Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

21 How the king rejoices in your strength, O Lord! How he exults in your salvation. ² For you have given him his heart’s desire, everything he asks you for!

³ You welcomed him to the throne with success and prosperity. You set a royal crown of solid gold upon his head. ⁴ He asked for a long, good life, and you have granted his request; the days of his life stretch on and on forever. ⁵ You have given him fame and honor. You have clothed him with splendor and majesty. ⁶ You have endowed him with eternal happiness. You have given him the unquenchable joy of your presence. ⁷ And because the king trusts in the Lord, he will never stumble, never fall; for he depends upon the steadfast love of the God who is above all gods.

⁸ Your hand, O Lord, will find your enemies, all who hate you. ^9-10 When you appear, they will be destroyed in the fierce fire of your presence. The Lord will destroy them and their children. ¹¹ For these men plot against you, Lord, but they cannot possibly succeed. ¹² They will turn and flee when they see your arrows aimed straight at them.

¹³ Accept our praise, O Lord, for all your glorious power. We will write songs to celebrate your mighty acts!

15 Afterwards Jehovah spoke to Abram in a vision, and this is what he told him: “Don’t be fearful, Abram, for I will defend you. And I will give you great blessings.”

^2-3 But Abram replied, “O Lord Jehovah, what good are all your blessings when I have no son? For without a son, some other member of my household^[a] will inherit all my wealth.”

⁴ Then Jehovah told him, “No, no one else will be your heir, for you will have a son to inherit everything you own.”

⁵ Then God brought Abram outside beneath the nighttime sky and told him, “Look up into the heavens and count the stars if you can. Your descendants will be like that—too many to count!” ⁶ And Abram believed God; then God considered him righteous on account of his faith.

⁷ And he told him, “I am Jehovah who brought you out of the city of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land.”

⁸ But Abram replied, “O Lord Jehovah, how can I be sure that you will give it to me?” ⁹ Then Jehovah told him to take a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon, ¹⁰ and to slay them and to cut them apart down the middle, and to separate the halves, but not to divide the birds. ¹¹ And when the vultures came down upon the carcasses, Abram shooed them away.

¹² That evening as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a vision of terrible foreboding, darkness, and horror.

¹³ Then Jehovah told Abram, “Your descendants will be oppressed as slaves in a foreign land for 400 years. ¹⁴ But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and at the end they will come away with great wealth. ¹⁵ (But you will die in peace, at a ripe old age.) ¹⁶ After four generations they will return here to this land; for the wickedness of the Amorite nations living here now^[b] will not be ready for punishment until then.”

¹⁷ As the sun went down and it was dark, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch that passed between the halves of the carcasses. ¹⁸ So that day Jehovah made this covenant with Abram: “I have given this land to your descendants from the Wadi-el-Arish^[c] to the Euphrates River.

³³ “A tree is identified by its fruit. A tree from a select variety produces good fruit; poor varieties don’t. ³⁴ You brood of snakes! How could evil men like you speak what is good and right? For a man’s heart determines his speech. ³⁵ A good man’s speech reveals the rich treasures within him. An evil-hearted man is filled with venom, and his speech reveals it. ³⁶ And I tell you this, that you must give account on Judgment Day for every idle word you speak. ³⁷ Your words now reflect your fate then: either you will be justified by them or you will be condemned.”