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March 2, 1967

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 107:1-3

Book V—Psalms 107–150^[a]

Psalm 107^[b]

God, Savior of Those in Distress

¹“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
    his kindness^[c] endures forever.”
²Let this be the prayer of the redeemed of the Lord,
    those he redeemed from the hand of the foe
³and gathered together from the lands,^[d]
    from east and west, north and south.

Footnotes

Psalm 107:1 Book V of the Psalter. Two collections are included in this final part: the pilgrimage chants or “Songs of Ascent” (Pss 120–134) and the Hallel or “Praise” psalms (113–118; 120–136; 146–150). In addition, we see a further group of psalms attributed to David (Pss 138–145). Jewish tradition also groups together Pss 113–118, known as the Egyptian Hallel, for use at the Passover. The “hymn” sung at the Last Supper (see Mk 14:26) was probably part of that Hallel.
Although cries of supplication still form part of the prayer of the psalmist, joy begins to radiate upon the face of the pilgrim who draws near to the Lord; the acclamation voiced in the presence of God will transform the conclusion of the Psalter into a prodigious symphony of happiness.
Psalm 107:1 Even though this psalm is not part of Book IV, many believe that it was originally associated with Pss 105–106 and served as a kind of conclusion to the theme-related Pss 104–107. After the account of God’s works in creation (see Ps 104:2-26) and his care for the animal world (see Ps 104:27-30) it recounts “the wonders [God] does for people” (Ps 107:8).
Psalm 107 is a thanksgiving for “God’s deliverances.” Persons in distress have cried out to him and obtained help: wandering voyagers (vv. 4-9), prisoners (vv. 10-16), the sick (vv. 17-22), and the shipwrecked (vv. 23-32). The Lord reverses situations as he pleases (vv. 33-41), but only the believer can discern the divine action. Beneath the concrete life of the era, evoked at times with humor (vv. 26-27 remind us that the Israelites were not very seaworthy), we see the history of the chosen people: the journeys of the Exodus and the Exile, their temptations and their sins.
Visibly the author takes his inspiration from the Book of Consolation (see Isa 40–55) and the writings of the sages (see Job; Wis 16). Thanksgivings that are at first private, ultimately express the gratitude of an entire people. For the believer, the events become signs: they invite him to discover in his life and that of the community of peoples a secret presence of God.
Christians pray this psalm to praise the Father for redeeming us in Christ. We have been saved by him from the hand of the infernal oppressor, gathered by him into the Church, and delivered by his love from the spiritual death to which we were doomed by the state in which Satan bound us and which was symbolized by the image of the wilderness, captivity, sickness, and the storm.
Psalm 107:1 A conventional cry of praise in the liturgy of the temple often cited in the Old Testament (see Pss 106:1; 118:1; 136:1; 1 Chr 16:34; 1 Mac 4:24; Jer 33:11; Dan 3:89). Kindness: see note on Ps 6:5.
Psalm 107:3 From the lands: e.g., Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, and Moab, into which the catastrophe of 587 B.C. had dispersed the chosen people (see 2 Ki 17:6; 24:12-16; Isa 11:11f; 43:5f; Jer 52:28-30). South: literally, “[the] sea.”

Psalm 107:17-22

¹⁷^[a]Some were made foolish by their wicked ways
    and were afflicted because of their iniquities.
¹⁸All types of food became loathsome to them,
    and they were nearing the gates of death.^[b]
¹⁹Then they cried out to the Lord in their anguish,
    and he rescued them from their distress.
²⁰He sent forth his word^[c] and healed them,
    saving them from the grave.
²¹Let them give thanks to the Lord for his kindness
    and for the wonders he does for people.
²²Let them offer sacrifices in thanksgiving
    and recount his deeds with jubilation.

Genesis 9:8-17

Covenant of Mercy.^[a] ⁸God said to Noah and his sons, ⁹“As for me, I will establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, ¹⁰with every living creature along with you—the birds, tame and wild animals, and with all the animals which left the ark. ¹¹I will establish my covenant with you: never again will all living creatures be cut off by the waters of a flood, nor will the earth be laid waste by a flood again.”

¹²God said, “This will be a sign of the covenant that I establish between me and you and every living creature for all generations. ¹³I will place my rainbow in the clouds and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴When I gather the clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds. ¹⁵I will remember my covenant between me and you and with every living creature of every kind, that water and flood shall never again destroy all flesh. ¹⁶The rainbow will be in the clouds and I will look upon it and remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is found upon the earth.”

¹⁷God said to Noah, “This is a sign of the covenant that I am establishing between myself and every creature upon the earth.”

Ephesians 1:3-6

The Risen Christ, Lord and Savior of the Whole Human Race^[a]

God’s Glorious Plan of Salvation^[b]

Conceived by the Father

³Blessed be the God,
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens.
⁴Before the foundation of the world
he chose us in Christ
to be holy and blameless in his sight
and to be filled with love.
⁵He predestined us
for adoption as his children
through Jesus Christ,
in accordance with his purpose and pleasure,
⁶to the praise of the glory
of his grace
that he so freely bestowed on us
in the Beloved.

Footnotes

Ephesians 1:3 The style here becomes solemn and liturgical in the manner of the great Jewish blessings, for the Church is celebrating the plan of God. The stages of the divine plan are set forth in a great movement. To God the Father belongs all the initiative to make human beings his children. Everything is realized “in Christ”: indeed, the whole movement of the universe is oriented toward Christ as an edifice is built on its cornerstone and held up by it. Christ is at the same time the heart and summit, the movement and purpose of history.
He gathers together the whole of humankind, reuniting in the Church both Gentiles (v. 13) and Jews (vv. 11-12), the two groups whose irreconcilable antagonism is the sign of the broken unity of the human family. And all the forces of the universe—notably the “heavenly forces”: i.e., angels or demons, secret powers of fatality or fecundity to whom religions customarily give names—are carried along in this élan of rebirth and accomplishment. The universe is led to peace under the authority of Christ. There is thus a grand meaning to the world and to history!
Henceforth, the gift of the Spirit enables Christians to live by it. Indeed, there is a fulfillment of human beings, an “inheritance,” as the Bible says when it wishes to sum up in a word the blessings promised to believers. The Spirit, who is presently at work in the Church, is the pledge of this inheritance. Since the Resurrection of Jesus, this redeemed universe, i.e., a universe delivered from sin and the Law and placed under God’s plan, is being built up by the life of the Church, by the dynamism of the Gospel.
However, no one can say that any person is predestined either for salvation or for condemnation. When Paul speaks of choosing and placing apart in advance (vv. 5, 11), he simply wishes to indicate that salvation is a grace for all the People of God, that it is the fulfillment of God’s plan.
Ephesians 1:3 These verses form a single sentence in the Greek. In it Paul sets forth the blessings that we have from the Father, then those from the Son, and finally those from the Holy Spirit.

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Book V—Psalms 107–150[a]

Psalm 107[b]

God, Savior of Those in Distress

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

The Risen Christ, Lord and Savior of the Whole Human Race[a]

God’s Glorious Plan of Salvation[b]

Conceived by the Father

Footnotes

Book V—Psalms 107–150^[a]

Psalm 107^[b]

The Risen Christ, Lord and Savior of the Whole Human Race^[a]

God’s Glorious Plan of Salvation^[b]