Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 113
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise, O you servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord.
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord
from this time forth and for evermore.
3 From the rising of the sun to its going down,
the Lord’s name is to be praised.
4 The Lord is high above all nations,
and His glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the Lord our God,
who dwells on high,
6 who looks down on the things
that are in heaven and on the earth?
7 He raises up the poor out of the dust
and lifts the needy out of the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes,
even with the princes of His people.
9 He gives the barren woman a dwelling,
making her the joyful mother of children.
Praise the Lord!
Jerusalem as God’s Furnace
17 The word of the Lord came to me, saying: 18 Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me. All of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace. They are the dross of silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you all have become dross, therefore, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the midst of a furnace to blow fire on it to melt it, so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will lay you there and melt you. 21 Indeed, I will gather you and blow upon you in the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. 22 As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it. And you shall know that I the Lord have poured out My fury upon you.
Indictment of Sinful Leaders
23 The word of the Lord came to me, saying: 24 Son of man, say to her: You are the land that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation. 25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and precious things. They have made many widows in her midst. 26 Her priests have violated My law and have profaned My holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and profane, nor have they shown the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27 Her officials in her midst are like wolves ravening the prey by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to obtain dishonest gain. 28 Her prophets have daubed them with whitewash, seeing vanity and divining lies for them, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” when the Lord has not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and needy and have oppressed the sojourner wrongfully.
30 I sought for a man among them who would build up the hedge and stand in the gap before Me for the land so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. 31 Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath. Their own way I have recompensed on their heads, says the Lord God.
The Love of God
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes, who is risen, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.”[a]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities nor powers, neither things present nor things to come, 39 neither height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.