Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Mem.
97
Oh, how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.(A)
98
Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
For Your words are always with me.
99
I have better understanding and deeper insight than all my teachers [because of Your word],
For Your testimonies are my meditation.(B)
100
I understand more than the aged [who have not observed Your precepts],
Because I have observed and kept Your precepts.
101
I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
That I may keep Your word.(C)
102
I have not turned aside from Your ordinances,
For You Yourself have taught me.
103
How sweet are Your words to my taste,
Sweeter than honey to my mouth!(D)
104
From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.
10
“Now I will arise,” says the Lord.
“Now I will be exalted; now I will be lifted up.
11
“You have conceived dried grass, you will give birth to stubble;
My breath is a fire that will consume you.
12
“The peoples will be burned to lime,
Like thorns cut down which are burned in the fire.
13
“You who are far away, hear what I have done;
And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”
14
The sinners in Zion are terrified;
Trembling has seized the godless.
[They cry] “Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
Who among us can live with everlasting burning?”
15
He who walks righteously and speaks with integrity,
Who rejects gain from fraud and from oppression,
Who shakes his hand free from the taking of bribes,
Who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed
And shuts his eyes to avoid looking upon evil;
16
He will dwell on the heights,
His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks,
His bread will be given him;
His water will be permanent.
16 You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name [as My representative] He may give to you. 17 This [is what] I command you: that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another.
Disciples’ Relation to the World
18 “If the world hates you [and it does], know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love [you as] its own and would treat you with affection. But you are not of the world [you no longer belong to it], but I have chosen you out of the world. And because of this the world hates you. 20 Remember [and continue to remember] that I told you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But they will do all these [hurtful] things to you for My name’s sake [because you bear My name and are identified with Me], for they do not know the One who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have [the guilt of their] sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 The one who hates Me also hates My Father. 24 If I had not done among them the works (attesting miracles) which no one else [ever] did, they would not have [the guilt of their] sin; but now [the fact is that] they have both seen [these works] and have hated Me [and continue to hate Me] and My Father as well. 25 But [this is so] that the word which has been written in their Law would be fulfilled, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’(A)
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