Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

112 Praise the Lord! For all who fear God and trust in him are blessed beyond expression. Yes, happy is the man who delights in doing his commands.

² His children shall be honored everywhere, for good men’s sons have a special heritage. ³ He himself shall be wealthy, and his good deeds will never be forgotten. ⁴ When darkness overtakes him, light will come bursting in. He is kind and merciful— ⁵ and all goes well for the generous man who conducts his business fairly.

⁶ Such a man will not be overthrown by evil circumstances. God’s constant care of him will make a deep impression on all who see it. ⁷ He does not fear bad news, nor live in dread of what may happen. For he is settled in his mind that Jehovah will take care of him. ⁸ That is why he is not afraid but can calmly face his foes. ⁹ He gives generously to those in need. His deeds will never be forgotten.^[a] He shall have influence and honor.

¹⁰ Evil-minded men will be infuriated when they see all this; they will gnash their teeth in anger and slink away, their hopes thwarted.

4 “And now, O Israel, listen carefully to these laws I teach you, and obey them if you want to live and enter into and possess the land given you by the Lord God of your ancestors. ² Do not add other laws or subtract from these; just obey them, for they are from the Lord your God. ³ You have seen what the Lord did to you at Baalpeor, where he destroyed many people for worshiping idols. ⁴ But all of you who were faithful to the Lord your God are still alive today.

⁵ “These are the laws for you to obey when you arrive in the land where you will live. They are from the Lord our God. He has given them to me to pass on to you. ⁶ If you obey them, they will give you a reputation for wisdom and intelligence. When the surrounding nations hear these laws, they will exclaim, ‘What other nation is as wise and prudent as Israel!’ ⁷ For what other nation, great or small, has God among them, as the Lord our God is here among us whenever we call upon him? ⁸ And what nation, no matter how great, has laws as fair as these I am giving you today?

⁹ “But watch out! Be very careful never to forget what you have seen God doing for you. May his miracles have a deep and permanent effect upon your lives! Tell your children and your grandchildren about the glorious miracles he did. ¹⁰ Tell them especially about the day you stood before the Lord at Mount Horeb, and he told me, ‘Summon the people before me and I will instruct them, so that they will learn always to reverence me, and so that they can teach my laws to their children.’ ¹¹ You stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain burned with fire; flames shot far into the sky, surrounded by black clouds and deep darkness. ¹² And the Lord spoke to you from the fire; you heard his words but didn’t see him. ¹³ He proclaimed the laws you must obey—the Ten Commandments—and wrote them on two stone tablets. ¹⁴ Yes, it was at that time that the Lord commanded me to issue the laws you must obey when you arrive in the Promised Land.

5 If you believe that Jesus is the Christ—that he is God’s Son and your Savior—then you are a child of God. And all who love the Father love his children too. ² So you can find out how much you love God’s children—your brothers and sisters in the Lord—by how much you love and obey God. ³ Loving God means doing what he tells us to do, and really, that isn’t hard at all; ⁴ for every child of God can obey him, defeating sin and evil pleasure by trusting Christ to help him.

⁵ But who could possibly fight and win this battle except by believing that Jesus is truly the Son of God?