Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 128
Blessings for Those Who Fear God
A song of ascents.
1 How happy is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in his ways!(A)
2 You will surely eat
what your hands have worked for.(B)
You will be happy,
and it will go well for you.(C)
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house,
your children, like young olive trees
around your table.(D)
4 In this very way
the man who fears the Lord
will be blessed.(E)
A New Creation
17 “For I will create new heavens and a new earth;(A)
the past events will not be remembered or come to mind.
18 Then be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;
for I will create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight.
19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in my people.
The sound of weeping and crying
will no longer be heard in her.(B)
20 In her, a nursing infant will no longer live
only a few days,[a]
or an old man not live out his days.
Indeed, the one who dies at a hundred years old
will be mourned as a young man,[b]
and the one who misses a hundred years
will be considered cursed.(C)
21 People will build houses and live in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.(D)
22 They will not build and others live in them;
they will not plant and others eat.
For my people’s lives will be
like the lifetime of a tree.(E)
My chosen ones will fully enjoy
the work of their hands.
23 They will not labor without success(F)
or bear children destined for disaster,
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord
along with their descendants.(G)
24 Even before they call, I will answer;(H)
while they are still speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together,[c]
and the lion will eat straw like cattle,(I)
but the serpent’s food will be dust!(J)
They will not do what is evil or destroy
on my entire holy mountain,”(K)
says the Lord.
David Celebrating the Same Truth
6 Likewise, David also speaks of the blessing of the person to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7 Blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven
and whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the person
the Lord will never charge with sin.[a](A)
Abraham Justified before Circumcision
9 Is this blessing only for the circumcised,(B) then? Or is it also for the uncircumcised? For we say, Faith was credited to Abraham for righteousness.[b](C) 10 In what way, then, was it credited—while he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? It was not while he was circumcised, but uncircumcised. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision(D) as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith[c](E) while still uncircumcised. This was to make him the father(F) of all who believe(G) but are not circumcised, so that righteousness may be credited to them also. 12 And he became the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.
The Promise Granted through Faith
13 For the promise to Abraham(H) or to his descendants that he would inherit the world(I) was not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.
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