Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
105 Your words are a flashlight to light the path ahead of me and keep me from stumbling. 106 I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again and again: I will obey these wonderful laws of yours.
107 I am close to death at the hands of my enemies; oh, give me back my life again, just as you promised me. 108 Accept my grateful thanks and teach me your desires. 109 My life hangs in the balance, but I will not give up obedience to your laws. 110 The wicked have set their traps for me along your path, but I will not turn aside. 111 Your laws are my joyous treasure forever. 112 I am determined to obey you until I die.
32 “Listen, O heavens and earth!
Listen to what I say!
2 My words shall fall upon you
Like the gentle rain and dew,
Like rain upon the tender grass,
Like showers on the hillside.
3 I will proclaim the greatness of the Lord.
How glorious he is!
4 He is the Rock. His work is perfect.
Everything he does is just and fair.
He is faithful, without sin.
5 But Israel has become corrupt,
Smeared with sin. They are no longer his;
They are a stubborn, twisted generation.
6 Is this the way you treat Jehovah?
O foolish people,
Is not God your Father?
Has he not created you?
Has he not established you and made you strong?
7 Remember the days of long ago!
(Ask your father and the aged men;
They will tell you all about it.)
8 When God divided up the world among the nations,
He gave each of them a supervising angel!
9 But he appointed none for Israel;
For Israel was God’s own personal possession!
10 God protected them in the howling wilderness
As though they were the apple of his eye.
14 I know that you are wise and good, my brothers, and that you know these things so well that you are able to teach others all about them. 15-16 But even so I have been bold enough to emphasize some of these points, knowing that all you need is this reminder from me; for I am, by God’s grace, a special messenger from Jesus Christ to you Gentiles, bringing you the Gospel and offering you up as a fragrant sacrifice to God; for you have been made pure and pleasing to him by the Holy Spirit. 17 So it is right for me to be a little proud of all Christ Jesus has done through me. 18 I dare not judge how effectively he has used others, but I know this: he has used me to win the Gentiles to God. 19 I have won them by my message and by the good way I have lived before them and by the miracles done through me as signs from God—all by the Holy Spirit’s power. In this way I have preached the full Gospel[a] of Christ all the way from Jerusalem clear over into Illyricum.
20 But all the while my ambition has been to go still farther, preaching where the name of Christ has never yet been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. 21 I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures where Isaiah says that those who have never heard the name of Christ before will see and understand.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.