Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Giving Thanks to God
63 O God, You are my God. I will look for You with all my heart and strength. My soul is thirsty for You. My flesh is weak wanting You in a dry and tired land where there is no water. 2 So I have seen You in the holy place. And I have seen Your power and Your shining-greatness. 3 My lips will praise You because Your loving-kindness is better than life. 4 So I will give honor to You as long as I live. I will lift up my hands in Your name. 5 My soul will be filled as with rich foods. And my mouth praises You with lips of joy.
6 On my bed I remember You. I think of You through the hours of the night. 7 For You have been my help. And I sing for joy in the shadow of Your wings. 8 My soul holds on to You. Your right hand holds me up.
9 But those who want to take my life and destroy it will go deep into the earth. 10 They will be given over to the power of the sword. They will become food for foxes. 11 But the king will be full of joy in God. All who are faithful to God will be full of joy. For the mouth of those who speak lies will be stopped.
9 Make this known among the nations: Get ready for war! Call your strong men! Gather all the soldiers and let them come up! 10 Beat your plows into swords, and your vine hooks into spears. Let the weak say, “I am a powerful soldier.” 11 Hurry and come, all you nations on every side, and gather yourselves there. Bring down Your men of war, O Lord. 12 Let the nations get ready and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side. 13 Use the long, sharp knife, for the fruit is full-grown. Come and crush the grapes, for the crushing-place is full. They flow over, for their sins are many. 14 Thousands and thousands are in the valley of God’s punishment. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of God’s punishment. 15 The sun and moon become dark, and the stars stop shining. 16 The Lord makes a loud noise from Zion. He lets His voice be heard from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shake. But the Lord is a safe place for His people, a strong place to the sons of Israel.
17 “Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, living in Zion My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will never pass through it again.
God Brings Good to His People
18 “In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine and the hills will flow with milk. All the rivers of Judah will flow with water. And a river will go out from the house of the Lord to water the valley of Shittim. 19 Egypt will be destroyed and Edom will become a desert waste, because of the bad things done to the sons of Judah. They have killed people in the land of Judah who were not guilty of wrong-doing. 20 But people will live in Judah and Jerusalem forever. 21 I will punish the ones who killed them, whom I have not yet punished, for the Lord lives in Zion.”
Jesus Will Come Again in His Shining-Greatness
29 “As soon as those days of trouble and pain and sorrow are over, the sun will get dark. The moon will not give light. The stars will fall from the sky. The powers in the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then something special will be seen in the sky telling of the Son of Man. All nations of the earth will have sorrow. They will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of the sky with power and shining-greatness. 31 He will send His angels with the loud sound of a horn. They will gather God’s people together from the four winds. They will come from one end of the heavens to the other.
The Picture-Story of the Fig Tree
32 “Now learn something from the fig tree. When the branch begins to grow and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 In the same way, when you see all these things happen, you know the Son of Man is near, even at the door. 34 For sure, I tell you, the people of this day will not pass away before all these things have happened.
No One Knows When Jesus Will Come Again
35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.
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