Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 87
A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A Song.
1 The city of His foundation is on the holy mountain.
2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken of you,
O city of God. Selah.
4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon
to those who know Me;
look, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia;
“This man was born there.”
5 But of Zion it shall be said,
“This one and that one were born in her,”
for the Most High shall make her secure.
6 The Lord shall count when He registers the people,
“This one was born there.” Selah
7 As well the singers and the players of instruments say,
“All my springs are in you.”
8 Bring forth the blind people who have eyes,
and the deaf who have ears.
9 Let all the nations be gathered together,
and let the people be assembled.
Who among them can declare this,
and show us former things?
Let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified;
or let them hear and say, “It is true.”
10 You are My witnesses, says the Lord,
and My servant whom I have chosen
that you may know and believe Me,
and understand that I am He.
Before Me there was no God formed,
nor shall there be after Me.
11 I, even I, am the Lord,
and besides Me there is no savior.
12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shown,
when there was no strange god among you;
therefore, you are My witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God.
13 Indeed, from eternity I am He;
there is no one who can deliver out of My hand;
I act, and who can reverse it?
13 For I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if somehow I may make my kinsmen jealous and may save some of them. 15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 16 If the first portion of the dough is holy, the batch is also holy. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and became a partaker with them of the root and richness of the olive tree, 18 do not boast against the branches. If you boast, remember you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you. 19 You will say then, “The branches were broken off, so that I might be grafted in.” 20 This is correct. They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you.
22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God—severity toward those who fell, but goodness toward you, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And these also, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
The Restoration of Israel
25 For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, lest you be wise in your own estimation, for a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
and He will remove ungodliness from Jacob”;[a]
27 “for this is My covenant with them,
when I shall take away their sins.”[b]
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as regarding the election, they are beloved for the sake of the patriarchs. 29 For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.