Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 85

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

¹ Lord, You have [at last] been favorable and have dealt graciously with Your land [of Canaan]; You have brought back [from Babylon] the captives of Jacob.

² You have forgiven and taken away the iniquity of Your people, You have covered all their sin. Selah [pause, and calmly realize what that means]!

⁸ I will listen [with expectancy] to what God the Lord will say, for He will speak peace to His people, to His saints (those who are in right standing with Him)—but let them not turn again to [self-confident] folly.

⁹ Surely His salvation is near to those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him, [and is ready to be appropriated] that [the manifest presence of God, His] glory may tabernacle and abide in our land.

¹⁰ Mercy and loving-kindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

¹¹ Truth shall spring up from the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

¹² Yes, the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.

¹³ Righteousness shall go before Him and shall make His footsteps a way in which to walk.

²⁴ For I will ^[a]take you from among the nations and gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land.

²⁵ Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness; and from all your idols will I cleanse you.

²⁶ A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

²⁷ And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them.

²⁸ And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

²⁷ And they came again to Jerusalem. And when Jesus was walking about in the [^[a]courts and porches of the] temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to Him,

²⁸ And they kept saying to Him, By what [sort of] authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do them?

²⁹ Jesus told them, I will ask you a question. Answer Me, and then I will tell you by what [sort of] authority I do these things.

³⁰ Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? Answer Me.

³¹ And they reasoned and argued with one another, If we say, From heaven, He will say, Why then did you not believe him?

³² But [on the other hand] can we say, From men? For they were afraid of the people, because everybody considered and held John actually to be a prophet.

³³ So they replied to Jesus, We do not know. And Jesus said to them, Neither am I going to tell you what [sort of] authority I have for doing these things.