Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Song of Praise

92 It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and sing praises to Your name, O Most High. ² It is good to tell of Your loving-kindness in the morning, and of how faithful You are at night, ³ with harps, and with music of praise. ⁴ For You have made me glad by what You have done, O Lord. I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

⁵ How great are Your works, O Lord! How deep are Your thoughts! ⁶ A man who cannot reason does not have much learning. A fool does not understand this. ⁷ Even if the sinful grow up like grass and all goes well with wrong-doers, they will be destroyed forever. ⁸ But You, O Lord, rule from Your high place forever. ⁹ For, look, those who hate You will be lost from You forever, O Lord. All those who do wrong will be destroyed.

¹⁰ But You have lifted up my horn like that of a wild bull. New oil has been poured upon me. ¹¹ My eyes have seen those who wait to hurt me. My ears hear the bad men who rise up against me. ¹² The man who is right and good will grow like the palm tree. He will grow like a tall tree in Lebanon. ¹³ Planted in the house of the Lord, they will grow well in the home of our God. ¹⁴ They will still give fruit when they are old. They will be full of life and strength. ¹⁵ And they will show that the Lord is faithful. He is my rock. There is nothing in Him that is not right and good.

³ If you live by My Laws and do what I say, ⁴ I will give you rain at the right time. So the land will give its food and the trees will give their fruit. ⁵ The crushing of your grain will last until the grapes are gathered. The grape gathering will last until the seeds are planted. You will eat your food until you are full, and be safe living in your land. ⁶ I will give peace in the land. You will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will make the land free from the danger of wild animals. And no sword will move through your land. ⁷ You will go after those who hate you, and they will fall in front of you by the sword. ⁸ Five of you will go after a hundred. A hundred of you will go after ten thousand. And those who hate you will fall in front of you by the sword. ⁹ I will care for you and give you many children. I will keep My agreement with you. ¹⁰ You will eat last year’s food, and use it all because you will have new. ¹¹ I will make My home among you. My soul will not turn away from you. ¹² I will walk among you and be your God. And you will be My people. ¹³ I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt so you would not be their servants. I have broken loose the heavy load from your back and made you walk straight.

Punishment to Those Who Do Not Obey

¹⁴ ‘But if you do not obey Me and do not do all I say, ¹⁵ if you turn away from My Laws and do not want to do what I tell you to do, and do not do it, and so break My agreement, ¹⁶ I will do this to you: I will bring upon you much fear, disease that destroys, and sickness that will waste away the eyes and make the body weak. You will plant your seeds for nothing, for those who hate you will eat it. ¹⁷ I will turn against you so you will fall in front of those who fight you. Those who hate you will rule over you. You will run away when no one is coming after you. ¹⁸ If after all of these things you still do not obey Me, I will punish you seven times more for your sins. ¹⁹ I will break the pride you have of your power. I will make your sky like iron and your earth like brass. ²⁰ You will use your strength for nothing. For your land will not give food, and the trees of the land will not give fruit.

Paul Tells Them to Live Holy Lives

4 Christian brothers, we ask you, because of the Lord Jesus, to keep on living in a way that will please God. I have already told you how to grow in the Christian life. ² The Lord Jesus gave us the right and the power to tell you what to do. ³ God wants you to be holy. You must keep away from sex sins. ⁴ God wants each of you to use his body in the right way by keeping it holy and by respecting it. ⁵ You should not use it to please your own desires like the people who do not know God. ⁶ No man should do wrong to his Christian brother in anything. The Lord will punish a person who does. I have told you this before. ⁷ For God has not called us to live in sin. He has called us to live a holy life. ⁸ The one who turns away from this teaching does not turn away from man, but from God. It is God Who has given us His Holy Spirit.