Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

87 God laid His foundations among the holy mountains.

² The LORD loves the gates of Zion above all the habitations of Jacob.

³ Glorious things are spoken of You, O City of God! Selah.

⁴ I will make mention of Rahab and Babel among those who know me. Behold Palestine and Tyre with Ethiopia. There He is born.

⁵ And it shall be said of Zion, “Many are born in her; and He, the Most High, shall establish her.”

⁶ The LORD shall count, when He writes the people, “He was born there.” Selah.

⁷ Both the singers and the players on instruments shall praise You, “All my springs are in You.” A song, or Psalm, of Heman the Ezrahite, to give instruction; committed to the sons of Korah for him who excels upon Mahalath Leannoth

⁸ “I will bring forth the blind people and they shall have eyes, and the deaf and they shall have ears.”

⁹ “Let all the nations be gathered together. And let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses, so that they may be justified. But let them hear, and say, ‘It is truth.’

¹⁰ “You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “and My servant, whom I have chosen. Therefore, you shall know and believe Me. And you shall understand that I Am. Before Me there was no God formed. Nor shall there be after Me.

¹¹ “I, even I, am the LORD. And besides Me there is no Savior.

¹² “I have declared, and I have saved, and I have shown, when there was no strange god among you. Therefore, you are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “that I am God.

¹³ “Yea, before the day was, I Am. And there is no one who can deliver out of My Hand. I will do it, and who shall reverse it?”

¹³ For in speaking to you Gentiles (inasmuch as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles) I magnify my office,

¹⁴ if, somehow, I might provoke those of my flesh to follow them and save some of them.

¹⁵ For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what shall their acceptance be if not life from the dead?

¹⁶ For if the firstfruits are holy, so is the whole lump. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷ And though some of the branches are broken off, and you (being a wild olive tree) were grafted in among them, and made a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,

¹⁸ do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember you do not support the root, but the root supports you.

¹⁹ You will say then, “The branches have been broken off so that I might be grafted in.”

²⁰ Well said. Through unbelief they have been broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be high-minded, but fear.

²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either.

²² Behold, therefore, the kindness and severity of God - severity toward those who have fallen, but kindness toward you - if you continue in His kindness. Or else you shall also be cut off.

²³ And they also, if they do not still remain in unbelief, shall be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again.

²⁴ For if you were cut out of the olive tree (which is wild by nature) and were grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more shall those who are natural be grafted into their own olive tree?

²⁵ For I do not wish you to be ignorant of this secret, brothers (lest you be wise in your own eyes), that partial blindness has come to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

²⁶ And so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, “The Deliverer shall come out of Zion, and shall turn away the ungodliness from Jacob.

²⁷ And this is My covenant to them, When I shall take away their sins.”

²⁸ Concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the Fathers’ sakes.

²⁹ For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.