Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
51 Written after Nathan the prophet had come to inform David of God’s judgment against him because of his adultery with Bathsheba, and his murder of Uriah, her husband.
O loving and kind God, have mercy. Have pity upon me and take away the awful stain of my transgressions. 2 Oh, wash me, cleanse me from this guilt. Let me be pure again. 3 For I admit my shameful deed—it haunts me day and night. 4 It is against you and you alone I sinned and did this terrible thing. You saw it all, and your sentence against me is just. 5 But I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. 6 You deserve honesty from the heart; yes, utter sincerity and truthfulness. Oh, give me this wisdom.
7 Sprinkle me with the cleansing blood[a] and I shall be clean again. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 And after you have punished me, give me back my joy again. 9 Don’t keep looking at my sins—erase them from your sight. 10 Create in me a new, clean heart, O God, filled with clean thoughts and right desires. 11 Don’t toss me aside, banished forever from your presence. Don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.
23 Long after this, when the Lord had given success to the people of Israel against their enemies and when Joshua was very old, 2 he called for the leaders of Israel—the elders, judges, and officers—and said to them, “I am an old man now, 3 and you have seen all that the Lord your God has done for you during my lifetime. He has fought for you against your enemies and has given you their land. 4-5 And I have divided to you the land of the nations yet unconquered as well as the land of those you have already destroyed. All the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea shall be yours, for the Lord your God will drive out all the people living there now, and you will live there instead, just as he has promised you.
6 “But be very sure to follow all the instructions written in the book of the laws of Moses; do not deviate from them the least little bit. 7 Be sure that you do not mix with the heathen people still remaining in the land; do not even mention the names of their gods, much less swear by them or worship them. 8 But follow the Lord your God just as you have until now. 9 He has driven out great, strong nations from before you, and no one has been able to defeat you. 10 Each one of you has put to flight a thousand of the enemy, for the Lord your God fights for you, just as he has promised. 11 So be very careful to keep on loving him.
12 “If you don’t, and if you begin to intermarry with the nations around you, 13 then know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no longer chase those nations from your land. Instead, they will be a snare and a trap to you, a pain in your side and a thorn in your eyes, and you will disappear from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.
14 “Soon I will be going the way of all the earth—I am going to die.
“You know very well that God’s promises to you have all come true. 15-16 But as certainly as the Lord has given you the good things he promised, just as certainly he will bring evil upon you if you disobey him. For if you worship other gods, he will completely wipe you out from this good land that the Lord has given you. His anger will rise hot against you, and you will quickly perish.”
27 So if anyone eats this bread and drinks from this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, he is guilty of sin against the body and the blood of the Lord. 28 That is why a man should examine himself carefully before eating the bread and drinking from the cup. 29 For if he eats the bread and drinks from the cup unworthily, not thinking about the body of Christ and what it means, he is eating and drinking God’s judgment upon himself; for he is trifling with the death of Christ. 30 That is why many of you are weak and sick, and some have even died.
31 But if you carefully examine yourselves before eating you will not need to be judged and punished. 32 Yet, when we are judged and punished by the Lord, it is so that we will not be condemned with the rest of the world. 33 So, dear brothers, when you gather for the Lord’s Supper—the communion service—wait for each other; 34 if anyone is really hungry he should eat at home so that he won’t bring punishment upon himself when you meet together.
I’ll talk to you about the other matters after I arrive.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.