Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

27 The LORD is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

² When the wicked—even my enemies—and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

³ Though an army encamped against me, my heart shall not be afraid. Though war is raised against me, I will trust in this.

⁴ One thing have I desired of the LORD, that I will require: That I may dwell in the House of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to visit His Temple.

⁵ For in the time of trouble, He shall hide me in His Tabernacle. In the secret place of His pavilion, He shall hide me and set me up upon a rock.

⁶ And now, He shall lift up my head above my enemies all around me. Therefore, I will offer sacrifices of joy in His Tabernacle. I will sing and praise the LORD.

⁷ Hear my voice, O LORD, when I cry. Have mercy, also, upon me and hear me.

⁸ When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart answered You, “O LORD, I will seek Your face.”

⁹ Do not hide, therefore, Your face from me, nor cast Your servant away in displeasure. You have been my succor; do not leave me or forsake me, O God of my salvation.

¹⁰ Though my father and my mother should forsake me, yet the LORD will gather me up.

¹¹ Teach me Your way, O LORD, and lead me in a right path, because of my enemies.

¹² Do not give me to the lust of my adversaries. For there are false witnesses risen up against me, and such as speak cruelly.

¹³ I should have fainted, except I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Hope in the LORD. Be strong, and He shall comfort Your heart; and trust in the LORD. A Psalm of David.

¹⁰ Have we not all one Father? Has not one God made us? Why do we transgress, each one against his brother, and break the Covenant of our fathers?

¹¹ Judah has transgressed. And an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Israel has defiled the holiness of the LORD, which He loves, and has married the daughter of a strange god.

¹² The LORD will cut off the man who does this—the master and the servant—out of the Tabernacle of Jacob and he who offers an offering to the LORD of Hosts.

¹³ And this you have done again, and covered the Altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and with mourning. Because the offering is no longer regarded. Nor is it received acceptably from your hands.

¹⁴ Yet you say, “Why?” Because the LORD has been Witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have transgressed. She still is your companion and the wife of your covenant.

¹⁵ And did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit. And why one? Because He sought a godly seed. Therefore, keep yourselves in your spirit. And let no one trespass against the wife of his youth.

¹⁶ “For I hate divorce,” says the LORD God of Israel, “and he who covers the injury under his garment,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Therefore, keep yourselves in your spirit, and do not transgress.”

¹⁷ You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet, you say “How have we wearied him?” When you say, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD. And He delights in them.” Or “Where is the God of judgment?”

3 “Behold, I will send My messenger. And he shall prepare the way before Me. And the LORD Whom you seek shall speedily come to His Temple. The messenger of the Covenant, whom you desire, behold, he shall come,” says the LORD of Hosts.

⁵ In the time of Herod, King of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zacharias, of the class of Abijah. And his wife was among the daughters of Aaron. And her name was Elizabeth.

⁶ Both were righteous before God and walked in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord, without reproof.

⁷ And they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren. And both were well-advanced in age.

⁸ And it so happened that as he executed the priest’s office before God (as per his class),

⁹ the lot fell to him to burn incense when he went into the Temple of the Lord, according to the custom of the priest’s office.

¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people were outside in prayer while the incense was burning.

¹¹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the Altar of Incense.

¹² And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

¹³ But the angel said to him, “Fear not, Zacharias. For your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth shall bear you a son. And you shall call his name, John.

¹⁴ “And you shall have joy and gladness. And many shall rejoice at his birth.

¹⁵ “For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.

¹⁶ “And he shall turn many of the children of Israel to their Lord God.

¹⁷ “For he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”