Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 78
God’s Goodness and Israel’s Ingratitude
A Maskil of Asaph.
1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth.(A)
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,(B)
3 things that we have heard and known,
that our ancestors have told us.(C)
4 We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might
and the wonders that he has done.(D)
5 He established a decree in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
to teach to their children,(E)
6 that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and rise up and tell them to their children,(F)
7 so that they should set their hope in God,
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;(G)
8 and that they should not be like their ancestors,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.(H)
17 Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.(A)
18 They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved.(B)
19 They spoke against God, saying,
“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?(C)
20 Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out
and torrents overflowed,
can he also give bread
or provide meat for his people?”(D)
21 Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of rage;
a fire was kindled against Jacob,
his anger mounted against Israel,(E)
22 because they had no faith in God
and did not trust his saving power.(F)
23 Yet he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven;(G)
24 he rained down on them manna to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.(H)
25 Mortals ate of the bread of angels;
he sent them food in abundance.
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by his power he led out the south wind;(I)
27 he rained flesh upon them like dust,
winged birds like the sand of the seas;(J)
28 he let them fall within their camp,
all around their dwellings.
29 And they ate and were well filled,
for he gave them what they craved.(K)
A Warning Not to Forget God in Prosperity
8 “The entire commandment that I command you today you must diligently observe, so that you may live and increase and go in and occupy the land that the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors.(A) 2 Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments.(B) 3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.(C) 4 The clothes on your back did not wear out, and your feet did not swell these forty years.(D) 5 Know, then, in your heart that, as a parent disciplines a child, so the Lord your God disciplines you.(E) 6 Therefore keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.(F) 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and underground waters welling up in valleys and hills,(G) 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey, 9 a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. 10 You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.(H)
Prayer of Thanksgiving
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world.(A) 9 For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel[a] of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers,(B) 10 asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift so that you may be strengthened— 12 or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you, as I have among the rest of the gentiles. 14 I am obligated both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish, 15 hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.