Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
This is a special song that David wrote for the music leader.
It was when Doeg, the man from Edom, went to Saul and told him, ‘David went to the house of Ahimelech, the priest.’
Cruel words[a]
52 Strong man, why are you so proud
about the evil things that you like to do?
Remember that God's faithful love keeps me safe.
2 Your tongue is like a sharp knife!
You talk about how to hurt other people,
You speak nothing but lies.
3 You love to do evil things,
not good things.
You love to tell lies
more than the truth.
Selah.
4 You love to say cruel words.
You speak to deceive others.
5 But God will knock you down,
and he will break you into pieces.
He will take you away from your home.
He will remove you from this world where people live.
Selah.
6 Righteous people will see what has happened,
and they will be afraid.[b]
Then they will laugh at the wicked person,
and they will say,
7 ‘Look! This man did not trust God to keep him safe.
Instead, he trusted in his riches.
He thought that he could be cruel,
and that would keep him safe.’
8 But I am like a strong olive tree
that grows in the house of God.
I will always trust in God's faithful love for his people.
9 I will always praise you, God,
for what you have done.
I will trust you to help me,
together with all those who serve you.
The people agree to serve the Lord
24 Joshua called all the Israelite tribes to meet together at Shechem.[a] He called the leaders of clans, the rulers, the judges and the officers to stand in front of the tabernacle. 2 Joshua said to the people, ‘This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says:
“A long time ago, your ancestors lived on the other side of the Euphrates river. They included Terah who was the father of Abraham and Nahor. They worshipped other gods.
11 Then you went across the Jordan River and you came to Jericho city. The people of Jericho fought against you. So did the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites. I helped you to win against all those people. 12 I sent great fear on your enemies as you moved into the land.[a] I chased them all away, as well as the two kings of the Amorites. You did not win because of your strong weapons, but because of me. 13 The land was a gift from me. I gave you a land where you had not worked in its fields. I gave you towns to live in that you did not build. You eat grapes and olives from trees that you did not plant.” ’
14 Joshua said to the people, ‘Now you must serve the Lord with fear. You must worship him. You must continue to trust him. Throw away the gods that your ancestors worshipped when they lived beyond the Euphrates river and in Egypt. Worship the Lord. 15 But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then you should choose another god to worship. Decide today! Will you serve the gods that your ancestors worshipped across the river? Will you serve the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living? You choose! But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.’
16 The people answered Joshua, ‘We would never turn against the Lord to serve other gods! 17 We and our fathers were slaves in Egypt. But the Lord our God brought us out from there. We saw the great miracles that he did there. He kept us safe all the time on our journey, as we travelled through other nations. 18 The Lord chased all the nations out as we moved into the land. He chased out the Amorites and the other people who lived in the land. So we too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.’
19 Joshua said to them, ‘The Lord is a holy God. You will not be able to serve him. He wants you to belong to him. If you turn against him or you do not obey him, he will not forgive you. 20 If you turn away from the Lord and you serve foreign gods, he will turn against you. He has been kind and he has helped you until now. But he will bring trouble to you and he will destroy you, if you turn away from him.’
21 The people said to Joshua, ‘Never! We will only serve the Lord.’
22 Joshua said to them, ‘You yourselves have chosen to serve the Lord. Agree now that you have done that.’
They replied, ‘Yes, we agree!’
23 Joshua said, ‘So now you must throw away the foreign gods that you still keep. Trust the Lord, Israel's God, and obey him.’
24 The people said to Joshua, ‘We will serve the Lord our God and we will obey him.’
25 That same day, Joshua made an agreement for the people to accept. There at Shechem, he made a list of rules and laws for them to obey. 26 Joshua wrote these things in the Book of God's Law. Then he took a big stone. He stood it there under the oak tree that was near the Lord's holy place.
27 Joshua said to all the people, ‘Look at this stone! It has heard everything that the Lord has said to us today! It will speak against you if you fail to obey your God!’[b]
28 Then Joshua sent the people away. They went to the parts of the land that now belonged to each of them.
Nobody is right with God
9 So then, what do we learn from that? We cannot say that we Jews are better than other people. No, certainly we cannot say that! I have said already that sin has power over everyone. That is true for both Jews and Gentiles. 10 This is written in the Bible:
‘There is nobody who is right with God.
There is not even one person who is like that.
11 There is nobody who understands what is true.
There is nobody who wants to worship God.
12 Everyone has turned away from God.
All people have become completely bad.
Nobody does what is good or kind.
There is not even one person who is like that.[a]
13 Bad words come out of their mouth, like a very bad smell.
They tell lies all the time,
so that people do wrong things.
The things that they say hurt people, like a snake's poison.[b]
14 They are always saying bad things against people,
because they want to cause trouble for them.[c]
15 They hurry to kill people.
16 Everywhere they go, they destroy things.
They only make people very sad.
17 They have never known how to live in peace.[d]
18 They refuse to respect God in any way.’[e]
19 So, we know that God's Law belongs to the Jews. God told them to obey everything that his Law teaches. As a result, nobody can say: ‘God should not punish me.’ Everybody in the world must stand in front of God and he will judge them. 20 God's Law shows people clearly that they have done wrong things. Nobody can become right with God because they obey that Law.
How God accepts people
21 But now we know how to become right with God. God has shown us the way that he will accept people as right with himself. This way is not part of the Law that he gave to Moses. But God's Law and the messages of his prophets have told us about it. 22 God accepts people as right with himself because Jesus Christ did what God wanted. God accepts every person who believes in Christ. It is the same way for everyone, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.
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