Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
ז Zayin
49 Remember what you have said to me.
You have given me hope.
50 Even when I suffer, I am comforted
because you promised to keep me alive.
51 Proud people make fun of me without mercy.
But I don’t turn away from your law.
52 Lord, I remember the laws you gave long ago.
I find comfort in them.
53 I am very angry
because evil people have turned away from your law.
54 No matter where I live,
I sing about your orders.
55 Lord, during the night I remember who you are.
That’s why I keep your law.
56 I have really done my best
to obey your rules.
22 These are the commandments the Lord announced in a loud voice to your whole community. He gave them to you there on the mountain. He spoke out of the fire, cloud and deep darkness. He didn’t add anything else. Then he wrote the commandments on two stone tablets. And he gave them to me.
23 The mountain was blazing with fire. You heard the voice coming out of the darkness. So your elders and all the leaders of your tribes came to me. 24 You said, “The Lord our God has shown us his glory and majesty. We have heard his voice coming out of the fire. Today we have seen that a person can still stay alive even if God speaks with them. 25 But why should we die? This great fire will burn us up. We’ll die if we hear the voice of the Lord our God again. 26 We have heard the voice of the living God. We’ve heard him speaking out of the fire. Has any other human being ever heard him speak like that and stayed alive? 27 Go near and listen to everything the Lord our God says. Then tell us what he tells you. We will listen and obey.”
28 The Lord heard you when you spoke to me. He said to me, “I have heard what these people said to you. Everything they said was good. 29 But I wish they would always have respect for me in their hearts. I wish they would always obey all my commands. Then things would go well with them and their children forever.
30 “Go and tell them to return to their tents. 31 But you stay here with me. Then I will give you all my commands, rules and laws. You must teach the people to obey them in the land I am giving them as their very own.”
32 So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you. Don’t turn away from his commands to the right or the left. 33 Live exactly as the Lord your God has commanded you to live. Then you will enjoy life in the land you will soon own. Things will go well with you there. You will live there for a long time.
Love the Lord Your God
6 The Lord your God has directed me to teach you his commands, rules and laws. Obey them in the land you will take over when you go across the Jordan River. 2 Then you, your children and their children after them will honor the Lord your God as long as you live. Obey all his rules and commands I’m giving you. If you do, you will enjoy long life. 3 Israel, listen to me. Make sure you obey me. Then things will go well with you. The number of your people will increase greatly in a land that has plenty of milk and honey. That’s what the Lord, the God of your parents, promised you.
17 When anyone lives in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone! The new is here! 18 All this is from God. He brought us back to himself through Christ’s death on the cross. And he has given us the task of bringing others back to him through Christ. 19 God was bringing the world back to himself through Christ. He did not hold people’s sins against them. God has trusted us with the message that people may be brought back to him. 20 So we are Christ’s official messengers. It is as if God were making his appeal through us. Here is what Christ wants us to beg you to do. Come back to God! 21 Christ didn’t have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us.
Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.®. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.