Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Meditations on the Excellencies of the Word of God
א ALEPH
119 Blessed are the [a]undefiled in the way,
(A)Who walk in the law of the Lord!
2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
Who seek Him with the (B)whole heart!
3 (C)They also do no iniquity;
They walk in His ways.
4 You have commanded us
To keep Your precepts diligently.
5 Oh, that my ways were directed
To keep Your statutes!
6 (D)Then I would not be ashamed,
When I look into all Your commandments.
7 I will praise You with uprightness of heart,
When I learn Your righteous judgments.
8 I will keep Your statutes;
Oh, do not forsake me utterly!
34 (A)Then the land shall enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies’ land;
then the land shall rest and enjoy its sabbaths.
35 As long as it lies desolate it shall rest—
for the time it did not rest on your (B)sabbaths when you dwelt in it.
36 ‘And as for those of you who are left, I will send (C)faintness[a] into their hearts in the lands of their enemies;
the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee;
they shall flee as though fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues.
37 (D)They shall stumble over one another, as it were before a sword, when no one pursues;
and (E)you shall have no power to stand before your enemies.
38 You shall (F)perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.
39 And those of you who are left (G)shall [b]waste away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands;
also in their (H)fathers’ iniquities, which are with them, they shall waste away.
40 ‘But (I)if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,
41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies;
if their (J)uncircumcised hearts are (K)humbled, and they (L)accept their guilt—
42 then I will (M)remember My covenant with Jacob, and My covenant with Isaac and My covenant with Abraham I will remember;
I will (N)remember the land.
43 (O)The land also shall be left empty by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them;
they will accept their guilt, because they (P)despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes.
44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, (Q)I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them;
for I am the Lord their God.
45 But (R)for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, (S)whom I brought out of the land of Egypt (T)in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God:
I am the Lord.’ ”
46 (U)These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel (V)on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.
7 [a]Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had (A)from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard [b]from the beginning. 8 Again, (B)a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, (C)because the darkness is passing away, and (D)the true light is already shining.
9 (E)He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. 10 (F)He who loves his brother abides in the light, and (G)there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But he who (H)hates his brother is in darkness and (I)walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
Their Spiritual State
12 I write to you, little children,
Because (J)your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.
13 I write to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is (K)from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
Because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write to you, little children,
Because you have (L)known the Father.
14 I have written to you, fathers,
Because you have known Him who is from the beginning.
I have written to you, young men,
Because (M)you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,
And you have overcome the wicked one.
Do Not Love the World
15 (N)Do not love the world or the things in the world. (O)If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, (P)the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And (Q)the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.