Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 27
The Stronghold of My Life
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By David.
Safe in God’s Stronghold
1 The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evildoers advance against me to eat my flesh,
when my foes and my enemies come against me,
it is they who will stumble and fall.
3 If an army lines up against me, my heart will not fear.
If war rises against me, even then I will keep trusting.
Happy in God’s Temple
4 One thing I ask from the Lord. This is what I seek:
that I live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord,
and to seek him in his temple.[a]
5 Yes, he will hide me in his shelter on the day of trouble.
He will hide me in his tent.
He will set me high on a rock.
6 Then my head will be lifted up above the enemies who surround me.
I will offer sacrifices at his tent with a joyful shout.
I will sing and make music to the Lord.
Confident in Prayer
7 Hear me, O Lord. With my voice I call.
Be merciful to me and answer me.
8 When you say, “Seek my face,” my heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
9 Do not hide your face from me.
Do not turn your servant away in anger.
You have been my help.
Do not reject me or forsake me, O God who saves me.
10 If my father and my mother abandoned me,
the Lord would take me in.
Walking in God’s Path
11 Lord, teach me your way,
and lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.
12 Do not give me up to the desire of my foes,
because false witnesses rise up against me,
and so do those who breathe out violence.
At Home in God’s Land
13 Unless I was confident to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living—[b]
14 Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart,
and wait for the Lord!
Abram and Lot Separate
13 Abram went up out of Egypt into the Negev. He went with his wife and with all that he had, and with Lot too. 2 Abram was very wealthy in livestock, in silver, and in gold. 3 He went on his journeys from the Negev to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai. 4 He went to the site of the altar that he had made there earlier. There Abram proclaimed[a] the name of the Lord. 5 Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents. 6 The land was not able to support them if they lived close together, because their possessions were so great that they could not live together. 7 There was conflict between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. (The Canaanites and the Perizzites lived in the land at that time.)
14 After Lot was separated from him, the Lord said to Abram, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look around from the place where you are. Look north and south, east and west, 15 because all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your descendants permanently. 16 I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth, so that if a man could count the dust of the earth, then your descendants could also be counted. 17 Get up, walk through the length and breadth of the land, because I will give it to you.”
18 Abram moved his tent and went to live by the oaks at Mamre, which are at Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord.
2 Beware of the dogs. Beware of the evildoers. Beware of the mutilation.[a] [b] 3 For we are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God,[c] who are confident in Christ Jesus, and who place no confidence in the flesh, 4 even though I have grounds for confidence also in the flesh. If anyone else thinks that he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 in regard to zeal, persecuting the church; in regard to the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.
7 But, whatever things were a profit for me, these things I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. 8 But even more than that, I consider everything to be a loss because of what is worth far more: knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I have lost all things and consider them rubbish, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, which comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God by faith. 10 I do this so that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11 in the hope that in some way I may arrive at the resurrection from the dead.
Press On
12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus also took hold of me.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.