Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
The Lord the Shepherd of His People
A Psalm of David.
23 The Lord is (A)my shepherd;
(B)I shall not [a]want.
2 (C)He makes me to lie down in [b]green pastures;
(D)He leads me beside the [c]still waters.
3 He restores my soul;
(E)He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.
The Coming Captivity of Judah
18 For thus says the Lord:
“Behold, I will (B)throw out at this time
The inhabitants of the land,
And will distress them,
(C)That they may find it so.”
19 (D)Woe is me for my hurt!
My wound is severe.
But I say, (E)“Truly this is an infirmity,
And (F)I must bear it.”
20 (G)My tent is plundered,
And all my cords are broken;
My children have gone from me,
And they are (H)no more.
There is no one to pitch my tent anymore,
Or set up my curtains.
21 For the shepherds have become dull-hearted,
And have not sought the Lord;
Therefore they shall not prosper,
And all their flocks shall be (I)scattered.
22 Behold, the noise of the report has come,
And a great commotion out of the (J)north country,
To make the cities of Judah desolate, a (K)den of jackals.
23 O Lord, I know the (L)way of man is not in himself;
It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.
24 O Lord, (M)correct me, but with justice;
Not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.
25 (N)Pour out Your fury on the Gentiles, (O)who do not know You,
And on the families who do not call on Your name;
For they have eaten up Jacob,
(P)Devoured him and consumed him,
And made his dwelling place desolate.
The Philosophers at Athens
16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, (A)his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was [a]given over to idols. 17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 [b]Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this [c]babbler want to say?”
Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them (B)Jesus and the resurrection.
19 And they took him and brought him to the [d]Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
Addressing the Areopagus
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the [e]Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 (C)God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is (D)Lord of heaven and earth, (E)does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He (F)gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one [f]blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and (G)the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 (H)so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, (I)though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for (J)in Him we live and move and have our being, (K)as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, (L)we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, (M)these times of ignorance God overlooked, but (N)now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which (O)He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by (P)raising Him from the dead.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.