Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

MEM.

⁹⁷ ¶ O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

⁹⁸ ¶ Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are eternal unto me.

⁹⁹ I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies have been my meditation.

¹⁰⁰ I understand more than the elders because I keep thy precepts.

¹⁰¹ ¶ I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.

¹⁰² ¶ I have not departed from thy judgments, for thou hast taught me.

¹⁰³ ¶ How sweet have been thy spoken words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

¹⁰⁴ Through thy precepts I have obtained understanding; therefore I have hated every false way.

¹⁶ But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their necks and did not hearken unto thy commandments

¹⁷ and refused to hear; neither did they remember thy wonders that thou hadst done among them, but hardened their necks and in their rebellion thought to appoint a leader to return to their bondage; but thou art a God of pardons, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great mercy, for thou didst not leave them.

¹⁸ Even when they had made themselves a molten calf and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had committed great abominations;

¹⁹ yet thou in thy manifold mercies didst not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither did the pillar of fire by night, to illuminate the way in which they should go.

²⁰ Thou didst give thy good spirit to teach them and didst not withhold thy manna from their mouth and didst give them water for their thirst.

²¹ Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness so that they lacked nothing; their clothes did not wax old, and their feet did not swell.

²² Thou didst give them kingdoms and peoples and didst divide them into corners; so they possessed the land of Sihon and the land of the king of Heshbon and the land of Og, king of Bashan.

²³ Thou didst multiply their sons as the stars of heaven and didst introduce them into the land, concerning which thou hadst promised to their fathers, that they should go in to inherit it.

²⁴ So the sons came in and possessed the land, and thou didst humble the inhabitants of the land before them, the Canaanites, and didst give them into their hand, with their kings and the peoples of the land, that they might do with them as they would.

²⁵ And they took strong cities and fertile land and inherited houses full of all goods, hewn cisterns, vineyards and oliveyards and many trees of good fruit; so they ate and were filled and became fat and delighted themselves in thy great goodness.

²⁶ Nevertheless, they were contentious and rebelled against thee and cast thy law behind their backs and slew thy prophets who testified against them to turn them to thee, and they wrought great abominations.

²⁷ Therefore, thou didst deliver them into the hand of their enemies, who afflicted them; and in the time of their tribulation, they cried unto thee, thou didst hear them from the heavens; and according to thy manifold mercies thou didst give them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.

²⁸ But after they had rest, they did evil again before thee; therefore, thou didst leave them in the hand of their enemies so that they had the dominion over them; yet when they returned and cried unto thee, thou didst hear them from the heavens; and many times didst thou deliver them according to thy mercies

²⁹ and didst protest unto them, that they return unto thy law; yet they dealt proudly and did not hearken unto thy commandments, but sinned against thy judgments (which if a man shall do, in them he shall live) and withdrew the shoulder and hardened their neck and would not hear.

³⁰ Yet many years didst thou forbear them and didst protest against them with thy spirit by the hand of thy prophets; yet they did not hear; therefore, thou didst give them into the hand of the peoples of the land.

³¹ Nevertheless, for thy great mercies’ sake thou didst not utterly consume them nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.

²¹ But that ye also may know my affairs and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, shall make known to you all things,

²² whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs and that he might comfort your hearts.

²³ Peace be to the brethren and charity with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

²⁴ Grace be with all those that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption. Amen.