Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Trust in God’s Protection
A song for the ascents.[a]
121 I lift up my eyes to the mountains;
whence will my help come?
2 My help is from Yahweh,
maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot to be moved;
he who protects you will not slumber.
4 Look, he will not slumber and he will not sleep—
he who protects Israel.
5 Yahweh is your protector;
Yahweh is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun will not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 Yahweh will protect you from all evil;[b]
he will protect your life.
8 Yahweh will protect your going out and your coming in
from now until forever.
11 “O afflicted one, driven away, who is not consoled.
Look! I am about to set your stones in hard mortar,
and I will lay your foundation with sapphires.
12 And I will make[a] your battlements of ruby,
and your gates of stones of beryl,
and all your wall of precious stones.
13 And all your children shall be pupils of Yahweh,
and the peace of your children shall be great.
14 In righteousness you shall be established.
Be far from oppression, for you shall not fear,
and from terror, for it shall not come near you.
15 If indeed one attacks, it is not from me;
whoever attacks you shall fall because of you.
16 Look! I myself have created the craftsman who blows[b] the fire of coals,
and who produces[c] a weapon for his work;
also[d] I myself have created the destroyer to destroy.
17 Every weapon formed against you shall not succeed,
and you shall declare guilty every tongue that rises against you for judgment.
This is the inheritance of the servants of Yahweh,
and their legal right[e] from me,”
declares[f] Yahweh.
Paul Speaks to the Areopagus
22 So Paul stood there in the middle of the Areopagus and[a] said, “Men of Athens, I see you are very religious in every respect.[b] 23 For as I[c] was passing through and observing carefully your objects of worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an unknown God.’ Therefore what you worship without knowing it,[d] this I proclaim to you— 24 the God who made the world and all the things in it. This one, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by human hands, 25 nor is he served by human hands as if he[e] needed anything, because[f] he himself gives to everyone life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of humanity to live on all the face of the earth, determining their fixed times and the fixed boundaries of their habitation, 27 to search for God, if perhaps indeed they might feel around for him and find him.[g] And indeed he is not far away from each one of us, 28 for in him we live and move and exist,[h] as even some of your own[i] poets have said: ‘For we also are his[j] offspring.’[k] 29 Therefore, because we[l] are offspring of God, we ought not to think the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. 30 Therefore although[m] God has overlooked the times of ignorance, he now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day on which he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man who he has appointed, having provided proof to everyone by[n] raising him from the dead.” 32 Now when they[o] heard about the resurrection of the dead, some scoffed, but others said, “We will hear you about this again also.” 33 So Paul went out from the midst of them. 34 But some people[p] joined him and[q] believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named[r] Damaris and others with them.
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