Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Psalm 124

The Lord Is on Our Side

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A song of the ascents. By David.

The Lord Is on Our Side

God’s Covenant With the Earth

9 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. ² Every animal on the earth and every bird in the sky will fear you and dread you. Everything that swarms on the ground and all the fish in the sea are handed over to you. ³ Every living, moving thing will be food for you. I have given everything to you, just as I gave you the green plants. ⁴ But flesh that has the blood (which is its life) still in it, you shall not eat. ⁵ In fact, I will hold each animal and each person responsible for your lifeblood. I will hold each man responsible for the life of his brother. ⁶ Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for God made man in his own image.

⁷ “But you, be fruitful and multiply. Increase abundantly on the earth, and multiply on it.”

⁸ God said to Noah and to his sons, who were with him, ⁹ “Listen, I will now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you ¹⁰ and with everything with you that has the breath of life: with the birds, with the livestock, and with every wild animal that is on the earth with you, with everything that went out of the ark, even with every wild animal on the earth. ¹¹ I will establish my covenant with you: Never again will all living creatures^[a] be cut off by the waters of a flood. Neither will there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

¹² God also said, “This is the sign of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you that I am giving for all generations to come. ¹³ I have set my rainbow in the cloud, and it will be the sign of a covenant between me and the earth. ¹⁴ Whenever I bring a cloud over the earth and the rainbow is seen in the cloud, ¹⁵ I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of every sort,^[b] and the waters will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ The rainbow will be in the cloud. I will look at it so that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

³² And what more should I say? There would not be enough time for me to continue to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. ³³ By faith they conquered kingdoms, carried out justice, obtained things that were promised, shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴ quenched the power of fire, escaped the edges of the sword, were made powerful after being weak, became mighty in battle, and caused foreign armies to flee. ³⁵ Women received back their dead by resurrection. And others who were tortured did not accept their release, so that they may take part in a better resurrection. ³⁶ Still others experienced mocking and lashes, in addition to chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were tempted;^[a] they were killed with the sword; they went around in sheepskins and goatskins, needy, afflicted, and mistreated. ³⁸ The world was not worthy of them as they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

³⁹ All of these were commended in Scripture by faith, yet they did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ because God had planned something better for us, namely, that they would not reach the goal apart from us.