Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Psalm 26[a]
Prayer for the Righteous
1 Of David.
O Lord, come to my defense,
for I have lived a blameless life.
I have placed my trust in the Lord,
and never have I wavered in that regard.
2 Test me, O Lord, and try me;
probe my heart and my mind.
3 For your kindness[b] is before my eyes,
and I am constantly guided by your truth.
4 I do not sit in the company of deceivers,
nor do I associate with hypocrites.
5 I abhor the assembly of the wicked,
and I refuse to associate with evildoers.
6 I wash my hands in innocence[c]
and join the procession around your altar, O Lord,
7 giving voice to your praises
and proclaiming all your wondrous deeds.[d]
8 I love the house where you dwell, O Lord,
the place where your glory resides.[e]
9 Do not sweep my soul away with sinners,
nor my life with those who thirst for blood,[f]
10 whose hands carry out evil schemes,
and whose right hands are full of bribes.
11 Rather, I choose to walk in innocence;
redeem me and be merciful to me.
12 My feet stand on level ground;[g]
in the full assembly I will bless the Lord.
Eliphaz’s First Speech[a]
Chapter 4
Can You Recall Even One Innocent Person Who Perished?[b] 1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded:
2 “If one of us attempts to reason with you, will you be offended?
Yet who can refrain from speaking?
3 Recall how you instructed many others
and strengthened their feeble hands.
4 Your words have supported those who were staggering,
and you have made firm their faltering knees.
5 “But now that adversity has befallen you, you have grown impatient;
you are dismayed because it has troubled you.
6 Does not your piety give you confidence
and the integrity of your life offer you hope?
7 Can you recall even one innocent person who perished?
Where have the upright ever been destroyed?
8 “My experience has been that those who plow iniquity and sow trouble
reap no other harvest.
9 At the breath of God they are destroyed;
at the blast of his anger they perish.
10 Even though they are as fierce as lions,
their fangs will be broken off.
11 The lion perishes for lack of prey,
and the whelps of the lioness are abandoned.
Can a Human Being Appear Upright in the Presence of God?[c]
12 “A word was quietly brought to me;
a whisper of it reached my ears.
13 It was made known to me in nighttime visions
when sleep comes upon all men.
14 I was seized with terror and trembling
that caused all my bones to shake violently.
15 A spirit brushed across my face,
causing the hairs on my body to bristle.
16 It then halted,
but I could not discern its shape.
An image was before my eyes,
and then I heard a voice whisper:
17 “ ‘Can a human being appear upright in the presence of God?
Can a mortal seem pure before its Maker?
18 God places no trust in his servants,
and he finds fault even with his angels.[d]
19 How much more will this be true of those who dwell in houses of clay,
whose foundation is in the dust
and who can be crushed as easily as a moth.
20 From morning to evening they are cut down;
they perish forever, with hardly a thought from anyone.
21 Their tent-pegs are plucked up,
and they die devoid of wisdom.’
The Spirit of God Dwells in Christians[a]
Chapter 8
There Is No Longer Any Condemnation. 1 Hence, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 That 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 4 so 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] 5 Those 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. 6 The desires of the flesh result in death, but the desires of the Spirit result in life and peace. 7 Indeed, 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. 8 Those who live according to the flesh can never be pleasing to God.
9 You, however, do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not possess the Spirit of Christ cannot belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though the body is dead as a result of sin, the Spirit is alive in you because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then the one who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwells in you.[d]
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