Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 130

Out of the Depths

Heading
A song of the ascents.

Out of the Depths

The Creation of Man and Woman

⁴ This is the account about the development^[a] of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens:

⁵ No bushes that grow in the field were yet on the earth,^[b] and no plants of the field had yet sprung up, since the Lord God had not yet caused it to rain on the earth. There was not yet a man to till the soil, ⁶ but water^[c] came up from the earth and watered the entire surface of the ground.

⁷ The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground^[d] and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. ⁸ The Lord God planted a garden^[e] in Eden in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. ⁹ Out of the ground the Lord God made every kind of tree grow—trees that are pleasant to look at and good for food, including the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

¹⁰ A river went out from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became the headwaters of four rivers. ¹¹ The name of the first river is Pishon. It flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, ¹² and the gold of that land is good. Incense^[f] and onyx stone are also found there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the same river that winds through the whole land of Cush.^{[g] 14} The name of the third river is Tigris. This is the one which flows along the east side of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

The Parable of the Sower

⁴ As a large crowd was gathering and people from one town after another were making their way to him, he spoke using a parable. ⁵ “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the path. It was trampled, and the birds of the sky devoured it. ⁶ Other seed fell on rocky ground. As soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew up with it and choked it. ⁸ Other seed fell into good soil. It grew and produced fruit—one hundred times as much as was sown.” As he said these things, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear!”

⁹ His disciples asked him, “What does this parable mean?”

¹⁰ He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest I speak in parables so that ‘even though they see, they may not see, and even though they hear, they may not understand.’^{[a] 11} This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. ¹² Those along the path are the ones who hear it, but then the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts to keep them from believing and being saved. ¹³ Those on the rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root. So they believe for a while, but then fall away in a time of testing. ¹⁴ The seeds that fell into the thorns are the ones who hear the word, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of life, so they do not mature. ¹⁵ And the seeds in the good ground are the ones who hear the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it tightly, and produce fruit as they patiently endure.