Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
He Lowers One and Lifts Another
Psalm 75
1 For the music director: “Do not Destroy,” a psalm of Asaph, a song.
2 We praise You, we praise God,
for Your Name is near.
People declare Your wonders.
3 “When I appoint a set time,
I Myself will judge uprightly.
4 When the earth wavers with living on it,
I Myself hold its pillars firm. Selah
5 I say to the arrogant, ‘No more boasting!’
And to the wicked,
‘Do not be lifting up your horn.’
6 Do not lift your horn up high.
Do not speak with outstretched neck.”
7 For exaltation comes
not from the east nor from the west,
nor even from the desert.
8 For God is the Judge:
He lowers one and lifts up another.
9 For in the hand of Adonai is a cup of foaming wine mixed with spices,
and He pours it out.
Surely all the wicked of the earth will drink,
draining it down to the dregs.[a]
10 But I—I will declare it forever,
I will sing praise to the God of Jacob.
11 I will cut off all the horns of the wicked,
but the horns of the righteous will be lifted up.
12 Smoke pours from his nostrils,
as a boiling pot over burning reeds.
13 His breath sets coals ablaze
and flames dart from his mouth.
14 “Strength resides in his neck;
dismay runs before him.
15 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined;
they are firm on him, immovable.
16 His heart is hard as rock,
hard as a lower millstone.
17 “When he rises up, the mighty are afraid;
at his crashing they retreat.
18 A sword that reaches him has no effect—
nor with a spear, dart, or javelin.
19 He regards iron as straw,
bronze as rotten wood.
20 Arrows do not make him flee;
sling stones become like chaff to him.
21 A club is regarded as stubble;
he laughs at the rattling of a lance.
22 “His undersides are jagged potsherds,
leaving a trail like a threshing sledge in mud.
23 He makes the deep boil like a cauldron
and stirs up the sea like a pot of ointment.
24 He leaves a shining wake behind him;
one would think the deep had white hair.
25 Nothing on dry land is his equal—
a creature without fear.
26 He sees every haughty thing;
he is king over all who are proud.”
Modeling Servanthood
13 Now it was just before the feast of Passover. Yeshua knew that His hour had come to depart from this world to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them until the end.[a]
2 While the seder meal was happening, the devil had already put in the heart of Judah from Kriot that he should hand over Yeshua. 3 Yeshua knew that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was returning to God. 4 So He gets up from the meal and lays aside His outer garment; and taking a towel, He wrapped it around His waist. 5 Then He pours water into a basin. He began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel wrapped around Him.
6 Then He comes to Simon Peter, who says to Him, “Master, are You going to wash my feet?”
7 Yeshua responded, “You don’t know what I am doing now, but you will understand after these things.”
8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”
Yeshua answered him, “If I don’t wash you, you have no part with Me.”
9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Master, then not only my feet, but also my hands and my head!”
10 Yeshua said to him, “He who has bathed has no need to wash, except the feet; he is completely clean. And you all are clean, though not every one.” 11 He knew who was betraying Him; for this reason, He said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 So after He had washed their feet and put His robe back on and reclined again, He said to them, “Do you understand what I have done for you? 13 You call Me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Master’—and rightly you say, for I am. 14 So if I, your Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash each other’s feet. 15 I have given you an example—you should do for each other what I have done for you.
16 “Amen, amen I tell you, a servant isn’t greater than his master, and the one who is sent isn’t greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them!”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.