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.

28 “Be faithful in obeying the Lord your God. Be careful to keep all His Laws which I tell you today. And the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ² All these good things will come upon you if you will obey the Lord your God. ³ Good will come to you in the city, and good will come to you in the country. ⁴ Good will come to your children, and the fruit of your ground, and the young of your animals. Your cattle and flock will have many young ones. ⁵ Good will come to your basket and your bread pan. ⁶ Good will come to you when you come in, and when you go out.

⁷ “The Lord will cause you to win the battles against those who fight against you. They will come against you one way, and run away from you seven ways. ⁸ The Lord will send good upon you in your store-houses and in all your work. He will bring good to you in the land the Lord your God gives you. ⁹ The Lord will make you a holy nation to Himself, as He promised you. But you must keep the Laws of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰ Then all the nations of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord and they will be afraid of you. ¹¹ The Lord will give much to you. He will give you many children, and many young ones among your animals, and much food from the ground, in the land the Lord promised to your fathers to give you. ¹² The Lord will open for you His good store-house, the heavens. He will give rain to your land at the right time. He will bring good to all the work you do. You will give to many nations. But you will not use anything that belongs to them. ¹³ The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. If you listen to the Laws of the Lord your God which I tell you today and be careful to obey them, you will only be above and not below. ¹⁴ Do not turn aside from any of the words I tell you today, to the right or to the left. Do not follow other gods and work for them.

The Old and the New Life

¹⁷ I tell you this in the name of the Lord: You must not live any longer like the people of the world who do not know God. Their thoughts are foolish. ¹⁸ Their minds are in darkness. They are strangers to the life of God. This is because they have closed their minds to Him and have turned their hearts away from Him. ¹⁹ They do not care anymore about what is right or wrong. They have turned themselves over to the sinful ways of the world and are always wanting to do every kind of sinful act they can think of.

²⁰ But you did not learn anything like this from Christ. ²¹ If you have heard of Him and have learned from Him, ²² put away the old person you used to be. Have nothing to do with your old sinful life. It was sinful because of being fooled into following bad desires. ²³ Let your minds and hearts be made new. ²⁴ You must become a new person and be God-like. Then you will be made right with God and have a true holy life.

²⁵ So stop lying to each other. Tell the truth to your neighbor. We all belong to the same body. ²⁶ If you are angry, do not let it become sin. Get over your anger before the day is finished. ²⁷ Do not let the devil start working in your life. ²⁸ Anyone who steals must stop it! He must work with his hands so he will have what he needs and can give to those who need help. ²⁹ Watch your talk! No bad words should be coming from your mouth. Say what is good. Your words should help others grow as Christians. ³⁰ Do not make God’s Holy Spirit have sorrow for the way you live. The Holy Spirit has put a mark on you for the day you will be set free. ³¹ Put out of your life all these things: bad feelings about other people, anger, temper, loud talk, bad talk which hurts other people, and bad feelings which hurt other people. ³² You must be kind to each other. Think of the other person. Forgive other people just as God forgave you because of Christ’s death on the cross.

5 Do as God would do. Much-loved children want to do as their fathers do. ² Live with love as Christ loved you. He gave Himself for us, a gift on the altar to God which was as a sweet smell to God.