Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Psalm by David.
23 Yahweh is my shepherd;
I shall lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul.
He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil.
My cup runs over.
6 Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in Yahweh’s house forever.
10 Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel! 2 Yahweh says,
“Don’t learn the way of the nations,
and don’t be dismayed at the signs of the sky;
for the nations are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity;
for one cuts a tree out of the forest,
the work of the hands of the workman with the ax.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold.
They fasten it with nails and with hammers,
so that it can’t move.
5 They are like a palm tree, of turned work,
and don’t speak.
They must be carried,
because they can’t move.
Don’t be afraid of them;
for they can’t do evil,
neither is it in them to do good.”
6 There is no one like you, Yahweh.
You are great,
and your name is great in might.
7 Who shouldn’t fear you,
King of the nations?
For it belongs to you.
Because among all the wise men of the nations,
and in all their royal estate,
there is no one like you.
8 But they are together brutish and foolish,
instructed by idols!
It is just wood.
9 There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish,
and gold from Uphaz,
the work of the engraver and of the hands of the goldsmith.
Their clothing is blue and purple.
They are all the work of skillful men.
10 But Yahweh is the true God.
He is the living God,
and an everlasting King.
At his wrath, the earth trembles.
The nations aren’t able to withstand his indignation.
11 “You shall say this to them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’”
12 God has made the earth by his power.
He has established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens.
13 When he utters his voice,
the waters in the heavens roar,
and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightnings for the rain,
and brings the wind out of his treasuries.
14 Every man has become brutish and without knowledge.
Every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image;
for his molten image is falsehood,
and there is no breath in them.
15 They are vanity, a work of delusion.
In the time of their visitation they will perish.
16 The portion of Jacob is not like these;
for he is the maker of all things;
and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.
Yahweh of Armies is his name.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. 18 He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19 For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
21 You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, 22 yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him, 23 if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
by Public Domain. The name "World English Bible" is trademarked.