Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 123
A pilgrimage song.
123 I raise my eyes to you—
you who rule heaven.
2 Just as the eyes of servants attend to their masters’ hand,
just as the eyes of a female servant attend to her mistress’ hand—
that’s how our eyes attend to the Lord our God
until he has mercy on us.
3 Have mercy on us, Lord! Have mercy
because we’ve had more than enough shame.
4 We’ve had more than enough mockery from the self-confident,
more than enough shame from the proud.
Inferior humans
25 Bildad from Shuah replied:
2 Supreme power and awe belong to God;
he establishes peace on his heights.
3 Can his troops be counted?
On whom does his light not rise?
4 How can a person be innocent before God;
one born of a woman be pure?
5 If even the moon is not bright
and the stars not pure in his eyes,
6 how much less a human, a worm,
a person’s child, a grub.
Sarcasm
26 Then Job said:
2 How well you have helped the weak,
saved those with frail arms,
3 advised one lacking wisdom,
informed many with insight!
4 With whom have you spoken;[a]
whose breath was expelled from you?
Truth about God
5 The dead writhe,
the inhabitants beneath the waters as well.
6 The grave[b] is naked before God;
the underworld[c] lacks covering.
7 He stretched the North[d] over chaos,
hung earth over nothing;
8 wrapped up water in his clouds,
yet they didn’t burst out below;
9 hid the face of the full moon,[e]
spreading his cloud over it;
10 traced a circle on the water’s surface,
at the limit of light and darkness.
11 Heaven’s pillars shook,
terrified by his blast.
12 By his power he stilled the Sea;
split Rahab with his cleverness.
13 Due to his wind, heaven became clear;
his hand split the fleeing serpent.
14 Look, these are only the outer fringe of his ways;
we hear only a whispered word about him.
Who can understand his thunderous power?
Work of the Father and the Son
19 Jesus responded to the Jewish leaders, “I assure you that the Son can’t do anything by himself except what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. 20 The Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he does. He will show him greater works than these so that you will marvel. 21 As the Father raises the dead and gives life, so too does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. 22 The Father doesn’t judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son 23 so that everyone will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever doesn’t honor the Son doesn’t honor the Father who sent him.
24 “I assure you that whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and won’t come under judgment but has passed from death into life.
25 “I assure you that the time is coming—and is here!—when the dead will hear the voice of God’s Son, and those who hear it will live. 26 Just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. 27 He gives the Son authority to judge, because he is the Human One.[a] 28 Don’t be surprised by this, because the time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice. 29 Those who did good things will come out into the resurrection of life, and those who did wicked things into the resurrection of judgment.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible