Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 23
The Divine Shepherd
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.(A)
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;[a](B)
3 he restores my soul.[b]
He leads me in right paths[c]
for his name’s sake.(C)
17 Terror, the pit, and the snare
are upon you, O inhabitants of the earth!(A)
18 Whoever flees at the sound of the terror
shall fall into the pit,
and whoever climbs out of the pit
shall be caught in the snare.
For the windows of heaven are opened,
and the foundations of the earth tremble.(B)
19 The earth is utterly broken;
the earth is torn apart;
the earth is violently shaken.(C)
20 The earth staggers like a drunkard;
it sways like a hut;
its transgression lies heavy upon it,
and it falls and will not rise again.(D)
21 On that day the Lord will punish
the host of heaven in heaven
and on earth the kings of the earth.(E)
22 They will be gathered together
like prisoners in a pit;
they will be shut up in a prison,
and after many days they will be punished.(F)
23 Then the moon will be abashed
and the sun ashamed,
for the Lord of hosts will reign
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and before his elders he will be glorified.(G)
The Question about Fasting
18 Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting, and people[a] came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” 19 Jesus said to them, “The wedding attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. 20 The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day.(A)
21 “No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22 Similarly, no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins, but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”[b]
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.