Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Futility of Boastful Wickedness.
To the Chief Musician. A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem. A Psalm of David, when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”
52 Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
The lovingkindness of God endures all day long.
2
Your tongue devises destruction,
Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully.
3
You love evil more than good,
And falsehood more than speaking what is right. Selah.
4
You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.
5
But God will break you down forever;
He will take you away and tear you away from your tent,
And uproot you from the land of the living. Selah.
6
The righteous will see it and fear,
And will [scoffingly] laugh, saying,
7
“Look, [this is] the man who would not make God his strength [his stronghold and fortress],
But trusted in the abundance of his riches,
Taking refuge in his wealth.”
8
But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;
I trust [confidently] in the lovingkindness of God forever and ever.
9
I will thank You forever, because You have done it, [You have rescued me and kept me safe].
I will wait on Your name, for it is good, in the presence of Your godly ones.
Pharaoh Warned of Assyria’s Fate
31 In the eleventh year [after King Jehoiachin was taken captive to Babylon], in the third month, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his hordes,
‘Whom are you like in your greatness?
3
‘Behold (listen carefully), Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon
With beautiful branches and with forest shade,
And of high stature,
With its top among the clouds.
4
‘The waters nourished it, the deep [underground waters] made it grow tall.
Its rivers ran all around the place where it was planted,
Sending out its streams to all the trees (other nations) of the field.
5
‘Therefore it towered higher than all the trees of the forest
And its boughs multiplied and its branches grew long;
Because there was so much water they spread outward.
6
‘All the birds of the sky made their nests in its twigs,
And under its branches all the animals of the field gave birth [to their young],
And all of the great nations lived under its shadow.
7
‘So it was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches;
For its roots extended [downward] to great waters.
8
‘The cedars in the garden of God could not hide or rival it;
The cypress trees did not have boughs like it,
And the [a]plane trees did not have branches like it.
No tree in the garden of God was like it in its beauty.
9
‘I made it beautiful with the great mass of its branches,
So that all the trees of [b]Eden which were in the garden of God were jealous of it (Assyria).
10 ‘Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Because it is high in stature and has set its top among the thick boughs and the clouds, and its heart is proud of its height,(A) 11 I will [c]hand it over to a mighty one and a mighty one of the nations; he will most certainly deal with it. I have driven it away in accordance with its wickedness. 12 Alien tyrants of the nations have cut it down and left it; its foliage has fallen on the mountains and in all the valleys and its branches have been broken in all the ravines of the land. And all the nations of the earth have come from under its shade and have left it.
11 See with what [a]large letters I [b]am writing to you with my own hand. 12 Those who want to make a good impression in public [before the Jews] try to compel you to be circumcised, just so they will escape being persecuted for [faithfulness to] the cross of Christ. 13 For even the circumcised [Jews] themselves do not [really] keep the Law, but they want to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh [that is, in the fact that they convinced you to be circumcised]. 14 But far be it from me to boast [in anything or anyone], except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither is circumcision anything [of any importance], nor uncircumcision, but [only] a new creation [which is the result of a new birth—a spiritual transformation—a new nature in Christ Jesus]. 16 Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule [who discipline themselves and conduct their lives by this principle], and upon the [true] Israel of God (Jewish believers).(A)
17 From now on let no one trouble me [by making it necessary for me to justify my authority as an apostle, and the absolute truth of the gospel], for I bear on my body the [c]branding-marks of Jesus [the wounds, scars, and other outward evidence of persecutions—these testify to His ownership of me].
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, my [d]brothers and sisters. Amen.
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