Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul:
he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:
thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
10 Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: 2 thus saith the Lord,
Learn not the way of the heathen,
and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven;
for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people are vain:
for one cutteth a tree out of the forest,
the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold;
they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not:
they must needs be borne, because they cannot go.
Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil,
neither also is it in them to do good.
6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord;
thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
7 Who would not fear thee, O King of nations?
for to thee doth it appertain:
forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations,
and in all their kingdoms,
there is none like unto thee.
8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish:
the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish,
and gold from Uphaz,
the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder:
blue and purple is their clothing:
they are all the work of cunning men.
10 But the Lord is the true God,
he is the living God, and an everlasting king:
at his wrath the earth shall tremble,
and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
11 Thus shall ye say unto them,
The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth,
even they shall perish from the earth,
and from under these heavens.
12 He hath made the earth by his power,
he hath established the world by his wisdom,
and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
13 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens,
and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth;
he maketh lightnings with rain,
and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge:
every founder is confounded by the graven image:
for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
15 They are vanity, and the work of errors:
in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
16 The portion of Jacob is not like them:
for he is the former of all things;
and Israel is the rod of his inheritance:
The Lord of hosts is his name.
15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16 for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17 and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 20 and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled 22 in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: 23 if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
KJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK.