◀ All Reading Plans / Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous) / Psalm 29 (Worship God in holiness); Isaiah 1:1-4 16-20 (A vision concerning God’s people); Romans 8:1-8 (The Spirit is life and peace) (New Catholic Bible)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Daily Bible readings that follow the church liturgical year, with sequential stories told across multiple weeks.

Duration: 1245 days

Psalm 29

Psalm 29^[a]

God’s Majesty in the Storm

¹A psalm of David.

Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones,^[b]
    ascribe to the Lord glory and might.
²Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to his name;^[c]
    worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.
³The voice of the Lord^[d] echoes over the waters;
    the God of glory thunders,
    the Lord thunders over mighty waters.
⁴The voice of the Lord is powerful;
    the voice of the Lord is filled with majesty.
⁵The voice of the Lord shatters the cedars;
    the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.^[e]
⁶He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
    and Sirion^[f] like a young wild ox.
⁷The voice of the Lord flashes forth
    with bolts of lightning.
⁸The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
    the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.^[g]
⁹The voice of the Lord batters the oaks
    and strips the forests bare,
    while in his temple all cry out, “Glory!”^[h]
¹⁰The Lord sits enthroned above the flood;^[i]
    the Lord is enthroned as king forever.
¹¹May the Lord grant strength to his people.
    May the Lord bless his people with peace.

Footnotes

Psalm 29:1 The psalmist sings a hymn of praise to the Lord, the King of creation, evoking his power and glory in the storm that terrifies the foes of Israel, while sparing the chosen people. He concludes by asking the Lord to give similar power to the king and to Israel.
We can pray this psalm in the knowledge that the voice of God has acquired a body in Christ Jesus, living Word of the Father. It calls upon all who are in heaven, on earth, and in the netherworld to attribute to Christ all glory and power, and to adore him alone.
Psalm 29:1 Mighty ones: literally, “sons of God,” which in the beginning probably referred to the pagan deities but later came to be understood as referring to the angels (see Pss 82:1; 89:7; Job 1:6). To eliminate the polytheistic meaning of the expression, the Septuagint and Vulgate added immediately after “mighty ones” the line “bring to the Lord the offspring of rams.” This passage is sometimes applied to Israel, the son of God (see Ex 4:22; Deut 14:1; Acts 17:28).
Psalm 29:2 Name: see note on Ps 5:12. In the splendor of his holiness: it probably refers to the priestly garments to be worn in the liturgy (see Ps 110:3), although it may also refer to God or to the sanctuary.
Psalm 29:3 The voice of the Lord: this phrase appears seven times in imitation of the sound of thunder and symbolizes the power of God, the Lord of history as well as the Master of the elements, whose voice no one can resist (see Job 37:4f; Ezek 10:5).
Psalm 29:5 The cedars of Lebanon: i.e., the strongest of all trees (see Isa 2:13).
Psalm 29:6 Sirion: a Phoenician name for Mount Hermon in northern Palestine. The mountains there were originally given the general name of Lebanon.
Psalm 29:8 The wilderness of Kadesh: probably a border location in southern Palestine; some believe it is a location north of Palestine near Lebanon and Mount Hermon.
Psalm 29:9 The cry of Glory! takes place either in heaven (v. 2) or in the temple of Jerusalem whose liturgy echoes the heavenly praises.
Psalm 29:10 Enthroned above the flood: a reference to God’s control of the unruly primordial waters (see Gen 1:2, 6-10) or to his sending of the flood (see Gen 6:17), which was the first manifestation of the divine justice. Thus, the Lord will know how to make the cause of his people triumph (see Job 20:28; 22:16; Isa 24:18; 59:9ff).

Isaiah 1:1-4

The Book of Judgment^[a]

Indictment of Israel and Judah^[b]

Chapter 1

The Sins of Israel. ¹The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem which he received during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

²^[c]Listen, O heavens, and pay close attention, O earth,
    for the Lord is speaking.
I reared children and brought them up,
    but they have rebelled against me.
³An ox knows its owner
    and the donkey its master’s stall,
but Israel does not know,
    my people do not understand.
⁴You are a sinful nation,
    a people weighed down with iniquity,
a race of evildoers
    whose children are corrupt;
you have forsaken the Lord,
    despised the Holy One of Israel,
    and turned your backs on him.

Footnotes

Isaiah 1:1 This first part of the Book presents Isaiah himself and his message, although some sections are clearly from a later date, such as chapters 24–27; 34–35, which are often called “the Isaiah apocalypses.” But the oracles in the collection do not follow a strict chronological order.
In the midst of political upheaval, Isaiah proclaimed the greatness of God, the “Holy One of Israel,” who governs the world. He opposed King Ahaz, who nonetheless called on Assyria for help and came under its control; he opposed Hezekiah, who wanted to defy Assyria by allying himself with Egypt. Such insecure and shifting alliances could do nothing to change the fate of the people of God; the nation would, however, be safe if it learned to emphasize above all else its covenant with God, in which justice was a supreme value. Judah should have found within itself the courage for a moral renewal. Yet the people of the covenant remain strong thanks above all to their faith.
Isaiah 1:1 The vision of Isaiah: thus begins the book; Isaiah in fact remains an unparalleled seer in the history of humanity. The title, “Vision,” applies above all to the first twelve chapters. Nothing, whether the powers of this world, or external events, or domestic intrigues, can turn the prophet’s gaze from the holiness of God, before whom everything else disappears. In this entire body of oracles, we can distinguish several collections: oracles uttered in the most diverse circumstances during fifty years of prophetic ministry from the last days of Uzziah (740 B.C.) to the death of Hezekiah (687 B.C.).
The first five chapters perhaps correspond most closely to the beginning of Isaiah’s activity; the remainder belong to the course of the Syro-Ephraimite war against Judah in 732 B.C. It is true that some of the verses look more to the northern kingdom (9:7) and to Assyria (10:5), but on the whole, the oracles are addressed to the people of Judah. The “Book of Immanuel” that begins in chapter 6 is doubtless the jewel of Isaiah’s work and has won him the title of supreme prophetic foreteller of the coming of Jesus. The Advent liturgy draws upon these chapters.
Isaiah 1:2 Isaiah must denounce decadence and open the eyes of those who no longer want to see. He first takes on himself the suffering involved in the fate of his country by remaining in solidarity with the very people whom he accuses and even severely indicts.

Isaiah 1:16-20

¹⁶Wash yourselves and become clean;
    remove your evil deeds
    far from my sight.
Cease to do evil
¹⁷    and learn to do good.
Pursue justice and rescue the oppressed;
    listen to the plea of the orphan^[a]
    and defend the widow.
¹⁸Come now and let us discuss this,
    says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be like snow.
Though they are as red as crimson,
    they shall become as white as wool.
¹⁹If you are willing to obey,
    you will eat the best food
    that the land has to offer.
²⁰However, if you refuse and rebel,
    the sword will devour you,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

Romans 8:1-8

The Spirit of God Dwells in Christians^[a]

Chapter 8

There Is No Longer Any Condemnation. ¹Hence, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ²For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³That which the Law, weakened by the flesh, was unable to do, God has done. By sending his own Son in the likeness of our sinful nature as a sin offering, he condemned sin in the flesh ⁴so that the righteous requirements of the Law^[b] might be fulfilled in us who live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Animated by the Spirit and Rendered Children of God.^[c] ⁵Those who live according to the flesh fix their attention on the things of the flesh, while those who live according to the Spirit set their thoughts on spiritual things. ⁶The desires of the flesh result in death, but the desires of the Spirit result in life and peace. ⁷Indeed, the desires of the flesh will be hostile to God, for they do not submit to the Law of God, nor could they do so. ⁸Those who live according to the flesh can never be pleasing to God.

New Catholic Bible (NCB)

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Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 29[a]

God’s Majesty in the Storm

Footnotes

The Book of Judgment[a]

Indictment of Israel and Judah[b]

Chapter 1

Footnotes

Footnotes

The Spirit of God Dwells in Christians[a]

Chapter 8

Footnotes

Psalm 29^[a]

The Book of Judgment^[a]

Indictment of Israel and Judah^[b]

The Spirit of God Dwells in Christians^[a]