Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
BOOK I
(Psalms 1–41)
Psalm 1
1 The truly happy person
doesn’t follow wicked advice,
doesn’t stand on the road of sinners,
and doesn’t sit with the disrespectful.
2 Instead of doing those things,
these persons love the Lord’s Instruction,
and they recite God’s Instruction day and night!
3 They are like a tree replanted by streams of water,
which bears fruit at just the right time
and whose leaves don’t fade.
Whatever they do succeeds.
4 That’s not true for the wicked!
They are like dust that the wind blows away.
5 And that’s why the wicked will have no standing in the court of justice—
neither will sinners
in the assembly of the righteous.
6 The Lord is intimately acquainted
with the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked is destroyed.
More sayings of the wise
23 These are also the sayings of the wise:
Partiality in judgment isn’t good.
24 Those who say to the guilty, “You are innocent”—
the people will curse them.
Nations will condemn them.
25 But it will go well for those who rebuke them.
A rich blessing will come to them.
26 Those who speak honestly
are like those who kiss on the lips.
27 Get your outside work done;
make preparations in the field;
then you can build your house.
28 Don’t be a witness against your neighbor without reason;
don’t deceive with your lips.
29 Don’t say, “I’ll do to them what they did to me.
I’ll pay them back for their actions.”
30 I happened upon the field of a lazy person,
by the vineyard of one with no sense.
31 Thorns grew all over it;
weeds covered the ground,
and the stone wall was falling down.
32 I observed this and took it to heart;
I saw it and learned a lesson.
33 “A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little lying down with folded arms”—
34 and poverty will come on you like a prowler,
deprivation like a man with a shield.
39 Examine the scriptures, since you think that in them you have eternal life. They also testify about me, 40 yet you don’t want to come to me so that you can have life.
41 “I don’t accept praise from people, 42 but I know you, that you don’t have God’s love in you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you don’t receive me. If others come in their own name, you receive them. 44 How can you believe when you receive praise from each other but don’t seek the praise that comes from the only God?
45 “Don’t think that I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, the one in whom your hope rests. 46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because Moses wrote about me. 47 If you don’t believe the writings of Moses, how will you believe my words?”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible