Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 135
1 Praise the Eternal!
Praise and glorify the name of the One who always has been and always will be;
praise Him, servants of the Eternal!
2 Join in the chorus, all you who minister in the Eternal’s temple;
in the courts of our God’s temple,
3 Glorify the Eternal, for He is good!
Sing praises, and honor His name for it is delightful.
4 For the Eternal made His choice; He selected Jacob as His own;
He claimed Israel as His possession.
5 Now I know this: the Eternal is great; His power is unmatched.
Our Master is above any so-called god.
6 He does whatever He pleases,
in heaven, on earth,
in the seas, and in all the ocean depths.
7 He draws up the clouds that rise over the whole earth,
He causes rain and the lightning to strike,
and He summons the wind from His storehouses.
8 He took the lives of Egypt’s firstborn,
human and beast alike.
9 O Egypt, He worked wonders and signs before your eyes,
signs against Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s servants.
10 He destroyed nation after nation
and killed mighty kings:
11 Sihon, the Amorite king;
Og, the king of Bashan;
and even all the kingdoms of Canaan.
12 He conquered their land and gave it as an inheritance—
an inheritance for His people, Israel.
13 Eternal One, Your name is everlasting.
Your legacy, Eternal One, will be known through all the ages.
14 For the Eternal will judge His people,
He will show compassion to those who serve Him.
15 The nations have idols of silver and gold,
crafted by human hands!
16 They shaped mouths for them, but they cannot speak;
they carved eyes into them, but they cannot see;
17 They placed ears on them, but they cannot hear;
they cannot breathe, not even a puff of air from their mouths!
18 The artisans who made them
are just like them,
and so are all who mistakenly trust in them, no exceptions.
19 House of Israel, praise the Eternal;
house of Aaron, praise the Eternal;
20 House of Levi, praise the Eternal;
all those who revere the Eternal, praise Him!
21 Blessed be the Eternal from Zion,
the One who has made Jerusalem His home.
Praise the Eternal!
26 When that time arrives, the people of this place called Judah will sing this song:
People: By the grace of God, our city is strong;
its structures and defenses He made secure.
2 Now open the gates to welcome the righteous,
so that those who keep faith may enter in.
3 You will keep the peace, a perfect peace, for all who trust in You,
for those who dedicate their hearts and minds to You.
4 So trust in the Eternal One forever,
for He is like a great Rock—strong, stable, trustworthy, and lasting.
5 He humbles the high and mighty.
Even the indomitable city falls before His strength, reducing it to dust.
6 The feet of the poor, the weak, the infirm and forgotten
will trample the dust of the formerly great.
7 The path of those who do right is straight and smooth.
O God, You who are upright, You make the way of the righteous level.
8 When we act in justice and righteousness—following Your laws—we wait for You.
We are eager to hear Your holy name and remember Your ways.
9 At night I long for You with all that is in Me.
When morning comes, I seek You with all my heart.
For when Your justice is done on earth,
then everyone in the world will learn righteousness.
10 If grace is extended to those who do wrong,
the perpetrators never learn what is right.
Even when surrounded by upright people, they gravitate to evil
and never even notice the awesome beauty of the Eternal.
11 O Eternal One, even when Your hand is raised against them, they do not see it.
When they finally do see how passionately
You act on the people’s behalf, they will be ashamed.
Ah, let the fire that consumes Your enemies consume them.
12 Eternal One, You are preparing peace for us;
in fact, everything we have accomplished has come from You.
13 Others have tried to rule over us,
but You, Eternal One, are our God.
At the end of the day, when all is done,
we acknowledge only You.
14 But now these would-be rulers are dead, never to live again;
these shadowy spirits will never rise.
You have punished and utterly destroyed them—
You erased every memory of them.
15 By contrast You have made this people great, Eternal One—
made this nation vital and strong. To you be all glory!
You have expanded the borders of this land.
Jesus turns the question back on them. It isn’t about taxes. It is about knowing and being faithful to the one true God.
18 Later a group of Sadducees, Jewish religious leaders who didn’t believe the dead would be resurrected, came to test Jesus.
Sadducees: 19 Teacher, the law of Moses tells us, “If a man’s brother dies, leaving a widow without sons, then the man should marry his sister-in-law and try to have children with her in his brother’s name.”[a]
20 Now here’s the situation: there were seven brothers. The oldest took a wife and left her a widow with no children. 21 So the next oldest married her, left her a widow, and again there were no children. So the next brother married her and died, and the next, and the next. 22 Finally all seven brothers had married her, but none of them had conceived children with her, and at last she died also.
23 Tell us then, in the resurrection [when humans rise from the dead],[b] whose wife will she be? For all seven of them married her.
Jesus: 24 You can’t see the truth because you don’t know the Scriptures well and because you don’t really believe that God is powerful. 25 The answer is this: when the dead rise, they won’t be married or given in marriage. They’ll be like the messengers in heaven, who are not united with one another in marriage. 26 But how can you fail to see the truth of resurrection? Don’t you remember in the Book of Moses how God talked to Moses out of a burning bush and what God said to him then? “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”[c] “I am,” God said. Not “I was.” 27 So God is not the God of the dead but of the living. You are sadly mistaken.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.