◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 103:1-13 22 (God’s compassion and mercy); Ezekiel 16:1-14 (God’s people like a beloved bride); Romans 3:1-8 (The faithfulness of God) (New Catholic Bible)

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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 103:1-13

Psalm 103^[a]

Praise of God’s Providence

¹Of David.

Bless the Lord, O my soul;^[b]
    my entire being, bless his holy name.
²Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and do not forget all his benefits.
³He forgives all your sins
    and heals all your diseases.^[c]
⁴He redeems^[d] your life from the pit
    and crowns you with kindness and mercy.
⁵He satisfies your years with good things
    and renews your youth like an eagle’s.^[e]
⁶The Lord performs acts of righteousness
    and administers justice for all who are oppressed.
⁷^[f]He made known his ways^[g] to Moses,
    his wondrous deeds to the people of Israel.
⁸^[h]The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
⁹He will not always rebuke,
    nor will he remain angry forever.
¹⁰He does not treat us as our sins deserve
    or repay us according to our offenses.
¹¹As high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his kindness toward those who fear him.^[i]
¹²As far as the east is from the west,
    so far has he removed our transgressions from us.^[j]
¹³^[k]As a father has compassion for his children,
    so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.

Footnotes

Psalm 103:1 In its literary construction and sublime concepts, this psalm is one of the most pure and joyous of the Psalter. Healed of a grave sickness that he considers to have been caused by sin, the psalmist regards this cure doubled by God’s pardon as a privileged experience of the love of the Lord. By this favor, God has shown his love for the psalmist in concrete fashion, thus powerfully confirming for him the revelation he made of this love to Israel through the Exodus and to Moses in the meeting on Sinai.
God’s love is boundless for the righteous and magnanimous for sinners, disconcerting for the ephemeral creatures that we are and long-suffering to the point of extending to the far-off descendants of his faithful ones. Such is the love of the infinite God whose name is holy, whose throne is in heaven, and whose reign is eternal. He is the Father who will reveal Jesus and whose ineffable goodness Paul will proclaim (see 1 Cor 2:9). We can thus understand how right the psalmist is in calling upon heaven itself to celebrate such a God.
The signal corporal and spiritual cure obtained by the psalmist constitutes only a pale figure of the Resurrection that definitively snatches Jesus from corporal death and the sinful world and shows him his Father’s love with incomparable force. By sharing in the Resurrection of Christ through the sacraments, Christians discover that “God is love” in an experience derived from that of Christ and far superior to that of the psalmist. In all truth, every Christian can recite this psalm to praise the God who is love.
Psalm 103:1 Soul: see note on Ps 6:4. Name: see note on Ps 5:12.
Psalm 103:3 Following the Old Testament understanding, the psalmist considers sufferings as the punishment for sin (see Ps 41:5; Ex 15:26).
Psalm 103:4 Redeems: i.e., “delivers.” Pit: i.e., the grave (see note on Ps 30:2).
Psalm 103:5 Like an eagle’s: because of its acknowledged long span of life, which at times reaches one hundred years, the eagle was regarded as a symbol of perennial youth and vigor (see Isa 40:31). It was thought that when an eagle became old and its eyes grew dim, it flew toward the sun, so that the film was burned away from its eyes and its plumage was renewed by the sun’s scorching rays.
Psalm 103:7 God made known his ways to Moses on Mount Sinai, telling him that his attitude toward human beings and his great works find their inspiration in his loving kindness. Passing mysteriously before Moses, God cried out: “The Lord, the Lord, a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and fidelity, who shows mercy to thousands. He forgives iniquity and transgression and sin, but will by no means forgive the iniquity of the fathers, visiting it upon their sons and their sons’ sons, to the third and fourth generation” (Ex 34:6f).
Psalm 103:7 His ways: see note on Ps 25:10.
Psalm 103:8 God pardons sinners who repent, a truth often affirmed (see Pss 86:15; 145:8; Ex 34:6; Neh 9:17; Isa 57:16; Jer 3:12; Joel 2:13; Jon 4:2). Kindness: see note on Ps 6:5.
Psalm 103:11 Kindness: see note on 6:5. Those who fear him: see note on Ps 15:2-5.
Psalm 103:12 God places a huge gulf between his faithful and their sins, extending, as it were, from one end of the earth to the other (see Isa 1:18; 43:25; Jer 31:34; 50:20; Mic 7:18f).
Psalm 103:13 What an amazing condescension on the part of God’s love. Although he is well aware that we are fragile and ephemeral creatures who, like grass or flowers, are carried off by the slightest breeze, God keeps in his love the whole lives of his servants. He presents a just account of their merits and blesses their descendants who are faithful to his covenant.

Psalm 103:22

²²Bless the Lord, all his works,
everywhere in his domain.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.^[a]

Ezekiel 16:1-14

Chapter 16^[a]

The Unfaithful Wife. ¹This word of the Lord was addressed to me: ²Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominable practices. ³Say to her: Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: By origin and birth, you belong to Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and your mother was a Hittite.

⁴As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut. You were neither bathed in water, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling clothes. ⁵No one took pity on you or did any of these deeds out of compassion for you. Rather, you were thrown out into an open field, for you were regarded as something loathsome on the day you were born.

⁶Then I passed by and saw you kicking helplessly in your blood. I said to you as you lay there in your blood, “Live, ⁷and grow like a plant of the field.” You grew up and developed and reached the stage of full womanhood. Your breasts had formed and your hair had grown, but you were still naked and exposed.

⁸I passed by you again and saw that you were old enough for love. I spread the edge of my cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I swore an oath to you and made a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became mine. ⁹Then I bathed you in water, washed away the blood from your body, and anointed you with oil.

¹⁰After this, I clothed you with embroidered gowns and sandals of fine leather, as well as with a linen headband and a silk cloak. ¹¹I adorned you with jewels: bracelets for your arms, a chain around your neck, ¹²a ring in your nose, pendants for your ears, and a beautiful crown for your head.

¹³Thus, you were adorned with gold and silver, and your garments were of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. Fine flour, honey, and oil were your food. You grew exceedingly beautiful, fit to be a queen. ¹⁴You were renowned among the nations because of your beauty, since it was perfect because of the splendor I had bestowed upon you, says the Lord God.

Romans 3:1-8

Chapter 3

The Value of Judaism. ¹Is there any advantage, therefore, in being a Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? ²A great deal in every respect. In the first place, they were entrusted with the words of God. ³What if some were unfaithful? Will their lack of faith nullify the fidelity of God? ⁴By no means! God must be true even if every human being is a liar,^[a] as it is written,

“That you may be justified in your words,
and vindicated when you are judged.”

⁵But if our wickedness serves to confirm the righteousness of God, what are we to say? Is God unjust (I speak of him in human terms) to bring retribution upon us? ⁶Of course not! For that would imply that God could not judge the world. ⁷But if, as a result of my falsehood, God demonstrates his truthfulness, to his greater glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? ⁸And why not say, as some people slanderously accuse us of proposing, “Let us do evil so that good may result”? Such people deserve their condemnation.

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 103[a]

Praise of God’s Providence

Footnotes

Footnotes

Chapter 16[a]

Footnotes

Chapter 3

Footnotes

Psalm 103^[a]

Chapter 16^[a]