Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
12 How blessed is the nation whose God is Adonai,
the people he chose as his heritage!
13 Adonai looks out from heaven;
he sees every human being;
14 from the place where he lives
he watches everyone living on earth,
15 he who fashioned the hearts of them all
and understands all they do.
16 A king is not saved by the size of his army,
a strong man not delivered by his great strength.
17 To rely on a horse for safety is vain,
nor does its great power assure escape.
18 But Adonai’s eyes watch over those who fear him,
over those who wait for his grace
19 to rescue them from death
and keep them alive in famine.
20 We are waiting for Adonai;
he is our help and shield.
21 For in him our hearts rejoice,
because we trust in his holy name.
22 May your mercy, Adonai, be over us,
because we put our hope in you.
37 “At this, my own heart trembles
and leaps out of its place.
2 Just listen to the rumbling of his voice,
to the thunder that comes from his mouth!
3 He sends it out under all of heaven,
his lightning to the ends of the earth.
4 There follows a sound, a roar —
he is thundering with his majestic voice,
and he keeps releasing [the lightning]
even while his voice is being heard.
5 “God thunders wonderfully with his voice,
he does great things beyond our understanding.
6 He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth!’ —
likewise to the light rain, also to the downpour.
7 He brings all human activity to a stop,
so that everyone he has made can know it.
8 Then the animals go into their lairs
and hibernate in their dens.
9 “Out of its chamber comes the storm,
with cold out of the north.
10 By the breath of God, ice is given,
and the wide waters freeze over.
11 He weighs the clouds down with moisture,
and they flash forth his lightning.
12 He, by his plans, turns them around,
so they do what he commands them anywhere on earth;
13 he brings them forth on the earth
sometimes to punish, sometimes to express his grace.
50 Let me say this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot share in the Kingdom of God, nor can something that decays share in what does not decay. 51 Look, I will tell you a secret — not all of us will die! But we will all be changed! 52 It will take but a moment, the blink of an eye, at the final shofar. For the shofar will sound, and the dead will be raised to live forever, and we too will be changed. 53 For this material which can decay must be clothed with imperishability, this which is mortal must be clothed with immortality. 54 When what decays puts on imperishability and what is mortal puts on immortality, then this passage in the Tanakh will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.[a]
55 “Death, where is your victory?
Death, where is your sting?”[b]
56 The sting of death is sin; and sin draws its power from the Torah; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah!
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.