Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Book 1
Psalms 1—41
Two Ways to Live
1 Happy is the person who doesn’t listen to the wicked.
He doesn’t go where sinners go.
He doesn’t do what bad people do.
2 He loves the Lord’s teachings.
He thinks about those teachings day and night.
3 He is strong, like a tree planted by a river.
It produces fruit in season.
Its leaves don’t die.
Everything he does will succeed.
4 But wicked people are not like that.
They are like useless chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 So the wicked will not escape God’s punishment.
Sinners will not worship God with good people.
6 This is because the Lord protects good people.
But the wicked will be destroyed.
More Words of Wisdom
23 These are also wise sayings:
It is not good to take sides when you are the judge.
24 Don’t say that the wicked have done right.
People will curse you, and nations will hate you.
25 But things will go well for judges who punish the guilty.
And they will receive good things from God.
26 An honest answer is as pleasing
as a kiss on the lips.
27 First, you should work outside
and prepare your fields.
After that, you can start having your family.
28 Don’t testify against your neighbor for no good reason.
Don’t say things that are false.
29 Don’t say, “I’ll get even with that man.
I’ll do to him what he did to me.”
30 I passed by a lazy person’s field.
I went by the vineyard of a man who had no sense.
31 Thorns had grown up everywhere.
The ground was covered with weeds.
And the stone walls had fallen down.
32 I thought about what I had seen.
I learned this lesson from what I saw.
33 You sleep a little; you take a nap.
You fold your hands and rest.
34 Soon you will be poor, as if you had been robbed.
You will have as little as if you had been held up.
39 You carefully study the Scriptures because you think that they give you eternal life. Those are the same Scriptures that tell about me! 40 But you refuse to come to me to have that life.
41 “I don’t want praise from men. 42 But I know you—I know that you don’t have God’s love in you. 43 I have come from my Father—I speak for him. But you don’t accept me. But when another person comes, speaking only for himself, you will accept him. 44 You like to have praise from each other. But you never try to get the praise that comes from the only God. So how can you believe? 45 Don’t think that I will stand before the Father and say that you are wrong. Moses is the one who says that you are wrong. And he is the one that you hoped would save you. 46 If you really believed Moses, you would believe me because Moses wrote about me. 47 But you don’t believe what Moses wrote. So how can you believe what I say?”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.