Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Praise God Who Saved the Nation
For the director of music. A psalm of David. A song.
68 Let God rise up and scatter his enemies;
let those who hate him run away from him.
2 Blow them away as smoke
is driven away by the wind.
As wax melts before a fire,
let the wicked be destroyed before God.
3 But those who do right should be glad
and should rejoice before God;
they should be happy and glad.
4 Sing to God; sing praises to his name.
Prepare the way for him
who rides through the desert,
whose name is the Lord.
Rejoice before him.
5 God is in his holy Temple.
He is a father to orphans,
and he defends the widows.
6 God gives the lonely a home.
He leads prisoners out with joy,
but those who turn against God will live in a dry land.
7 God, you led your people out
when you marched through the desert. Selah
8 The ground shook
and the sky poured down rain
before God, the God of Mount Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
9 God, you sent much rain;
you refreshed your tired land.
10 Your people settled there.
God, in your goodness
you took care of the poor.
19 Praise the Lord, God our Savior,
who helps us every day. Selah
20 Our God is a God who saves us;
the Lord God saves us from death.
9 The fatherless child is grabbed from its mother’s breast;
they take a poor mother’s baby to pay for what she owes.
10 So the poor go around naked without any clothes;
they carry bundles of grain but still go hungry;
11 they crush olives to get oil
and grapes to get wine, but they still go thirsty.
12 Dying people groan in the city,
and the injured cry out for help,
but God accuses no one of doing wrong.
13 “Those who fight against the light
do not know God’s ways
or stay in his paths.
14 When the day is over, the murderers get up
to kill the poor and needy.
At night they go about like thieves.
15 Those who are guilty of adultery watch for the night,
thinking, ‘No one will see us,’
and they keep their faces covered.
16 In the dark, evil people break into houses.
In the daytime they shut themselves up in their own houses,
because they want nothing to do with the light.
17 Darkness is like morning to all these evil people
who make friends with the terrors of darkness.
18 “They are like foam floating on the water.
Their part of the land is cursed;
no one uses the road that goes by their vineyards.
19 As heat and dryness quickly melt the snow,
so the grave quickly takes away the sinners.
20 Their mothers forget them,
and worms will eat their bodies.
They will not be remembered,
so wickedness is broken in pieces like a stick.
21 These evil people abuse women who cannot have children
and show no kindness to widows.
22 But God drags away the strong by his power.
Even though they seem strong, they do not know how long they will live.
23 God may let these evil people feel safe,
but he is watching their ways.
24 For a little while they are important, and then they die;
they are laid low and buried like everyone else;
they are cut off like the heads of grain.
25 If this is not true, who can prove I am wrong?
Who can show that my words are worth nothing?”
Paul Shows that Peter Was Wrong
11 When Peter came to Antioch, I challenged him to his face, because he was wrong. 12 Peter ate with the non-Jewish people until some Jewish people sent from James came to Antioch. When they arrived, Peter stopped eating with those who weren’t Jewish, and he separated himself from them. He was afraid of the Jews. 13 So Peter was a hypocrite, as were the other Jewish believers who joined with him. Even Barnabas was influenced by what these Jewish believers did. 14 When I saw they were not following the truth of the Good News, I spoke to Peter in front of them all. I said, “Peter, you are a Jew, but you are not living like a Jew. You are living like those who are not Jewish. So why do you now try to force those who are not Jewish to live like Jews?”
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.