Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A maskil by Asaph.
78 Open your ears to my teachings, my people.
Turn your ears to the words from my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth to illustrate points.
I will explain what has been hidden long ago,
3 things that we have heard and known about,
things that our parents have told us.
4 We will not hide them from our children.
We will tell the next generation
about the Lord’s power and great deeds
and the miraculous things he has done.
52 But he led his own people out like sheep
and guided them like a flock through the wilderness.
53 He led them safely.
They had no fear while the sea covered their enemies.
54 He brought them into his holy land,
to this mountain that his power had won.
55 He forced nations out of their way
and gave them the land of the nations as their inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their own tents.
56 They tested God Most High and rebelled against him.
They did not obey his written instructions.
57 They were disloyal and treacherous like their ancestors.
They were like arrows shot from a defective bow.
58 They made him angry because of their illegal worship sites.
They made him furious because they worshiped idols.
59 When God heard, he became furious.
He completely rejected Israel.
60 He abandoned his dwelling place in Shiloh,
the tent where he had lived among humans.
61 He allowed his power to be taken captive
and handed his glory over to an oppressor.
62 He let swords kill his people.
He was furious with those who belonged to him.
63 Fire consumed his best young men,
so his virgins heard no wedding songs.
64 His priests were cut down with swords.
The widows ⌞of his priests⌟ could not even weep ⌞for them⌟.
65 Then the Lord woke up like one who had been sleeping,
like a warrior sobering up from ⌞too much⌟ wine.
66 He struck his enemies from behind
and disgraced them forever.
67 He rejected the tent of Joseph.
He did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which he loved.
69 He built his holy place to be like the high heavens,
like the earth which he made to last for a long time.
70 He chose his servant David.
He took him from the sheep pens.
71 He brought him from tending the ewes that had lambs
so that David could be the shepherd of the people of Jacob,
of Israel, the people who belonged to the Lord.
72 With unselfish devotion David became their shepherd.
With skill he guided them.
David at Nob
21 [a]David went to the priest Ahimelech at Nob. Ahimelech was trembling as he went to meet David. “Why are you alone?” he asked David. “Why is no one with you?”
2 “The king ordered me to do something,” David answered the priest Ahimelech, “and he told me, ‘No one must know anything about this mission I’m sending you on and about the orders I’ve given you. I’ve stationed [b] my young men at a certain place.’ ” 3 ⌞David added,⌟ “Now, what do you have ⌞to eat⌟? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever you can find.”
4 “I don’t have any ordinary bread,” the chief priest answered David. “But there is holy bread for the young men if they haven’t had sexual intercourse ⌞today⌟.”
5 David answered the priest, “Of course women have been kept away from us as usual when we go ⌞on a mission⌟. The young men’s bodies are kept holy even on ordinary campaigns. How much more then will their bodies be holy today?”
6 So the priest gave him holy ⌞bread⌟ because he only had the bread of the presence which had been taken from the Lord’s presence and replaced with warm bread that day.
Jesus Cures a Man at the Bethesda Pool
5 Later, Jesus went to Jerusalem for a Jewish festival.
2 Near Sheep Gate in Jerusalem was a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew. It had five porches. 3 Under these porches a large number of sick people—people who were blind, lame, or paralyzed—used to lie.[a] 5 One man, who had been sick for 38 years, was lying there. 6 Jesus saw the man lying there and knew that he had been sick for a long time. So Jesus asked the man, “Would you like to get well?”
7 The sick man answered Jesus, “Sir, I don’t have anyone to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I’m trying to get there, someone else steps into the pool ahead of me.”
8 Jesus told the man, “Get up, pick up your cot, and walk.” 9 The man immediately became well, picked up his cot, and walked.
That happened on a day of rest—a holy day. 10 So the Jews told the man who had been healed, “This is a day of rest—a holy day. You’re not allowed to carry your cot today.”
11 The man replied, “The man who made me well told me to pick up my cot and walk.”
12 The Jews asked him, “Who is the man who told you to pick it up and walk?” 13 But the man who had been healed didn’t know who Jesus was. (Jesus had withdrawn from the crowd.)
14 Later, Jesus met the man in the temple courtyard and told him, “You’re well now. Stop sinning so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.”
15 The man went back to the Jews and told them that Jesus was the man who had made him well.
The Son Is Equal to the Father
16 The Jews began to persecute Jesus because he kept healing people on the day of rest—a holy day. 17 Jesus replied to them, “My Father is working right now, and so am I.”
18 His reply made the Jews more intent on killing him. Not only did he break the laws about the day of rest—a holy day, but also he made himself equal to God when he said repeatedly that God was his Father.
Copyright © 1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God’s Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.