12f; Hos 11:4). But here is a man who has not fled from the experience of life; he lays bare the depth of his heart: the soul of a child before God. This psalm strikes us with great freshness and simplicity, and it is the most moving and evangelical of the psalms. A believer of the Old Testament has discovered the voice of spiritual childhood: “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:3).
We can pray this psalm with the awareness that after practicing abandonment to God’s hands, Jesus offers it as an ideal for us also, for like him we are children of the heavenly Father: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29). We must flee from all desire to go beyond God and his help (see Mt 23:11; Jas 4:6f; 1 Pet 5:5f). The Father alone can make our labors fruitful through Christ (see Jn 15:1-17; 1 Cor 3:5-8); without Christ we can do nothing (see Jn 15:5).
Psalm 131:1 Heart: see note on Ps 4:8. The psalmist has completely submitted himself to God in all humility (see Mic 6:8). He is not like the proud who rely only on themselves (see note on Ps 31:24). He knows that true holiness begins in a heart bereft of pride (see Prov 18:12), with eyes that do not envy (see Pss 18:28; 101:5; Prov 16:5), and a manner of life that is not presumptuous, not preoccupied with great things (see Jer 45:5) and achievements that are too sublime, i.e., too difficult or arduous, beyond one’s powers (see Deut 17:8; 30:11).
Psalm 131:2 Soul: see note on Ps 6:4. The psalmist keeps a guard over his desires. He is like a weaned child, who no longer frets for what it used to find indispensable and walks trustingly by its mother or lies peacefully in its mother’s arms.
Psalm 131:3 Likewise all Israel, all God’s people, must hope only in the Lord. Weaned away from insubstantial ambitions, we must hanker for the sole solid fare: “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to accomplish his work” (Jn 4:34).

1 Corinthians 11:1-16

Chapter 11

¹Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Liturgical Assemblies and Their Problems^[a]

Propriety in Worship^[b]

The Question of Head Coverings. ²I praise you because you remember me in everything and you maintain the traditions just as I handed them down to you.

³But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the husband is the head of his wife, and God is the head of Christ. ⁴Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered brings disgrace on his head. ⁵And any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings disgrace upon her head, for it is just as though she had her head shaved. ⁶Indeed, if a woman refuses to wear a veil, then she might as well have her hair cut off. If it is disgraceful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should wear a veil.

⁷It is not right for a man to have his head covered, since he is the image of God and the reflection of his glory, whereas woman is the reflection of the glory of man. ⁸For man was not made from woman, but woman was made from man. ⁹Nor was man created for the sake of woman, but woman was created for the sake of man.

¹⁰Therefore, a woman should have on her head a sign^[c] of her dependence, because of the angels. ¹¹Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. ¹²Although woman came from man, so does every man come from a woman, and all things come from God.

¹³The Question of Long Hair. Judge for yourselves. Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head unveiled? ¹⁴Does not nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, he is disgraced, ¹⁵whereas if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair was given to her as a covering. ¹⁶However, if anyone wishes to argue further on this point, we have no such custom to do so, nor do any of the Churches of God.

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

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Old/New Testament

Psalm 129[a]

Prayer in Time of Persecution

Psalm 130[h]

Prayer for Pardon and Peace

Psalm 131[p]

Childlike Trust in God

Footnotes

Chapter 11

Liturgical Assemblies and Their Problems[a]

Propriety in Worship[b]

Footnotes

Psalm 129^[a]

Psalm 130^[h]

Psalm 131^[p]

Liturgical Assemblies and Their Problems^[a]

Propriety in Worship^[b]