◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary) / Psalm 25:1-10 (Show me your ways); Leviticus 19:1-4 32-37 (Mercy to the alien); John 3:16-21 (God’s son saves the world) (New English Translation)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with thematically matched Old and New Testament readings.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 25:1-10

Psalm 25^[a]

By David.

25 O Lord, I come before you in prayer.^[b]
²My God, I trust in you.
Please do not let me be humiliated;
do not let my enemies triumphantly rejoice over me.
³Certainly none who rely on you will be humiliated.
Those who deal in treachery will be thwarted^[c] and humiliated.
⁴Make me understand your ways, O Lord.
Teach me your paths.^[d]
⁵Guide me into your truth^[e] and teach me.
For you are the God who delivers me;
on you I rely all day long.
⁶Remember^[f] your compassionate and faithful deeds, O Lord,
for you have always acted in this manner.^[g]
⁷Do not hold against me^[h] the sins of my youth^[i] or my rebellious acts.
Because you are faithful to me, extend to me your favor, O Lord.^[j]
⁸The Lord is both kind and fair;^[k]
that is why he teaches sinners the right way to live.^[l]
⁹May he show^[m] the humble what is right.^[n]
May he teach^[o] the humble his way.
¹⁰The Lord always proves faithful and reliable^[p]
to those who follow the demands of his covenant.^[q]

Footnotes

Psalm 25:1 sn Psalm 25. The psalmist asks for divine protection, guidance and forgiveness as he affirms his loyalty to and trust in the Lord. This psalm is an acrostic; every verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, except for v. 18, which, like v. 19, begins with ר (resh) instead of the expected ק (qof). The final verse, which begins with פ (pe), stands outside the acrostic scheme.
Psalm 25:1 tn Heb “to you, O Lord, my life I lift up.” To “lift up” one’s “life” to the Lord means to express one’s trust in him through prayer. See Pss 86:4; 143:8.
Psalm 25:3 tn Heb “those who deal in treachery in vain.” The adverb רֵיקָם (reqam, “in vain”) probably refers to the failure (or futility) of their efforts. Another option is to understand it as meaning “without cause” (cf. NIV “without excuse”; NRSV “wantonly treacherous”).
Psalm 25:4 sn Teach me your paths. In this context the Lord’s “ways” and “paths” refer to the moral principles which the Lord prescribes for his followers. See vv. 8-10.
Psalm 25:5 sn The Lord’s commandments are referred to as truth here because they are a trustworthy and accurate expression of the divine will.
Psalm 25:6 tn That is, “remember” with the intention of repeating.
Psalm 25:6 tn Heb “for from antiquity [are] they.”
Psalm 25:7 tn Heb “do not remember,” with the intention of punishing.
Psalm 25:7 sn That is, the sins characteristic of youths, who lack moral discretion and wisdom.
Psalm 25:7 tn Heb “according to your faithfulness, remember me, you, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.”
Psalm 25:8 tn Heb “good and just.”
Psalm 25:8 tn Heb “teaches sinners in the way.”
Psalm 25:9 tn The prefixed verbal form is jussive; the psalmist expresses his prayer.
Psalm 25:9 tn Heb “may he guide the humble into justice.” The Hebrew term עֲנָוִים (ʿanavim, “humble”) usually refers to the oppressed, but in this context, where the psalmist confesses his sin and asks for moral guidance, it apparently refers to sinners who humble themselves before God and seek deliverance from their sinful condition.
Psalm 25:9 tn The prefixed verbal form is interpreted as a jussive (it stands parallel to the jussive form, “may he guide”).
Psalm 25:10 tn Heb “all the paths of the Lord are faithful and trustworthy.” The Lord’s “paths” refer here to his characteristic actions.
Psalm 25:10 tn Heb “to the ones who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”

Leviticus 19:1-4

Religious and Social Regulations

19 The Lord spoke to Moses: ²“Speak to the whole congregation of the Israelites and tell them, ‘You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. ³Each of you must respect his mother and his father,^[a] and you must keep my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God. ⁴Do not turn to idols,^[b] and you must not make for yourselves gods of cast metal. I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:32-37

³²You must stand up in the presence of the aged, honor the presence of an elder, and fear your God. I am the Lord. ³³When a resident foreigner^[a] lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him. ³⁴The resident foreigner^[b] who lives with you must be to you as a native citizen among you; so^[c] you must love the foreigner as yourself, because you were foreigners^[d] in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. ³⁵You must not do injustice in the regulation of measures, whether of length, weight, or volume.^[e] ³⁶You must have honest balances,^[f] honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin.^[g] I am the Lord your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt. ³⁷You must be sure to obey all my statutes and regulations.^[h] I am the Lord.’”

Footnotes

Leviticus 19:33 tn The noun “foreigner” (גֵּר; ger) is based on the same verbal root as “lives” (גּוּר; gur), which means “to sojourn, to dwell as an alien.” On the Hebrew ger (גֵּר) “resident foreigner” see notes at Exod 12:19 and Deut 29:11. On not oppressing the ger, see also Exod 22:21; Deut 24:14, 17; 27:19.
Leviticus 19:34 tn The noun “foreigner” (גֵּר; ger) is based on the same verbal root as “lives” (גּוּר; gur), which means “to sojourn, to dwell as an alien.”
Leviticus 19:34 tn Heb “and.” The Hebrew conjunction ו (vav, “and”) can be considered to have resultative force here.
Leviticus 19:34 sn The same term ger (גֵּר) is used for the resident foreigner living in Israel and of the Israelite who lived in Israel, despite the very different social conditions of each. A foreign resident has differing status in different countries. The Israelites were slaves in Egypt, but the resident foreigner in Israel was under the same laws (civil and religious) as the Israelite and could worship the Lord as part of the covenant community. Several passages emphasize equal standing under Mosaic Law (Exod 12:49; Lev 24:22; Num 9:14; 15:15, 16, 26, 29; 19:10; 35:15; Deut 1:16) or similar obligations (Exod 20:10; 23:12; Lev 16:29; 17:10, 12, 13; 18:26; 24:16; Num 15:14). For more on the ger (גֵּר), see the notes at Exod 12:19 and Deut 29:11.
Leviticus 19:35 tn That is, liquid capacity (HALOT 640 s.v. מְשׂוּרָה). Cf. ASV, NIV, NRSV, TEV “quantity”; NAB, NASB “capacity.”
Leviticus 19:36 tn Heb “balances of righteousness,” and so throughout this sentence.
Leviticus 19:36 sn An ephah is a dry measure which measures about four gallons, or perhaps one third of a bushel, while a hin is a liquid measure of about 3.6 liters (= approximately 1 gallon).
Leviticus 19:37 tn Heb “And you shall keep all my statutes and all my regulations and you shall do them.” This appears to be a kind of verbal hendiadys, where the first verb is a modifier of the action of the second verb (see GKC 386 §120.d, although שָׁמַר [shamar, “to keep”] is not cited there; cf. Lev 22:31).

John 3:16-21

¹⁶For this is the way^[a] God loved the world: He gave his one and only^[b] Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish^[c] but have eternal life.^[d] ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,^[e] but that the world should be saved through him. ¹⁸The one who believes in him is not condemned.^[f] The one who does not believe has been condemned^[g] already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only^[h] Son of God. ¹⁹Now this is the basis for judging:^[i] that the light has come into the world and people^[j] loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. ²¹But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.^[k]

Footnotes

John 3:16 tn Or “this is how much”; or “in this way.” The Greek adverb οὕτως (houtōs) can refer (1) to the degree to which God loved the world, that is, to such an extent or so much that he gave his own Son (see R. E. Brown, John [AB], 1:133-34; D. A. Carson, John, 204) or (2) simply to the manner in which God loved the world, i.e., by sending his own son (see R. H. Gundry and R. W. Howell, “The Sense and Syntax of John 3:14-17 with Special Reference to the Use of Οὕτως…ὥστε in John 3:16, ” NovT 41 [1999]: 24-39). Though the term more frequently refers to the manner in which something is done (see BDAG 741-42 s.v. οὕτω/οὕτως), the following clause involving ὥστε (hōste) plus the indicative (which stresses actual, but [usually] unexpected result) emphasizes the greatness of the gift God has given. With this in mind, then, it is likely (3) that John is emphasizing both the degree to which God loved the world as well as the manner in which He chose to express that love. This is in keeping with John’s style of using double entendre or double meaning. Thus, the focus of the Greek construction here is on the nature of God’s love, addressing its mode, intensity, and extent.
John 3:16 tn Although this word is often translated “only begotten,” such a translation is misleading, since in English it appears to express a metaphysical relationship. The word in Greek was used of an only child (a son [Luke 7:12; 9:38] or a daughter [Luke 8:42]). It was also used of something unique (only one of its kind) such as the mythological Phoenix (1 Clement 25:2). From here it passes easily to a description of Isaac (Heb 11:17 and Josephus, Ant. 1.13.1 [1.222]) who was not Abraham’s only son, but was one-of-a-kind because he was the child of the promise. Thus the word means “one-of-a-kind” and is reserved for Jesus in the Johannine literature of the NT. While all Christians are children of God (τέκνα θεοῦ, tekna theou), Jesus is God’s Son in a unique, one-of-a-kind sense. The word is used in this way in all its uses in the Gospel of John (1:14, 18; 3:16, 18).
John 3:16 tn In John the word ἀπόλλυμι (apollumi) can mean either (1) to be lost (2) to perish or be destroyed, depending on the context.
John 3:16 sn The alternatives presented are only two (again, it is typical of Johannine thought for this to be presented in terms of polar opposites): perish or have eternal life.
John 3:17 sn That is, “to judge the world to be guilty and liable to punishment.”
John 3:18 tn Grk “judged.”
John 3:18 tn Grk “judged.”
John 3:18 tn See the note on the term “one and only” in 3:16.
John 3:19 tn Or “this is the reason for God judging,” or “this is how judgment works.”
John 3:19 tn Grk “and men,” but in a generic sense, referring to people of both genders (as “everyone” in v. 20 makes clear).
John 3:21 sn John 3:16-21 provides an introduction to the (so-called) “realized” eschatology of the Fourth Gospel: Judgment has come; eternal life may be possessed now, in the present life, as well as in the future. The terminology “realized eschatology” was originally coined by E. Haenchen and used by J. Jeremias in discussion with C. H. Dodd, but is now characteristically used to describe Dodd’s own formulation. See L. Goppelt, Theology of the New Testament, 1:54, note 10, and R. E. Brown (John [AB], 1:cxvii-cxviii) for further discussion. Especially important to note is the element of choice portrayed in John’s Gospel. As Brown observes, “If there is a twofold reaction to Jesus in John’s Gospel, it should be emphasized that that reaction is very much dependent on a person’s choice, a choice that is influenced by his way of life, whether his deeds are wicked or are done in God (John 3:20-21). Thus, there is nodeterminism in John as there seems to be in some of the passages of the Qumranscrolls” (John [AB], 1:148). Only when one looks beneath the surface does one find statements like “no one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44).

New English Translation (NET)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 25[a]

By David.

Footnotes

Religious and Social Regulations

Footnotes

Footnotes

Footnotes

Psalm 25^[a]