Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
49 (0) For the leader. A psalm of the descendants of Korach:
2 (1) Hear this, all you peoples!
Listen, everyone living on earth,
3 (2) regardless of whether low or high,
regardless of whether rich or poor!
4 (3) My mouth is about to speak wisdom;
my heart’s deepest thoughts will give understanding.
5 (4) I will listen with care to [God’s] parable,
I will set my enigma to the music of the lyre.
6 (5) Why should I fear when the days bring trouble,
when the evil of my pursuers surrounds me,
7 (6) the evil of those who rely on their wealth
and boast how rich they are?
8 (7) No one can ever redeem his brother
or give God a ransom for him ,
9 (8) because the price for him is too high
(leave the idea completely alone!)
10 (9) to have him live on eternally
and never see the pit.
11 (10) For he can see that wise men will die,
likewise the fool and the brute will perish
and leave their wealth to others.
12 (11) They think their homes will last forever,
their dwellings through all generations;
they give their own names to their estates.
24 Don’t be envious of evil people,
and don’t desire to be with them.
2 For their minds are occupied with violence,
and their lips speak of making trouble.
3 By wisdom a house is built,
by understanding it is made secure,
4 and by knowledge its rooms are filled
with all kinds of costly and pleasant possessions.
5 A wise man is strong;
yes, a man of knowledge grows in strength.
6 For with clever strategy you wage your war,
and victory comes from having many advisers.
7 Wisdom is too lofty for a fool;
he keeps his mouth shut at the city gate.
8 He who plans to do evil
people call a schemer.
9 The evil plans of the foolish are sin,
and people detest a scorner.
10 If you slack off on a day of distress,
your strength is small indeed.
11 Yes, rescue those being dragged off to death —
won’t you save those about to be killed?
12 If you say, “We knew nothing about it,”
won’t he who weighs hearts discern it?
Yes, he who guards you will know it
and repay each one as his deeds deserve.
17 Therefore I say this — indeed, in union with the Lord I insist on it: do not live any longer as the pagans live, with their sterile ways of thinking. 18 Their intelligence has been shrouded in darkness, and they are estranged from the life of God, because of the ignorance in them, which in turn comes from resisting God’s will. 19 They have lost all feeling, so they have abandoned themselves to sensuality, practicing any kind of impurity and always greedy for more. 20 But this is not the lesson you learned from the Messiah! 21 If you really listened to him and were instructed about him, then you learned that since what is in Yeshua is truth, 22 then, so far as your former way of life is concerned, you must strip off your old nature, because your old nature is thoroughly rotted by its deceptive desires; 23 and you must let your spirits and minds keep being renewed, 24 and clothe yourselves with the new nature created to be godly, which expresses itself in the righteousness and holiness that flow from the truth.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.