Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
To the Director: On a stringed instrument.[a] A Davidic Psalm.
Divine Glory and Human Dignity
8 Lord, our Lord,
how excellent is your name in all the earth!
You set your glory above the heavens!
2 Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies
you have established strength[b]
on account of your adversaries,
in order to silence the enemy and vengeful foe.
3 When I look at the heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you established—
4 what is man that you take notice of him,
or the son of man[c] that you pay attention to him?
5 You made him a little less than divine,[d]
but you crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You gave him dominion over the work of your hands,
you put all things under his feet:
7 Sheep and cattle—all of them,
wild creatures of the field,
8 birds in the sky,
fish in the sea—
whatever moves through the currents of the oceans.
9 Lord, our Lord,
how excellent is your name in all the earth!
A Covenant with Abimelech
22 About that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, told Abraham, “God is with you in everything that you’re doing. 23 Therefore swear an oath here by God that you won’t deal falsely with me, my sons, or my descendants. Just as I’ve dealt graciously with you, won’t you do so with me and with the land in which you live as a foreigner?”
24 And Abraham replied, “I agree!” 25 But then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech’s servants had seized.
26 “I don’t know who did this thing,” Abimelech replied. “You didn’t report this to me, and I didn’t hear about it until today.”
27 So Abraham took sheep and oxen and presented them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant. 28 Then Abraham set aside seven ewe lambs, 29 so Abimelech asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs that you have set aside?”
30 He replied, “You are to accept from me these seven ewe lambs as a witness that I have dug this well.” 31 Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba, because the two of them swore an oath.[a] 32 So after they had made a covenant in Beer-sheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, left and returned to Philistine territory.
33 Abraham[b] planted a tamarisk tree in Beer-sheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord God Everlasting. 34 After this, Abraham resided as a foreigner in Philistine territory for a long period of time.
The Spirit Gives Life
8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in union with the Messiah[a] Jesus.[b] 2 For the Spirit’s law of life in the Messiah[c] Jesus has set me[d] free from the Law of sin and death. 3 For what the Law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did. By sending his own Son in the form of humanity,[e] he condemned sin by being incarnate, 4 so that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not live according to human nature but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To focus our minds on the human nature leads to death, but to focus our minds on the Spirit leads to life and peace. 7 That is why the mind that focuses on human nature is hostile toward God. It refuses to submit to the authority of God’s Law because it is powerless to do so. 8 Indeed, those who are under the control of human nature cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not under the control of the human nature but under the control of the Spirit, since God’s Spirit lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah,[f] he does not belong to him. 10 But if the Messiah[g] is in you, your bodies are dead due to sin, but the spirit[h] is alive due to righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then the one who raised the Messiah[i] from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive by his Spirit who lives in you.
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