Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

The Lord Is Good to His People

106 Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His loving-kindness lasts forever. ² Who can put into words the great works of the Lord? Who can make known all His praise? ³ Happy are those who are faithful in being fair and who always do what is right and good!

⁴ O Lord, remember me when You show favor to Your people. Visit me also when You save them. ⁵ So I may share in the well-being of Your chosen ones. So I may share in the joy of Your nation, and be proud of Your people.

⁶ We have sinned like our fathers. We have done wrong. We have been sinful in our actions.

¹³ But they soon forgot His works. They did not wait to hear what He wanted them to do. ¹⁴ They wanted many things in the desert, and they tempted God there. ¹⁵ So He gave them what they wanted, but He allowed their souls to become weak because of it.

¹⁶ They were jealous of Moses in the place where they set up their tents. And they were jealous of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord. ¹⁷ So the earth opened up and swallowed Dathan. It closed over the group of Abiram. ¹⁸ And a fire came among their followers. It burned up the sinful people.

¹⁹ They made a calf at Horeb and worshiped a god of gold. ²⁰ They traded their shining-greatness for something that looked like a bull that eats grass. ²¹ They forgot the God Who saved them, Who had done great things in Egypt, ²² powerful works in the land of Ham, and works that brought fear by the Red Sea. ²³ So He said that He would destroy them. But Moses, His chosen one, stood in the way to keep His anger from destroying them.

⁴⁷ O Lord our God, save us! Gather us from among the nations. And we will give thanks to Your holy name and find honor in Your praise. ⁴⁸ Honor and thanks be to the Lord, the God of Israel, forever and ever. Let all the people say, “Let it be so!” Praise the Lord!

²¹ “The Lord was angry with me because of you. He swore that I should not cross the Jordan, and that I should not go into the good land the Lord your God is giving you for your own. ²² For I must die in this land. I will not cross the Jordan. But you will cross and take that good land for your own. ²³ So watch yourselves, so that you do not forget the agreement the Lord your God made with you, or make a false god for yourselves that looks like something which the Lord your God has told you not to do. ²⁴ For the Lord your God is an all-burning fire, a jealous God.

²⁵ “When you become the father of children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, if you become sinful and make a god that looks like anything, and anger the Lord your God by doing what is bad in His eyes, ²⁶ I call heaven and earth to speak against you this day. You will soon be destroyed from the land you are crossing the Jordan to have for your own. You will not live long on it, but will all be destroyed. ²⁷ The Lord will spread you out among the nations. And there will not be many of you left among the nations where the Lord will drive you. ²⁸ There you will work for gods made by man’s hands out of wood and stone. They do not see or hear or eat or smell. ²⁹ But from there you will look for the Lord your God. And you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and soul. ³⁰ When you are in trouble and all these things have happened to you in later days, you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. ³¹ For the Lord your God is a God of loving-pity. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the agreement He promised to your fathers.

³² “Ask about the past days, the days before your time, since the day that God made man on the earth. Ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing? Has anything been heard like it? ³³ Have any people ever heard the voice of God speaking from the center of the fire, as you have heard it, and still live? ³⁴ Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation, by trials, special things to see, great works, war, a powerful hand, a long arm, and spreading much fear? The Lord your God did this for you in Egypt in front of your eyes. ³⁵ It was shown to you so you might know that the Lord is God. There is no other except Him. ³⁶ He let you hear His voice from the heavens to teach you. On earth He let you see His great fire. And you heard His words from the center of the fire. ³⁷ He loved your fathers, so He chose their children after them. He Himself brought you from Egypt by His great power. ³⁸ He drove out from in front of you nations greater and more powerful than you. And He brought you in and gave you their land for your own, as it is today. ³⁹ So know this day, take it to your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other. ⁴⁰ Keep His Laws which I am giving you today. Then it may go well with you and your children after you. And you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

⁹ Jesus said to them, “You put away the Laws of God but keep your own teaching. ¹⁰ Moses said, ‘Respect your father and mother.’ ^(A) ‘He who curses his father and mother will be put to death!’ ^{(B) 11} But you say that it is right if a man does not help his father and mother because he says he has given to God what he could have given to them. ¹² You are not making him do anything for his father and mother. ¹³ You are putting away the Word of God to keep your own teaching. You are doing many other things like this.”

¹⁴ Jesus called the people to Him again. He said, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand this. ¹⁵ It is not what goes into a man’s mouth from the outside that makes his mind and heart sinful. It is what comes out from the inside that makes him sinful. ¹⁶ You have ears, then listen!”

¹⁷ He went into the house away from all the people. His followers began to ask about the picture-story. ¹⁸ He said to them, “Do you not understand yet? Do you not understand that whatever goes into a man cannot make him sinful? ¹⁹ It does not go into his heart, but into his stomach and then on out of his body.” In this way, He was saying that all food is clean. ²⁰ He said, “Whatever comes out of a man is what makes the man sinful. ²¹ From the inside, out of the heart of men come bad thoughts, sex sins of a married person, sex sins of a person not married, killing other people, ²² stealing, wanting something that belongs to someone else, doing wrong, lying, having a desire for sex sins, having a mind that is always looking for sin, speaking against God, thinking you are better than you are and doing foolish things. ²³ All these bad things come from the inside and make the man sinful.”