Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Mem
Loving God’s Word
97 How I love your instruction![a]
Every day it is my meditation.
98 Your commands make me wiser than my adversaries,
since they are always with me.
99 I am more insightful than my teachers,
because your decrees are my meditations.
100 I have more common sense than the elders,
for I observe your precepts.
101 I keep away from every evil choice[b]
so that I may keep your word.[c]
102 I do not avoid your judgments,
for you pointed them out to me.
103 How pleasing is what you have to say to me—
tasting better than honey.
104 I obtain understanding from your precepts;
therefore I hate every false way.
God is Exalted
10 “Now I’ll rise up,” the Lord has said,[a]
“now I’ll exalt myself;
now I’ll be lifted up.
11 You conceive dried grass, you give birth to stubble;
your breath is a fire that will consume you.
12 And the peoples will be burned as if to ashes;
like cut thorn bushes, they will be set ablaze.
13 “Those who are far away have heard[b] what I’ve done;
and those that are near have acknowledged[c] my power.
14 The sinners in Zion are terrified;
trembling grips the godless:
“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?
Who among us can live with everlasting flames?”
15 The one who walks righteously and has spoken[d] sincere words,
who rejects gain from extortion
and waves his hand,
rejecting bribes,
who blocks his ears from hearing plots of murder
and shuts his eyes against seeing evil—
16 this is the one who will live on the heights;
his refuge will be a mountain fortress.
His food will be supplied,
and his water will be guaranteed.
16 “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. I have appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last,[a] so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 17 I am giving you these commandments so that you may love one another.”
The World’s Hatred
18 “If the world hates you, you should realize that it hated me before you. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as one of its own. But because you do not belong to the world and I have chosen you out of it,[b] the world hates you. 20 Remember what 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 also keep yours. 21 They will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.
22 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have any sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 The person who hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I hadn’t done among them the actions that no one else did, they wouldn’t have any sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But this happened so that[c] what has been written in their Law might be fulfilled: ‘They hated me for no reason.’[d]
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