Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
BOOK I
(Psalms 1–41)
The Way to Happiness
1 God blesses those people
who refuse evil advice
and won't follow sinners
or join in sneering at God.
2 Instead, they find happiness
in the Teaching of the Lord,
and they think about it
day and night.
3 (A) They are like trees
growing beside a stream,
trees that produce
fruit in season
and always have leaves.
Those people succeed
in everything they do.
4 That isn't true of those
who are evil—
they are like straw
blown by the wind.
5 Sinners won't have an excuse
on the day of judgment,
and they won't have a place
with the people of God.
6 The Lord protects everyone
who follows him,
but the wicked follow a road
that leads to ruin.
25 After you had made the idol in the shape of a calf, the Lord said he was going to destroy you. So I lay face down in front of the Lord for 40 days and nights 26 and prayed:
Our Lord, please don't wipe out your people. You used your great power to rescue them from Egypt and to make them your very own. 27 Israel's ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob obeyed you faithfully. Think about them, and not about Israel's stubbornness, evil, and sin. 28 If you destroy your people, the Egyptians will say, “The Lord promised to give Israel land, but he wasn't powerful enough to keep his promise. In fact, he hated them so much that he took them into the desert and killed them.” 29 But you, our Lord, chose the people of Israel to be your own, and with your mighty power you rescued them from Egypt.
The Second Set of Commandments
(Exodus 34.1-10)
Moses said to the people:
10 The Lord told me to chisel out two flat stones, just like the ones he had given me earlier. He also commanded me to make a wooden chest, then come up the mountain and meet with him. 2 He told me that he would write on the new stones the same words he had written on the ones I broke, and that I could put these stones in this sacred chest.
3 So I made a chest out of acacia wood, and I chiseled two flat stones like the ones I broke. Then I carried the stones up the mountain, 4 where the Lord wrote the Ten Commandments on them, just as he had done the first time. The commandments were exactly what he had announced from the fire, when you were gathered at the mountain.
After the Lord returned the stones to me, 5 I took them down the mountainside and put them in the chest, just as he had commanded. And they are still there.
7 Always set a good example for others. Be sincere and serious when you teach. 8 Use clean language that no one can criticize. Do this, and your enemies will be too ashamed to say anything against you.
God's Kindness and the New Life
11 God has shown us undeserved grace by coming to save all people. 12 He taught us to give up our wicked ways and our worldly desires and to live decent and honest lives in this world. 13 We are filled with hope, as we wait for the glorious return of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.[a] 14 (A) He gave himself to rescue us from everything evil and to make our hearts pure. He wanted us to be his own people and to be eager to do right.
15 Teach these things, as you use your full authority to encourage and correct people. Make sure you earn everyone's respect.
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