Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

124 “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side”—now may Israel say—

² “if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us,

³ then would they have swallowed us up alive when their wrath was kindled against us;

⁴ then would the waters have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul;

⁵ then the proud waters would have gone over our soul.”

⁶ Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.

⁷ Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

⁸ Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

7 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

² Keep my commandments and live, and my law as the apple of thine eye.

³ Bind them upon thy fingers; write them upon the tablet of thine heart.

⁴ Say unto wisdom, “Thou art my sister,” and call understanding thy kinswoman,

⁷ But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

⁸ Therefore He saith, “When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”

⁹ (Now the saying, “He ascended” — what does it mean but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

¹⁰ He that descended is the same who also ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.)

¹¹ And He gave some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,

¹² for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ,

¹³ until we all come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

¹⁴ that we henceforth be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and their cunning and craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

¹⁵ but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things, who is the Head, even Christ,

¹⁶ from whom the whole body, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.