Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
96 Sing a new song[a] to the Lord!
Let the whole world sing to the Lord!
2 Sing to the Lord and praise his name!
Tell the good news every day about how he saves us!
3 Tell all the nations how wonderful he is!
Tell people everywhere about the amazing things he does.
4 The Lord is great and worthy of praise.
He is more awesome than any of the “gods.”
5 All the “gods” in other nations are nothing but statues,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 He lives in the presence of glory and honor.
His Temple is a place of power and beauty.
7 Praise the Lord, all people of every nation;
praise the Lord’s glory and power.
8 Give the Lord praise worthy of his glory!
Come, bring your offerings into his courtyard.
9 Worship the Lord in all his holy beauty.
Everyone on earth should tremble before him.
10 Tell the nations that the Lord is King!
The world stands firm and cannot be moved.
He will judge all people fairly.
11 Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be happy!
Let the sea and everything in it shout for joy!
12 Let the fields and everything in them be happy!
Let the trees in the forest sing for joy
13 when they see the Lord coming!
He is coming to rule[a] the world.
He will rule all the nations of the world
with justice and fairness.
Micah’s Idols
17 There was a man named Micah who lived in the hill country of Ephraim. 2 Micah said to his mother, “Do you remember that someone stole 28 pounds[a] of silver from you? I heard you say a curse about that. Well, I have the silver. I took it.”
His mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son.”
3 Micah gave the 28 pounds of silver back to his mother. Then she said, “I will give this silver as a special gift to the Lord. I will give it to my son so that he can make a statue and cover it with the silver. So now, son, I give the silver back to you.”
4 But Micah gave the silver back to his mother. So she took about 5 pounds[b] of the silver and gave them to a silversmith.[c] He used the silver to make a statue covered with silver. The statue was put in Micah’s house. 5 Micah had a temple for worshiping idols. He made an ephod[d] and some house idols. Then Micah chose one of his sons to be his priest. 6 (At that time the Israelites did not have a king, so everyone did what they thought was right.)
9 I wrote a letter to the church, but Diotrephes will not listen to what we say. He always wants to be the leader. 10 When I come, I will talk with him about what he is doing. He lies and says evil things about us, but that is not all. He refuses to welcome and help the believers who travel there. And he will not let others help them. If they do, he stops them from meeting with the church anymore.
11 My dear friend, don’t follow what is bad; follow what is good. Whoever does what is good is from God. But whoever does evil has never known God.
12 Everyone says good things about Demetrius, and the truth agrees with what they say. Also, we say good about him. And you know that what we say is true.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International