Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
A song of David.
29 Praise the Lord, you heavenly angels[a]!
Praise the Lord’s glory and power.
2 Praise the Lord and honor his name!
Worship the Lord in all his holy beauty.
3 The Lord’s voice can be heard over the sea.
The voice of our glorious Lord God is like thunder over the great ocean.
4 The Lord’s voice is powerful.
It shows the Lord’s glory.
5 The Lord’s voice shatters great cedar trees.
The Lord breaks the great cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon shake like a young calf dancing.
Sirion[b] trembles like a young bull jumping up and down.
7 The Lord’s voice cuts the air with flashes of lightning.
8 The Lord’s voice shakes the desert.
The desert of Kadesh[c] trembles at the Lord’s voice.
9 The Lord’s voice frightens the deer.[d]
He destroys the forests.
In his temple everyone shouts, “Glory to God!”
10 The Lord ruled as king at the time of the flood,
and the Lord will rule as king forever.
11 May the Lord make his people strong.
May the Lord bless his people with peace.
15 Everyone, common people and leaders alike, will be humbled. Those who are now so proud will bow their heads in shame. 16 The Lord All-Powerful will judge fairly, and people will honor him. They will respect the Holy God when he brings justice. 17 Then sheep will be able to go wherever they want and graze on the land that rich people once owned.
18 Look at those people! They pull their guilt and sins behind them like people pulling wagons with ropes.[a] 19 They say, “We wish God would hurry and do what he plans to do so that we can see it. Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel happen soon so that we can know what it is.”
20 Look at those people! They say good is bad and bad is good. They think light is dark and dark is light. They think sour is sweet and sweet is sour. 21 They think they are so smart. They think they are very intelligent. 22 They are famous for drinking wine and are heroes known for mixing drinks. 23 And if you pay them enough money, they will forgive a criminal. But they will not let good people be judged fairly. 24 So bad things will happen to them. Their descendants will be destroyed completely, just as fire burns straw and leaves. Their descendants will be like plants with rotten roots, whose flowers have all blown away like dust in the wind.
Those people refused to obey the teachings[b] of the Lord All-Powerful. They hated the message from the Holy One of Israel.
Jesus Warns His Followers
18 “If the world hates you, remember that they hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as it loves its own people. But I have chosen you to be different from those in the world. So you don’t belong to the world, and that is why the world hates you.
20 “Remember the lesson I told you: Servants are not greater than their master. If people treated me badly, they will treat you badly too. And if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International