Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

118 Oh, thank the Lord, for he’s so good! His loving-kindness is forever.

² Let the congregation of Israel praise him with these same words: “His loving-kindness is forever.”

¹⁴ He is my strength and song in the heat of battle, and now he has given me the victory. ^15-16 Songs of joy at the news of our rescue are sung in the homes of the godly. The strong arm of the Lord has done glorious things! ¹⁷ I shall not die but live to tell of all his deeds. ¹⁸ The Lord has punished me but not handed me over to death.

¹⁹ Open the gates of the Temple^[a]—I will go in and give him my thanks. ²⁰ Those gates are the way into the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there. ²¹ O Lord, thank you so much for answering my prayer and saving me.

²² The stone rejected by the builders has now become the capstone of the arch!^{[b] 23} This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous to see! ²⁴ This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

²⁰ Then God said, “Let the waters teem with fish and other life, and let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.” ^21-22 So God created great sea animals, and every sort of fish and every kind of bird. And God looked at them with pleasure, and blessed them all. “Multiply and stock the oceans,” he told them, and to the birds he said, “Let your numbers increase. Fill the earth!” ²³ That ended the fifth day.^[a]

²⁴ And God said, “Let the earth bring forth every kind of animal—cattle and reptiles and wildlife of every kind.” And so it was. ²⁵ God made all sorts of wild animals and cattle and reptiles. And God was pleased with what he had done.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make a man^[b]—someone like ourselves, to be the master of all life upon the earth and in the skies and in the seas.”

²⁸ And God blessed them and told them, “Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it; you are masters of the fish and birds and all the animals. ²⁹ And look! I have given you the seed-bearing plants throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. ³⁰ And I’ve given all the grass and plants to the animals and birds for their food.” ³¹ Then God looked over all that he had made, and it was excellent in every way. This ended the sixth day.^[c]

2 Now at last the heavens and earth were successfully completed, with all that they contained. ² So on the seventh day, having finished his task, God ceased from this work he had been doing, ³ and God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he ceased this work of creation.

⁴ Here is a summary of the events in the creation of the heavens and earth when the Lord God made them.

⁵⁰ I tell you this, my brothers: an earthly body made of flesh and blood cannot get into God’s Kingdom. These perishable bodies of ours are not the right kind to live forever.

⁵¹ But I am telling you this strange and wonderful secret: we shall not all die, but we shall all be given new bodies! ⁵² It will all happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For there will be a trumpet blast from the sky,^[a] and all the Christians who have died will suddenly become alive, with new bodies that will never, never die; and then we who are still alive shall suddenly have new bodies too. ⁵³ For our earthly bodies, the ones we have now that can die, must be transformed into heavenly bodies that cannot perish but will live forever.

⁵⁴ When this happens, then at last this Scripture will come true—“Death is swallowed up in victory.” ^55-56 O death, where then your victory? Where then your sting? For sin—the sting that causes death—will all be gone; and the law, which reveals our sins, will no longer be our judge. ⁵⁷ How we thank God for all of this! It is he who makes us victorious through Jesus Christ our Lord!

⁵⁸ So, my dear brothers, since future victory is sure, be strong and steady, always abounding in the Lord’s work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever wasted as it would be if there were no resurrection.