Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
David wrote this song.
Thank God for who he is
138 I will thank you, Lord, with my whole being.
I will sing and praise you in front of the gods.[a]
2 I look towards your holy temple,
and I bend down to worship you.
I thank you for who you are.
You love your people and they can always trust you.
You are more famous than anyone,
because you always do what you promise.
3 When I prayed to you, you answered me.
You made me brave and strong.
4 All the kings in the world will thank you, Lord,
when they hear the promises that you have made.
5 They will sing about the things that you have done,
because they see that you are great, Lord.
6 Yes, the Lord is high above the earth.
But he takes care of humble people.
He also knows what proud people are doing,
even if they try to hide.[b]
7 When there is danger all round me,
you help me to be strong.
When my enemy is angry, you fight against him.
You save me with your strong right hand.[c]
8 The Lord stands with me to do what he has promised.
Yes, Lord, your faithful love will always continue.
You have made us who we are,
so do not leave us now!
11 The Lord gave this message to me: 12 ‘Son of man, sing this funeral song about the king of Tyre. Tell him, “This is what the Almighty Lord says:
At one time, you were the example of a good man.
You were completely wise and beautiful.
13 You lived in God's beautiful garden, Eden.
You wore valuable jewels on your clothes.
The jewels were ruby, topaz, emerald,
chrysolite, onyx, jasper,
sapphire, turquoise and beryl.[a]
They were fixed to pieces of gold.
They were ready for you to wear on the day that you were born.
14 I put you there with a cherub to be your guard.
You lived on my holy mountain.
You walked among the stones that burned with fire.
15 Everything that you did was completely good
from the day that you were born.
But later, you started to do wicked things.
16 As a trader, you bought and sold many things.
As a result, you became violent and you did evil things.
So I sent you away in shame.
I would not allow you to remain on my mountain.
The cherub that had been your guard chased you out.
You could no longer walk among the stones that burned with fire.
17 But because you were so beautiful, you were very proud.
You used your wisdom to do bad things,
because you loved to have beautiful things.
So I threw you down to the ground.
I let other kings see what had happened to you.
18 As a trader, you did many wrong things to cheat people.
Your holy places became unclean.
So I caused fire to completely destroy your city.
Everyone could see that only ashes remained on the ground.
19 All the people of other nations who knew you are very afraid.
They have seen the terrible thing that has happened to you.
You have come to a complete end and you will never return.” ’
Quarrels between Christians
6 Perhaps one of you has a quarrel with another Christian. Who should decide which of you is right? You should never ask people who do not know God to decide. No! Instead, you should go to God's people. They should decide. 2 It is God's people who will judge all the people in the world one day. You surely know that. Since that is true, you should be able to decide about small quarrels between yourselves. 3 You know that we will judge the angels one day. So we must be able to decide about ordinary things here on earth.
4 If you want to decide an ordinary matter like that, what do you do? Sometimes you go to a judge who does not believe in God. You should never do that! The church does not respect people like that. 5 I say this so that you will feel ashamed. There is surely a wise person in your group who could decide quarrels between yourselves. 6 But instead, some believers among you accuse other believers in front of judges. And those judges are not believers!
7 When you accuse each other like that, it shows that you have already failed. It would be better to accept it when other people hurt you. Even if people rob you, it would be better to accept it. 8 Instead, you yourselves hurt other people, and you even rob them. And those other people are believers like you!
9 People who do wrong things like that will never belong to God's kingdom. You surely know that. Do not think that people like this will receive God's good things: People who have sex in wrong ways. People who worship idols. People who have sex with anyone that they are not married to. Men who have sex with other men. 10 People who rob other people. People who want many things for themselves. Drunks. People who insult other people. People who deceive other people to take things from them. None of these people will receive the good things of God's kingdom.
11 At one time, some of you were people like that. But God has now made you clean and pure, so that you belong to him. You have become right with God. Our God has done this with the power of his Spirit because you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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