Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 123

A Song of ^[a]Ascents.

¹ Unto You do I lift up my eyes, O You Who are enthroned in heaven.

² Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, and as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He has mercy and loving-kindness for us.

³ Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on and loving-kindness for us, for we are exceedingly satiated with contempt.

⁴ Our life is exceedingly filled with the scorning and scoffing of those who are at ease and with the contempt of the proud (irresponsible tyrants who disregard God’s law).

25 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

² Dominion and fear are with [God]; He makes peace in His high places.

³ Is there any number to His armies? And upon whom does not His light arise?

⁴ How then can man be justified and righteous before God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be pure and clean?^(A)

⁵ Behold, even the moon has no brightness [compared to God’s glory] and the stars are not pure in His sight—

⁶ How much less man, who is a maggot! And a son of man, who is a worm!

26 But Job answered,

² How you have helped him who is without power! How you have sustained the arm that is without strength!

³ How you have counseled him who has no wisdom! And how plentifully you have declared to him sound knowledge!

⁴ With whose assistance have you uttered these words? And whose spirit [inspired what] came forth from you?

⁵ The shades of the dead tremble underneath the waters and their inhabitants.

⁶ Sheol (the place of the dead) is naked before God, and Abaddon (the place of destruction) has no covering [from His eyes].

⁷ He it is Who spreads out the northern skies over emptiness and ^[a]hangs the earth upon or over nothing.

⁸ He holds the waters bound in His clouds [which otherwise would spill on earth all at once], and the cloud is not rent under them.

⁹ He covers the face of His throne and spreads over it His cloud.

¹⁰ He has placed an enclosing limit [the horizon] upon the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.

¹¹ The pillars of the heavens tremble and are astonished at His rebuke.

¹² He stills or stirs up the sea by His power, and by His understanding He smites proud Rahab.

¹³ By His breath the heavens are garnished; His hand pierced the [swiftly] fleeing serpent.^(B)

¹⁴ Yet these are but [a small part of His doings] the outskirts of His ways or the mere fringes of His force, the faintest whisper of His voice! Who dares contemplate or who can understand the thunders of His full, magnificent power?

¹⁹ So Jesus answered them by saying, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the Son is able to do nothing of Himself (of His own accord); but He is able to do only what He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does is what the Son does in the same way [in His turn].

²⁰ The Father dearly loves the Son and discloses to (shows) Him everything that He Himself does. And He will disclose to Him (let Him see) greater things yet than these, so that you may marvel and be full of wonder and astonishment.

²¹ Just as the Father raises up the dead and gives them life [makes them live on], even so the Son also gives life to whomever He wills and is pleased to give it.

²² Even the Father judges no one, for He has given all judgment (the last judgment and the whole business of judging) entirely into the hands of the Son,

²³ So that all men may give honor (reverence, homage) to the Son just as they give honor to the Father. [In fact] whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, Who has sent Him.

²⁴ I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the person whose ears are open to My words [who listens to My message] and believes and trusts in and clings to and relies on Him Who sent Me has (possesses now) eternal life. And he does not come into judgment [does not incur sentence of judgment, will not come under condemnation], but he has already passed over out of death into life.

²⁵ Believe Me when I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the time is coming and is here now when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear it shall live.

²⁶ For even as the Father has life in Himself and is self-existent, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself and be self-existent.

²⁷ And He has given Him authority and granted Him power to execute (exercise, practice) judgment because He is ^[a]a Son of man [very man].

²⁸ Do not be surprised and wonder at this, for the time is coming when all those who are in the tombs shall hear His voice,

²⁹ And they shall come out—those who have practiced doing good [will come out] to the resurrection of [new] life, and those who have done evil will be raised for judgment [raised to meet their sentence].^(A)