Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
12 How blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as his own inheritance.
13 When the Lord looks down from heaven,
he observes every human being.
14 From his dwelling place,
he looks down on all the inhabitants of the earth.
15 He formed the hearts of them all;
he understands everything they do.
16 A king is not saved by a large army;
a mighty soldier is not delivered by his great strength.
17 It is vain to trust in a horse for deliverance,
even with its great strength, it cannot deliver.
18 Indeed, the Lord watches those who fear him;
those who trust in his gracious love
19 to deliver them from death;
to keep them alive in times of famine.
20 We wait on the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
21 Indeed, our heart will rejoice in him,
because we have placed our trust in his holy name.
22 Lord, may your gracious love be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
Humans in the Garden
4 These are the records of the universe at its[a] creation. On the day that the Lord God made the universe,[b] 5 no shrubs had yet grown in the meadows of the earth and no vegetation had sprouted,[c] because the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there were no human beings[d] to work the ground. 6 Instead, an underground stream[e] would arise out of the earth and water the surface of the ground. 7 So the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground, breathed life into his lungs,[f] and the man became a living being.
42 This is how it will be at the resurrection of the dead. What is planted is decaying, what is raised cannot decay. 43 The body[a] is planted in a state of dishonor but is raised in a state of splendor. It is planted in weakness but is raised in power. 44 It is planted a physical body but is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.[b]
45 This, indeed, is what is written: “The first man, Adam, became a living being.”[c] The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual does not come first, but the physical does, and then comes the spiritual. 47 The first man came from the dust of the earth; the second man came from heaven. 48 Those who are made of the dust are like the man from the dust; those who are heavenly are like the man who is from heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the likeness of the man who was made from dust, we will[d] also bear the likeness of the man from heaven.
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