Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Book I: Psalms 1–41
1 How blessed are those
who reject the advice of the wicked,
don’t stand on the way of sinners
or sit where scoffers sit!
2 Their delight
is in Adonai’s Torah;
on his Torah they meditate
day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams —
they bear their fruit in season,
their leaves never wither,
everything they do succeeds.
4 Not so the wicked,
who are like chaff driven by the wind.
5 For this reason the wicked
won’t stand up to the judgment,
nor will sinners
at the gathering of the righteous.
6 For Adonai watches over
the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked
is doomed.
23 These also are sayings of the wise:
Showing partiality in judgment is not good.
24 He who tells the guilty, “You are innocent,”
will be cursed by peoples, reviled by nations;
25 but with those who condemn him, things will go well,
and a good blessing will come upon them.
26 Giving an honest answer
is like giving a kiss.
27 Prepare your outside work,
and get things ready for yourself on the land;
after that, build your house.
28 Don’t be a witness against your neighbor for no reason —
would you use your lips to deceive?
29 Don’t say, “I’ll do to him what he did to me,
I’ll pay him back what his deeds deserve.”
30 I passed by the field of the lazy man
and the vineyard of the man lacking sense.
31 There it was, overgrown with thistles;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
32 I looked, and I thought about it;
I saw, and I learned this lesson:
33 “I’ll just lie here a bit, rest a little longer,
just fold my hands for a little more sleep” —
34 and poverty comes marching in on you,
scarcity hits you like an invading soldier.
39 You keep examining the Tanakh because you think that in it you have eternal life. Those very Scriptures bear witness to me, 40 but you won’t come to me in order to have life!
41 “I don’t collect praise from men, 42 but I do know you people — I know that you have no love for God in you! 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t accept me; if someone else comes in his own name, him you will accept. 44 How can you trust? You’re busy collecting praise from each other, instead of seeking praise from God only.
45 “But don’t think that it is I who will be your accuser before the Father. Do you know who will accuse you? Moshe, the very one you have counted on! 46 For if you really believed Moshe, you would believe me; because it was about me that he wrote. 47 But if you don’t believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.