Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 130
A pilgrimage song.
130 I cry out to you from the depths, Lord—
2 my Lord, listen to my voice!
Let your ears pay close attention to my request for mercy!
3 If you kept track of sins, Lord—
my Lord, who would stand a chance?
4 But forgiveness is with you—
that’s why you are honored.
5 I hope, Lord.
My whole being[a] hopes,
and I wait for God’s promise.
6 My whole being waits for my Lord—
more than the night watch waits for morning;
yes, more than the night watch waits for morning!
7 Israel, wait for the Lord!
Because faithful love is with the Lord;
because great redemption is with our God!
8 He is the one who will redeem Israel
from all its sin.
Hezekiah rules
29 Hezekiah became king when he was 25 years old, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Abijah; she was Zechariah’s daughter. 2 He did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, just as his ancestor David had done. 3 In the very first year of his rule, during the first month, Hezekiah reopened the doors of the Lord’s temple, having repaired them. 4 Then he brought in the priests and Levites and assembled them in the eastern square.
5 “Listen to me, you Levites!” he said. “Make yourselves holy so you can make holy the temple of the Lord God of your ancestors by removing from the sanctuary any impure thing. 6 Our ancestors were unfaithful and did what was evil in the Lord our God’s eyes. They abandoned him, they ignored the Lord’s dwelling, and they defied him. 7 They even closed the doors of the entrance hall, snuffed out the lamps, and stopped burning incense and offering entirely burned offerings in the sanctuary of the God of Israel. 8 This angered the Lord so much that he made Judah and Jerusalem an object of terror and horror, something people hiss at, as you can see with your own eyes. 9 That’s why our ancestors died violent deaths, while our sons, daughters, and wives were taken captive. 10 But now I intend to make a covenant with the Lord, Israel’s God, so God will no longer be angry with us. 11 Don’t be careless, my sons! The Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence to serve him, so that you can be his servants and burn incense to him.”
12 Then the following Levites got up:
from the descendants of the Kohathites: Mahath, Amasai’s son, and Joel, Azariah’s son;
from the descendants of Merari: Kish, Abdi’s son, and Azariah, Jehallelel’s son;
from the Gershonites: Joah, Zimmah’s son, and Eden, Joah’s son;
13 from the descendants of Elizaphan: Shimri and Jeuel;
from the descendants of Asaph: Zechariah and Mattaniah;
14 from the descendants of Heman: Jehuel and Shimei;
and from the descendants of Jeduthun: Shemaiah and Uzziel.
15 These men gathered their relatives, made themselves holy, and went in to purify the Lord’s temple by obeying the king’s command as the Lord had told him. 16 The priests went in to purify the inner portion of the Lord’s temple. They brought out to the courtyard of the Lord’s temple all the impurities they discovered inside. Then the Levites took them out to the Kidron Valley. 17 They began to make things holy on the first day of the first month.[a] On the eighth day of the month they reached the Lord’s entrance hall. They made holy the Lord’s temple for eight days, finishing on the sixteenth day of the first month.
18 Then they went before King Hezekiah. “We have purified the Lord’s entire temple,” they said, “and the altar for the entirely burned offering together with all its equipment, and the table for the stacks of bread together with all its equipment. 19 We have also restored and made holy all the items King Ahaz threw out during his rule in his unfaithfulness. They are now before the Lord’s altar.”
Works versus the Spirit
3 You irrational Galatians! Who put a spell on you? Jesus Christ was put on display as crucified before your eyes! 2 I just want to know this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the Law or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so irrational? After you started with the Spirit, are you now finishing up with your own human effort? 4 Did you experience so much for nothing? I wonder if it really was for nothing. 5 So does the one providing you with the Spirit and working miracles among you do this by you doing the works of the Law or by you believing what you heard?
Abraham: an example of righteousness
6 Understand that in the same way that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness,[a] 7 those who believe are the children of Abraham. 8 But when it saw ahead of time that God would make the Gentiles righteous on the basis of faith, scripture preached the gospel in advance to Abraham: All the Gentiles will be blessed in you.[b] 9 Therefore, those who believe are blessed together with Abraham who believed.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible