Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
The Brevity of Human Life
For the music director. For Jeduthun.[a] A psalm of David.[b]
39 I said, “I will guard my ways
that I may not sin[c] with my tongue.
I will keep a muzzle over my mouth
as long as the wicked are before me.”
2 I was mute with silence. I was silent even from saying good things,
and my pain was stirred up.
3 My heart grew hot inside me;
in my sighing a fire burned.
Then I spoke with my tongue,
4 “Let me know, O Yahweh, my end,
and what is the measure of my days.
Let me know how transient I am.”
5 Look, you have made my days mere handbreadths,
and my lifespan as nothing next to you.
Surely every person standing firm is complete vanity. Selah
6 Surely a man walks about as a mere shadow;[d]
surely in vain they bustle about.
He heaps up possessions but does not know who will gather them in.
7 And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
My hope is for you.
8 From all my transgressions deliver me;
do not make me the taunt of the fool.
9 I am mute. I do not open my mouth,
for you, yourself, have done it.
10 Remove from me your affliction.
By the opposition of your hand I perish.
11 When with rebukes you chastise a man for sin,
you[e] consume[f] like a moth his delightful things.
Surely everyone is a mere vapor.[g] Selah
12 Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, and listen to my cry for help;
do not be deaf to my tears.
For I am an alien[h] with you,
a sojourner like all my ancestors.[i]
13 Look away from me that I may be cheerful,
before I depart and I am no more.
17 Moses sent them to explore the land of Canaan, and he said to them, “Go up like this to the Negev,[a] and go up into the hill country, 18 and you will see what the land is like and if the people who inhabit it are strong or weak, or whether they are few or many, 19 and whether the land that they are inhabiting is good or bad, and whether the cities they are inhabiting are camps or fortifications, 20 and whether the land is fertile or lean, and whether there are trees on it or not. You will show yourself courageous, and you will take some of the fruit of the land.” It was the time of first ripe grapes.
21 So they went up and explored the land from the desert of Zin until Rehob, at Lebo Hamath.[b] 22 They went up through the Negev[c] and came to Hebron, where[d] Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai the descendants of the Anakites were. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 23 And they came up to the valley[e] of Eshcol, and they cut off a vine branch and one cluster of grapes from there; they carried it on a pole between two men, with pomegranates and figs. 24 That place he called the valley[f] of Eshcol on account of the cluster of grapes that the Israelites[g] cut off from there.
The Spies Return
25 They returned from exploring the land at the end of forty days.[h] 26 And they came[i] to Moses and Aaron and to the entire community of the Israelites[j] in the desert of Paran at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the community, and they showed them the fruit of the land. 27 And they told him,[k] “We came to the land that you sent us, and it is flowing of milk and honey; this is its fruit.
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
18 Therefore he said, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed that a man took and[a] sowed in his own garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky nested in its branches.”
The Parable of the Yeast
20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and[b] hid in[c] three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.”
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