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July 15, 1969

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 92

Psalm 92^[a]

A psalm; a song for the Sabbath day.

92 It is fitting^[b] to thank the Lord,
and to sing praises to your name, O Most High.^[c]
²It is fitting^[d] to proclaim your loyal love in the morning,
and your faithfulness during the night,
³to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument and a lyre,
to the accompaniment of the meditative tone of the harp.
⁴For you, O Lord, have made me happy by your work.
I will sing for joy because of what you have done.^[e]
⁵How great are your works, O Lord!
Your plans are very intricate!^[f]
⁶The spiritually insensitive do not recognize this;
the fool does not understand this.^[g]
⁷When the wicked sprout up like grass,
and all the evildoers glisten,^[h]
it is so that they may be annihilated.^[i]
⁸But you, O Lord, reign^[j] forever.
⁹Indeed,^[k] look at your enemies, O Lord.
Indeed,^[l] look at how your enemies perish.
All the evildoers are scattered.
¹⁰You exalt my horn like that of a wild ox.^[m]
I am covered^[n] with fresh oil.
¹¹I gloat in triumph over those who tried to ambush me;^[o]
I hear the defeated cries of the evil foes who attacked me.^[p]
¹²The godly^[q] grow like a palm tree;
they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon.^[r]
¹³Planted in the Lord’s house,
they grow in the courts of our God.
¹⁴They bear fruit even when they are old;
they are filled with vitality and have many leaves.^[s]
¹⁵So they proclaim that the Lord, my Protector,
is just and never unfair.^[t]

Footnotes

Psalm 92:1 sn Psalm 92. The psalmist praises God because he defeats the wicked and vindicates his loyal followers.
Psalm 92:1 tn Or “good.”
Psalm 92:1 sn The divine title “Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן ʿelyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Pss 7:17; 9:2; 18:13; 21:7; 47:2.
Psalm 92:2 tn The words “it is fitting” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. Verses 1-3 are actually one long sentence in the Hebrew text, but this has been divided up into two shorter sentences in the translation in keeping with contemporary English style.
Psalm 92:4 tn Heb “the works of your hands.”
Psalm 92:5 tn Heb “very deep [are] your thoughts.” God’s “thoughts” refer here to his moral design of the world, as outlined in vv. 6-15.
Psalm 92:6 tn Heb “the brutish man does not know, and the fool does not understand this.” The adjective בַּעַר (baʿar, “brutish”) refers to spiritual insensitivity, not mere lack of intelligence or reasoning ability (see Pss 49:10; 73:22; Prov 12:1; 30:2, as well as the use of the related verb in Ps 94:8).
Psalm 92:7 tn Or “flourish.”
Psalm 92:7 tn Heb “in order that they might be destroyed permanently.”sn God allows the wicked to prosper temporarily so that he might reveal his justice. When the wicked are annihilated, God demonstrates that wickedness does not pay off.
Psalm 92:8 tn Heb “[are elevated] on high.”
Psalm 92:9 tn Or “for.”
Psalm 92:9 tn Or “for.”
Psalm 92:10 sn The horn of the wild ox is frequently a metaphor for military strength; the idiom “to exalt/lift up the horn” signifies military victory (see 1 Sam 2:10; Pss 75:10; 89:24; Lam 2:17).
Psalm 92:10 tn The Hebrew verb בָּלַל (balal) usually has the nuance “to mix.” Here it seems to mean “to smear” or “to anoint.” Some emend the form to בַּלֹּתַנִי (ballotani; a second person form of the verb with a first person suffix) and read, “you anoint me.”
Psalm 92:11 tn Heb “my eye gazes upon my walls.” See also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 56:2. The form שׁוּרָי shuray, “my walls”) should be emended to שׁוֹרְרָי (shor^eray, “my foes” or perhaps “those who rebel against me” or “those who malign me”). See HALOT 1454 s.v. שׁוֹרֵר and also Pss 5:8; 27:11; 56:2.
Psalm 92:11 tn Heb “those who rise up against me, evil [foes], my ears hear.”
Psalm 92:12 tn The singular is used in a representative sense, with the typical godly person being in view.
Psalm 92:12 sn The cedars of the Lebanon forest were well-known in ancient Israel for their immense size.
Psalm 92:14 tn Heb “they are juicy and fresh.”
Psalm 92:15 tn Heb “so that [they] proclaim that upright [is] the Lord, my rocky summit, and there is no injustice in him.”

Deuteronomy 28:1-14

The Covenant Blessings

28 “If you indeed^[a] obey the Lord your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving^[b] you today, the Lord your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth. ²All these blessings will come to you in abundance^[c] if you obey the Lord your God: ³You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.^[d] ⁴Your children^[e] will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks. ⁵Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed. ⁶You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.^[f] ⁷The Lord will cause your enemies who attack^[g] you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction^[h] but flee from you in seven different directions. ⁸The Lord will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do—yes, he will bless you in the land he^[i] is giving you. ⁹The Lord will designate you as his holy people just as he promised you, if you keep his commandments^[j] and obey him.^[k] ¹⁰Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you belong to the Lord,^[l] and they will respect you. ¹¹The Lord will greatly multiply your children,^[m] the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your soil in the land that he^[n] promised your ancestors^[o] he would give you. ¹²The Lord will open for you his good treasure house, the heavens, to give you rain for the land in its season and to bless all you do;^[p] you will lend to many nations but you will not borrow from any. ¹³The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always end up at the top and not at the bottom, if you obey his^[q] commandments that I am urging^[r] you today to be careful to do. ¹⁴But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving^[s] you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other gods and worship^[t] them.

Footnotes

Deuteronomy 28:1 tn The Hebrew text uses the infinitive absolute for emphasis, which the translation indicates with “indeed.”
Deuteronomy 28:1 tn Heb “commanding”; NAB “which I enjoin on you today” (likewise in v. 15).
Deuteronomy 28:2 tn Heb “come upon you and overtake you” (so NASB, NRSV); NIV “come upon you and accompany you.”
Deuteronomy 28:3 tn Or “in the country” (so NAB, NIV, NLT). This expression also occurs in v. 15.
Deuteronomy 28:4 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV).
Deuteronomy 28:6 sn Come in…go out. To “come in” and “go out” is a figure of speech (merism) indicating all of life and its activities.
Deuteronomy 28:7 tn Heb “who rise up against” (so NIV).
Deuteronomy 28:7 tn Heb “way” (also later in this verse and in v. 25).
Deuteronomy 28:8 tn Heb “the Lord your God.” Because English would not typically reintroduce the proper name following a relative pronoun (“he will bless…the Lord your God is giving”), the pronoun (“he”) has been employed here in the translation.
Deuteronomy 28:9 tn Heb “the commandments of the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in the previous verse.
Deuteronomy 28:9 tn Heb “and walk in his ways” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT).
Deuteronomy 28:10 tn Heb “the name of the Lord is called over you.” The Hebrew idiom indicates ownership; see 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1, as well as BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph. 2.d.(4).
Deuteronomy 28:11 tn Heb “the fruit of your womb” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “will give you a lot of children.”
Deuteronomy 28:11 tn Heb “the Lord.” See note on “he” in 28:8.
Deuteronomy 28:11 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 36, 64).
Deuteronomy 28:12 tn Heb “all the work of your hands.”
Deuteronomy 28:13 tn Heb “the Lord your God’s.” See note on “he” in 28:8.
Deuteronomy 28:13 tn Heb “commanding” (so NRSV); NASB “which I charge you today.”
Deuteronomy 28:14 tn Heb “from all the words which I am commanding.”
Deuteronomy 28:14 tn Heb “in order to serve.”

Ephesians 4:17-5:2

Live in Holiness

¹⁷So I say this, and insist^[a] in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility^[b] of their thinking.^[c] ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding,^[d] being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. ¹⁹Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.^[e] ²⁰But you did not learn about Christ like this, ²¹if indeed you heard about him and were taught in him, just as the truth is in Jesus. ²²You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside^[f] the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, ²³to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image^[g]—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.^[h]

²⁵Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor,^[i] because we are members of one another. ²⁶Be angry and do not sin;^[j] do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger.^[k] ²⁷Do not give the devil an opportunity. ²⁸The one who steals must steal no longer; instead he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. ²⁹You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need,^[l] that it would give grace to those who hear. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹You must put away all bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and slanderous talk—indeed all malice.^[m] ³²Instead,^[n] be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.

Live in Love

5 Therefore, be^[o] imitators of God as dearly loved children ²and live^[p] in love, just as Christ also loved us^[q] and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering^[r] to God.

Footnotes

Ephesians 4:17 tn On the translation of μαρτύρομαι (marturomai) as “insist” see BDAG 619 s.v. 2.
Ephesians 4:17 tn On the translation of ματαιότης (mataiotēs) as “futility” see BDAG 621 s.v.
Ephesians 4:17 tn Or “thoughts,” “mind.”
Ephesians 4:18 tn In the Greek text this clause is actually subordinate to περιπατεῖ (peripatei) in v. 17. It was broken up in the English translation so as to avoid an unnecessarily long and cumbersome statement.
Ephesians 4:19 sn Greediness refers to an increasing desire for more and more. The point is that sinful passions and desires are never satisfied.
Ephesians 4:22 tn An alternative rendering for the infinitives in vv. 22-24 (“to lay aside…to be renewed…to put on”) is “that you have laid aside…that you are being renewed…that you have put on.” The three infinitives of vv. 22 (ἀποθέσθαι, apothesthai), 23 (ἀνανεοῦσθαι, ananeousthai), and 24 (ἐνδύσασθαι, endusasthai), form part of an indirect discourse clause; they constitute the teaching given to the believers addressed in the letter. The problem in translation is that one cannot be absolutely certain whether they go back to indicatives in the original statement (i.e., “you have put off”) or imperatives (i.e., “put off!”). Every other occurrence of an aorist infinitive in indirect discourse in the NT goes back to an imperative, but in all of these examples the indirect discourse is introduced by a verb that implies a command. The verb διδάσκω (didaskō) in the corpus Paulinum may be used to relate the indicatives of the faith as well as the imperatives. This translation implies that the infinitives go back to imperatives, though the alternate view that they refer back to indicatives is also a plausible interpretation. For further discussion, see ExSyn 605.
Ephesians 4:24 tn Or “in God’s likeness.” Grk “according to God.” The preposition κατά used here denotes a measure of similarity or equality (BDAG 513 s.v. B.5.b.α).
Ephesians 4:24 tn Or “in righteousness and holiness which is based on truth” or “originated from truth.”
Ephesians 4:25 sn A quotation from Zech 8:16.
Ephesians 4:26 sn A quotation from Ps 4:4. Although several translations render the phrase Be angry and do not sin as “If you are angry, do not sin” such is unlikely on a grammatical, lexical, and historical level (see D. B. Wallace, “᾿Οργίζεσθε in Ephesians 4:26: Command or Condition?” CTR 3 [1989]: 352-72). The idea of vv. 26-27 is as follows: Christians are to exercise a righteous indignation over sin in the midst of the believing community (v. 26a; note that v. 25 is restricting the discussion to those in the body of Christ). When other believers sin, such people should be gently and quickly confronted (v. 26b), for if the body of Christ does not address sin in its midst, the devil gains a foothold (v. 27). “Entirely opposite of the ‘introspective conscience’ view, this text seems to be a shorthand expression for church discipline, suggesting that there is a biblical warrant for δικαία ὀργή [dikaia orgē] (as the Greeks put it)—righteous indignation” (ExSyn 492).
Ephesians 4:26 tn The word παροργισμός (parorgismos), typically translated “anger” in most versions is used almost exclusively of the source of anger rather than the results in Greek literature (thus, it refers to an external cause or provocation rather than an internal reaction). The notion of “cause of your anger” is both lexically and historically justified. The apparently proverbial nature of the statement (“Do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger”) finds several remarkable parallels in Pss. Sol. 8:8-9: “(8) God laid bare their sins in the full light of day; All the earth came to know the righteous judgments of God. (9) In secret places underground their iniquities (were committed) to provoke (Him) to anger” (R. H. Charles’ translation). Not only is παροργισμός used, but righteous indignation against God’s own people and the laying bare of their sins in broad daylight are also seen.
Ephesians 4:29 tn Grk “but if something good for the building up of the need.” The final genitive τῆς χρείας (tēs chreias) may refer to “the need of the moment” or it may refer to the need of a particular person or group of people as the next phrase “give grace to those who hear” indicates.
Ephesians 4:31 tn Grk “with all malice.” This final phrase provides a cumulative point of focus for this list and presents a summary vice encompassing all the others. The translation attempts to make this nuance clear.
Ephesians 4:32 tc ‡ Although most witnesses have either δέ (de; P⁴⁹ א A D² Ψ 33 1505 1739^mg 2464 M lat) or οὖν (oun; D* F G 1175) here, a few significant mss lack a conjunction (P⁴⁶ B 0278 6 1739* 1881). If either conjunction were originally in the text, it is difficult to explain how the asyndetic construction could have arisen (although the dropping of δέ could have occurred via homoioteleuton). Further, although Hellenistic Greek rarely joined sentences without a conjunction, such does occur in the corpus Paulinum on occasion, especially to underscore a somber point. “Instead” has been supplied in the translation because of stylistic requirements, not textual basis. NA²⁸ places δέ in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.
Ephesians 5:1 tn Or “become.”
Ephesians 5:2 tn Grk “walk.” The NT writers often used the verb “walk” (περιπατέω, peripateō) to refer to ethical conduct (cf. Rom 8:4; Gal 5:16; Col 4:5).
Ephesians 5:2 tc A number of significant witnesses have ὑμᾶς (humas, “you”; e.g., א*^,2b A B P 0159 81 1175 al it co as well as several fathers). Other, equally valuable witnesses read ἡμᾶς (hēmas, “us”; P⁴⁶ א^2a D F G Ψ 0278 33 1505 1739 1881 2464 al lat sy). It is possible that ἡμᾶς was accidentally introduced via homoioarcton with the previous word (ἠγάπησεν, ēgapēsen). On the other hand, ὑμᾶς may have been motivated by the preceding ὑμῖν (humin) in 4:32 and second person verbs in 5:1, 2. Further, the flow of argument seems to require the first person pronoun. A decision is difficult to make, but the first person pronoun has a slightly greater probability of being authentic.
Ephesians 5:2 tn Grk “an offering and sacrifice to God as a smell of fragrance.” The first expression, προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν (prosphoran kai thusian), is probably a hendiadys and has been translated such that “sacrificial” modifies “offering.” The second expression, εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας (eis osmēn euōdias, “as a smell of fragrance”) has been translated as “a fragrant offering”; see BDAG 728-29 s.v. ὀσμή 2. Putting these two together in a clear fashion in English yields the translation: “a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.”

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 92[a]

A psalm; a song for the Sabbath day.

Footnotes

The Covenant Blessings

Footnotes

Live in Holiness

Live in Love

Footnotes

Psalm 92^[a]