Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 33
The Sovereignty of the Lord.
1 Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
for praise is fitting for the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the harp;
make music to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing to Him a new song;
play an instrument skillfully with a joyful shout.
4 For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all His work is done in truth.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and all their host by the breath of His mouth.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He puts the depths in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
9 For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The Lord frustrates the counsel of the nations;
He restrains the purposes of the people.
11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the purposes of His heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom He has chosen as His inheritance.
The Abrahamic Covenant
15 After this the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying,
“Do not fear, Abram.
I am your shield,
your exceedingly great reward.[a]”
2 But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 Abram said, “Since You have not given me any children, my heir is a servant born in my house.”
4 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man will not be your heir, but a son that is from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He brought him outside and said, “Look up toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He said to him, “So will your descendants be.”
6 Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess[b] it.”
8 But Abram said, “Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?”
9 So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
10 Then Abram brought all of these to Him and cut them in two and laid each piece opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in half. 11 When the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and terror and a great darkness fell on him. 13 Then He said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will live as strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 14 But I will judge the nation that they serve, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you will go to your fathers in peace and you will be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation, your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
17 When the sun went down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot with a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates River— 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaites,
The Healing of Two Blind Men
27 As Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, “Son of David, have mercy on us!”
28 When He entered the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
They said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”
29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith, let it be done for you.” 30 And their eyes were opened, and Jesus strictly commanded them, saying, “See that no one knows of it.” 31 But when they had departed, they spread His fame in all that region.
The Healing of a Mute Man
32 As they went out, they brought to Him a mute man possessed with a demon. 33 And when the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds were amazed, saying, “This has never been seen in Israel.”
34 But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons through the ruler of the demons.”
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.