Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 43
Prayer to God in Time of Trouble
1 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people;
from those who are deceitful and unjust,
deliver me!(A)
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have you cast me off?
Why must I walk about mournfully
because of the oppression of the enemy?(B)
3 O send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling.(C)
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the harp,
O God, my God.(D)
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.(E)
27 A man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Thus the Lord has said: I revealed[a] myself to the family of your ancestor in Egypt when they were slaves[b] to the house of Pharaoh.(A) 28 I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to offer incense, to wear an ephod before me, and I gave to the family of your ancestor all my offerings by fire[c] from the Israelites.(B) 29 Why then look[d] with greedy eye at my sacrifices and my offerings[e] and honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?(C) 30 Therefore the Lord the God of Israel declares: I promised that your family and the family of your ancestor should go in and out before me forever, but now the Lord declares: Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be treated with contempt.(D) 31 See, a time is coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your ancestor’s family.[f](E) 32 No one in your family shall ever live to old age.(F) 33 The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep out his[g] eyes and grieve his[h] heart; all the members of your household shall die by the sword.[i] 34 The fate of your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day.(G) 35 I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed one forever.(H) 36 Everyone who is left in your family shall come and prostrate himself before him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, ‘Please put me in one of the priest’s places, that I may eat a morsel of bread.’ ”(I)
The Jews and the Law
17 But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God(A) 18 and know his will and determine what really matters because you are instructed in the law, 19 and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth,(B) 21 you, then, who teach others, will you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?(C) 22 You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by your transgression of the law? 24 For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed[a] among the gentiles because of you.”(D)
25 Circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law your circumcision has become uncircumcision.(E) 26 So, if the uncircumcised keep the requirements of the law, will not their uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? 27 Then the physically uncircumcised person who keeps the law will judge you who, though having the written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. 28 For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical.(F) 29 Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.(G)
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.