Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
5 Lord, your love is as high as the heavens.
Your faithful love reaches up to the skies.
6 Your holiness is as great as the height of the highest mountains.
You are as honest as the oceans are deep.
Lord, you keep people and animals safe.
7 How priceless your faithful love is!
People find safety in the shadow of your wings.
8 They eat well because there is more than enough in your house.
You let them drink from your river that flows with good things.
9 You have the fountain of life.
We are filled with light because you give us light.
10 Keep on loving those who know you.
Keep on doing right to those whose hearts are honest.
19 “I myself said,
“ ‘I would gladly treat you like my children.
I would give you a pleasant land.
It is the most beautiful land any nation could have.’
I thought you would call me ‘Father.’
I hoped you would always obey me.
20 But you people are like a woman who is not faithful to her husband.
Israel, you have not been faithful to me,”
announces the Lord.
21 A cry is heard on the bare hilltops.
The people of Israel are weeping and begging for help.
That’s because their lives are so twisted.
They’ve forgotten the Lord their God.
22 “You have not been faithful,”
says the Lord.
“Return to me. I will heal you.
Then you will not turn away from me anymore.”
“Yes,” the people say. “We will come to you.
You are the Lord our God.
23 The gods we worship on the hills
and mountains are useless.
You are the Lord our God.
You are the only one who can save us.
24 From our earliest years shameful gods have harmed us.
They have eaten up everything our people of long ago worked for.
They have eaten up our flocks and herds.
They’ve destroyed our sons and daughters.
25 Let us lie down in our shame.
Let our dishonor cover us.
You are the Lord our God. But we have sinned against you.
We and our people of long ago have sinned.
We haven’t obeyed you
from our earliest years until now.”
Advice for Those Who Are Married
7 Now I want to deal with the things you wrote me about. Some of you say, “It is good for a man not to sleep with a woman.” 2 But since sexual sin is happening, each man should sleep with his own wife. And each woman should sleep with her own husband. 3 A husband should satisfy his wife’s needs. And a wife should satisfy her husband’s needs. 4 The wife’s body does not belong only to her. It also belongs to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong only to him. It also belongs to his wife. 5 You shouldn’t stop giving yourselves to each other. You might possibly do this when you both agree to it. And you should only agree to it to give yourselves time to pray. Then you should come together again. In that way, Satan will not tempt you when you can’t control yourselves. 6 I say those things to you as my advice, not as a command. 7 I wish all of you were single like me. But you each have your own gift from God. One has this gift, and another has that one.
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