Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Mem: Sweeter Than Honey
97 How I love your laws!
I meditate on them all day long.
98 Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
because it is always with me.
99 I have more wisdom than all my teachers,
because your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I have more understanding than the elders,
because I guard your precepts.
101 I have kept my feet off every evil path
in order to keep your words.
102 I have not turned from your judgments,
because you yourself have instructed me.
103 How sweet are your sayings to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 From your precepts I gain understanding.
Therefore, I hate every false road.
10 Now I will arise, says the Lord.
Now I will lift myself up.
Now I will be exalted.
11 You will conceive chaff
and give birth to stubble.
Like fire, your own breath will consume you.
12 People will be burned to lime,[a]
like thorns that are cut and burned in the fire.
13 You who are far away, recognize what I have done.
You who are close by, acknowledge my mighty acts.
14 The sinners in Zion are afraid.
Trembling has seized the ungodly.
Who of us can live with a consuming fire?
Who of us can live in a place that burns without end?
15 Those who walk righteously and speak blamelessly,
those who despise dishonest gain,
whose hands refuse a bribe,
whose ears will not listen to violent plans,
whose eyes reject evil—
16 they will dwell on high.
Their defense will be a fortress on the cliffs.
Their bread will be provided.
Their water supply will be reliable.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will endure, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 These things I am instructing you, so that you love one another.
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated me first. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, for that very reason the world hates you. 20 Remember the saying I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too. If they held on to my word, they will hold on to yours as well. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 The one who hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I had not done the works among them that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 This was to fulfill the word which is written in their Law: ‘They hated me for no reason.’[a]
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.