Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 128[a]
The Blessed Home of the Just
1 A song of ascents.
I
Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
and who walk in his ways.(A)
2 What your hands provide you will enjoy;
you will be blessed and prosper:(B)
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your home,
Your children like young olive plants
around your table.(C)
4 Just so will the man be blessed
who fears the Lord.
II
A World Renewed
17 [a]See, I am creating new heavens
and a new earth;
The former things shall not be remembered
nor come to mind.(A)
18 Instead, shout for joy and be glad forever
in what I am creating.
Indeed, I am creating Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight;
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and exult in my people.
No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,
or the sound of crying;
20 No longer shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
nor anyone who does not live a full lifetime;
One who dies at a hundred years shall be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred shall be thought accursed.(B)
21 They shall build houses and live in them,
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit;
22 They shall not build and others live there;
they shall not plant and others eat.
As the years of a tree, so the years of my people;
and my chosen ones shall long enjoy
the work of their hands.
23 They shall not toil in vain,
nor beget children for sudden destruction;
For they shall be a people blessed by the Lord
and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call, I will answer;
while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
25 [b]The wolf and the lamb shall pasture together,
and the lion shall eat hay like the ox—
but the serpent’s food shall be dust.(C)
None shall harm or destroy
on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
6 So also David declares the blessedness of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven(A)
and whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not record.”
9 Does this blessedness[a] apply only to the circumcised, or to the uncircumcised as well? Now we assert that “faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.”(B) 10 Under what circumstances was it credited? Was he circumcised or not? He was not circumcised, but uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal on the righteousness received through faith while he was uncircumcised. Thus he was to be the father of all the uncircumcised who believe, so that to them [also] righteousness might be credited,(C) 12 as well as the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but also follow the path of faith that our father Abraham walked while still uncircumcised.
Inheritance Through Faith. 13 It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.(D)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.