Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹¹ Tell me where you want me to go and I will go there. May every fiber of my being unite in reverence to your name. ¹² With all my heart I will praise you. I will give glory to your name forever, ¹³ for you love me so much! You are constantly so kind! You have rescued me from deepest hell.

¹⁴ O God, proud and insolent men defy me; violent, godless men are trying to kill me. ¹⁵ But you are merciful and gentle, Lord, slow in getting angry, full of constant loving-kindness and of truth; ¹⁶ so look down in pity and grant strength to your servant and save me. ¹⁷ Send me a sign of your favor. When those who hate me see it, they will lose face because you help and comfort me.

¹⁸ Such stupidity and ignorance! God has shut their eyes so that they cannot see and closed their minds from understanding. ¹⁹ The man never stops to think or figure out, “Why, it’s just a block of wood! I’ve burned it for heat and used it to bake my bread and roast my meat. How can the rest of it be a god? Should I fall down before a chunk of wood?” ²⁰ The poor, deluded fool feeds on ashes; he is trusting what can never give him any help at all. Yet he cannot bring himself to ask, “Is this thing, this idol that I’m holding in my hand, a lie?”

¹⁵ “Beware of false teachers who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are wolves and will tear you apart. ¹⁶ You can detect them by the way they act, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit. You need never confuse grapevines with thorn bushes or figs with thistles. ¹⁷ Different kinds of fruit trees can quickly be identified by examining their fruit. ¹⁸ A variety that produces delicious fruit never produces an inedible kind. And a tree producing an inedible kind can’t produce what is good. ¹⁹ So the trees having the inedible fruit are chopped down and thrown on the fire. ²⁰ Yes, the way to identify a tree or a person^[a] is by the kind of fruit produced.