Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 106[a]
Israel’s Confession of Sin and God’s Mercy
1 Alleluia.
Give thanks[b] to the Lord, for he is good;
his kindness endures forever.
2 Who can possibly recount the mighty acts of the Lord
and fully proclaim his praise?[c]
3 Blessed[d] are those who do what is right
and practice justice constantly.
4 Remember me, O Lord, out of the love you have for your people;
come to me with your salvation.[e]
5 Let me delight in the success of your chosen ones,
share in the joy of your nation,
and glory in your heritage.
6 [f]Like our ancestors, we[g] have sinned;
we have gone astray and done evil.
13 [a]But they soon forgot what he had done
and had no confidence in his plan.
14 In the wilderness they yielded to their cravings;
in the wasteland they put God to the test.
15 He gave them everything they wanted
but struck them with a consuming disease.
16 [b]In the camp they grew envious of Moses
and of Aaron, who was consecrated to the Lord.
17 The earth parted and swallowed Dathan
and closed over the company of Abiram.
18 Fire blazed all through them,
and the wicked were consumed in flames.
19 [c]They constructed a calf at Horeb
and worshiped this molten image.
20 They exchanged their Glory[d]
for an image of a bull that eats grass.
21 They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wonders in the land of Ham,[e]
and awesome deeds at the Red Sea.
23 He was contemplating their destruction,
but Moses, his chosen one,
stood in the breach[f] before him
to keep his wrath from destroying them.
15 Pitfalls of Idolatry. Therefore, guard yourselves carefully, for you did not see any kind of form when the Lord spoke to you on Horeb from the midst of the fire. 16 Do not become perverse and make an idol for yourselves of any shape or likeness, whether male or female, 17 whether it be a land animal or a bird that flies in the skies, 18 or like something that crawls on the ground or a fish in the waters beneath the earth. 19 When you look up into the skies and you see the sun and the moon and stars, all the hosts of heaven, do not be enticed to worship and serve the things that the Lord, your God, has assigned to every other nation under the heavens. 20 But as for you, the Lord has chosen you and taken you out from the iron furnace,[a] out of Egypt, to be a people who are his own possession, as you are today.
19 It is a sign of grace if you endure the pain of unjust suffering because of your awareness of God.
20 What credit do you deserve if you are patient when you are beaten for doing wrong? However, if you are patient when you do what is right and suffer for it, you have earned merit with God.
21 [a]This, in fact, is what you have been called to do, because Christ himself suffered for you and left an example for you to follow in his footsteps.
22 He committed no sin,[b]
and no deceit was found on his lips.
23 When he was abused, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats, but he placed his trust in the one who judges justly. 24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live in righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were like sheep who had gone astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.[c]
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