Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
BOOK IV
(Psalms 90–106)
(A prayer by Moses, the man of God.)
God Is Eternal
1 Our Lord, in all generations
you have been our home.
2 You have always been God—
long before the birth
of the mountains,
even before you created
the earth and the world.
3 At your command we die
and turn back to dust,
4 (A) but a thousand years
mean nothing to you!
They are merely a day gone by
or a few hours in the night.
5 You bring our lives to an end
just like a dream.
We are merely tender grass
6 that sprouts and grows
in the morning,
but dries up by evening.
13 Help us, Lord! Don't wait!
Pity your servants.
14 When morning comes,
let your love satisfy
all our needs.
Then we can celebrate
and be glad for what time
we have left.
15 Make us happy for as long
as you caused us trouble
and sorrow.
16 Do wonderful things for us,
your servants,
and show your mighty power
to our children.
17 Our Lord and our God,
treat us with kindness
and let all go well for us.
Please let all go well!
Israel Will Reject the Lord
14 The Lord told Moses, “You will soon die, so bring Joshua to the sacred tent, and I will appoint him the leader of Israel.”
Moses and Joshua went to the sacred tent, 15 and the Lord appeared in a thick cloud right over the entrance to the tent. 16 The Lord said:
Moses, you will soon die. But Israel is going into a land where other gods are worshiped, and Israel will reject me and start worshiping these gods. The people will break the agreement I made with them, 17 and I will be so furious that I will abandon them and ignore their prayers. I will send disasters and suffering that will nearly wipe them out. Finally, they will realize that the disasters happened because I abandoned them. 18 They will pray to me, but I will ignore them because they were evil and started worshiping other gods.
19 Moses and Joshua, I am going to give you the words to a new song. Write them down and teach the song to the Israelites. If they learn it, they will know what I want them to do, and so they will have no excuse for not obeying me. 20 I am bringing them into the land that I promised their ancestors. It is a land rich with milk and honey, and the Israelites will have more than enough food to eat. But they will get fat and turn their backs on me and start worshiping other gods. The Israelites will reject me and break the agreement that I made with them.
21 When I punish the Israelites and their descendants with suffering and disasters, I will remind them that they know the words to this song, so they have no excuse for not obeying me.
I will give them the land that I promised, but I know the way they are going to live later on.
22 Moses at once wrote down the words to the song,[a] and he taught it to the Israelites.
What Titus Was To Do in Crete
5 I left you in Crete to do what had been left undone and to appoint leaders[a] for the churches in each town. As I told you, 6 (A) they must have a good reputation and be faithful in marriage.[b] Their children must be followers of the Lord and not have a reputation for being wild and disobedient.
7 Church officials[c] are in charge of God's work, and so they must also have a good reputation. They must not be bossy, quick-tempered, heavy drinkers, bullies, or dishonest in business. 8 Instead, they must be friendly to strangers and enjoy doing good things. They must also be sensible, fair, pure, and self-controlled. 9 They must stick to the true message they were taught, so their good teaching can help others and correct everyone who opposes it.
10 There are many who don't respect authority, and they fool others by talking nonsense. This is especially true of some Jewish followers. 11 But you must make them be quiet. They are after money, and they upset whole families by teaching what they should not. 12 It is like one of their own prophets once said,
“The people of Crete
always tell lies.
They are greedy and lazy
like wild animals.”
13 This surely is a true saying. And you should be hard on such people, so you can help them grow stronger in their faith. 14 Don't pay any attention to any of those senseless Jewish stories and human commands. These are made up by people who won't obey the truth.
15 Everything is pure for someone whose heart is pure. But nothing is pure for an unbeliever with a dirty mind. That person's mind and conscience are destroyed. 16 Such people claim to know God, but their actions prove they really don't. They are disgusting. They won't obey God, and they are too worthless to do anything good.
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