Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 125

A Song of ^[a]Ascents.

¹ Those who trust in, lean on, and confidently hope in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved but abides and stands fast forever.

² As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people from this time forth and forever.

³ For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the [uncompromisingly] righteous, lest the righteous (God’s people) stretch forth their hands to iniquity and apostasy.

⁴ Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to those who are right [with You and all people] in their hearts.

⁵ As for such as turn aside to their crooked ways [of indifference to God], the Lord will lead them forth with the workers of iniquity. Peace be upon Israel!

¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord talked often one to another; and the Lord listened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who reverenced and worshipfully feared the Lord and who thought on His name.

¹⁷ And they shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in that day when I publicly recognize and openly declare them to be My jewels (My special possession, My peculiar treasure). And I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.

¹⁸ Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him.

4 For behold, the day comes that shall burn like an oven, and all the proud and arrogant, yes, and all that do wickedly and are lawless, shall be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.^(A)

² But unto you who revere and worshipfully fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings and His beams, and you shall go forth and gambol like calves [released] from the stall and leap for joy.

³ And you shall tread down the lawless and wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the Lord of hosts.

⁴ [Earnestly] remember the law of Moses, My servant, the statutes and the ordinances which I commanded him on [Mount] Horeb [to give] to all Israel.

⁵ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.^(B)

⁶ And he shall turn and reconcile the hearts of the [estranged] fathers to the [ungodly] children, and the hearts of the [rebellious] children to [the piety of] their fathers [a reconciliation produced by repentance of the ungodly], lest I come and smite the land with a curse and a ban of utter destruction.^(C)

⁹ And as they were coming back down the mountain, He admonished and ^[a]expressly ordered them to tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man should rise from among the dead.

¹⁰ So they carefully and faithfully kept the matter to themselves, questioning and disputing with one another about what rising from among the dead meant.

¹¹ And they asked Him, Why do the scribes say that it is necessary for Elijah to come first?^(A)

¹² And He said to them, Elijah, it is true, does come first to restore all things and ^[b]set them to rights. And how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be utterly despised and be treated with contempt and rejected?^(B)

¹³ But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and [people] did to him whatever they desired, as it is written of him.