Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Joy in the Fellowship of God
A Psalm of David (A)when he was in the wilderness of Judah.
63 O God, You are my God;
Early will I seek You;
(B)My soul thirsts for You;
My flesh longs for You
In a dry and thirsty land
Where there is no water.
2 So I have looked for You in the sanctuary,
To see (C)Your power and Your glory.
3 (D)Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips shall praise You.
4 Thus I will bless You while I live;
I will (E)lift up my hands in Your name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with [a]marrow and [b]fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips.
6 When (F)I remember You on my bed,
I meditate on You in the night watches.
7 Because You have been my help,
Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice.
8 My soul follows close behind You;
Your right hand upholds me.
9 But those who seek my life, to destroy it,
Shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
10 They shall [c]fall by the sword;
They shall be [d]a portion for jackals.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God;
(G)Everyone who swears by Him shall glory;
But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.
9 (A)Proclaim this among the nations:
“Prepare for war!
Wake up the mighty men,
Let all the men of war draw near,
Let them come up.
10 (B)Beat your plowshares into swords
And your [a]pruning hooks into spears;
(C)Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ”
11 Assemble and come, all you nations,
And gather together all around.
Cause (D)Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord.
12 “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
For there I will sit to (E)judge all the surrounding nations.
13 (F)Put in the sickle, for (G)the harvest is ripe.
Come, go down;
For the (H)winepress is full,
The vats overflow—
For their wickedness is great.”
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
For (I)the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and moon will grow dark,
And the stars will diminish their brightness.
16 The Lord also will roar from Zion,
And utter His voice from Jerusalem;
The heavens and earth will shake;
(J)But the Lord will be a shelter for His people,
And the strength of the children of Israel.
17 “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,
Dwelling in Zion My (K)holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem shall be holy,
And no aliens shall ever pass through her again.”
God Blesses His People
18 And it will come to pass in that day
That the mountains shall drip with new wine,
The hills shall flow with milk,
And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water;
A (L)fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord
And water the Valley of [b]Acacias.
19 “Egypt shall be a desolation,
And Edom a desolate wilderness,
Because of violence against the people of Judah,
For they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah shall abide forever,
And Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 For I will (M)acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted;
For the Lord dwells in Zion.”
The Coming of the Son of Man(A)
29 (B)“Immediately after the tribulation of those days (C)the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 (D)Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, (E)and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 (F)And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His [a]elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
The Parable of the Fig Tree(G)
32 “Now learn (H)this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know (I)that [b]it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, (J)this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. 35 (K)Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.