Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 97

¹ The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles and coastlands be glad!

² Clouds and darkness are round about Him [as at Sinai]; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.^(A)

³ Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries round about.

⁴ His lightnings illumine the world; the earth sees and trembles.

⁵ The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.

⁶ The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the peoples see His glory.

⁷ Let all those be put to shame who serve graven images, who boast in idols. Fall prostrate before Him, all you gods.^(B)

⁸ Zion heard and was glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoiced [in relief] because of Your judgments, O Lord.

⁹ For You, Lord, are high above all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.

¹⁰ O you who love the Lord, hate evil; He preserves the lives of His saints (the children of God), He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.^(C)

¹¹ Light is sown for the [uncompromisingly] righteous and strewn along their pathway, and joy for the upright in heart [the irrepressible joy which comes from consciousness of His favor and protection].

¹² Rejoice in the Lord, you [consistently] righteous (upright and in right standing with God), and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.

33 The Lord said to Moses, Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought from the land of Egypt, to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, To your descendants I will give it.

² I will send an ^[a]Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite, Amorite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite.^(A)

³ Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I destroy you on the way.

⁴ When the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned and no man put on his ornaments.

⁵ For the Lord had said to Moses, Say to the Israelites, You are a stiff-necked people! If I should come among you for one moment, I would consume and destroy you. Now therefore [penitently] leave off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.

⁶ And the Israelites left off all their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.

¹³ I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.

¹⁵ So let those [of us] who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions; and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also.

¹⁶ Only let us hold true to what we have already attained and walk and order our lives by that.

¹⁷ Brethren, together follow my example and observe those who live after the pattern we have set for you.

¹⁸ For there are many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, who walk (live) as enemies of the cross of Christ (the Anointed One).

¹⁹ They are doomed and their ^[a]fate is eternal misery (perdition); their god is their stomach (their appetites, their sensuality) and they glory in their shame, ^[b]siding with earthly things and being of their party.

²⁰ But we are citizens of the state (commonwealth, homeland) which is in heaven, and from it also we ^[c]earnestly and patiently await [the coming of] the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) [as] Savior,

²¹ Who will ^[d]transform and fashion anew the body of our humiliation to conform to and be like the body of His glory and majesty, by exerting that power which enables Him even to subject everything to Himself.

4 Therefore, my brethren, whom I love and yearn to see, my delight and crown (wreath of victory), thus stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.