Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 111

¹ Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) I will praise and give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart in the council of the upright and in the congregation.

² The works of the Lord are great, sought out by all those who have delight in them.

³ His work is honorable and glorious, and His righteousness endures forever.

⁴ He has made His wonderful works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious, merciful, and full of loving compassion.

⁵ He has given food and provision to those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him; He will remember His covenant forever and imprint it [on His mind].^(A)

⁶ He has declared and shown to His people the power of His works in giving them the heritage of the nations [of Canaan].

⁷ The works of His hands are [absolute] truth and justice [faithful and right]; and all His decrees and precepts are sure (fixed, established, and trustworthy).

⁸ They stand fast and are established forever and ever and are done in [absolute] truth and uprightness.

⁹ He has sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant to be forever; holy is His name, inspiring awe, reverence, and godly fear.

¹⁰ The reverent fear and worship of the Lord is the beginning of ^[a]Wisdom and skill [the preceding and the first essential, the prerequisite and the alphabet]; a good understanding, wisdom, and meaning have all those who do [the will of the Lord]. Their praise of Him endures forever.^(B)

²³ And I besought the Lord at that time, saying,

²⁴ O Lord God, You have only begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth that can do according to Your works and according to Your might?

²⁵ I pray You, [will You not just] let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that goodly mountain country [with Hermon] and Lebanon?

²⁶ But the Lord was angry with me on your account and would not listen to me; and the Lord said to me, That is enough! Say no more to Me about it.

²⁷ Get up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes westward and northward and southward and eastward, and behold it with your eyes, for you shall not go over this Jordan.

²⁸ But charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he shall go over before this people and he shall cause them to possess the land which you shall see.

²⁹ So we remained in the valley opposite Beth-peor.

⁶ However, it is not as though God’s Word had failed [coming to nothing]. For it is not everybody who is a descendant of Jacob (Israel) who belongs to [the true] Israel.

⁷ And they are not all the children of Abraham because they are by blood his descendants. No, [the promise was] Your descendants will be called and counted through the line of Isaac [though Abraham had an older son].^(A)

⁸ That is to say, it is not the children of the body [of Abraham] who are made God’s children, but it is the offspring to whom the promise applies that shall be counted [as Abraham’s true] descendants.

⁹ For this is what the promise said, About this time [next year] will I return and Sarah shall have a son.^(B)

¹⁰ And not only that, but this too: Rebecca conceived [two sons under exactly the same circumstances] by our forefather Isaac,

¹¹ And the children were yet unborn and had so far done nothing either good or evil. Even so, in order further to carry out God’s purpose of selection (election, choice), which depends not on works or what men can do, but on Him Who calls [them],

¹² It was said to her that the elder [son] should serve the younger [son].^(C)

¹³ As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated (held in ^[a]relative disregard in comparison with My feeling for Jacob).^(D)

¹⁴ What shall we conclude then? Is there injustice upon God’s part? Certainly not!

¹⁵ For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion (pity) on whom I will have compassion.^(E)

¹⁶ So then [God’s gift] is not a question of human will and human effort, but of God’s mercy. [It depends not on one’s own willingness nor on his strenuous exertion as in running a race, but on God’s having mercy on him.]

¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, I have raised you up for this very purpose of displaying My power in [dealing with] you, so that My name may be proclaimed the whole world over.

¹⁸ So then He has mercy on whomever He wills (chooses) and He hardens (makes stubborn and unyielding the heart of) whomever He wills.