Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 123[a]
Reliance on the Lord
1 A song of ascents.
To you I raise my eyes,
to you enthroned in heaven.(A)
2 Yes, like the eyes of servants
on the hand of their masters,
Like the eyes of a maid
on the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes are on the Lord our God,
till we are shown favor.
3 Show us favor, Lord, show us favor,
for we have our fill of contempt.(B)
4 Our souls are more than sated
with mockery from the insolent,
with contempt from the arrogant.
Abuses in Worship. 16 You, now, must not intercede for this people! Do not raise a cry or prayer in their behalf!(A) Do not press me, for I will not listen to you! 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, their fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven,[a] while libations are poured out to other gods—all to offend me!(B) 19 Are they really offending me—oracle of the Lord—or rather themselves, to their own disgrace?(C) 20 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: my anger and my wrath will pour out upon this place, upon human being and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruits of the earth; it will burn and not be quenched.(D)
21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Heap your burnt offerings upon your sacrifices; eat up the meat! 22 In speaking to your ancestors on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I gave them no command[b] concerning burnt offering or sacrifice. 23 This rather is what I commanded them: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk exactly in the way I command you, so that you may prosper.(E)
24 But they did not listen to me, nor did they pay attention. They walked in the stubbornness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me.(F) 25 From the day that your ancestors left the land of Egypt even to this day, I kept on sending all my servants the prophets to you.(G) 26 Yet they have not listened to me nor have they paid attention; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their ancestors.(H)
7 (A)Look at what confronts you. Whoever is confident of belonging to Christ should consider that as he belongs to Christ, so do we.[a] 8 (B)And even if I should boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down, I shall not be put to shame. 9 [b]May I not seem as one frightening you through letters. 10 For someone will say, “His letters are severe and forceful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.”(C) 11 Such a person must understand that what we are in word through letters when absent, that we also are in action when present.(D)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.