Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

100 Shout with joy before the Lord, O earth! ² Obey him gladly; come before him, singing with joy.

³ Try to realize what this means—the Lord is God! He made us—we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Go through his open gates with great thanksgiving; enter his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. ⁵ For the Lord is always good. He is always loving and kind, and his faithfulness goes on and on to each succeeding generation.

¹⁷ “And as for you, O my flock—my people,” the Lord God says, “I will judge you and separate good from bad, sheep from goats.

¹⁸ “Is it a small thing to you, O evil shepherds, that you not only keep the best of the pastures for yourselves, but trample down the rest? That you take the best water for yourselves and muddy the rest with your feet? ¹⁹ All that’s left for my flock is what you’ve trampled down; all they have to drink is water that you’ve fouled.”

²⁰ Therefore the Lord God says: “I will surely judge between these fat shepherds and their scrawny sheep. ²¹ For these shepherds push and butt and crowd my sick and hungry flock until they’re scattered far away. ²² So I myself will save my flock; no more will they be picked on and destroyed. And I will notice which is plump and which is thin, and why!

²³ “And I will set one Shepherd over all my people, even my Servant David. He shall feed them and be a Shepherd to them.

5 And now, a word to you elders of the church. I, too, am an elder; with my own eyes I saw Christ dying on the cross; and I, too, will share his glory and his honor when he returns. Fellow elders, this is my plea to you: ² Feed the flock of God; care for it willingly, not grudgingly; not for what you will get out of it but because you are eager to serve the Lord. ³ Don’t be tyrants, but lead them by your good example, ⁴ and when the Head Shepherd comes, your reward will be a never-ending share in his glory and honor.

⁵ You younger men, follow the leadership of those who are older. And all of you serve each other with humble spirits, for God gives special blessings to those who are humble, but sets himself against those who are proud.